The Sun’s headline was the most talked about topic this morning on Sky, with the Labour Party Member booked to review the papers from the Brighton Conference huffing and puffing and insisting that the headline must have been prepared before GB had even made his speech. I think papers do still carry the clout to influence the public; after all, the headlines are in full view every time you walk into a supermarket – you just can’t help seeing them.

I just wish the whole bloody lot of them would go away. Having seen Brown contrive to discuss issues with Adam Boulton and get more irritated because he did not have total control is a reminder of what a bullying, egocentric, self-opinionated, totally deaf man he is. He is obnoxious. Someone you would never get tired of punching. Foul. I’ve had enough of him and his party of sycophants and idiots and hopefully, this week will prove to a wider audience what a demonic crowd of ne’re do wells we have as a government. Get rid of ‘em!!

I have to admit, that the thought of the future of the country being in the hands of people, who vote depending on what The Sun says, is more than a little disturbing. It would appear that Uncle Rupert has a new favourite nephew – the question is, what is David prepared to do for a bag of sweeties and a comic?

You would not necessarily have needed a crystal ball to see this one coming! The Sun will only ever back who they think is going to win, policy and politics have little to do with anything they ever publish. I must say I do long for the people to give Rupert Murdoch and bloody nose on at least one of his two faces, (I still haven’t forgiven him for making so I could not witness England retaking the Ashes this summer!) Oh how amusing it would be if Brown manages to turn it around (and please never underestimate him) and Labour go ahead in the polls, what a dilemma the Sun would be in then, who to choose? Who to choose? I have not fully ruled out a Labour limp home win….yet! Brown has managed to steer the world away from financial meltdown, deny it all you like, but he has, his place in history is already secured. It will only take the people to give credit where credit is actually due, if you pardon the pun, (credit being such a dirty word these days!) Brits are fair enough to do this, and then there is the gradual return of the ‘feel good factor’ and do not underestimate the Labour election spin machine, which is cranked right up, chomping at the bit, but not released just yet. Much made about this silly question of anti-depressants, but even if so, who would win the drug war? SSRIs Vs Cocaine? (Did Cameron or didn’t he?)
David Cameron is only in this position because people never see the “trees for the deadwood”. Of course the Tories may well win the next election, if Cameron’s name was Judas Iscariot, they may still win the next election, after all they are the deadwood blocking the view of the trees! However Cameron should beware, because the Sun/Murdoch will be after a little more than “30 pieces of silver”. A Tory win? Yes possibly, and then a very fast decline into a recession that we will not come out of for a good few years (same old Tories), then government bashing will begin, we limp up to the next election which labour will win hands down. (Because people will realise pretty quickly after a Tory win, that actually, Labour and good old Brown were not really that bad) as this time ther ewill be no more locked out in the political wilderness to worry about, the talk will be what an utter mess the Tories have made of the economy, it never got this bad when Labour were in, and we were faced with global financial meltdown! (I can almost hear the comments now.) Those of us who remember the Tory boom and bust years, the recession upon recession, the times when the recovery from Tory recession took longer than the recession itself. Factually of course, it is a myth that the Tories are good at managing the economy, they never were, they were pants (actually). The Tories are only ever good at managing the wealthy and the elite’s economy and making us lesser mortals pay for it. Bearing in mind, that this time around the Tories will not have any of the country’s silver to sell off, because remember? They have already sold it off during their 19 years ie “where have all the trains gone?” Answer = “The Tories sold them all” (something we are all still paying for and suffering to this very day) I wont mention of course our utilities, oh alright then, Gas! Remember hissing Sid? Remember British Telecom debacle? However, there will be one thing less for the government to worry about – the Tories will dismantle the NHS, this is somethng they so yearned to do under Thatcher as sure as eggs is eggs it will happen, so come the 2015 election the NHS will definitely not be as we know it (Jim).
I look forward to the years 2010 – 2015, they will prove interesting and that is assuming if the Tories win, and Cameron and Osbourne, do not manage to capsize HM GB and throw us all overboard without a lifeboat before 2015!

I think Sarah Brown would make a better Prime Minister, and I won’t be voting for her, either.
But she does have to balance the family budget, albiet not in
quite the same limited way as the rest of us.

As for Newspapers, who in their right mind would believe that poor Sarah has suddenly become a fashion icon? And no reason why she should . But fashion icon she will never be. You might as well give the same accolade to Cherie Blair.

Yes, yes. I am definitely jealous. Of all that rotten money.

Nobody’s going to vote Labour because the Sun tells them to. But the tone of the Sun’s reporting over the next 8 months WILL have an effect on the political mood of its readers. By the way, I suspect they are not the sort of people who blog (or even read blogs)!

Nothing’s really changed in journalism. The biggest clout is held by the traditional journalists. Blogs like Robert Peston’s, or the ones on the big newspaper sites, tend to have the most influence. Personally I think that although lots of people read our blogs (well, yours more than mine I must admit! ) very few really take them seriously.

@What the papers Never Say

“(Because people will realise pretty quickly after a Tory win, that actually, Labour and good old Brown were not really that bad)”

I think you went to the wrong school. What utter nonsense you talk. Your whole premise is based on assumption after assumption, and as I’ve just been saying to a friend – there are too many idiots like you around who are dangerous – because you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.

Hi Blink

I see you have a good erudite command of the English language, must be the school you attended. lol

WTPNS, “Brown has managed to steer the world away from financial meltdown”??

What are you on – I want some!

Brown is the leader of a fairly influential but definitely second-rank power, the UK. He doesn’t steer the world.

His policies had a big hand in causing the crisis in Britain:

– he created the failed tri-partite regulation system;
– he presided over monetary policy that lurched from too loose, to too tight, to too loose again
– he ran a deficit in the middle of the boom, leaving Britain in a worse situation than others when the crisis came
– he has presided over a dramatic decrease in the efficiency of public services
and
– Britain has consistently run a thumping trade deficit every year he has been in office.

He is now trying to blame the bankers, the Tories, the media, anyone else for the crisis…but the real failings are absolutely his. He and his mate Tony have been a disaster for Britain and everyone knows it. Even him, I suspect.

Let’s be honest here. If the Conservative party were any good, then a General Election would have been forced ages ago. They are a bunch of ex public schoolboy political opportunists, hoping to gain power by default.

( Don’t be shy Glo, we promise not to look)

Perhaps I could risk one eye.

The Tsmuddami would threaten the Eastern seaboard of the USA!

Ah! The Perfect Storm!

Anna! See what you’ve started? This was a perfectly sensible thread until …

Adam Collyer, well I am not on what Dave was on at Eton!

Neither was Brown when he persuaded the new US president that economic protectionism was definitely not good for the world at that moment in time.
I didn’t say he steered the world, what I am saying that his polices were adopted by all the main economies (except the Tiger) The UK a second rank power? Second to what? Brown is actually very respected in the US and the rest of Europe.

How can you say his policies had a big hand in causing the crisis in Britain? Who’s policies cause the rest of the global recession then?
Brown delivered a speech to the US Congress and he was widely accepted as being one of the main advocates of multinational cooperation in dealing with the credit crisis. The world was facing a financial crisis and it was Brown that stepped up to the plate, with suggestions and policy proposals on how to jointly approach the global recession and financial problems caused by the banks.

If we keep on taking the simplistic approach that it was Brown’s fault that GB was effected by the global financial meltdown, then this problem will never be properly addressed in this country and it will happen again! No one wanted the bank bailouts, but it is actually widely accepted that Brown’s policies of bank bailouts etc did actually prevent a global depression and he is well respected in the States and Europe. Now we are on our ‘tentative’ way out of this recession, policies have to be put in place to ensure the banks never again cause this kind of problem and Brown has come up with plans for this too.

What has David Cameron and the Tories come up with? They have not even come up with any bones, let alone meat on the bones, it is scary that this man can be voted into power on the back of a blank canvass with no substance or policy proposals.

Financial cooperation between the world’s nations is going to be of absolute vital importance in the coming years if we are to avert more of the same.

I agree the banks are way to powerful in this country, but then they are way too powerful in every country and you cannot blame Brown for that, you cannot even blame Cameron and previous Tory governments for that, it is just the way the world has always done things and I haven’t seen any government stating they wanted this to change before this ‘global crisis’ happened!

If we are to avert the same thing happening again, then we must all accept change is needed, it is no good whingeing about it when your savings do not earn as much interest, or when you have to pay inheritance tax etc etc, change means changing. Not just saying we need to change providing it is someone else that has to do the changing!
I think if we are to develop as a nation and if we are to have a more cooperative and civilised world, then financial cooperation between the worlds nations is of absolute vital importance, time for tit for tat politics to be put to bed.
I do agree with Gloria Smudd, tit for tat politics and the yahoo bah of the commons is a huge turn off and I blame ALL politicians for this.
Easy to just say the tripartite system failed, but maybe the tripartite system is not a failure but just needs changes to make it work? I do not want to return to a system where the bank of England is governed by the government, I think making the Bank of England independent is one of the biggest successes that Brown presided over.
I disagree that he ran a deficit in the middle of a boom, we never had boom and bust for over 10 years. the UK ran a stable economy for all of that time, to blame Brown for a global recession is simplistic. What fuelled this was greed, not Brown’s policies, greed by people pushing their house prices sky high, greed of the banks and the stupidity of those running Northern Rock. People went to Northern Rock attracted by its rates – greed!

On one hand we have people yelling at Brown for too much regulation and on the other we have them yelling for more regulation. Nanny State Vs Not so Nanny State?

I think it is time we had a joined up cohesive approach to the people we place in power, stop voting them in thinking they can all give us something for nothing and stop expecting them to walk on water and then when they cannot blaming them for sinking.
Realise that taxes pay for the NHS, education and the welfare state etc and stop moaning when taxes have to go up to pay for them and then moaning when taxes don’t go up and the government introduce PFI, to help keep the NHS working properly.

Brown has not presided over a a decrease in efficiency in public services, in fact we have many brand new hospitals, new children’s hospitals. We have ever increasing successes in oncology and cardiac treatments and with an ever increasing aging population because due to better treatment and services people are living longer, which in itself brings an inflationary pressures into public services. Yes things can get better in some areas and they need to get better, but our public services today comparing to where they were in 1997 are unrecognisable. Or have you forgotten when patients were being turned away in ambulances because hospitals pre 1997 neither had the staff, equipment or beds to treat them and incidentally every hospital in this country that has an Accident Service department has had a refurbishment since 1997, or if not required another part of their hospital was modernised.

When Labour came to power the national debt as a share for GDP was 43.3% because of fiscal measures introduce by Brown I think it fell to about 30.3% in 2001, I believe even today having just come through the most harrowing circumstances it stands at around 40% GDP.

Bearing in mind we have had 9/11 which had a dramatic effect on the world’s economy and then 7/7 which had an effect on ours, we have also had natural disasters in this country like floods and foot and mouth disease, all of this places internal pressures on the economy and then we have the global crisis and yet Brown has managed to steer this country through incredibly rough waters and we are still here and having just experienced the blackest financial constraints, we are now heading out of recession

Do you know, judging on past Tory governments handling of the economy in recessions, not to mention how badly they handled BSE (Mad cows disease) I dread and absolutely shudder to think how they would have handled this past 12 years and all that has been thrown at us!

Time to stop blaming politicians for natural disasters and global recessions, but judge them on how they handle them! And considering all things, I think that Gordon Brown has done remarkably well and if we have rising debt now, at least we are able to handle it, say we had a national debt of 43.3% and a Tory government and along came this global recession? How on earth would they have handled it? Unemployment of of around 6 million probably, now that would have been a depression and a disaster. I still haven’t forgotten what Norman Lamont said “unemployment was a price worth paying for low inflation” glad he felt like that when he lost his job!

Tory interest rates running at 15.9% for over a year, rising unemployment, rising home repossessions, bankruptcies. An NHS in crisis and a 3rd world education system and dilapidated schools and hospitals.

Labour have done many things that I disagree with, but they have also done a lot for this country and I am not naive, they cannot stay in power forever and in fact I would not want a country which only had one political party in power, so I accept change, but let’s be sensible and let’s admit that actually Labour did do quite a lot of good for this country too! £250 annual fuel allowance for all people over 60. Free TV licenses for over 70’s.. cold weather payments.. etc etc etc etc

It reminds me of; “What did the Roamns ever do for us”! lol

WTPNS said : Brown delivered a speech to the US Congress and he was widely accepted as being one of the main advocates of multinational cooperation in dealing with the credit crisis. The world was facing a financial crisis and it was Brown that stepped up to the plate, with suggestions and policy proposals on how to jointly approach the global recession and financial problems caused by the banks. …

and

…. Financial cooperation between the world’s nations is going to be of absolute vital importance in the coming years if we are to avert more of the same.
/////////////////////

What you point out about cooperation is key. I just don’t believe that what politicians say in public is what they say in private and I never rule out that they ‘get their collective story straight’ backstage before they take to the lectern. It’s all a global financial mess and President-this and Prime Minister-that sticking to the same story and holding each other’s hands may calm the hoi-polloi down while the cement of crippling national debt poured around our ankles.

We only have to look at the jostling body language at any Gwhatever summit to see how basic the rivalry is; Obama encroaching on GB’s ‘personal space’ and controlling him with a heavy hand on the shoulder, yet according to the spin the two politicians are so cosy that they can find time for impromptu bilateral discussions in any catering facility they find to hand.

I guess I’m just too cynical but I find it harder and harder to take anything ‘they’ say without at least a shovelful of salt.

Obama was practically pushing Brown down onto his knees at this last show of cooperation!

The Sun and the snot-dribbling oiks who attempt to read it (with the honourable exception of the ultra right wing extremist feral snot-dribbling teenage oik Mrs Raccoon, obviously) have given Labour the bird.

Reactions speak volumes. Gordon Brown heard of the Sun’s perfidy almost immediately, reached under his seat for the bag full of Nokias, and lined his staff up in a sort of semicircular coconut shy. Peter Mandelson phoned Rebekah Wade and accused her of being a “King Knut”, though he later claimed he had said “King Chump” (I am advised this may be a yoofemism – as used by da yoof). John Prescott only found out next morning as he sat down on the bog, Sun newspaper in hand, for a leisurely five flush dump. His eye fell upon the headline and next moment he found himself with neck awkwardly cricked to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling, perched like a nut atop a massive walnut whip of his own ordure. Harman took to the platform and yelled “Page Three!” as if that said it all.

Whilst we’re on the subject of the Sun, today’s issue has a story “Randy reindeer on rampage” about yet another female trampled this time by a reindeer. Last month it was cows. Is Gordon aiming for the No Balls Peace prize? David Blunkett was fair game but how much longer will this government sit on their hands as the flower of our womanhood are stomped into the mud by gynophobic ungulates?