Gordon is a Moron

[John Galt]

Sky News

Apparantly Brown Stuff is demanding that we all get together to sort out the rising oil prices - lots of table thumping and sticking up for the masses etc. etc. The only reason people are complaining in the UK is because fuel duty is so damned high. Is anyone really going to believe all this spin???

[AtW]

Is anyone really going to believe all this spin???

I think the whole nation is buying it -- look at how few people support the protestors.

[BoredBloke]

The problem is that people do fall for this bolloxs. How long till Brown starts talking about the record profits the oil companies are making, to deflect public opinion.

[Lucifer Box]

LONDON (Reuters) - Soaring oil prices are likely to have a neutral effect on the country’s public finances, Chancellor Gordon Brown said on Sunday.

Brown said oil companies’ record profits would raise corporation tax receipts but at the same time other firms might have their profits dented by the rising cost of oil.

"It’s effectively neutral at the moment," the finance minister said in an interview on BBC Television in response to a question on what fiscal effect high oil prices would have.

"There is no huge revenue effect on the economy one way or the other."

Brown said that, while high commodity prices had pushed up the cost of living, inflation remained under control.

The country’s inflation rate rose above its 2.0 percent target in July for the first time since the current CPI measure was adopted in December 2003, and many analysts say it could rise further in the coming months due to higher utility bills.

I guess he has oil company shares in his portfolio then. Or is looking forward to a nice non-exec directorship on the board of BP.

[AtW]

I guess he has oil company shares in his portfolio then.

Its too low for a soon-to-become-PM. He is playing the game where he wins all the time -- he will then impose a windfall tax on high oil company profits and everyone will be cheering.

[xoggoth]

The cap fits.

Not that the measures he is calling for will not lower the price of oil - just they are long term measures that will take years while the price problem is an immediate one. Some UK hauliers will go out of business long before they come through - this business will then be grabbed by hauliers from the continent and the UK economy - the real one, not the illusion created by phoney stats and credit - will continue on its downward spiral.

As complete arses go he has knobs on. After umpteen goes at that bloody tax credit scheme the current version is still a disaster. (The only consolation is that it is dragging the Inland Revenue down). He "encourages" small businesses by reducing CT and then when (gosh! fancy that) lost of small businesses incorporate he puts it back up leaving us with virtually the same total rate and a vastly more complicate system. He sells off our gold reserves at a huge loss. He caringly donates our money to third world countries without any emphasis on proper controls to ensure it isn't wasted.

[The Late, Great JC]

Oill company profits are *so high* because so much of the fecking stuff gets sold. As a percentage, the profit made is very little.

[wendigo100]

The problem is that people do fall for this bolloxs.

That is because the opposition are ineffective at holding HMG to account.

It never ceases to amaze me that the Tory party cannot score against Gordon Brown despite all the evidence of his incompetence.

To pick a simple example, pension shortfalls have been big in the news for months now, but how many voters are aware that much of the damage done to pensions is directly due to Brown's tax grabbing over the past eight years?

[AtW]

how many voters are aware that much of the damage done to them is directly due to Brown's tax grabbing over the past eight years?

Gordon's view is that its the stock market's fault -- the bastard thing did not grow at expected levels and in fact fallen. Just like with fuel duty he expects the other parameters to remain unchanged, if the bloody petrol was free you'd still have to pay 55p a liter here.

[hyperD]

It never ceases to amaze me that the Tory party cannot score against Gordon Brown despite all the evidence of his incompetence.

I asked Michael Howard this exact question before the election, referring to the pensions scandal and others, saying "Why is it, despite the best opportunity since 1997 to tear apart the Liebour parties' failed policies, have the Tories made no impact with this?"

His reply?

"Just vote for us and watch this space". Not very impressed with that remark. I was always under the impression they were scared to push this to the electorate for fear of exposing some Tory blunders in the past or whether the electorate would actually relate to this.