Browns policies.

[Mich the Tester]

But it's ok, because, comparatively, we are in a much stronger position than many other nations.

Yes, stronger than Somalia, Eritrea, East Timor, Venezuela, Uganda and a few other places which at least have nice weather.

[NetwkSupport]

Yes, stronger than Somalia, Eritrea, East Timor, Venezuela, Uganda and a few other places which at least have nice weather.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

He's probably after creating a mini boom and heading for the ballot box before he's found out.

I reckon that's it - it worked when his pal Thatcher tried it.

[expat]

WHS.

Brown needs the boom back (even if it only lasts a few months) in order to secure the next election by the great unwashed / uneducated. That's all that matters.

Then once safely in power again, we'll be looking at a 90%+ tax take for all middle income earners for a very long time. All that debt and borrowing has to be paid back by those that didn't borrow and are still working. That's you and me.

Those thinking of escaping will find a worthless pound.

And probably exit taxes.

Clue to understanding Brown:

From the thread Cow Economics

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

This would probably strike Brown as being the best way to organise things. Everyone is provided for, no-one is poor, and it is organised by those best able to do so. What could be better?

[Mich the Tester]

And probably exit taxes.

Clue to understanding Brown:

From the thread Cow Economics

This would probably strike Brown as being the best way to organise things. Everyone is provided for, no-one is poor, and it is organised by those best able to do so. What could be better?

Yes, but he gives you more milk than your two cows ever produced, and indeed more milk than you could possibly use, by borrowing milk from third world cows on futures contracts to make your kids pay back all the borrowed milk with interest.

[Epiphone]

Why then is the government not encouraging people to be more responsible, save money, avoid taking on credit, regulate the credit industry to stop this nonsense of 30+ % apr deals, etc.....

It basically boils down to this:

As a rule, most people are NOT skint.

Yep, that's right. They're not suffering. They may have slightly less disposable income than they're used to but shopping centre's are still packed. Shops are still selling cigs and booze. A lot of people have two cars etc etc etc.

The media is that busy telling people we're all doomed it's a self fulfilling prophecy. Things are worse than they've been for a long time but the average man on the street hasn't even tightend his belt let along discarded it because his trousers are falling down from weight-loss starvation (crap metaphor alert).

[BoredBloke]

There are almost 3,000,000 people on Incapacity Benefit (long term sick).

We have 5,000,000 unemployed already. Just the figures are deceptive.

And there are only about 30m in the working population once you exclude pensioners and kids