When markets violently move against Gordon Brown and undermine his carefully planned policy positions, he has shown no hesitation in kicking City spivs.
When he was caught on the wrong side of the ERM debate (Mr Brown enforced an unpopular anti-devaluation line within the shadow cabinet), he took a swipe at the “handful of shirt-sleeved speculators” who brought down the pound. His answer to the “global economic problem”? Some “new international institutions” to keep the wicked speculators in check.*
The rhetoric was never matched by his actions as chancellor. But now, after being caught on the wrong side of the credit bubble (which arguably he did a good deal to inflate), he’s leapt on the anti-greed bandwagon. Once again, it is time to “clean up the financial system”. Once again, it’s “irresponsible behaviour” wreaking havoc with the otherwise sound markets.
And what is Mr Brown’s answer this time? “I proposed a number of things to our international colleagues because this is global action that is needed to deal with a global problem,” he said. Sound familiar?
Expect to hear more “clean up” talk. (As Guido drily put it, “first they came for the capitalists”.) Team Brown think they have identified a dividing line with the Tories, with their vision of a “protective state” pit against the anarchy of untrammelled Tory capitalism. But “global solutions”? Setting up institutions is a bit harder than talking tough.
* As a side note, I’ve always wondered why George Soros, the investor who helped bring sterling to its knees, has never been close to Gordon Brown. They share a passion for development and a friend in Lord Malloch Brown, the foreign office minister. But Mr Soros has never been prominently linked with Mr Brown’s various global initiatives. Perhaps he is still upset at the “shirt sleeved speculators” cuss?
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
