Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Brown and Blair

According to the Guardian further tit bits from that book are to tell of a blazing row between Blair and Brown with the F word flying over Blair’s refusal to stand down early in 2006. This led to the failed coup attempt later in the year. Apparently Brown accused Blair of ruining his life.

Several points arise. First there is in my mind no doubt  that whatever deal the two reached after John Smith’s death was not stuck to by Tony in the terms understood by Gordon. We know now that Blair is a very slippery customer with messianic delusions whose word cannot be relied upon. Any man with a spark of honour would have resigned once it became apparent, with the absence of weapons of mass distraction, that he had led the country into war on a false prospectus. That he believed he was right is irrelevant. The fact is that he was wrong.

There is no doubt Brown has a temper. There is also no doubt that he had grounds to feel let down. But in the end it is water under the bridge and we have moved on. What is not in any doubt whatever is the appalling and ramshackle structure under which we are governed with our unwritten Constitution. The Prime Minister when appointed assumes all the powers of a King (or Queen – remember Thatcher’s ‘we have a grandson’) with all the Royal Perogatives in their pocket or handbag. All that is need to stay ‘on and on’ is a House of Commons controlled by the whips. The abuse of power which ensues is one from which none have been immune. The whole set-up is a cynical two fingers at the basic principles of democracy.

It has led to very bad government over a very long time. We struggle in messes entirely of our own making. There are all sorts of aspirations for the future and prim lectures to countries whom we consider fall short, but until we set our own Constitutional house on a modern democratic footing, we are not going anywhere fast and our admonisions to others will be brushed disdainfully aside.

Bank Bonuses

This morning state ownwd RBS announced a handsome muti- billion pound loss, yet plans to pay £1.5 billion in bonusses to people it ‘cannot afford to lose.’  This ammounts to commercial blackmail. The government, which is boss on our behalf, should say no. This is an outstanding opportunity for Cameron and Osborne to get their campaign back on the road. If they play this well and articulte the universal public outrage at this gross injustice, they will put the recent unhappy slippage in the polls behind them.

They need to be savvy. The  origins of the credit crunch can be traced back to Big Bang and the relaxing of rules about what was a bank or a building sociecty or a merchant bank. The flawed strucure of the economy can be traced back to the decimation of our industrial base in the Thatcher era. The high enrgy bills and insecurity of supply can be traced to the aftermath of privatisation and the covert setting up of an expense chest for MPs began when the Tories were in power. They have ben out of office now for thirteen years so they can argue that they would have managed the post Thatcher era better, but it is weak ground for them to defend.

Such is the dismay about this whole business of the arrogance of these busted banks, able to gamble on the so called markets because they were rescued by taxpayers money, the Tories can sieze the moral, ethical and practical high ground and continue to enfilade the government form all sides up to polling day. In the end however they have to rethink their plan for the City.

What is needed is to retain public ownership of the retail arm of RBS and cast aside, without guarantees and taxpayers money, the gambling arm to anybody fool enough to buy it and to reconstitute the Halifax as a mutual building society outside LLoyds Bank. Then they need do set up a system so that  house prices have to be included in the inflation measure and give savers a decent rate of interest necessary to rebuild the vital base of retail deposits. There is a lot more to do but that simple programme would be worth fifty marginal seats.