May on the way??

[Aussie Rules]

Theresa May has zero emotional intelligence, no leadership qualities, an inflated sense of her own value due to her work ethic, and exceptionally poor judgement. She has great resilience, superb durability and superb inner strength. The only PM in my memory worse than her is Gordon Brown. There is no one in the wings to excite. I think Boris would be worse than Theresa. The only potential contender as PM who impresses me is Rory Stewart. Jeremy Corbyn is a gutless, terrorist supporting, intellectually challenged fake of the highest order. Whilst I am no Labour supporter I am incredulous that the working class party of the people allows itself to be led by a traitor to British values. There is a vacancy for an orator and unified of Churchillian stature.

 

EV, I think the concept of Labour championing the working class died long ago

[Essex Vale]

She didn't actually but the DUP, the ERG, the SNP and the Labour Party did. They were the ones who refused to accept any Brexit deal.

 

Actually she did have the mandate, the will of the majority of the people and a clear majority in Parliament. She then tossed it away by calling a needless general election and personally running a doomed campaign with the manifesto being written by two people who were not even MPs. The DUP only gained huge influence as a result of her desire to beat up her own party. Subsequent Brexit negotiations then plumbed even lower levels of competence by the PM who is inept

[Howjy04]

If selling the gold too cheap is the most damaging line of attack you can come up towards a bloke who spent 13 years at the very top level of politics, with a majority effectively serving as the decision-maker, then it suggests, compared to most top level politicians he didn't do too badly.

 

Also a factcheck on the pensions claim: https://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/factcheck+did+gordon+destroy+our+pensions/171020.html

 

He did changes the tax system which harmed pensions but his impact has largely been exaggerated.

 

Brown made a fair few mistakes but Britain was pretty decent with him as Chancellor. Would have a man of his integrity and intellect, if not his PR abilities, in office tomorrow.

Sorry Joe but I disagree,ask yourself why the final salary pension schemes in the private sector are virtually a thing of pre Brown

whilst the public sector remained largely untouched.It was estimated p he had stolen £100 billion from funds in surplus forcing them into unsustainable deficit,then closure of scheme.£17000 on average per person.Considering it is /was estimated that an average pension fund was/is £25000 taking £17000 off that amount makes him a decent man?Thieving barstool!!!!

[Howjy04]

Re Gold SALE.Why would anyone sell at the bottom of the market?The man cost this country a fortune (billions)because he thought he was being clever.

[TheSage]

I tend not to judge people exclusively by the Daily Mail test and though you might well have a point in hindsight I think you will find the facts that (a) people are living longer and (b)companies liabilities now often exceed their equity value are more reasonable twin explanations for what has been happening to pensions over the past thirty years.

 

It was Lawson and Lamont who began the trend by cutting ACT credit from 33 to 25 to 20% before Brown stepped in.

But around that time of course the economy was doing quite well, companies were having pension holidays and no-one knew what was in the future.

[For Us All]

Sorry Joe but I disagree,ask yourself why the final salary pension schemes in the private sector are virtually a thing of pre Brown

whilst the public sector remained largely untouched.It was estimated he had stolen £100 billion from funds in surplus forcing them into unsustainable deficit,then closure of scheme.£17000 on average per pperson.Considering it is /was estimated that an average pension fund was/is £25000 taking £17000 off that amount makes him a decent man?Thieving barstool!!!!

 

The pension thief's raid on pensions cost taxpayers nearly £10bn a year,double the amount Gordon Brown had initially outlined.

[Howjy04]

I tend not to judge people exclusively by the Daily Mail test and though you might well have a point in hindsight I think you will find the facts that (a) people are living longer and (b)companies liabilities now often exceed their equity value are more reasonable twin explanations for what has been happening to pensions over the past thirty years.

 

It was Lawson and Lamont who began the trend by cutting ACT credit from 33 to 25 to 20% before Brown stepped in.

But around that time of course the economy was doing quite well, companies were having pension holidays and no-one knew what was in the future.

People are living longer?Not according to Jezza.Daily Mail?You’ve lost me on that one Sage.

[mr.hobblesworth]

On average, people are living longer. However, the poor and vulnerable's life expectancy is significantly lower than that average. There is a direct correlation with poverty, adverse childhood experiences and premature death/ shorter 'healthy life' expectancy. Hope this helps.

[Howjy04]

Back on ignore Hobo as I signed in.Some more crap no doubt.

[mr.hobblesworth]

If I'm on ignore, how come you've been responding to my comments? Shame you can't read what I've written, you might have learned something.

[Howjy04]

And yet more crap I assume.Grool for lunch Hobo?

[mr.hobblesworth]

The European commission has described a claim made by the Conservative leadership hopeful Dominic Raab about a key EU official’s views on Brexit as “fake, fraudulent and pure disinformation” after it was spread in an election campaign video.

 

Raab, who resigned as Brexit secretary last year over the deal struck with the EU, claimed in November that the commission’s secretary general, Martin Selmayr, had boasted that “losing Northern Ireland was the price the UK would pay for Brexit”.

 

The quote attributed by Raab to Selmayr has been used in a two-minute video posted on a Twitter account called NI in Union urging voters in Northern Ireland to support unionist parties in the European elections.

 

The video features images of bombings and says Northern Ireland has been “threatened before” and that voters should “stand up” and make their voice heard.

 

The European commission’s chief spokesman tweeted on Thursday: “The sentence attributed to the @EU_Commission secretary general at 1:16 of this video is fake, fraudulent and pure disinformation that has been spread maliciously.”

 

The EU’s deputy chief Brexit negotiator, Sabine Weyand, who dealt with Raab during his brief tenure as Brexit secretary, tweeted: “We have homegrown disinformation in the EU, and we have to fight that just as we have to fight any foreign disinformation campaigns.”

 

Raab is second to Boris Johnson in polls of Tory members on who should be the next leader.

 

In his comments in November he accused Brussels of seeking to bully Britain. “You would hear swirling around in Brussels – particularly the people around Selmayr, Martin Selmayr in the commission, and some others – that losing Northern Ireland was the price the UK would pay for Brexit,” he said.

 

“This was reported to me through the diplomatic channel. It is one thing to defend your interests robustly, but there is another thing in the spirit of so-called European unity to be trying to carve up a major European nation.”

 

Selmayr responded at the time denying the claim. “This is false,” he said. “It may be a story that some want to hear, but it is still false. We have never said this.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/23/brussels-rejects-fraudulent-raab-claim-used-in-election-video

[Joe B]

The selling of the gold was a mistake. No question. Hardly a massive deal.

 

Brown was prescient enough to keep us out of the Euro when the overwhelming political consensus was to join. If it wasn't for Brown, you eurosceptics would probably have never reached a point where Brexit was a distinct responsibility.

 

As stated, Brown as a flawed man who made mistakes, as all people do. However, he was a pretty good Chancellor and a man who seemingly was not in politics for his own financial gain.

[mr.hobblesworth]

Brown also received global recognition for his part in averting an even worse international recession.

[Santa]

I was never a huge fan of Gordon Brown, but history will judge him more kindly as the months and years roll on.

 

If you had to rank all the Prime Ministers in order, then Brown would have moved two places up the table during the last decade.