So the Final 2 - Liz and Rishi

The UK CHOSE to deregulate financial services, to allow banks to take more risks, to permit all sorts of finance scams to be sold to retail customers who had no idea of the risks.

You know what? Part of the rationale behind deregulation was the belief that a) bankers were prudent and rational actors and b) that the market itself will act to regulate itself. Both very foolish assumptions in restrospect, but that was the ruling economic theory of the day.

Several Banks and Building Societies collapsed some were rescued at great cost and still have not recovered.

Mostly because they haven't learned the lessons of the GFC. And because they were baled out because they were too big to fail and a large proportion of the populace would have lost all the money they had deposited in those institutions. As happened several times over the past 100 or so years.

Gordon Brown as chancellor sat on his backside and watched it happen.

If it hadn't been for Brown and Darling's prompt use of quantitative easing to increase bank reserves see my previous statement. QE restored public confidence in the banking system, as did the government guarantee that up to £85,000 of one's bank deposit would be protected in the event of bank failure.

The reason that recovery took so long and was so painful was that not only did the financial institutions use most of the QE money to boost asset prices, rather than lend to businesses to regrow the economy, but Cameron and Osborne promptly sucked £billions out of the domestic economy through swingeing cuts to state expenditure with their stupid 'austerity' policy. A policy which has since been condemned by institutions such as the IMF.

Cutting state spending, which is a major engine for growth, is absurd...

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MerylStreep

Kate59
If you really believe that you need to educate yourself.
Start with subprime mortgages in the US and look at Bill Clinton’s roll in that. If that’s not enough to convince you have a look at Lehman Brothers.

Yes sub prime in the US we did not have to follow.

The UK CHOSE to deregulate financial services, to allow banks to take more risks, to permit all sorts of finance scams to be sold to retail customers who had no idea of the risks.

Several Banks and Building Societies collapsed some were rescued at great cost and still have not recovered.
Gordon Brown as chancellor sat on his backside and watched it happen.

Now of course banks have to carry much larger reserves, they will only lend a prudent amount to a borrower, and financial advisors are strictly regulated

We were just clawing our way out of the hole he created in 2016 when Brexit scuppered everything, all of which has nothing at all to do with the mess we are in with high energy and food costs.

Farzanah

Gordon Brown may have been flawed as many leaders are, but creating the 2008 crash was definitely not his doing, in fact I believe he led the way in Europe and the USA in dealing with it.

It’s an outdated and easily disproved slur, as shown by the links posted, but which is regularly rolled out by some Right wingers, to their discredit.

Thank you, indeed. I was just about to say it.

You are in fuel poverty if your fuel bill is 10% of your net income. That will sweep up most pensioners I would have thought.

My Conservative values have been sorely tested over the last 12 months, I would be happy to see a new centrist party rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Well, GG13, if some posters are to be believed, that Centrist party is the Labour Party Why don't you give them a whirl?

But, joking aside, attempts at creating new centrist parties have never been successful. I suppose there is always the triumph of hope over experience...

Gordon Brown.

This winter will see the unbearable burden of unpayable bills, we will see unspeakable suffering with children undernourished and Insufficiently clad.

Those most affected will be

Pensioner couples
Families with children
Disabled.

NHS unable to pay its heating bills.

This week is the key week when the government must begin put the correct computer software to deal with the upcoming crises. No evidence that anything being done.

Shortage -lack of storage may lead to energy shortage.

Welcome to Victorian Britain

Gordon Brown may have been flawed as many leaders are, but creating the 2008 crash was definitely not his doing, in fact I believe he led the way in Europe and the USA in dealing with it.

It’s an outdated and easily disproved slur, as shown by the links posted, but which is regularly rolled out by some Right wingers, to their discredit.

I haven’t got any/much faith that either of the current candidates will/can handle the current downward spiral the U.K. is embarking on.

My Conservative values have been sorely tested over the last 12 months, I would be happy to see a new centrist party rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Thank you for the link MerylStreep I hope it helps some GN posters to remember the financial crisis U.K. was narrowly saved from.

Perhaps this might help some to understand.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-saved-banks

MerylStreep

Kate59
If you really believe that you need to educate yourself.
Start with subprime mortgages in the US and look at Bill Clinton’s roll in that. If that’s not enough to convince you have a look at Lehman Brothers.

Well said, Meryl.

This falsehood turns up again and again. It's debunked again and again but clearly belief wins out over fact every time.

Kate59
If you really believe that you need to educate yourself.
Start with subprime mortgages in the US and look at Bill Clinton’s roll in that. If that’s not enough to convince you have a look at Lehman Brothers.

I don’t know enough about the 2008 crash, gold sell off to comment on Brown’s performance.

I do know that he was responsible for abolishing the 10% tax rate which meant that part timers who couldn’t increase their hours to compensate because they had child/parent care commitments, suffered a disproportionate loss of income. So much for him looking out for the lower paid eh?

Iam64

varian

Bring back Gordon Brown!

Yes, wasn’t he impressive when interviewed today

Didn’t Gordon Brown create the 2008 crash by allowing deregulation of financial services 120% mortgages etc.
He certainly did nothing much as PM - yesterdays man.

I started hearing Gordon Brown quite a lo on the radio t te start of the pandemic and was impressed by him. He comes across as such a compassionate person and talks such good sense.

varian

Bring back Gordon Brown!

Yes, wasn’t he impressive when interviewed today

Absolutely varian.

Bring back Gordon Brown!

Well the country’s heading into a recession and whoever becomes PM it seems probable, taking into account their proposed respective policies, that they have very little to offer in mitigation for those who will suffer most.
Their “popularity” will then sink without trace.
It’s sad that we must suffer for the next couple of years.

It has been estimated by Loughborough University that the effects of poverty cost the government billions more in the long term that giving people support and fair benefits, or “handouts” as Truss would say.

A survey of adults across the UK found that Rishi Sunak edged slightly ahead of Liz Truss – with a negative overall “favourability” rating of minus 30 compared to minus 32.
In Scotland, their popularity plunges further, according to the YouGov survey carried out between July 10 to 24.

In Scotland, it's Sunak minus 48 and Truss minus 47.

www.thenational.scot/news/20606151.liz-truss-rishi-sunak-popularity-much-lower-scotland/

I don't expect most people to know the price of food items, or for anyone below pension age to know how much the pension is - they don't need to - but if it is your job to make decisions about pensions, benefits and similar things that affect people's lives, then you absolutely should know.

How can you approve or disapprove of a policy to increase pensions by x% or to understand how hard it is to feed children in the holidays if you have no idea how little people have to live on, or how much of that has to go on the basics of staying alive? It's not really fair to expect them to know retail prices of individual items off the tops of their heads, but they should have at least a rough idea about how much average food bills (and average fuel bills and housing costs) are as a percentage of a pension, of a benefit claimant's income, and of a single person and a household on an average wage or salary. It is not possible to make sensible policies unless you know those things.

Callistemon21

^..and my DP is less forgiving, quote: Clegg looked at Cameron and saw someone like him^

I was never keen on Clegg as LibDem leader.
But then I liked Jeremy Thorpe and the old Liberals so what do I know?

Joe Grimond was the Lib leader that seemed to have his finger on the pulse to my mind, very much of the same grade of Harold Wilson.

How have we come to this sad state where the current leaders (all parties) do not give much hope for the future.

Regarding the £30 a week, I still don't expect an MP to be able to know such things. It was naïve of him to attempt to answer but that doesn't make him a bad person. I think he should know, as Callistemon knows about the farmers, the general issues that people have to cope with.

Being at the lower end of income brings such a variety of different issues for different people. The complexities of lower incomes are enough to drive you mad.

Our nearest supermarket sell 2L SS milk at £1.55. 1L of SS Lactose free milk is £1.89. You can get the Lactose free cheaper from another supermarket. That is a little over the distance to the nearest one but in the other direction. However, I doubt anyone could get all they need there; it's quite a small shop.

What if you don't have a car? What if you don't have the time? What if you have, as in my example, special dietary needs? Life's complexities are different for each person but they do exist. That is the thing I mind MPs not knowing.