Gordon Brown saved the world economy!

[roosta]

Well done Gordon! You go round advocating free markets and an unrestrained City culture for a decade then when it all goes tits up because of that you suddenly pull out the master plan to nationalize everything and settle the markets. What a guy!

[chromium05]

What a cunt!!!!

[rirv]

Well I'm really not sure David Cameron and the Conservative Party would do any better, and let's not even get started on the Lib Dems. Who is their current leader anyway?

I'm not sure I particularly like Brown, and the whole New Labour stuff gives me the creeps especially when you still have Blairite people like Miliband near the top - but how would things be any different with the Conservatives in power? This isn't the 80s - there's no more mines to shut down and national-run firms to privatize.

Fact is Brown is a very, very clever man. The reason he gets a hard time is because he isn't all smiles and soundbites. I'd rather have him in charge than an old Etonian, ex-member of the Bullingdon Club.

[HAL 9000]

The early signs are that the bailout plans in the UK are working (maybe too early to say for sure though). It has been easier to implement in the UK than the US as the public reaction has been quite different (generally supportive of the need for government action and the need to let elected officials/experts do their thing).

The key measure in the UK is the inter bank offer rate (LIBOR) which seems to be falling for the moment which means lending is slowly becoming feasible again.

I think Brown has handled this whole thing very well – I thought I would never vote for Labour again (following Iraq) but if an election was called tomorrow I would rather Brown was in charge than Cameron. I think he is a better chancellor than PM though as he lacks the necessary soft skills.