A must listen.

Humphrys gives Brown a run for his money

Scroll down to 8-10am to listen to it now

To keep it as a souvenir.

Download it from here 5.6MB

Right click Save Target As

i particualry like the bits where gb disputes the oecd figures and says all is well with uk plc.
that'll be right, then.

Humphrys: Economy relying on consumer spending, fuelled by debt, and high house prices.
Brown: I disagree with that.

I heard the bit when GB defended UK productivity by saying what a huge number of small businesses are in business since 1997. Does this stack up or make any sense ?

IIRC they conned alot of small sole traders to become businesses with some VAT wheeze, so this probably shows up as more businesses ?

He would not rule out tax rises when specifically asked, so you can be VERY sure they're coming along soon.

GB is a lying knob. We know it, JH knows it. Do you listen to him or use your own eyes/ears ?

Buckers

Humphrys: Mervyn King said the next ten years will not be the same as the past ten years.

I second that.

No start ups are sharply down. And IR35 plus a raft of other legislation seems to have been purposefully designed to prevent business startups.

Is he digging a bigger hole by not accepting the obvious?

The correct psychological expression is "in denial". Many people, especially politicians, are "in denial" about loads of things.

You have to ask yourself what is the point in bothering to listen to a politician like Chemical Crash Gordon. He spins and twists his statistics like a fish on a line. Every statement is qualified, every direct question avoided and a completely different question is 'half' answered instead using open ended statistics. 37% of me found the broadcast interesting, 40% of me found it amusing but 20% of me was getting very angry. Worryingly 3% of me wanted to spread chum over his fat naked carcas and dangle him over a pit filled with hungry, narrow-minded Australian crocodiles which had been forced to listen to a tape of his speeches for a month.

He couldn't really say anything else, though, could he? You don't know what he actually thinks,


Peter.

He probably thinks the same thing - a form of self delusion and self-righteousness. Tony Blair, for example, most likely thinks he is doing us all a favour and sincerely thinks he is doing the right thing in Iraq.

IMO the most amusing bit was where he said consumer spending was rising. Humphreys' incredulous laughter had an unforced ring of genuine outrage.

Anyone able to copy this interview into an WMA/MP3 format available to download? This interview is a must keep!!!

You cannot help but think Humphrys was enjoying this a little more than usual - a little pay-back for the recent NuLab backed public wrist-slapping he endured?

Yes but I believe Mr H has been targeted and I wonder how long he's got left before the long reach of the NuLabour state apparatus makes him disappear. I can just see old man Crash Gordon instructing his oxbridge lap-dog lackeys to dig into Humphry's past and get something on him. Might make a good film.

There are a few software products that allow you to convert streaming audio to an mp3 but cant think of name offhand. Do a Google search maybe.

This is the interview, right?

Golden Brown

Haven't tried listening to it yet, but they're podcasting the 8:10 item every morning.

btp

He has also taken credit for Mervyn King's newly coined "Great Stability", but agreed that the business cycle still exists, then gave a little guilty chuckle when Humph mentioned "boom and bust is over".

With regard to consumer sales falling, he stated categorically that when the final figures come out they will be higher than last year. And the year isn't even over yet.....something fishy there. He puts it down to a "series of services that people buy that are not included in purchases of food, or purchases of electronic goods". What has he managed to get shoe-horned in there to bulk it out?

He expects the growth in consumer sales this year to be less than last year, putting it down to the 4 interest rate rises before the election, and a "squeeze" from oil prices. Nothing to do with house prices then? Not the housing ATM drying up, and mortgage interest consuming more of people's income? He mentioned that oil prices have trebled over the past 10 years, but nothing about house prices trebling.

With regard to rates, he states interest rate decisions have been taken away from DIRECT political control. So are they now indirectly controlled? He also states "WE raised interest rates 4 times before the election", not the BoE raised them, followed by "you will do everything in your power to achieve that (stability)".

Puppets on a string??

you can download the podcast of it and convert from that easily

the cracks appear......

BBC Podcast Trial


Download it from here 5.6MB

Right click Save Target As

Any touch typists out there who could type this interview up to post here? Then the HPC dogs could be unleashed to dissect Gordon's every nuance.

We don't often get this sort of aggressive questioning of GB, indeed Mr H was worthy of the most rabid HPC posters in his line of questioning, and got some choice quotes from the Fat Fifer.

Blaming oil prices and interest rates for the economic slowdown that seems to be happening is in my opinion like driving without wearing a seatbelt, crashing into a tree, and then blaming the fact you broke your neck on the tree. The coming economic bad times have been in the post for years, since this country started living on a credit binge and artifically boosting employment by borrowing for public sector spending. It's no good moaning about oil now.

Oh yes it is.
The Politician's eternal excuse "external factors". "Not me guv".
Which suits today's ethos of blame shifting whatever one has done wrong.

Gordon has not yet heard that wonderful US expression:

If it looks like a recession, sounds like a recession and behaves like a recession in all probablility it is a recession.

With every key indicator pointing down Gordon can only save his political life by hoping the economic wind changes directon before too many people notice. At least Al Greenspan has had the guts to admit that the US economy is taking on a shape more charcteristic of a pear than it was before.

A leading political corespondant said that to Gordon Brown...?

Really...

this week has bought the innevitable to a peak..

Instead of the Chancellor managing the countys economy we have to wait for high interest rates and high taxes to bring on the innevitalbe conclusion..
gordon legacy will be the ruin of more people than smallpox,

Damn him.
WE pay him well, and his job was to not let this sort of thing happen.
Prime minister?

He should be in prison..
and how dare he be suprised by this.

It was on Today this morning.
John Humphries gave him a right kicking and he had no answers.

There's a link to it on the first page of this thread.

How about a HPC special award for John Humphrys, he did Brown up like a kipper.
Maybe we should all email the Today Programme congratulating them on a piece of first class journalism.

Careful, I suspect knives may be being sharpened.
Too much appreciation of JH and his "retirement" to "spend more time with his family" might be brought forward.
"Who will rid me of this troublesome .........?".

If he was running any other company he would be!

My favourite bit was where JH said "Now the wheels are coming off the economy" GB reacted angrily. Obviously not so easy to spin!

Gordon Brown today refused to rule out future tax rises after an influential economics report predicted a £10bn shortfall in Treasury revenues - the equivalent of 3p on income tax.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/s...1591221,00.html

Well thats the key bit the guardian have as a story, and lets face it... what will scare people most .. tax rises...

An interesting part was when Gordon Brown was trying to spin BOE independence as a good thing that new Labour have done. He cited a scenario in the early 1990s when the BOE was begging the chancellor to raise rates, but the chancellor resisted.

Dare I go as far to assume this might be preparing us for a rate rise? (With a little buck-passing on GB's part into the measure of course!)

I think GB is passing the buck to the BOE, rise or fall the decission lies with them as does the economic outlook, its all the BOEs fault if things go tits up, but it is down to gordon if things do well. Of course we all know the government still holds half the seats that decide the rise or fall, and the government did nothing to slow the House Boom....

If rates don`t reach 5.25% by late spring I will be amazed. The debtors are unaware what is about to hit them.

Not so sure about the 'government did nothing to stop the house boom' bit though. The decision to raise rates in stages during the final part of the housing boom was a very different policy decision to those made by the Conservatives last time around, who did nothing. Although I don't know who really made this rate raising decision - was it truly independent BOE decision? Was it a government arm-twisting job? Who really knows?

I think it's fair to say that the rate-raising left house prices about 20% overvalued on pricing fundamentals [wages + interest rates] alone, since vendors had long since priced in the halving of rates between '98 and '02. This caused the stagnation.

For the record, I don't support New Labour. And I don't have the foggiest what's gonna happen next about rates! If anything I'm worried they might put them down.

hmmmm is this the businesses that are going bust on a daily basis??

The ONS haven't rigged the figures yet.

Excellent, I have downloaded it and will enjoy listening to every min of this on my way to work.
I already know what GB will be saying, I can already see his chins wobbling whilst he spews shitee, he has no cred, is a complete idiot and deserves to get toasted for totalbullshit policies that even my ferrets could tell you are ******.

I reckon something must be up.

When did you last hear GB on the radio? Or see him on TV (other than a party conference)?

What's that? Somewhere I think I can hear a rather overweight women warming up for her "X-factor" audition, how peculiar...

Listening to this now. Like the interviewer

From what I can see political placemen on the MPC have tried to avoid rate rises at any cost. What makes you think that will change. I think they will hold the current position as long as possible, but what would force the BoE to change direction?

I believe global forces will leave the BoE with no choice.

As I regular listner to the today programme I can say that J H is IMHO totally fed up with a stream of new labour ministers appearing on the programme; lying through their teeth; he is frequently like this.

What is noticable is that the GB supporters are increasingly desperate for Blair to resign as early as next year, the reason: GB has lost control of the public finances, the economy is dependent upon ever increasing public spending and in 3-4 years time (in the middle of a HPC driven recession) people will realise that he has been a disaster as chancellor. At that point he can kiss goodbye to his chances of being PM.

... Which is exactly what Tony Blair wants. (If you believe the Daily Mail!)

I am not anticipating Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister any time soon.

Can anyone explain 'the business cycle' please?

I see a country full of millions of businesses, some big, some small, in lots of different sectors, at lots of different stages - some start ups, some growing, some big but finding things tough, some big and getting bigger etc etc.

How is there a cycle?

Very good question. The business cycle may be nothing more than the expaning/contracting credit cycle.

I wonder what Tony Blair's view of the world is. Does he think everything is tickety-boo and he has been a successful Prime Minister?

If he does (and I can't imagine why he would) he ought to quit while he thinks he is ahead. When the economy really hits the skids and unemployment rising can no longer be disguised and the tax rises (necessary to the increase in the oil price causing a global slowdown) are in place - he and Gordon Brown will be toast.

Something these planks never learn is .... the tax paying public don't give a monkey's whose fault it is - when falling house prices make them feel poor and taxes are going up they will blame the government.

that and old merve this week.. the next ten years are not going to be the same as the last..

Did he meant that the effects of this may last a decade...?

Christ..