Gordon Brown is (sort of) right

I’m going to surprise you – I’m surprising myself. Gordon Brown is right. 

Gordon Brown was right to say, “The world is suffering a triple challenge: of higher fuel prices, higher food prices and a credit crunch. My message to the G8 will be that instead of sidelining climate change and the development agenda, the present economic crisis means that instead of relaxing our efforts we have got to accelerate them. This agenda is not just the key to the environment and reducing poverty, but the key to our economic future as well.”

He’s right that to retreat into isolationism, into ‘it’s more important to look after ourselves’, into ‘we can’t afford to focus on climate change and global poverty’ is wrong. 

We can’t ignore the fact that we need to rethink the way we consume in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. I was talking to an American the other day who denied flat out that ordinary Americans could ever afford to pay more than $4.50 a gallon for petrol. He was insistent that the US government should step in, reduce taxes, subsidise petrol, kickstart the economy. What he failed to understand is that until there is a market-driven reason for manufacturers, business and consumers to change their behaviour, there will never be enough of them willing to make the change purely out of altruism or belief. 

Sadly though Gordon Brown is entirely wrong when he insists that the current economic situation in the UK is due to these global conditions. He failed to prepare. We have had years of economic plenty, but instead of spending some and saving some, he spent and spent and spent. We don’t have anything left to smooth out the bad times. Even worse, his economic policies encouraged people to spend and spend and spend as well – so they don’t have anything saved up to weather the storms. 

Economic policy is about more than tax cuts. It’s about planning, budgeting, deciding what the priorities are, making sure you can afford the big items and the small. It’s not about busting the bank and then disappearing hoping that someone else will clear up the mess. 

That’s why I want to see George Osborne throw open the Treasury books, if and when we win an election. His speech this week about simplification, early warning on changes and more scrutiny. But I want to see him go further and pledge to make public all the things that are off the books at the moment – all the PFI, Northern Rock bail-out, extra borrowing to cover the 10p tax promises – the lot. It’ll be bad. But it would be a lot worse to not explain why the public finances are so tight. And the most important thing – as we’ve learnt from Gordon Brown’s inability to do this – is to be straight with people.

Related posts:

1. Gordon Brown cannot be the change the country needs
2. “Gordon Brown did not make eye-contact with the nude swimmers”
3. George Osborne’s response to Gordon Brown’s speech
4. Has Brown Passed The Point Of No Return?
5. The Labour Commentariat Plunge The Knife Into Brown