It occurs to me that every time Brown has to make a major decision (and presumably minor ones as well) he manages to make the worst possible choice – and then goes on to lie.
Examples include:
- Not calling an election in autumn 2007 (and then denying he’d even thought about it, let alone looked at the polls)
- Abolishing the 10p tax rate, denying anyone would lose out and then being forced into yet more complicated tax coding to try to give people some of what he’d taken away back (this one is my favourite – and not in a good way. It’s so indicative of Brown’s desire for a headline and a dividing line, had an entirely undesirable outcome and meant there had to be more smoke and mirrors to try to repair some of the damage)
- Getting 42 days’ detention through the House of Commons with a 315 to 306 majority – the 9 DUP MPs were crucial; Brown denied doing any sort of deal with them (yet it turns out there’s a deal on water rates, and one on the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill)
- Refusing to let the Gurkhas settle here (and claiming he’d done more for them than anyone in the whole wide world ever)
- Continuing to pump money into unreformed public services even when there is no discernible improvement in outcome (and claiming that the money will keep on coming when even his own government books show it won’t)
- Announcing an enquiry into the Iraq war but refusing to make it public – at least, for now – (having lied about troop withdrawal time and time again)
- Announcing reform of MPs expenses on YouTube, failing to get his reforms through (and then claiming he personally had reformed everything satisfactorily)
And of course the perennial favourites – promising to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, and selling gold at the bottom of the market. What wouldn’t we all give for some of those reserves back now…
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I blame the media. Everytime he says one of these things, the interviewer should say No that’s not right.