Ben Bernanke Bashes Brown

One of these two knows what he's doing

Having flailed around in my last blogpost banging on about some sort of 'new phenomenon' where there wasn't one, really, (I'll leave it for others to decide, but I reckon it was not my best effort to be brutally honest), it comes as something of a relief to see the Spectator doing what it does best and putting the boot in to old "saved the world" Brown himself. And all they had to do was flag up Bernanke's testimony to a Senate hearing about Brown's ultra-useless tri-partite banking regulation system. Here's what the report says:

Gordon Brown’s much heralded tripartite regulatory system failed the first time it was faced with a financial crisis, proof that taking away regulatory powers from the Bank of England was a massive mistake. Now, Ben Bernanke — who is trying to secure a second term as Fed Chairman and keep the Fed’s regulatory powers intact — is citing the Brown model as what not to do, telling the Senate banking committee:

"[O]ver the past few years the government of Britain removed from the Bank of England most of its supervisory authorities. When the crisis hit - for example when the Northern Rock bank came under stress - the Bank of England was completely in the dark and unable to deal effectively with what turned out to be a destructive run and a major problem for the British economy.”

As Paul Waugh points out, George Osborne and his team are rather pleased with this effective endorsement of their position by the Fed Chairman. Bernanke’s quote does rather show that Brown isn’t leading the world in quite the way that he likes to claim.

Very gently put by James Forsyth. In reality, what Bernanke is saying here is that Brown himself - personally - through his moronic regulatory mishmash, directly caused - not contributed to, mind, caused - the 'destructive run and the major problem for the British economy' we are all having to suffer through now. Namely, the worst peacetime recession in modern British history. That's how cognitively dissonant the Brown-Labour narrative is on the banking crisis and recession for which, I and many others maintain, Brown is directly responsible.

I'd say Osborne is absolutely, champagne cork-popping cockahoop tonight, and about a dozen Nokias have been obliterated on the bunker walls. It seems Bernanke and Obama alike are distancing themselves from the tainted loser that is Brown, just like that little French gnome Sarkosy did yesterday.

For them, at least, the penny really has dropped. They've abandoned Brown long before we'll get the chance to do precisely the same thing, in 2010.

Brown Trousers

JudasShaun Woodward: seated at the Gord's Left Hand in PMQs. A lot on his mind.

What a morning, then. Brown barely limps-on having been savaged by a chipmunk and a pair of foppish toff scunners, relying now on those personifications of loyalty, Peter Mandelson, Shaun Woodward and Ed Balls, as his loyal crutches - and now we hear rumours from Guido that Madame Flint is about to snear her way into political oblivion too. All we need is for Ali Darling to be strangled by his own eyebrows - they've always been at odds with the rest of him - for an almost perfect day to be complete.

But I'm not so convinced that even this cabinet vaporisation and the ebbing away of his control of the tainted resident Blairites will do for Brown. The fatal blow will be struck by the Left. And now the Guardian has unearthed a gathering of names, no less. The Spectator has it:

Allegra Stratton and David Hencke have the scoop over at The Guardian:

A group of rebel MPs have begun soliciting signatures for a round robin letter calling for Gordon Brown to step down, which they plan to hand to the prime minister after the results of the local and European elections have come in on Monday morning.

The Guardian has learned there are reports that the backbenchers think they can reach 70 or 80 signatories, with some claims that the letter could be delivered to Downing Street by the end of today.

Some backbenchers have seen the letter and are not signing it on account of a perception that the names already on the list are "too leftwing".

The pair report that all this is being done by MPs sending a message to an email address. What should worry Brown about this is that it shows that the left are mobilising against him as well. Things are moving fast now.

The real challenge has always been from that direction. Disaffected and betrayed, the Left have had enough. They will challenge - and they actually know the labyrinthine party rules. For me, though, this indicates it's not only game over for Brown, it's game over for Labour. Quite simply, through cowardice, denial and basic stupidity, they've left it too late.

Even if (when) they oust Brown, Postman Al will not be able to save the party from descending into factional disarray, with an emboldened left wing holding a paralysed leadership hostage to fortune up to the next election. If they think their performance in tomorrow's polls will be bad, then they're in for one awesome shock come the (now imminent) General Election. And they only have themselves to blame for that.

Tough.