March 3, 2009
What can Gordon Brown do?
Story link: What can Gordon Brown do?
Rows about the RBS chief’s pension are the least of our worries, with the UK economy on the brink of deflation and the Bank of England so worried, they are looking into the necessary procedure to introduce some kind of quantitative easing – we are in trouble, we know that, but what will Gordon Brown do about it?
Economic growth is plummeting around the world. The United States has just produced its worst figures for 26 years. The UN’s development arm, Unctad, says this could be the first year in a generation that the entire world economy shrinks. And the democracies of Eastern Europe, which emerged blinking and hopeful into the capitalist sunshine not yet 20 years ago, today look ready to fall over like dominoes.
These are undoubtedly the most difficult and dangerous economic times anyone alive has lived through. So how does Britain react? By getting into a lather about Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension. Yesterday Harriet Harman was just the latest minister to fulminate against the former RBS chief, warning that he should not “count on” keeping his money. But while she and others are responding in part to public anger, this row is rather too convenient for ministers.