In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Gordon Brown finally admits some responsibility over the financial crisis. After David Cameron’s apology and subsequent double digit lead in the polls, this was only to be expected. Although it is doubtful whether this is enough to diffuse the calls for an apology from his political opponents. Brown finally accepts some responsibility.
David Cameron today apologised for mistakes his party has made on the economy. Among the errors mentioned was not warning about the extent of the UK’s debt crisis. Cameron says ‘sorry’ while Brown is silent.
Gordon Brown met with President Obama today, to discuss the world economic crisis. Mr. Brown’s aides were quick to emphasise that this was a ‘low-key visit’ when it became clear that there would not be any formal press conference to the White House press after the talks. The omitting of this tradition might take away some the importance and significance of being the first European leader to hold talks with the newly elected President. Brown feels snubbed by low-key Obama.
Sir Fred Goodwin is currently one of the most unpopular men in the UK. The former head of RBS, the bank that this week announced a £24,1 billion loss – the largest in UK corporate history, has said he fully intends to keep his pension plan. A plan that gives him £693,000 a year from a bank he promptly left when the government had to bail it out last October. A very expensive lesson learned.
In a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour party at Westminster on Monday night, Gordon Brown accepted that his party has suffered badly in recent months as the recession has hit the UK. He warned MPs to ‘brace themselves for a fresh battering from voters in the coming weeks as the recession deepens’. Brown admits recession will be bad for Labour.
World leaders and financial experts were not surprised when the UK and the US entered deep recessions, and some were even smug enough to suggest that it would not hit their own country as their economy is not based on ‘a property boom and massive consumer debts’. Recession hits Europe, not just the UK.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, is not impressed by Gordon Brown’s measures to tackle the UK financial crisis. Mr. Sarkozy told a domestic television audience Thursday that he will not follow the British Prime Minister in cutting VAT, claiming that it had ‘absolutely no impact.’ Sarkozy not impressed by Brown.
The IMF said today that Britain will be the hardest hit country in the developed world in what is now forecast to be the ‘deepest recession since WWII’. The IMF now expects e the British GDP to fall by 2.8 % this year, not the 1.3% that was previously thought in November. Furthermore, a UN report expects 50 million jobs to be cut worldwide. A bleak outlook for the UK.