Cameron’s bottling it? Bollocks he is. This is a classic Brown stitch-up.

The lefties are spinning that Cameron is backing out of his commitment to a live TV debate with Brown.

@JohnPrescott: Now he’s bottling the TV debates should we call him David Camera-off? Empty seat him

After only a few weeks of negotiations, David Cameron has rejected the idea of a series of debates between all three party leaders, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Gordon Brown has proposed up to six debates while the Liberal Democrats are demanding three three-way debates.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are accusing the Tory leader of "backing down" after months of calling for a television debate.

So far, it’s an open and shut case. Right? Wrong…

Mr Cameron has proposed the most slimline option, involving one debate with all three leaders. But Mr Brown has told broadcasters he wants at least six.

Brown insists on six. You don’t need me to tell you how intransigent, unreasonable and calculating Brown is.

He and Mr Cameron would go head to head in one, Mr Brown would face Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, in another while Mr Cameron would face Mr Clegg in a third. Then there would be three more debates between Mr Brown and Mr Cameron focused on a different issue each time, such as the economy.

See, I may not be in the premiership of politics junkies, but I play enthusiastically in the lower leagues. And here’s the rub:

I don’t want to see 6 debates. I won’t watch 6 debates. And if I did, I’d be sick to death of all three of these muppets. So you’d be lucky to persuade the millions of marginalised and detached Joe Publics to watch even the one debate.

And that’s Brown’s game. Cameron knows the dangers, Brown has nothing to lose. Clegg has everything to gain by a one-on-one with Brown.

This is about Brown derailing the whole shebang and blaming it on the Tories.

And for Brown’s camp to be brandishing terms like ‘bottled’ in relation to Cameron are so ludicrous as to be hilarious. We all remember the election that never was.

Just more evidence that the likes of Prescott are just in a different plain of existence, where the sky is quite different to the one here on Earth.

AJ

Nothing to add to this…

… but why aren’t we burning wicker effigies of these fucking thieves?

Naturally, Obo has lots to say about it, as do Old Holborn and Guido.

If you’re not depressed now…

You will be, once you’ve read John Demetriou’s post about what has happened to this country.

Can people not see what is happening here? The State has the upper hand. We are all being made into their bitches. Why? Because, by virtue of us being the law abiding citizens who want to get along and get by without fuss, we are easy meat. We pay up when told to pay up, we get into our hutches and eat and drink what we’re told, and when. We are told what and how to consume, what is acceptable and what is not, and what is safe and what isn’t.

Read the whole thing. And weep. Or rant. Or go put a rocket up your MP’s arse (a NASA colonoscopy as I call that at work).

AJ

Watching the bansturbators and the pub-killers…

Excellent work from The Filthy Smoker over at DKs place.

From The Scotsman:

The economic hangover of the smoking ban and the effects of the recession have both been blamed for fewer people going to pubs, but it is clear the supermarkets and a growing culture of drinking at home are the real cause for the decline.

Oh, for the love of…

Alright then, one more time. There is not a growing culture of drinking at home because the supermarkets are selling more alcohol. There is a growing culture of drinking at home because of the smoking ban which, in turn, has led to the supermarkets selling more alcohol. People who drink at home tend to buy their alcohol from supermarkets. Not pubs. Supermarkets not pubs. Horse then cart. Do you see how that works?

Do click through and read the rest of this most splendid taking apart of the righteous.

AJ

Get in there….

I was only musing on this a few days back, after Steve Shark reminded me of the very point…

Next stop, The Hague, for you Blair, you terrible cunt.

AJ

I don’t think I understand….

Menezes officer ‘did not deceive’

A police surveillance officer who admitted altering his notes about the death of Jean Charles de Menezes has been cleared following an inquiry.

The Special Branch officer deleted text from his computer note before speaking to the inquest in October last year.

…

Last October, the officer told the inquest he deleted a line from computer notes which quoted Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick.

…

The IPCC found Owen "acted alone" in failing to disclose the note and then deleting it.

Its report concluded the officer had shown a "lack of understanding" of how he should behave, but had not committed an offence.

It’s another world…

AJ

The only lesson they need to learn from this…

…is the devastating power of stolen, lost or leaked data.

As they have sown… so did they reap.

No sympathy year.

AJ

Adios, Rab C Speaker… That means goodbye, you thick twat.

The Tellygiraffe has got the bugger… he gave permission for the fake mortgage claims.

Parliamentary authorities, overseen by Michael Martin, the Speaker, gave secret permission for some MPs to over-claim for thousands of pounds in home loan interest in deals that led to the systematic abuse of the taxpayer-funded expenses system.

…

Permission to claim “phantom” mortgage payments is understood to have been offered to several MPs before 2004. It was stopped after Commons officials admitted it should never have been allowed. Michael Martin has been Speaker since 2000 and was therefore ultimately responsible for the arrangements – which has never been independently investigated.

Amazing stuff. The Scotch bastard can’t possibly hang on now, even if Carswell doesn’t get a vote on his motion of no confidence.

AJ

Excellent Speech…

My first knowledge of Rush Limbaugh was via Bill Hicks, who never held Mr Limbaugh in particularly high esteem. So, it’s somewhat surprising to find myself uttering words of respect for this speech he gave to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

I think it sums up much that conservatives and many libertarians are concerned about just now on both sides of the Atlantic.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

H/T Stephanie Gutmann at the Tellywelly.

AJ

Electric Cars draw only hot air….not electricity….

I’ve previously blethered about electric cars and the problems of available electricity generating capacity.

I shouldn’t have worried. According to some people who evidently have no vested interest whatsoever, there is no problem.

UK’s national grid ready for e-car expansion, claims report

A new study claims to show that if three million of us went out tomorrow and bought plug-in electric cars, the UK’s national grid could support our charging needs without missing a beat.

Oh wait.. here comes a vested interest.

The report was carried out by a consortium called the Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV) project, led by Jaguar-Land Rover and part-funded by the government through the Technology Strategy Board. The REHEV also includes engineering concern Ricardo, power company E.ON and battery developer Amberjac Projects.

The report modelled four different vehicle fleet charging scenarios: uncontrolled domestic charging, uncontrolled off-peak domestic charging, ’smart’ domestic charging and uncontrolled public charging throughout the day – commuters who recharge their vehicles while at work, for example.

Assuming e-cars made up ten per cent of the UK vehicle fleet – that’s around three million cars and vans – REHEV reckons we would be looking at a peak demand increase of around two per cent or approximately 1GW. And that’s the worst case scenario with us all plugging in our e-cars willy-nilly – other, more controlled scenarios apparently placed even less strain on the grid.

Let’s look at that number. They’re saying the peak demand will increase by approx 1GW. That’s 1 000 000 KW. So, if 1 million of the 3 million electric cars are plugged in at 7pm when their hapless owners get home from the coalface, they each, according to the above figure draw 1KW. That’s half what a kettle draws.

Tesla motors say that you can completely recharge a Tesla in 3.5 hours, at 70AMP current draw. Now, that’s USA, so 110V, 7.7KW. For us with 220/240v that’s a 32AMP circuit feed (6.4-7.2KW), which no household has just now. So let’s use a lower powered charger that draws 2KW from a 13amp circuit and be charitable, saying that the charging time is trebled. That’s 10.5 hours to recharge your electric car from a domestic mains circuit.

So, back to that 1GW. If the car charger draws 2KW, only 500 000 of the 3 000 000 cars plugged in at the same time would soak up this 1GW of generated capacity. 1/6th of cars. And that would be on an overnight (9-12hr) trickle charge.

Someone is talking absolute cack here.

AJ

A nifty example of warmists’ book-cooking…

So, these goons are trekking to the North Pole, to prove that we’re all evil consumers and planet murderers.

http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/

Booker ruminates on their general failitude.

With perfect timing, the setting out from Britain of the “Global Warming Three” last month was hampered by “an unusually heavy snowfall”. When they were airlifted to the start of their trek by a twin-engine Otter (one hopes a whole forest has been planted to offset its “carbon footprint”), they were startled to find how cold it was. The BBC dutifully reported how, in temperatures of minus 40 degrees, they were “battered by wind, bitten by frost and bruised by falls on the ice”.

Thanks to the ice constantly shifting, it was “disheartening”, reported Hadow, to find that “when you’ve slogged for a day”, you can wake up next morning to find you have “drifted back to where you started’’. Last week, down to their last scraps of food, they were only saved in the nick of time by the faithful Otter. They were disconcerted to see one of those polar bears, threatened with extinction by global warming, wandering around, doubtless eyeing them for its dinner.

There’s lots of coverage of this greenwashery at WattsUpWithThat. This, in particular tickled me. On the Catlin website, is a so-called ‘Live from the Ice’ telemetry feed from the intrepid numpties.

http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/live_from_the_ice.aspx

What the page says now is:

Please note, we are disabling the biotelemetry data section of the website for several days. The units themselves are still functioning perfectly, but we need to address an issue with the above display. We hope to have resolved this problem in a matter of days.

The problem is this: The ‘telemetry data’ that they have been displaying thus far has been a loop of pre-determined numbers contained in a static XML file, rather than any actual live data.

WUWT explains the implication:

So we have:

• repeating data on all heatbeats
• repeating data on all core temperatures
• repeating data on the three dates I checked available from the archive data selector
• no notice of the telemetry being down
• no notice of it not being “live”
• status: “operational” for all three team members
• UPDATE: I also checked from another computer in my office that had never visited the website to eliminate the possibility of some web browser cache problem – same results

What could one conclude from that? Maybe this is just an elaborate demo page? But why then the “live from the ice” as the name of the page in the URL?

http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/live_from_the_ice.aspx

If it is not live, why not simply say so?

If my observations are correct, the question then is : if they are this sloppy about what data they present to the world on their “live” web page, what does that say about integrity of any other data they may gather? Surely they know the whole world is watching the condition of the three intrepid ice explorers with great concern?

Berkinalds.

AJ

Nothing to add to this…

From Old Holborn:

Pot Calls Kettle Brown

Now totally divorced from reality, our Great Leader lectures leading American Bankers and criticises them for losing track of honesty and integrity.

This is the Lying Bastard who claimed to have done away with Boom and Bust! Who claims to have lifted 65 million children out of poverty! Who claims no-one is disadvantaged by his 10-p tax fiasco! Who can’t tell the difference between spending and investing! (I could go on, and on, and on!)

And whose integrity is such that he plotted against his boss and undermined his initiatives. And claimed that his cowardice was nothing to do with opinion polls.

But his hubris and arrogance is such that he sees no problem in attacking people for being dishonest or lacking in integrity.

Fucking deluded hypocrite.

The Penguin

He’s just unreal, isn’t he? Is this what becomes of anyone who end up leader? Is that what you have to be to become leader?

AJ

Guido continues to torment the increasingly hapless and cornered Draper

Earlier in the week, Guido latched onto the observation that Dolly apparently tried to imply he was educated at University of California, Berkeley, when in fact he is just a Berkeley Hunt.

David Hencke has got Draper to admit that contrary to the impression he gave him for a recent Guardian profile, his qualification comes not from the world famous Berkeley, but from a small private institution called the Wright Institute in California.

It seems Dolly Doom wasn’t happy about the story and got in Hencke’s face at the press launch of his Labourlist website, which has already reached the coveted status of national laughing stock in my neck of the blogologolog. Following the reports of this incident, Guido prescribes anger management for Draper.

In the Independent this morning the headline is “Sparks Fly as Draper Meets his Tormentor”

…

"Draper squared up to him, jabbing his finger, insisting he’d end Hencke’s career," says an onlooker. "It was quite nasty." The row was about a Hencke piece accusing Draper of "spinning" his qualification to imply that he had obtained an MA in clinical psychology at the world-renowned Berkeley branch of the University of California. Draper went to the Wright Institute in Berkeley.

…

And he’s not don’t with Dolly yet…

Guido has more bad news for Derek – Guido has more evidence coming that Draper has misled people as to the source of his qualifications.

[Smirk]

AJ

More Labour Lords lolly malarkey…

Via Guido, the Sunday Herald – some kind of porridge based news outlet – tells us that a Labour Lord has been accused of taking cash for asking questions in the house, addition to his being on the hook in the ‘Lolly for Laws’ scandal a couple of weeks ago.

The Sunday Herald has established that around half the parliamentary questions tabled by Lord Moonie, a close friend of prime minister Gordon Brown, relate to areas of commercial interest to US-based Northrop Grumman Corporation.

…

Last week, the former defence minister and Kirkcaldy MP was accused of being one of four Labour lords ready to accept money in return for helping amend legislation. Moonie, 61, said he would make introductions in return for £30,000 a year.

Now an investigation by this newspaper has found that 23 of the 46 written questions Moonie has had answered by the government in the Lords relate to defence work connected to Northrop Grumman Corp. These include the F35 joint strike fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Airbus A400M cargo plane, the Navy’s Type 45 destroyer programme, and unmanned aerial drones for spying and bombing.

Moonie also asked a question about the Sentry Awacs early-warning aircraft. In 2005 Northrop Grumman won a £665 million contract to maintain and support the Royal Air Force’s Awacs fleet over 20 years.

Moonie was ennobled in 2005 but did not ask any parliamentary questions in his first three years as a peer, according to Hansard. But since mid-2008 he has asked almost 50, all on defence issues.

Lovely, lovely, sticky, sticky mud.

AJ

A trip down flummery lane…

This whole Labour Lords Lolly4Laws business minded me of Blair’s ‘whiter than white’ quote from 1997. Actually, it ran as follows:

“We do, as a new Government, have to be extremely careful after 18 years in opposition. A lot of people who worked for us, they then go on and work for the lobby firms. I think we have to be very careful with people fluttering around the new Government, trying to make all sorts of claims of influence, that we are purer than pure, that people understand that we will not have any truck with anything that is improper in any shape or form at all.”
Daily Mail, 8 July 1998

But there are also some other pearls from Blair at the marvellous Wikiquote. Such as:

“I can stand here today, leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and say to the British people: you have never had it so … prudent.”
Speech to the Labour Party conference, 28 September 1999

Of course, Monosnot doesn’t go without a mention, and you don’t have to go back 10 years to trip him up.

I want to lead a government humble enough to know its place – where I will always strive to be – and that is on people’s side.
Speech at the launch of his leadership campaign, 11 May 2007

Empty words, Mr Brown, or you’d call an election right now.

AJ

Unsafety camera ahead..

Spotted in Simon Heffer’s column.

Beware – accident-prone speed camera at work

One of my readers, like me, drives each morning past the speed camera at the bottom of the M11 in north-east London, and like me has noticed the number of accidents it causes. He made a freedom of information request and found that in the five-and-a-half years before it was installed there were fewer accidents and casualties than in the same period after its installation.

My correspondent finds it amusing that this camera is run by “The Essex Casualty Reduction Partnership”, which seems to have a case to answer under the Trades Descriptions Act. The money raised hasn’t been disclosed for “operational reasons”. Police admit there have been more accidents, which they blame on “drivers braking”. No doubt they would rather we didn’t, so the cash register could ring more.

More info here:

http://www.fleetdirectory.co.uk/fleet-news/index.php/2009/01/07/m11-speed-camera-causes-accidents-claims-campaigners/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1105689/The-1m-year-motorway-speed-camera-CAUSING-accidents.html

A motorway speed camera which has increased the number of crashes and injuries at its site is revealed today as the most profitable in Britain.

It is estimated to catch up to 500 drivers a day, generating nearly £1million a year in fines.

Yet accidents have risen by a quarter and casualties have almost doubled since the Gatso camera was installed on the M11 at its junction with the North Circular A406 near Woodford, Essex.

I lost the will to fight-the-good-fight regarding motoring, and the scaldalous dismantling and vilification thereof under this lot of boot-faced miserablist wankers. But this story just helps to remind us all where this lot’s priorities are, and how naturally blatant lies come to them.

AJ

New Comedy Website Launching this Week

In these miserable times, when state sponsored comedy – ranging from Dennis Skinner to The Now Show – has run out of steam, it is benevolent of the very nearly bankrupt Labour Party to launch a new interactive comedy channel. It’s called LabourList.

Featured artistes will include the acclaimed polymath, Higher Education Minister and Mastermind contestant David Lammy. David hasn’t written anything yet, but there’s someone called Alan CarrSimon Fletcher who is giving us a great taste of what’s to come.

Simon Fletcher was Ken Livingstone’s Chief of Staff at the London Assembly between 2000 and 2008, presiding over the implementation of the congestion charge and a number of other advances. Simon continues to promote progressive policy for London and regularly writes for The Guardian’s Comment Is Free website.

It probably isn’t necessary to read on, but here goes…

We don’t have to imagine how awful the Tories would be in power – just look at Boris

It is not a foregone conclusion – in fact it’s going to be very tough indeed – but the Tories are now beatable after enjoying twelve months from the 2007 conference season being feted as the government in waiting. The reason is clear: because the underlying ideology of free market capitalism that guides them has been ripped up by the economic crisis.

Free market capitalism is what failed eh? Brilliant analysis of the situation.

To stop them winning we have to build up real alliances across political divides in order to maximize the impact of the great majority of voters who have no interest or desire in seeing a return to Tory government.

As opposed to the great majority who want to keep this government when the next election comes?  Not! Even YouGov have Con 41, Lab 34. And by the way, Yougov is a New-Labour love-in of the highest order.

Or, the 78% of the electorate (34 million) who DIDN’T vote for you in 2005, where you won with the lowest number of votes since 1929?

Thinking Tories are quite open about their problem in private. What do you do as a party based on the unfettered free market when the international global financial system goes haywire? The sheer scale of global situation means only the massive role of the state can prevent a full-scale slump and protect the public from the worst. The biggest nationalizations in US history – indeed in the history of any of the liberal democracies – have had to be pushed through.

Confronted with this earthquake the Tories initially backed into a do-nothing comfort zone. But stung by the do-nothing accusation, the extent to which they would now do something would only make things worse.

And here’s the first real side-splitter:

Polly Toynbee puts it perfectly – Cameron has sought refuge in Margaret Thatcher’s handbag.

ROFL – This is just what the doctor ordered. For some historical Pollywatching, see here.

AJ

H/T – Guido

Update 1: Hilarity commences with Dolly wading into the comments on Obo’s billyog.

Thick fascist bovine watch…

Guido: Looks like Jacqui Smith’s Pseudonymous Penfriends have been at it again. Big up the Bovine massive.

A CLOSE pal of Jacqui Smith has been unmasked writing letters in support of her to newspapers — days after the Home Secretary’s husband was exposed for doing the same.

Patricia Lailey, using her maiden name Hill, told how the politician sympathised during a recent bereavement.

But Mrs Lailey didn’t mention she had been a Labour councillor for four years, and had worked with the MP on local issues.

She lives in Redditch, Worcs — the marginal seat Ms Smith is fighting to keep at the next election.

Mrs Lailey wrote in a national newspaper: “I recently lost my mum and Jacqui wrote a personal letter to me. She cares about us in Redditch.”

She insisted last night: “I didn’t mention I used to be a councillor because I did not think it was relevant.

“I used my maiden name because that is how I was known in my job and when working as a councillor.”

Ms Smith’s husband Richard Timney was last month revealed as the author of letters backing her and her policies.

But he didn’t mention they were married or that he was her £40,000-a-year Commons adviser.

AJ

The People Who Matter

In the here-and-now, this is old news, but as the effluous mists of time are choked down, this will still be in the armoury when I’m fighting, in every way I can, against this cacophony of Communist cunts at the next election.

I was prompted to write this by a comment in Portillo’s column in the Sunday Times today. He reminded me (in between reminding us of the long dead Osboune/Delipaxo yacht affair and of the Tories history of EU-based divisions) that not so long ago – soon after Peter Mandelbrot came flouncing back into government – discussions of our possible entry into the Euro were afoot in back rooms off back streets of Brussels and Whitehall.

Reported here:

Britain is “closer than ever before” to giving up the pound for the euro, the president of the European Commission has said, sparking speculation that Peter Mandelson is pushing for membership of the single currency.

Yet, now that Sterling is at an all time low with the Euro, it would be a perfect time NOT TO FUCKING JOIN THE THING.

Nevertheless, there is one truly revealing comment in the report and it comes from the President of the EC – Jose Manual Barolo, who said:

“I’m not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me, ‘If we had the euro, we would have been better off’,” Mr Barroso said. “I know that the majority in Britain are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration under way and the people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it.“

And there we have it. The reason why the EU is a cancer that needs to be zapped. The people whom Josie believe to ‘matter’ are bureaucrats and ministers. By inference, the people who ‘do not matter’ are everyone else.

Not the millions who work in private industry, who generate the wealth these parasitic fuckers then piss up the wall on ludicrous projects of self-deceiving vanity and generally interfering with our shit in an authoritarian manner.

Not the proles who aren’t yet all thick enough to think that the Euro would be a good idea, simply so we don’t have to change money for the annual trip to Benidorm.

Not the Tories who (thanks to William Hague’s recent lack of equivocation) have written off the whole idea.

And apparently, not Gordon Brown, whose single creditable act as Chancellor of the Exchequer was to ensure that we weren’t taken into the Euro, against the wishes of Blair, Mandelbrot et al. Sadly, in the last case, even the New Statesman have a sniff of what might have been going on here.

Did Gordon Brown delay obstruct UK euro-entry so he could one day lead Britain into the single currency? Brown never closed off the option when Blair was PM,

It seems absurd though, that Brown would see (cause?) the relative value of the pound drop to a historical low against major currencies, and then take us into a single currency that pegged our spending power, in perpetuity, at levels that would see us poorer, in the worldwide sense, than we have been in half a century?

For what? To fulfil a personal ambition? For inward investment? To fulfil the prophecy of us becoming a 3rd world country, so beloved of the Daily Mail? For Britain to become a workhouse for the civilised world? Gordon loves work. Arbeit Macht Frei.

It almost doesn’t bear thinking about. What a shower of absolute bastards.

AJ

To cheer us up

Footsie suffers worst year

London’s leading stocks endured their worst annual falls in at least 24 years, while in Europe and Asia, some markets ended the year by notching up their worst performances since records began.

The FTSE 100 lost 30.9 per cent in 2008, finishing the year at 4,434.17. This was the blue-chip index’s worst annual fall since it was created in 1984 and substantially more than its previous biggest yearly loss of 24.5 per cent in 2002. The FTSE All Share index fell 32.8 per cent over the year, its worst annual fall since losing 55.3 per cent in 1974.

In the rest of Europe, Germany’s Xetra Dax fell 40.3 per cent, its worst annual performance in its 20-year history and the CAC 40 in Paris was down 42.1 per cent. FTSE Eurofirst 300 suffered an annual decline of 44.7 per cent, its worst year since the index was constituted in 1986.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended the year on Tuesday by recording a 42.1 per cent fall, well above its last biggest annual loss of 38.7 per cent in 1990, while Korea’s Kospi index ended the year with a loss of 40.7 per cent.

In New York, the S&P 500 has already fallen 41 per cent this year, marking its worst run since a drop of 47.1 per cent in 1931 during the Great Depression.

All hail Gordon, I say.

13) Gordon Brown: March 2007

We will not return to the old boom and bust

14) Gordon Brown: December 2006

Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history

15) Gordon Brown: March 2006

I have said before: no return to boom and bust.

16) Gordon Brown: March 2001

We will not return to boom and bust.

17) Gordon Brown: November 2000

Our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the ’80s–rising debt, higher long-term interest rates, higher debt repayment costs, lower growth, higher unemployment, then enforced cuts in public spending. That was the old boom and bust.

18) Gordon Brown: March 2000

Britain does not want a return to boom and bust.

19) Gordon Brown: November 1999

Indeed, Britain was set to repeat the old, familiar cycle of boom and bust. Since then, we have created and rigorously adhered to a new framework of modern economic management

20) Gordon Brown: November 1998

Britain was set to repeat the boom-bust cycle that led to 15 per cent. interest rates for one whole year in the early 1990s.

21) Gordon Brown: June 1998

rigorous financial discipline that, together with monetary stability, ends once and for all the boom and bust that for 30 years has undermined stability

22) Gordon Brown: May 1998

The Government have put in place policies to deliver that objective and are determined to avoid a return to boom and bust.

23) Gordon Brown: April 1998

We will not return to the stop-go, boom-bust years which we saw under the Conservatives.

24) Gordon Brown: November 1997

I am satisfied that the new monetary policy arrangements will deliver long-term price stability, and prevent a return to the cycle of boom and bust.

25) Gordon Brown: July 1997

Today, the Bank of England has agreed with me that, if we are to prevent the cycle of boom and bust, inflationary pressures in the economy, which the previous Government negligently failed to tackle, must be brought under control

Meanwhile, via iterative bloggisms:

It is true that we had ten years of record growth when I was prime minister. I have, unfortunately, come to the conclusion that it was luck.
- Tony Blair (Cunto di Tutti Cunti), in a lecture to Yale University

Gives me that warm feeling inside…. feels like…. boiling piss.

AJ