It is nearly twenty years since a BBC driver told me that of all the people he had had to ferry back and forth, Brown – then in opposition where he should have stayed – was among the most obnoxious and bullying.
So in a Sunday Times report today I was pleased to see the Witless Toad described as “brutish.” As to his competence, a former director general of a Whitehall department observed about what happens under his government:
“All the worst bits of policy making come from the centre. It’s these people who think you change the world by publishing a strategy. And you don’t change a thing by publishing a strategy, it makes no difference whatsoever.”
File that under “I told you so”.
The report from which this came is what journalists tend to call “a devastating indictment” of the Toad and all his ways by a phalanx of top Civil Servants. Predictably, the response from the FuhrerToadBunker was “We will obviously study the report with interest. But we do not accept the conclusion.”
I think I’ve quoted Cromwell on this attitude before: “Consider in the bowels of Christ that ye may be wrong.”
Surely it is impossible to make any progress in human affairs without realising you are mistaken. But really astonishes about Brown is his utter incapacity in areas where he should, surely, as a man who was in charge of a nation’s finances for ten years, be impeccable – like doing his sums.
His and the egregious Ed Balls’ recent proposal to give 270,000 of the nation’s poorest families free computers is a typical example of what happens. Forget the fact that right now this country, in greater debt than ever before in its history, should be conserving money, not spending it. Forget the fact that so many of the recipients of his largesse have difficulty in reading and writing, let alone mathematics.
What is really worrying is that his costings would disgrace the average trainee book-keeper. When any idiot knows that a computer can be picked up for £300 – and probably a lot less if you’re buying in bulk, he was proposing to spend over £1,000 a head on this latest vote-catching wheeze.
Just sheer, old-fashioned, witless incompetence.
Drayton,
Well, couldn't agree with you more about the loathsome Brown.
Re the point about the costing of the computer project, the more frightening possibility is that those costs are actually correct i.e. that when you add in all the costs of bureaucracy etc it will actually cost the government (that is taxpayers) GBP 1,000 for something that the private sector would deliver for GBP 300! OK, they may be including some ongoing costs (broadband connection etc) but the point remains.
Thanks for your ongoing words of wisdom. Great recent guest post over at Makepeace BTW.
Kevin Francis
A local school tried something similar recently, off their own bat – giving laptops to kids who got free school dinners. Just under half the kids sold them – in my opinion showing more understanding of money than Mr Brown.
Now another local school is proposing to give all its kids free iPods (even the one who already have one) so they can listen to “study podcasts”. And this is one of the new, highly rated Academies.
Sorry Drayton, no witless incompetence, but commerciality and greed. Watch as the Toad gets ousted with much disdain from No 10 – then secure lucrative Non Exec appointments with those organisations who have profited handsomely from this pathetic purchase – namely Hardware manufacturers, software hoses, distributors and others involved in this chain of fiscal waste. Lies and Fraud, ever get that feeling of useless frustration ?
Agree, agree, agree.
Your costings don't include the “value” of some new quango or government-feeding organisation to run, manage, audit the scheme to ensure that the government (not we the taxpayer) is getting value for money!
I think you'll like this one!
Royal Mail created a stamp with a picture of the Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown. But, the stamp was not sticking to envelopes.
This enraged the Prime Minister, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing and spending of £2.1million, a special commission presented the following findings:
1. The stamp is in perfect order
2. There is nothing wrong with the adhesive.
3. The Public are spitting on the wrong side of the stamp
Gordon Schizo Brown is to promise free laptops and broadband access for 270,000 low-income families. That’s about £81 million of YOUR money. Naturally absolutely no thought whatsoever has been given to the costs of accessing the internet which over a year would take the cost of the project closer to £300 million.
The Great Leader thinks that this will allow those poorer parents living in deprived tower blocks and tenements to keep an eye on their children’s progress at school! “For those finding it difficult to afford this, I can announce the nationwide rollout of our home access programme to get laptops and broadband at home for 270,000 families. It will mean all families can come together, learn together and reap rewards together.” Coincidentally, Fife in which Stalin has his constituency, has an unemployment rate of 4.4% of the population having once been one of the richest industrial hubs of Scotland. Approximately 45% of voters in The PM’s constituency are either unemployed or on the government payroll.
According to the Guardian, the largest sheet of lavatory paper that you can buy, Brown will say: “We realise that for parents to influence and engage in the education of their children they need rich, varied and easily accessible information on the progress, behaviour and attendance of their children. That is why we have said that from 2010 all secondary schools – and from 2012 all primary schools – will guarantee reporting online to parents.”
“So the mother who’s worried about her son struggling with his reading can find out more about how she can help, or the dad who works long hours and can’t make a parents’ evening can keep in touch with his daughter’s progress, at whatever time of the day or night that he’s free.”
As usual the Prime Minister and his Adolf Hitler look alike Minister of Education Ed Ballsup, have shown how completely out of touch they are with the real world.
First they should know that little Johnny will not be at school or is ever likely to go to school for more than a few days per term. The standard of education that he might receive if he could be arsed to attend is so abysmal that he would not be able to spell computa yet alone nife. However, he might just stretch to gun.
Secondly, the concerned parent who is likely to be either a crack head or single mother will have followed the same path as little Johnny and so will have zero interest in his attendance or performance.
Thirdly, Johnny already has a computer; in fact he has a whole cupboard full of them which he will have stolen earlier from those nice tax payers who are so keen for him to become a member of a fairer society.
He said: “The evidence shows that it improves their learning, it raises their exam grades.” There is no evidence whatsoever to show that under privileged children raise their exam grades by owning a computer. Not a single national survey on the subject has been carried out in the UK or any other country. This is a poorly planned electoral bribe with the feeble objective of achieving a viral marketing effect amongst the illiterate, incompetent and irrelevant voters who would be hard pressed to remember what the letter X looked like when the elections finally get underway.
'costings would disgrace the average trainee book-keeper'
Well, let's have a look here:
270,000 targetted Poor Families given a broadband machine, at a cost of £1,000.
Note Carefully: “A broadband machine”, paid for a year.
Total Cost: £270 Million
Let's say that 50% of them sell the machine (excl. Broadband connection).
That gives us an investment of £135 million in the hands of Poor Folk, who will use it and lift themselves out.
It also makes your claim (and those of one-or-two of the folks on this Blog) look mean-minded and curmudgeonly – Scrooge comes to mind.
Please check with Carpenter, about what book-keepers do, before you make these claims.
Oh and 'Vote Catcher'- well, ummh, errh! Given a single day's news item and the turnout at elections, 270,000 beneficiaries even times 3 don't cut it.
Don't apply for any trainee book-keeper jobs, real soon now, Drayton. You're having enough problems training to be an Economist.
Kind regards
Shannon O'Hara
It makes sense to me! 1000 (-) 300 leaves the Toad 700 pounds x 1000 to his pocket.