# Oh gordon, what have you done???



## jbell (May 15, 2006)

Whilst not a definitive list of all of his financial disasters such as making those pesky foreigners pay £30,000 to live under his law and creating the new rules of tax and spend spend spend whilst introducing to the vocabulary "stealth taxes" and a smile that simply scares me, I give you a few of his best monetary incidents during his financial reign over this country

*Gordon Brown's 10 worst financial gaffes*

In 2006, an eloquent Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he was "ready to make the decisions for people and to work with other people to make this country the great country it is at all times." A year later he became Prime Minister, and the rest is history. Here is a list of Gordon's worst financial blunders, the screw-ups which have cost us all dearly and left economists, accountants and the rest of us scratching our heads in disbelief.

*1. Taxing dividend payments *
Before 1997, dividends issued by UK companies and paid to pension funds were tax-free - that is, the tax could be claimed back via a system of tax credits. Not any more, decided Brown. Tax relief was scrapped, reducing the amount collected by pension funds by around £5 billion a year. Pension funds holding the cash that you, me and almost everyone else in the country plan to use for our retirement have lost around £100 billion over the last 12 years. That's one hell of a stealth tax.

*2. Selling our gold *
In May 1999 Gordon Brown had a plan to sell some gold. There were two problems with this, which concerned his economic advisers deeply. The price of gold had slumped after a decade of stagnation, but was likely to increase in the proceeding years. Added to this, the announcement of a major sell-off would drive the price down further. Little of this worried Gordon. Experts believe that the poorly timed decision to flog our national treasure has cost us all around £3 billion. Granted, that doesn't seem much nowadays, but more of that later.

3. Tripartite financial regulation 
The system of financial regulation dividing powers between the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, established by Brown as Chancellor in 2000, missed what amounted to the biggest financial crisis of our lifetime. Whoops. This has led some glass-half-empty commentators to conclude that the system set up by Brown failed and should be replaced. The Commons Treasury Select Committee's report on the collapse of Northern Rock said that the Financial Services Authority had "systematically failed in its duty" to oversee the troubled bank's activities. Little did it realise at the time that Northern Rock was the over-leveraged tip of the securitised iceberg.

4. Tax credits 
"Gordon Brown claims the tax credits system lifts children out of poverty," says Simon Blackmore, 38, who was pursued for £6,057 in over-paid tax credits. "Maybe it does, but only to plunge them and their families into debt two years later." Millions of low-income families have had to pay back the Treasury after receiving too much money in tax credits, putting them under huge financial and emotional strain. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of workers and families who deserved tax credits left billions of pounds unclaimed in the 2008-09 tax year for fear of being chased for the cash later on. Introduced in 1999, reformed in 2000, tax credits have been "a complete disaster zone", according to tax experts.

5. The £10,000 corporation tax threshold 
In 2002, Gordon Brown introduced a new tax regime to help small businesses. He announced a new zero per cent rate of corporation tax on profits below £10,000. It was designed to boost the ability of small businesses to grow and prosper. It didn't quite work out this way. It became advantageous for sole traders such as taxi drivers or plumbers to turn themselves into limited companies to take advantage of the new rules. A Treasury Minister later commented that "the Government did not realise how many people would engage in abusive tax avoidance", despite the fact that it was "blindingly obvious" to tax experts "within 5 seconds" of the budget announcement that this would happen. Gordon scrapped the rules a few years later, raising the rate from 0 per cent to 19 per cent when he released how much money was being lost.

6. Abolition of the 10p tax rate 
Mr Brown rarely apologises. In fact, he never apologises. But occasionally he acknowledges "mistakes", albeit begrudgingly. Over the abolition of the 10p tax rate in 2007, Mr Brown told Radio 4's Today programme that "we made two mistakes. We didn't cover as well as we should that group of low-paid workers who don't get the working tax credits and we weren't able to help the 60 to 64-year-olds who didn't get the pensioner's tax allowance." Experts use stronger language to describe the Budget of 2007, which was designed to produce positive headlines for the 2p cut in income tax. Accountants calculated that the scrapping of the 10 per cent tax rate, coupled with the increase in the proportion of tax credits withdrawn from higher earners, would leave 1.8 million workers earning between £6,500 and £15,000 paying an effective tax rate of up to 70 per cent.

7. Failing to spot the housing bubble 
Gordon Brown said he ended boom and bust, and in those innocent days before the collapse of the global finance system we believed him. In 1997, he outlined his plans. "Stability is necessary for our future economic success", he wisely informed an audience at the CBI. "The British economy of the future must be built not on the shifting sands of boom and bust, but on the bedrock of prudent and wise economic management." The other components of that bedrock including a trillion-pound debt mountain and a decade of unchecked and unparalleled house price inflation presumably slipped his mind. In 2003 a mild-mannered Liberal Democrat MP by the name of Vince Cable dared to question the mantra of "the end of boom and bust". He asked Gordon Brown: "Is it not true that...the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Gordon replied: "The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers, as reflected in his contribution, that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..." We all know what happened next.

8. 50 per cent tax rate 
Robert Chote, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said the tax hike which heralded the end the new Labour may actually end up losing the Government money. "If you look at what happened when higher rates were last changed in the 1980s, that might lead you to suggest that such a move might actually lose you revenue, rather than gain it, as people actually declare less income for tax," he said.

9. Cutting VAT 
"It would be funny if it wasn't so serious," said a tax accountant when asked about the Brown-Darling brainwave to cut VAT by 2.5 percentage points. As a nation of shoppers, rather than shopkeepers, a chopped down sales tax sounds like a good idea, providing a vital boost to hard-pressed families at a time of financial hardship. There were two problems. It costs £12.5 billion a year and it has made little discernable difference to those hard-pressed families because it is shopkeepers, rather than shoppers, who have pocketed much of the benefit.

10. Public-sector borrowing 
If Gordon had only saved a little more in the good times, we might have had a little more to fall back on in the bad, economists sigh. Last month saw public-sector net borrowing hit £19.9 billion, the highest on record, according to the Office for National Statistics. The chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, has forecast that Government borrowing will reach £175 billion this year. It is forecast that total government debt will double to 79 per cent of GDP by 2013, the highest level since World War 2. Mr Chote recently warned that "the scale of the underlying problem that the Treasury's detailed forecasts identify will require two full parliaments of mounting austerity to repair."

Even after he leaves office in 2010, as is almost certain, it seems that we will all be paying for Gordon's gaffes for many years to come.


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## Hilly10 (Feb 4, 2004)

And we will continue to pay him an hefty pension for the rest of his natural :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


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## southTT (Feb 5, 2008)

He's fucking hopeless isn't he?
cheers
jon


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## Fab 4 TT (Sep 28, 2004)

Great post!

What more is there to say about, the state of the economy? the labour party? Gordon brown? The country? It's as if it has become exhausting to read anymore. It's not as if we've been slowly screwed enough by labour over the past 10 years, our prime-mentalist continues to drag us into serious despair! Can he even grasp basic mathmatics? We're broke! How can we give money we don't have? And why is he bothered about people living in mud huts 1000's of miles away?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8120432.stm


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## TTCool (Feb 7, 2005)

Add the fact that the first thing labour did was to raid the pension funds. Fortunately at my age I was virtually unaffected as mine had been running for a long time before the robbery took place, all through the unprecedented growth period  .

Joe


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## Leg (Jan 11, 2006)

He's useless, the next one's useless. Politicians stink.

Leg for Emperor! Instead of hundreds of MPs ripping you off it will just be me. Even with my extravagances it has to be cheaper!

Vote now. All you have to do is shout "Leg for Emperor" into your monitor in a Welsh, Albanian or Snoop Dog accent. 

Leg: Just as shit but cheaper.You know who to vote for!


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## John cooke (Dec 27, 2008)

british jobs for british workers


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## fut1a (Dec 28, 2006)

John cooke said:


> british jobs for british workers


Just another thing he thought would sound good at the time. What he really meant was, british jobs for whatever foreigners we can get to do them cheapest.

Who voted for them though after all the above financial incompetence plus

Lied about weapons of mass destruction.

Drove Dr Kelly to suicide for telling the truth.

Just a couple that come to mind.

The Millenium Dome should have been enough for people to realise how good they were with money.

To make matter worse the Lisbon Treaty (Euro constitution with another name) will probably be passed this year. Ireland are due to have another vote, which will most likely be a yes vote because they have been bullied and bribed into giving the vote they want. Oh and guess who looks like he will be the first full time EU president.....Tony Trustworthy Blair. He has been campaigning for a while for the job, and thats why we won't get a vote because he knew there would be no Lisbon Treaty if we did.

The sad fact is we have to just bend over and take whatever they wanna give us, and they don't even have the decency to use a bit of vaseline beforehand.


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## TTCool (Feb 7, 2005)

The Dr Kelly episode was utterly disgraceful and tantamount to murder.

Joe


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## Fab 4 TT (Sep 28, 2004)

fut1a said:


> John cooke said:
> 
> 
> > british jobs for british workers
> ...


We certainly do not have to "just bend over and take whatever they wanna give us"! Spend a few minutes before next years election reading what all parties have to offer the public, pick one (coughhhh!...UKIP....) that offers us a referendum on europe and actually has a policy on immigration! And Vote!


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## fut1a (Dec 28, 2006)

[We certainly do not have to "just bend over and take whatever they wanna give us"! Spend a few minutes before next years election reading what all parties have to offer the public, pick one (coughhhh!...UKIP....) that offers us a referendum on europe and actually has a policy on immigration! And Vote![/quote]

It's all well and good reading a manifesto and then picking a party to vote for, but it doesn't mean what they put on paper they actually do. Labours manifesto stated the British public would get a vot on the EU, but they have got around this by saying the knew treaty with its different name is not the same. They will not give us a vote because they know all well and good what the outcome would be. That is being shafted in my book.

At the last EU elections i did vote for coughhhh because of their stance on Europe.


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## Fab 4 TT (Sep 28, 2004)

I here what your saying. The difference is the Nigel Farage (UKIP) actually wants to leave the European Union! He illustrates this in every media opportunity! I don't want to appear like some political nut, spouting into the depths of cyberspace. Just watch a few you tube videos, and lets get these "troughing political carearists" out of our parliament next year.


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## fut1a (Dec 28, 2006)

Fab 4 TT said:


> I here what your saying. The difference is the Nigel Farage (UKIP) actually wants to leave the European Union! He illustrates this in every media opportunity! I don't want to appear like some political nut, spouting into the depths of cyberspace. Just watch a few you tube videos, and lets get these "troughing political carearists" out of our parliament next year.


Leaving the EU might be a good thing or a bad thing, i just know when i hear about what goes on and how much money is wasted it concerns me. The EU court of auditors has for the 14th year running, refused to give its finances a clean bill of health.

See this clip to hear what kind of people get a top job in the EU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWSYMpuC ... re=related

These are good too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKpFH9hL ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOcG2G_6 ... re=related


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## Fab 4 TT (Sep 28, 2004)

Moving a little off topic.

Its good to see our english speaking counterparts in New Zealand using a little commonsense. Whilst they're kicking people out, we're letting people in!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... start.html

Back on topic, "leaving the EU might not be a good thing"? How about regaining our terriotorial fishing waters back? Abolishing Home Packs, immigration (where do you start!???),


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## Hilly10 (Feb 4, 2004)

And enjoy a cigar with a pint.


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## fut1a (Dec 28, 2006)

Fab 4 TT said:


> Moving a little off topic.
> 
> Its good to see our english speaking counterparts in New Zealand using a little commonsense. Whilst they're kicking people out, we're letting people in!
> 
> ...


The qualifications you need to get in the UK are - you must promise to live on the tax payer, end of


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## StuarTT (May 7, 2002)

Come the revolution.....


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## stevebeechTA (May 16, 2009)

And the moral of the story is, DON'T VOTE LABOUR :lol:


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## Fab 4 TT (Sep 28, 2004)

quote="stevebeechTA"]And the moral of the story is, DON'T VOTE LABOUR :lol:[/quote]

So why did people continue to vote for Labour in the European elections? Even Conservative or Lib-dems for that matter? What is it that people don't understand? We have a political elite, career politicians (call them what you want) who are now so detached from public opinion, they may as well live on mars.

In this weekends papers I read people are dying from leukemia because NICE won't approve drugs due to cost, even though their cheaper than existing treatments, (answers on a postcard). And at the same we're building a jail in Nigeria because sending criminals to serve their sentences in Nigeria's regular jails, is against their human rights? Honestly, what the fuck is going on?

I wonder what Browns gonna do after next years election? Their not gonna get back in, even if the large majority of the UK are dumb enough to vote for them.


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