Darling - You Are Between A Rock And... Er, Well Another Rock!

First we had the "most successful Chancellor for 250 years". Now we have the most unsuccessful Chancellor for, well, maybe 250 days. Poor old Alistair Darling - he is really proving to be the patsy for Gordon Brown's useless, and short-lived premiership.

It is just a few months ago he delivered his first Budget speech yet he has already been forced to undo the removal of the 10p tax band by adding to the national debt by borrowing £2.7 billion - in the hope that this would rescue the Labour Party from the first Conservative gain in 30 years at a by-election in Crewe and Nantwich.

Now it looks like he's going to have to backtrack on his proposed plans to increase duty on fuel and vehicle exercise duty - see the Daily Telegraph HERE as just one example of what the MSM are saying.

It also looks like the Northern Rock affair will be coming back to haunt Mr Darling rather sooner than he thought.

As reported in the Financial Times' Westminster blog the rate of repossessions of so-called sub-prime mortgage lenders is at an uncomfortably higher level than the prime lenders. Not good news when piled on top of all the other bad economic signals that seem to pile up day upon day.

Bet the Chancellor wishes he had never taken the poisoned chalice from Gordon Brown. Oh well, he'll be out of his misery soon when he loses his very marginal seat in Edinburgh!

Where Is The Way Out, Mr Brown?

How is it all going to end for Gordon Brown?

It's interesting to watch the decline in his power and influence in such a short space of time. Only a year ago he was being hailed as the new leader of the Labour Party who was going to shun all the worst aspects of Blair's hegemony that had kept the country in thrall to one of the best political spin machines (think Mandelson, Campbell) we have ever seen.

What has gone wrong? Basically, Brown was never the right man for the job in the first place. He made his (now heavily corroded) reputation as a financial mastermind. Largely, this was illusory as he stuck to the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years but, and here was the clever bit - the only clever bit as it turns out - he spent that time amassing vast amounts of our money through some very damaging stealth taxes - remember the pension funds raid that has left so many people without the safety net that they thought they were paying for? Remember too the way that other direct and indirect taxes were pushed up by fiscal drag so that the average family has ended up paying about £4,000 more a year.

Then he went on to create a disastrously complicated system of tax credits to begin to implement his socialist redistributive paradise that has resulted in the Labour client state and which, in reality, has done nothing but perpetuate and reinforce a variety of underclasses that are now so dependent on the State that they cannot afford to drag themselves up by their bootstraps.

I could go on .... and on .... but you get the point. Brown is not the answer, never was and never will be. More to the point, Labour is not the answer and they have no one of any stature to get them out of the hole they are in. This piece by the usually Brown arch-apologist David Aaronovitch in the Times shows why this is the case.

Unfortunately, the only way we are going to get them out is if Brown falls on his sword or he struggles on for another two years when we should do all we can to obliterate Labour for a generation.

What Are Your Policies, Mr Brown?

Back in August 2007 I wrote THIS about everyone carping on about the Conservatives having no policies. OK, probably not an original thought to be found in any of the piece EXCEPT the bit where I said the following:

"As far as I can see they (Labour) have done most of the things they set out to do in 1997 and most of it is all buggered up now and they have no new ideas. They're tired...."

None of that has changed since last August - in fact, it's far, far worse now for Brown's Labour Party - and there will be worse to come as the economy becomes much more difficult to revive, stagflation takes hold, unemployment starts to rise, house repossessions explode and the level of tax income starts to fall and Alistair Darling has to borrow even more. What happens to Brown's Golden Rule then? What happens to his reputation for financial prudence then? No more boom and bust, eh?

In the aftermath of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election disaster for Labour we are hearing their desperate ministers and MPs (those still loyal to Brown, at any rate) switching back to the only kind of spin they can now deploy which can simply be summarised as follows:

"The Tories have got no policies - but those they have got are uncosted and will result in draconian cuts of public services."

Apart from the simple fact that none of this true, it demonstrates how desperate that Labour has become. They must not be allowed to get away with this and be firmly and swiftly rebutted.

As Conservatives continue to roll-out their policy programme they must constantly remind voters that the Labour Party has no new or original ideas of their own and those they do have are just a continuation of the stale and outworn experiments that have failed and will fail again.

Most of all, they must remind people that Labour has lost all sense of principled government and are just desperate to hang on to power - even by the skin of Gordon Brown's finger tips - and there's not much of that left now! (And yes, this really is a photo of Gordon Brown's fingers!)

Is Labour Dead In The Water?*

Is Gordon Brown and his Labour Party really becalmed and drifting onto the rocks? (Some of his erstwhile cronies think so HERE.)

A lot of us would like to believe this is the case. After all, we have lived through the HEIST decade - High Expenditure and (real) Inflation and Stealth Taxes - under his stewardship and look where we are now.

Now he and his crew have no wind in their sails and no matter how many re-launches he attempts he just can't get back to a safe haven. As in the case of the Ancient Mariner he has an albatross around his the neck.

(*I claim the prize for the most maritime references to the current woes of the Labour Party!)

Is Number 10 Going To Be Repossessed?

"Labour chiefs have until the end of this month to plug a £4 million hole in the party’s finances and avert the possibility of a formal declaration of bankruptcy" according to Tribune.

Apparently, officers have identified a gap in the balance sheet of around £4 million which must be closed in order to satisfy the auditors, either by cash in the bank or certifiable promissory notes.

So Gordon Brown has led his Party to the verge of bankruptcy? A good job that he is not in charge of the country's finances then! (Of course, he was not aware of any of the dodgy loans that Lord Levy set up, was he?)

But, as well as the short-term difficulties, there are long-term worries about financing the party in the run-up to the next general election, "when it can expect big donations for the campaign".

One Labour head office worker who has seen the books said: “Whether we sort out the immediate problem or not, we are still going to have to rely on millions of donations. The money is just not coming in.”

Well, there we have it. Gordon Brown ("the greatest Chancellor of the Exchequer for 250 years") is facing repossession of his London home because he can't pay the mortgage. Brilliant!

Maybe he could ask his old mucker, Tony (Money Bags) Blair for a sub? But maybe Cherie will not agree........

Has Frank Field Been Duped By Brown And Darling?

Most people will agree that Frank Field is essentially a decent man who has, in the past, been able "to think the unthinkable" - for all the good that did him at the time.

In the last couple of weeks he has been brave enough to stand up to the Clunking Fist - that "most successful Chancellor for 250 years" (who is now our weasel-worded Prime Minister) - over his masterful ineptitude that has resulted in 5.3 million of the lowest paid people in the country having their incomes reduced even further due to the abolition of the 10p tax band.

As a result of this letter from Alistair Darling, the current forelorn Chancellor, to the chairman of the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons, Mr Field was persuaded to withdraw his amendment to the Finance Bill that would have been supported by sufficient Labour backbenchers to have defeated the clause that would have abolished the 10p tax band.

But today we have some cause to wonder if this is really the case? Look out for some usual devious spin from Labour just before tomorrow's PMQs and Brown's pathetic attempts to fire up his flagging support on the Labour backbenches.

Brown is really desperate now so David Cameron needs to be on top form.

Update: Cameron was on the top of his game against an abject Brown. And I think Frank Field knows the game is up too, judging from this article in The Spectator.

The End Of The Beginning Of Labour's March Into The Wilderness?

Is this where it begins?

In the latest Populus poll in The Times, 55% of Labour supporters think Gordon Brown should be replaced as the leader.

Brown is patently not up the task of being Prime Minister and, worse still, he "leads" a bunch of no-hopers with no one of any significant talent who can step into his place.

How long will it take before they are all driven from office and we can have our country back?