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Gordon Brown and Economic reality

May 15th, 2008 by

The new challenge is something that I think was completely unexpected a few years ago and that is that at one time when I was chancellor the oil price per barrel was $11. It’s now $125

Gordon Brown, interviewed on the Today Programme, 15/5/08.

Let’s focus on this word “completely unexpected”, Gordon. Because that tells us a lot about your lack of foresight, and the limited reading you are doing.

Anyone who did *not* expect sharp rises in the price of oil, 10 years or more ago, really was not paying attention. North sea oil production is past its peak, and global supply of oil has clearly been outstripped by demand. The result was predictable – relentlessly rising oil prices which will show frequent spikes at periods of highest demand.

I was writing about this in the 1990s, as were many others. The figures were all available, the trends quite clear.

With this low level of foresight, what hope do we have? Just once I would like to see a politician with a real grasp on the reality beyond what he is being fed by his short sighted peers.

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    8 Comments »

    8 Responses to “Gordon Brown and Economic reality”

    1. on 16 May 2008 at 3:04 pm1 MInTheGap

      Well, there’s another possibility here. Perhaps Mr. Brown isn’t being forthright. Perhaps it was expected, but the government just decided to do nothing, or felt it could do nothing.

      When my country can create a position to control the perception of itself in other countries, I have no doubt that most governments are putting some degree of spin on their announcements as well.

      I’m sure “Hey, we didn’t know that it was coming” sounds a whole lot better to the general populace then “Yeah, we knew it was coming, but we just ignored it.” The first sounds inept while the second sounds malicious.

      I fear the same type of thing in the states where we have a social security nightmare scenario coming on our hands, and when it happens and we’ve done nothing, they’ll raise taxes and claim “Hey, we didn’t know it was going to be this bad!”

    2. on 20 May 2008 at 11:43 am2 Stephen

      Hi Min,

      Yes there is that possibility. But surely politicians are always being completely forthright ;)

      Good to hear from you.

      Stephen

    3. on 27 May 2008 at 5:14 pm3 Komodo Dragon

      Min, I guess thats how politics is. Alot of them tip-toe around the scary truth.

    4. on 16 Jun 2008 at 10:51 pm4 Genesis Bible

      man… politics … just don’t know what to say anymore …

    5. on 26 Aug 2008 at 9:48 am5 Obnoxio The Clown

      Let’s focus on this word “completely unexpected”, Gordon.

      That’s two words, actually. I can’t believe you didn’t expect that!

    6. on 03 Sep 2008 at 9:43 am6 Stephen

      Well spotted! :)

    7. on 07 Mar 2009 at 10:04 pm7 Joey Logano

      Its interesting, this post was written last year in May, and here we are now about 10 months later, and the price of oil is almost completely reversed, but then again… so is the economic situation, *sigh*

    8. on 07 Mar 2009 at 11:15 pm8 Stephen

      The clue is in the article:

      “oil prices which will show frequent spikes at periods of highest demand.”

      Thanks for the comment.

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