Gordon Brown is having a jumble sale to raise some quick cash and pay off his debt. Unfortunately the jumble sale is made from taxpayer’s assets, and the national debt he’s trying to pay dwarfs any possible returns from the sale.
Gordon Brown believes this sale will provide a short-term fix to the budget deficit. I disagree; what the country actually needs is a long-term strategy of debt reduction to see it through the financial crisis.
The sale by Gordon Brown is in reality the most recent in a long line of sales dating back to the privatisation of the Thatcher government in the 1980s, where she undertook the so-called process of ‘selling the family silver’.
The most valuable assets went first, starting with the utilities of water, gas and electric during the 1980s and continuing into the ‘90s with sales of all the major government-owned businesses and assets.
When Gordon Brown arrived on the scene in 1997 he found little had been left from the Conservative’s bouts of privatisation, indeed he was stuck with the assets which some have coined the ‘family copper’.
The Channel Tunnel Link, Tote Betting shops and the Student Loan Book to name a few. A group of assets that hold little value left in them, but might keep Gordon Brown’s election prospects alive, if he can manage to turn them into something of value.
While he may be positioning himself as the UK’s dependable salesperson, determined to get us a good price on the market for these assets, I think history has shown Mr. Brown is more akin to the ‘Del Boy’ dealer of Britain.
Brown’s dodgy deals began in 2001, when he decided to auction off more than half the country’s gold reserves one at a time when gold was valued at a twenty-year low.
Eight years later, the value of gold had trebled – he has lost the taxpayer an estimated £2bn. In 2003 the government sold its stake in defence firm QinetiQ. Gordon Brown along with the treasury pushed the deal ahead selling its stake in the firm at a weak point in the market.
Four years later, and the value of the government’s stake has increased nine-fold, once again at the taxpayers’ expense. And now, Brown is poised to unleash another wave of his dodgy deals.
In an economic climate so unstable that most people wouldn’t consider selling a house or a car, the UK is going to sell some £16bn worth of government assets. His critics have labelled this move a ‘fire sale’, akin to a desperate last play to keep the bailiffs away for just a bit longer.
Here’s the real question: can we trust Mr. Brown to be the shrewd businessman we need right now? Or will we in fact see ‘Del Boy’ Brown push through a series of dodgy sales, sacrificing high prices for quick money?
As the budget deficit of £175bn over the next two years has been clearly earmarked as a key election battleground, the announcement of these sales can only be seen as a political move from Brown.
A reactive move to an issue in which the Tories currently hold ownership, with their plans for spending cuts and public sector pay freezes.
The Conservatives, while not opposing the sale itself, have criticised its timing and called for long-term policy aimed at reducing the deficit, highlighting their own policy as the preferred alternative. David Cameron offered his words of wisdom to the PM: “If you sell something it can help you in the short term, but it doesn’t actually help you live within your means in the long term.” A message that I think Gordon Brown would do very well to listen to.
Agreeing with the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats saw no issue with the sale itself, but again called plans to sell into the current market “barmy”. Instead, they suggest looking at far better ways of cutting the budget deficit such as cancelling the proposed renewal of Trident, which Greenpeace estimates will cost the country £34bn. Surely this will make a much larger dent in the deficit than a few bridges and tunnels?
And therein lies the real issue for Gordon Brown: a bulging welfare state, the cost of two wars and an occupation in Iraq have left the country with a bill that it cannot foot.
We are not living within our means, as David Cameron puts it. But if we want to alleviate the UK from debt and bring the country under budget, cutbacks are required, drastic steps that Brown is unwilling to make. Instead, he will attempt to deceive the country by using dodgy deals to cover up the problem.
Gordon Brown is foolish to believe in alchemy, and this stunt of turning worthless assets into those with value will most certainly fall flat. Previous governments have been able to pick at the government’s assets for short-term benefits, but the bone has been picked bare.
I don’t think Brown can substitute this meaningless sale in place of what the people want – long-term policy that gives the UK a plan to repay its debts and clear its budget deficit.
