John Redwood

|

The three crises under Brown’s watch

When I tell people in the media Gordon Brown is an unlucky Prime Minister, with terrorism, animal disease, floods and a bank run in the first three months, they defensively tell me that is unfair as none of the crises were anything to do with the PM and he handled them well. There are no limits to the gullibility of some people.

Let’s look at the record.

FOOT AND MOUTH 

This occurred thanks to the release of dangerous pathogens from a government/government contractor laboratory. The government was responsible for the work and the health and safety regulation of the facility. A broken drain appears to be the source. The person most directly to blame is Mr Miliband, the Secretary of State responsible before the outbreak occurred, but the government as a whole has to take collective responsibility.

The PM took personal control of the outbreak when first notified, and was involved in the decision to declare the outbreak finished and to restore normal life shortly before further cases emerged. He has been less prominent in handling the second wave of the outbreak. Those of us who queried whether the first decision on a control zone took in enough of Surrey were said to be wrong by the PM and his team at the time.

In this case the government has to accept all of the blame for the disaster, and the PM has to accept that his crisis handling was bungled, as the disease broke out again days after he declared victory.

THE RUN ON THE BANK

Gordon Brown’s botched reforms of the Bank of England and the money markets in 1997-8 lie behind for the run on the bank. Some of us warned at the time - and subsequently - that taking responsibility for banking supervision and government debt management away from the Bank of England made it more likely they would mishandle money markets when conditions globally got more difficult. The PM and the Chancellor were deaf to the clear warnings from many in the city - and this blogsite - that money market conditions were far too tight this summer. They ignored the actions of the Fed and the ECB in making money available to their markets to prevent a similar bank run there.

The Chancellor spent one of the crisis Fridays on TV condemning me for wishing to see this government’s latest round of mortgage regulation removed, instead of grasping the fact that we had no run on a mortgage bank before we had the regulation, but have had one now we have it! Effective management of the money market allied to effective regulation of banks requires the tasks of debt management, banking supervision and interest rate setting to be concentrated in Bank of England hands so they understand the markets fully and can make sensible judgements about how much cash to supply. It also requires the government to renegotiate the Brussels directives which they say prevented the Bank from organising a private sector solution to the problems of Northern Rock, once these had been created by undue monetary tightness.

In this case the PM himself has to accept that his reforms of the money markets have not worked and need changing.

THE FLOODS

Of course I do not blame the government for the heavy rains, but I do blame them for the failure to keep many of the ditches, drains and culverts clear of debris and vegetation which added to the floods in some places. I blame them for many decisions of government Inspectors to build on flood plain against local advice and wishes: in my area it was often new homes built in such circumstances that suffered. I do blame them for not taking more action over the last ten years to improve the flood defences of the country, both against river flood and sea flood. I have gone hoarse in the Commons saying we need to tackle the flood threats urgently.

Whilst the Environment Agency has been charming to me ever since I criticised them, they still have not come up with a responsibility list for the flood defences in my area, nor with an action programme to improve flood defences for the future. Whilst the PM asked for my list of things to do, the letter that carried it to Downing Street remains unanswered. That is the reality of this government - all spin and no substance.

IN THESE CASES THE GOVERNMENT IS EITHER TO BLAME OR PARTLY TO BLAME FOR THE CRISIS. IN EACH CASE THE HANDLING HAS BEEN INEFFECTIVE, WITH NO DECISIVE ACTION TO RESTORE PROPER MONETARY CONTROL OR PREVENT FLOODS IN THE FUTURE.

Come to think of it, I have been far too generous saying he is an unlucky Prime Minister. He looks as if he is unable to run government effectively, and thinks that the main task is to woo the media.