Tonight there are new claims that Gordon Brown is starting to show signs of panic after the announcement that the UK is officially in recession. The opposition parties appear to have sensed a draining of confidence from the UK Treasury and the Prime Minister after literally billions and billions of pounds appear to have been wasted on a number of rescue packages. The situation with the UK economy has taken a serious downward lurch over the last few days amid signs that the government is running out of ideas.
When I first came across this (via a link on a Belmont Club post) I thought it was overstating its case. I have long thought that the U.K was in big trouble. But I had not seen signs that Gordon Brown was panicking. But then I saw this from the Telegraph….
If you hadn’t seen, Mr Rogers has been urging investors to join in the pound’s slide and “sell any sterling you might have.”
“The City of London is finished,” according to the American now living in Singapore. He believes Britain’s former glories – its North Sea oil supply and the major financial centre in the City of London – have gone to pot and are no longer able to support sterling.
The comments have ruffled a few feathers, including it would seem, the Prime Minister’s. “If you think we are going to build our policy around the comments of a few speculators who want to make money out of Britain then you are very, very wrong indeed,” he told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning.
Mr. Rogers is only a millionaire. For Gordan Brown to treat his comments seriously is a sign that he is indeed worried. In normal times Rogers would have been laughed off.