Tweet
............VERY Right!
'I'll put troops on the streets': Gordon Brown's spin doctor reveals just how close to anarchy Britain came when the banks crashed
By Damian Mcbride
PUBLISHED: 23:30, 20 September 2013 | UPDATED: 23:30, 20 September 2013
169 shares
143
View
comments
The real story: Damian McBride reveals the secrets of Gordon Brown's government
He was Gordon Brown’s very own Alastair Campbell — a spin doctor as ruthless as he was amoral.
Yesterday, in our first extract from his shamelessly candid memoirs, Damian McBride confessed how he ran smear campaigns from Downing Street and destroyed the careers of ministers.
Today, he exposes further toxic secrets at the heart of New Labour and the shocking inside story of the banking crisis . . .
At the start of the financial crisis, before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Gordon told me to close the door to his office at No 10 and sit down. ‘Do you realise how bad this is going to get?’ he said.
‘We’re going to be in recession by the New Year. And there’s nothing we can do. And people will make that the big issue, but that’s not the worst of it.
‘The whole bloody thing could collapse. I’m serious! The whole bloody thing.’
I genuinely didn’t know at that stage what ‘the whole bloody thing’ meant. I was just reeling from the idea that we were going to be in recession and how that was going to play in the press.
People say it was foolish hubris of the Brown team to have implied we had abolished ‘boom and bust’. It’s also been argued — including by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls — that we were ‘over-reliant’ on the fortunes of the financial sector.
But if even the highest-paid accountants in the country — working for the most profitable banks — had no idea that those banks’ balance sheets were reliant on worthless assets and debt that would be impossible to recover, how on earth was the Treasury, let alone No 10, meant to guess that at a dozen steps removed?
More...
Subsequent to the financial crisis, we were told privately, although it’s never been confirmed publicly, that John Gieve — the old Treasury head of spending who became Deputy Governor of the Bank of England — had written an internal paper before the collapse of Northern Rock raising concerns about the balance sheets of a number of major banks.
What now? Gordon Brown considered bringing in the army during the banking troubles
If that’s true, the Bank never shared the paper with Treasury ministers or, as far as I know, the Financial Services Authority.
As soon as information started to emerge about the state of the banks, Gordon devoured it and then ordered vast amounts more. Rapidly, he became the country’s leading authority on the nation’s banking assets.
When the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin rang him to discuss the crisis, Gordon couldn’t contain his scorn. Indeed, he ended up telling bankers things they didn’t know themselves about the value of their assets.
‘How is this possible?’ he’d shout incredulously afterwards. ‘How do these guys not know this stuff?’
On Monday October 6, 2008, the London stock market suffered its biggest one-day fall since 1987 as shares crashed around the world. It seemed simply a question of which major multi-national bank would collapse next.
Over a 48-hour period on that Monday and Tuesday, Gordon and his minister Shriti Vadera worked relentlessly on the final details of a plan to underwrite the finances of every major British bank, and to drive through an internationally co-ordinated intervention by central banks.
All over: Gordon Brown sank into despair when he realised how bad things with the economy were
I’d hear Gordon calling up senior world leaders who were in a state of denial and panic. He’d have to explain the situation and tell them what they had to do.
On the evening before he was due to announce the part-nationalisation of UK banks, he looked ravaged. He closed his office door, sat on the couch and said in almost a whisper: ‘We’ve just got to get ourselves ready in case it goes wrong tomorrow. And I mean really wrong.
‘Even if there’s a panic in another country, people will see it on the TVs, and they’ll start panicking here. It’s got to be given a chance to work.’
I said: ‘But people will give it a chance . . .’
‘You don’t understand,’ he said sternly. ‘If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cashpoints aren’t working, and people go to Tesco and their cards aren’t being accepted, the whole thing will just explode.
‘If you can’t buy food or petrol or medicine for your kids, people will just start breaking the windows and helping themselves. And as soon as people see that on TV, that’s the end, because everyone will think that’s OK now, that’s just what we all have to do. It’ll be anarchy. That’s what could happen tomorrow. I’m serious, I’m serious . . . We’d have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back?
I looked at Cameron and Osborne collapsing in mocking laughter. And I just thought: ‘You pygmies. You have no idea'
‘I’d have to resign — but I couldn’t go if there was just carnage out there: someone would have to be in charge.’
It was extraordinary to see Gordon so totally gripped by the danger of what he was about to do, but equally convinced that decisive action had to be taken immediately.
This was the only chance to avert his worst fears of a total meltdown in the financial system of the Western world, and the resulting collapse of social order.
Today, I wouldn’t hesitate in putting his actions that week up with those of President Kennedy and his advisers during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When Gordon was ridiculed a couple of months later in the Commons for inadvertently saying: ‘We not only saved the world . . .’ I looked at Cameron and Osborne collapsing in mocking laughter. And I just thought: ‘You pygmies. You have no idea.’
Still, at least Gordon has had some recognition for what he achieved — occasionally from surprising quarters.
He was very excited one day to receive a letter from the Welsh singer Duffy, to whom he’d sent his congratulations for winning a 2009 Grammy award.
With a faltering voice, he read out the last section of her letter: ‘As for the difficult times we face at present as a country, my grandmother used to say that “Rough Seas Make Good Sailors”, so as we pull together and raise our masts, the storm will pass.’
Gordon looked up at me with a tear in his eye. ‘Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that lovely?’ he said.
Then with a great guffaw, he read her PS — ‘Pushing my luck, but since you are the Prime Minister, Ranelagh Gardens in Fulham could really do with some recycling bins.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2fXEGUZc5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
'I'll put troops on the streets': Gordon Brown's spin doctor reveals just how close to anarchy Britain came when the banks crashed
- Brown's former spin doctor Damian McBride reveals what happened behind closed doors
- Speaks of Brown's despair at being unable to solve banking crisis
- Tells of daily sniping between camps of Blair v Brown
PUBLISHED: 23:30, 20 September 2013 | UPDATED: 23:30, 20 September 2013
169 shares
143
View
comments
The real story: Damian McBride reveals the secrets of Gordon Brown's governmentHe was Gordon Brown’s very own Alastair Campbell — a spin doctor as ruthless as he was amoral.
Yesterday, in our first extract from his shamelessly candid memoirs, Damian McBride confessed how he ran smear campaigns from Downing Street and destroyed the careers of ministers.
Today, he exposes further toxic secrets at the heart of New Labour and the shocking inside story of the banking crisis . . .
At the start of the financial crisis, before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Gordon told me to close the door to his office at No 10 and sit down. ‘Do you realise how bad this is going to get?’ he said.
‘We’re going to be in recession by the New Year. And there’s nothing we can do. And people will make that the big issue, but that’s not the worst of it.
‘The whole bloody thing could collapse. I’m serious! The whole bloody thing.’
I genuinely didn’t know at that stage what ‘the whole bloody thing’ meant. I was just reeling from the idea that we were going to be in recession and how that was going to play in the press.
People say it was foolish hubris of the Brown team to have implied we had abolished ‘boom and bust’. It’s also been argued — including by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls — that we were ‘over-reliant’ on the fortunes of the financial sector.
But if even the highest-paid accountants in the country — working for the most profitable banks — had no idea that those banks’ balance sheets were reliant on worthless assets and debt that would be impossible to recover, how on earth was the Treasury, let alone No 10, meant to guess that at a dozen steps removed?
More...
Subsequent to the financial crisis, we were told privately, although it’s never been confirmed publicly, that John Gieve — the old Treasury head of spending who became Deputy Governor of the Bank of England — had written an internal paper before the collapse of Northern Rock raising concerns about the balance sheets of a number of major banks.
What now? Gordon Brown considered bringing in the army during the banking troublesIf that’s true, the Bank never shared the paper with Treasury ministers or, as far as I know, the Financial Services Authority.
As soon as information started to emerge about the state of the banks, Gordon devoured it and then ordered vast amounts more. Rapidly, he became the country’s leading authority on the nation’s banking assets.
When the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin rang him to discuss the crisis, Gordon couldn’t contain his scorn. Indeed, he ended up telling bankers things they didn’t know themselves about the value of their assets.
‘How is this possible?’ he’d shout incredulously afterwards. ‘How do these guys not know this stuff?’
On Monday October 6, 2008, the London stock market suffered its biggest one-day fall since 1987 as shares crashed around the world. It seemed simply a question of which major multi-national bank would collapse next.
Over a 48-hour period on that Monday and Tuesday, Gordon and his minister Shriti Vadera worked relentlessly on the final details of a plan to underwrite the finances of every major British bank, and to drive through an internationally co-ordinated intervention by central banks.
All over: Gordon Brown sank into despair when he realised how bad things with the economy wereI’d hear Gordon calling up senior world leaders who were in a state of denial and panic. He’d have to explain the situation and tell them what they had to do.
On the evening before he was due to announce the part-nationalisation of UK banks, he looked ravaged. He closed his office door, sat on the couch and said in almost a whisper: ‘We’ve just got to get ourselves ready in case it goes wrong tomorrow. And I mean really wrong.
‘Even if there’s a panic in another country, people will see it on the TVs, and they’ll start panicking here. It’s got to be given a chance to work.’
I said: ‘But people will give it a chance . . .’
‘You don’t understand,’ he said sternly. ‘If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cashpoints aren’t working, and people go to Tesco and their cards aren’t being accepted, the whole thing will just explode.
‘If you can’t buy food or petrol or medicine for your kids, people will just start breaking the windows and helping themselves. And as soon as people see that on TV, that’s the end, because everyone will think that’s OK now, that’s just what we all have to do. It’ll be anarchy. That’s what could happen tomorrow. I’m serious, I’m serious . . . We’d have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back?
I looked at Cameron and Osborne collapsing in mocking laughter. And I just thought: ‘You pygmies. You have no idea'
‘I’d have to resign — but I couldn’t go if there was just carnage out there: someone would have to be in charge.’
It was extraordinary to see Gordon so totally gripped by the danger of what he was about to do, but equally convinced that decisive action had to be taken immediately.
This was the only chance to avert his worst fears of a total meltdown in the financial system of the Western world, and the resulting collapse of social order.
Today, I wouldn’t hesitate in putting his actions that week up with those of President Kennedy and his advisers during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When Gordon was ridiculed a couple of months later in the Commons for inadvertently saying: ‘We not only saved the world . . .’ I looked at Cameron and Osborne collapsing in mocking laughter. And I just thought: ‘You pygmies. You have no idea.’
Still, at least Gordon has had some recognition for what he achieved — occasionally from surprising quarters.
He was very excited one day to receive a letter from the Welsh singer Duffy, to whom he’d sent his congratulations for winning a 2009 Grammy award.
With a faltering voice, he read out the last section of her letter: ‘As for the difficult times we face at present as a country, my grandmother used to say that “Rough Seas Make Good Sailors”, so as we pull together and raise our masts, the storm will pass.’
Gordon looked up at me with a tear in his eye. ‘Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that lovely?’ he said.
Then with a great guffaw, he read her PS — ‘Pushing my luck, but since you are the Prime Minister, Ranelagh Gardens in Fulham could really do with some recycling bins.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2fXEGUZc5
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook