Do you agree

[PATHIEF]

Gordon brown will go down as the greatest chancellor in history "well done Gordon"

[Loosehead]

He inherited a very strong economy which was the result of 18 years of economic reconstruction after the last time Labour thought socialism could work. He's certainly the best Labour chancellor, he as after all managed to keep the fiscal ship on an even keel. But as chancellors go is a bit like "Eric the eel", just about managed the 2 lengths without sinking!

[QmunkE]

There was, of course, the matter of the disastrous introduction of the poll tax and the privatisation of numerous organisations - has rail travel improved? I think not.

Greatest chancellor in history? I'm not sure about that, but it's prime ministers that go down in history. Will Gordon get the chance? I hope so. Will Michael Howard? Don't make me laugh.

[QmunkE]

Sorry, there's a missing sentence somewhere in there explaining that the economy was not flourishing for the majority of the 18 years of Conservative government.

[dafyd]

Vote Bismarck!

No, but seriously - I think in the long run, he's not actually done a huge amount. When you look at the achievements of chancellors in the past - introducing national insurance, creating and abolishing the poll tax, etc - I think it's fair to say that he has just kept the economy plodding along (ish - no talk of the major job losses - after all, it is only under Brown that call centres have been outsourced to India and so on)

[Loosehead]

The train system was destroyed in the 50's by Beeching

The Community charge was fairer than either the rates or the council tax, it was hated because it meant that just because you didn't own a property didn't mean you didn't have to pay for local services.

Did you actually read my post QmunkE? I never said it was 18 years of prosperity I said it took 18 years to clean up the mess, painful measures where needed, yes, but it was necessary to mop up the last attempt at socialism.

[jno]

"just about managed 2 lengths?" That's more than anyone else has done; he's been the longest serving chancellor for 200 years or so and the economy's still bubbling away. Other men have inherited strong economies too, and made a mess of them. Don't know about the greatest ever, but I think he's done a remarkable job by most standards. And it's not even the job he wanted...

[kempie]

Yes a remarkable job pillaging the pension pot and utilising the �22.47bn windfall from the auction of mobile phone licences. I presume if he returns to his position he will also hope for a good return from the sale of broadcast frequencies when analogue TV is switched off in the next few years.

[kempie]

Not to mention the trillion pound personal debt and  house prices rising by a factor of 2�.

Well done Gordon.

[QmunkE]

Loosehead: My point is that I don't believe that the 18 years of "cleaning up the mess" was due to the work of Conservative chancellors - the economic stabilisation was in part thanks to the improvements in the overall global economy (of which I realise we are an important part) but to say that Brown inherited a strong economy thanks to conservative reconstruction (yes, I know you don't explicitly say that, but it is what you mean) is somewhat misleading.

PS the handover of interest rate control to the Bank of England was a good move.

[Loosehead]

Just because the neighbours are doing well it doesn't mean that your household will propsper without effective financial management. You lefty's crack me up, when Labour get it right its Economic prudence when the Tories mop up your fiscal imcompetance it's "overall improvements to the Global economy". Get real If your household can't run a ****** in  brewery then how the rest of the street does is irrelevant.

[luckyboy]

Remember loosehead that the the economic crisis that occured in the 1970s was a worldwide recession that had similar effects in many governments that actually had conservative governments as well, one of the main reasons was the arab inflated rise in oil prices due to the arab/israili conflict... let me rimind you that in 18 years of conservative rule we actually had 3 recessions,

 no ones denying that a lot of the country enjoyed prosperity, but equally half of the country suffered from high unemployment and a collapse in manufacturing industry... and i can still remember vividly in 1989-1990, when interest rates actually hit 15%, and the lest is said about the fiasco that was the exit from the erm the better..i know you ''righties'' don't like it one bit but the truth is that gordon brown has been a excellent chanceller up there with roy jenkins and lloyd george as the most impressive of the last 100 years.. or are you seriously advocating nigel boom bust lawson or even norman lamont [lol] in fairness to show i'm not totally biased and partisan like your posts, ken clarke was a very competant chancellor, as was harold macmillan..    

[Loosehead]

Doesn't matter what I say, you guys always mis understand the causes of the things you highlight.