It looks like Gordon Brown is out for the title of Saviour of the World. We’re pretty sure the name’s already taken, but as Mr Brown’s ‘world’ is the UK economy we’ll let it slide. Like any good marketplace, there’s plenty of room for competition. And most likely the deity in question doesn’t mind.
Slip of the tongue or no, it’s not even so sure that the banks he rescued in the taxpayer’s name have been saved yet, so we can all agree Brown was setting himself up for a bit of a fall when he let out an indignant: “We not only saved the world …” in PM questions yesterday.
Wouldn’t it be nice if he had, in all earnest, finished off that sentence with “we’ve saved small UK business too”, though?
Alistair Darling’s proposed extension of taxpayer guarantees to cover business lending might just do it.
And maybe these plans to print more money could help some – as long as some of those notes get to stay in our pockets.
With the National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimating that the UK economy contracted 1% between September and November, things as they stand aren’t looking good. There’s no harm in praying to someone.
We’ve heard about the god of small things – what about the Gordon of small businesses?