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  Reg, really you do have an amazing ability to ignore the facts that are not convenient.
  
  Brown was without a doubt the worse Chancellor (and PM) we have had since the war, maybe ever.
  
  The economy works in cycles and it does not take a genius to know that his conceited claim to have 'banned boom and bust' was absurd but he actually ran the economy as if he had and the 'good times'' could roll on forever.
  
  Let us list the very specific errors he made that placed the UK in an intolerable position at the start of the slowdown in 2007....
  ....When introduced the failed tri-partied regulatory system he removed prudential controls from the banks forgetting what Mrs T said, that they are not 'ordinary' businesses.
  ...in giving the BoE independence and removed their role in bank regulation he gave them an inflation brief that excluded levels of debt from consideration when setting interest rates. The result a massive debt and housing bubble because rates were too low too long.
  ...he went on a spending spree from 2000 building a record deficit resulting in a structural deficit in 2005 onwards placing the UK finances is an appalling position for when the slowdown started.
  
  Without the above the UK could have been well positioned to cope with the recession, more like Germany, Canada and New Zealand - instead he left us in the same kind of position as the weak southern European economies.
  
  One good thing he did - he kept us out of the Euro though, otherwise we would be hit as badly now as Greece and Spain.
  
  All of the above are without his other foul-ups.... sale of gold, pension reform (two goes at that...), cutting tax benefits for savings and how much people can save, taxing pension schemes etc etc etc....
  
  Only one thing right in 13 years - a record that we must hope is never repeated

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