Barry
"We must draw a line between knowledge and speaking from an entrenched prejudice".
"We do all indeed have our prejudices Keith but we must discern that from the facts and proper debating/discussion points. Sweeping statements such as our friend makes regarding the markets/banks and the economy do not indicate any kind of knowledge, only prejudice and it is that on which I judge".
Egotism (in the true sense of the word i.e. being unable to see any view than one's own) is as dangerous as any prejudice.
Gordon Brown made mistakes but he did not cause Britain's current economic position which is part of the consequences of the GLOBAL economic downturn which started in 2007. What caused this? - US bankers lending silly money at silly rates to people who should not have been lent to. When news got out that banks were exposed the panic set in. Combined with rising oil prices, higher interest rates and falling tax revenue as workers were laid off ("a price worth paying") the catastrophic result was in fact well managed by Gordon Brown whose tactic of quantitative easing was copied around the world and is credited with stopping the downturn becoming a collapse.
So it would seem that Gordon Brown was more than the one trick pony that Osborne is who, despite warnings from the IMF (hardly a bastion of left wing sentiment) that he is cutting too fast and too deep is determined to prove his 'potency' and carry on regardless. Still, as it won't hurt him, his banker cronies nor his pals from the Bullingdon Club he may as well continue.
We may 'all be in this together' it's just that some will pay a higher price.