In the good old days, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were watching a John Wayne western together when Blair said:
“Look. I bet you £10 (Ed: or in today’s money, £10 billion) that John Wayne is going to ride his horse over that cliff!”
Brown said: “You’re on. I bet he isn’t …”
Then Big John did ride his horse over the cliff ……
Brown held out a wad of notes to Blair … “Fair enough, ” he said. “You were right again.”
Blair replied: “Well, you’d better keep the money; I was playing a trick on you; I’ve seen the film before.”
Brown replied: “So have I. I just didn’t think he’d make the same mistake twice ……”
PS Yes, why kick a man who is down (and out), but the supposedly-clever former British Chancellor and then hapless Prime Minister Gordon Brown has left Britain with a £170 billion debt burden that will – according to the new government coalition – take a decade of pain to put right.
And his party STILL has the gall to complain about the danger of “cuts”. You couldn’t make it up. They just don’t get it. There is NO WAY to avoid a GREAT DEAL of SELF-INFLICTED pain.
By Chris Snuugs
Learning from Dogs 
Does everyone know the one about Blair leaving Brown two letters, sealed in envelopes, the first only to be opened when thing got bad, and the second when things got really bad. Eventually Brown’s fortunes sank so low he opened the first one. It read: “Blame your predecessor”.
However things got worse still, so he opened the second letter. It said simply: “Write two letters…”.
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Fun John Wayne joke. Shame about the political PS BS. I’m fed up with folk blaming the last labour UK government for the debt when the fault was the greedy bwankers. Interesting that you should bring up the ‘two envelopes’, because that’s exactly what all too many people have been doing since 2008: ‘blaming the predecessor’.
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I’ve been too long out of the U.K. to have a clear view of local politics. Listening to Radio 4 on the BBC isn’t really the answer. But my predisposition is to support Democratic/Labour policies, or more likely Liberal policies.
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A perfect answer to John Lavin’s: “How to deal with the known”… humour is the most valuable and often the only tool available.
Now let me tell you another humorous though sadly true story about the how come those public debts.
The banks, courtesy of the Basel Committee do not need to post any capital at all when lending to sovereigns rated AAA. And if this could lead the banks to have problems with their own credit ratings, they need not to worry as the credit rating agencies will consider favorably the willingness of the grateful sovereign to stand behind their generous financiers.
The above is as you can understand the mother of all “I’ll scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine” schemes ever concocted.
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Per:
I much prefer when knowledgeable commentators speak of the “Basil Committee”, as I have read it even in the “Baseline Scenario”. This adds the necessary condiment to the abyss of ignorance we threatens to sink at the bottom of, and it may be a better depiction of this venerable institution.
PA
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Yes I saw that too… and I just could not take it so I looked the other way.
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