VOICE OF THE NORTH - No need to listen to Gordon's speech.
Byline: ALAN BIRKMYRE, GosforthGORDON Brown will be giving his closing speech to the Labour Party Conference.
To save you the trouble of listening to his speech, I can predict some of what he will say.
He will admit to getting some minor things wrong here and there.
What he will not admit to, is that as Chancellor he set the example which has led to the huge increase in debt now burdening the nation, banks and individuals.
Mr Brown will blame our ills on global markets and the off-balance sheet, financial instruments and derivatives of highly-leveraged banks.
He will not say that it was he who as Chancellor masterminded the daddy of all derivatives and highly-leveraged expenditure by keeping an estimated trillion pounds of Private Finance Initiative debt off the nation's books.
These badly-negotiated contracts for capital expenditure on schools and hospitals have saddled the country with a mountain of debt.
This can be cleared only by a sharp rise in inflation or by higher taxes for generations to come.
As I write this in advance of Mr Brown's speech, I can predict with certainty that he will not have given the Labour Conference this version of events.
ALAN BIRKMYRE, Gosforth
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| Title Annotation: | Letters |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Journal (Newcastle, England) |
| Date: | Sep 23, 2008 |
| Words: | 305 |
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