Mr Stupid

John Eatwell and Avinash Persaud, writing in the Financial Times, (Fannie and Freddie, damned by a Faustian bargain) underscore the sheer incompetence of financial, economic and regulatory policies pursued by New Labour. There are few things to regret about Kinnock losing the 'put out the lights' election but one of them was that John Eatwell did not become the economic guru for Labour.

Never and then never would the ignorance uniquely combined with arrogance of Balls and Brown have wreked such damage on the livelihoods of people in the UK had sensible advisors been at the Treasury. Not Maynard Keynes, or Nicki Kaldor (considering the tax mess Brown created) but intellectually and technically competent and trained professionals would have prevented our current nightmare.

Half-baked personnel lead to half-baked policies. Everyone knew Brown was trouble, everyone didn't want trouble while they took power, so they gave him a sop thinking to lose him later. What they left out of their power-seeking equation was what Brown was dragging along with him, fawning idiots instantly recognized by Heseltine in his classic put down, but grotesquely determined in their ambition.

When the minister is Mr Stupid and his political coterie a rabble of power-seeking inadequates, much can rest on the quality and steadiness of technical appointments and civil service senior staff. It can be of greater importance than which Party is in power, or which Party Leader becomes prime minister. So it is now; we have had Mr Stupid for 11 years.

We would have been infinitely safer under Kinnock.