Chile's President tells Brown a few home truths

Possibly without realising the political impact on her guest's already shattered reputation for 'fiscal prudence', Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in a few words encapsulated and differentiated the frighteningly disastrous policies that Gordon Brown has followed for the last 12 years (as Chancellor and now as Prime Minister) from those followed in wiser countries such as Chile in recent years:

"I would say that because of our decision during the good times, we decided to save same of the money for the bad times," Ms Bachelet told the news conference in Santiago. "And I would say that policy today is producing results. So when we develop our fiscal stimulus plan, we could make one that is 2.8% of GDP."

- and what a lovely blue dress the good lady is wearing; one is reminded of another famous female politician and her in some ways 'homespun' views on economics and 'balancing the housekeeping' money.

It comes to something when a centre-left politician from what not so many years ago was an economic basket-case has to state by implication to our own 'pillar of fiscal rectitude' just where his policies have taken his country. The Chileans have, for the moment (good for them), learned a valuable lesson from their years of fiscal recklessness and have turned their country around economically. We British had to do the same after the disastrous result bequeathed by the last Labour government in 1979 and succeeded in turning around our own economy and prospects - only for it all to be squandered AGAIN by another Labour government. How many disastrous Labour governments will it take for the British people to learn the lesson permanently and consign Labour and its failed socialist ideas to the dustbin of history where they belong?

(PS/ My views on Labour's competence to govern have unfortunately been given no reason to change over the years - here's what I wrote over eight years ago [first two articles] and although I didn't have a website then, my views on the probable disastrous consequences of the change of tax treatment relating to pension contributions announced in Brown's first budget in 1997 have sadly beeen amply borne out by the results which flowed. Here's what I was writing [scroll down to third article] 6 years ago during the last [mini-]recession about Brown's economic stewardship.)