Gone to the dogs

What in the name of buggery hell has happened to the Telegraph? It has fired half its writers, the good half naturally, and appears to have surrendered its opinion pages to Brownite true believers and Simon Heffer (who’s fictional anyway). Just look at the ridiculous Mary Riddell today, even the headline is absurd.

Gordon Brown should try harder to inspire us in these hopeless times.

Inspire us? Seriously, what is she smoking? And the next line made me snort coffee through my nose.

He needn't dazzle us with words, he can actually do something to improve our lot, says Mary Riddell.

Dazzle us with words? Brown? It is to laugh.

No politician has produced a better idea of how to save the economy, least of all David Cameron, whose attempts to talk down confidence are shabbily reckless.

In the same edition of the Telegraph is a piece by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who at least has some economic credibility. In it he says the following:

Britain has foreign reserves of under $61bn dollars (£43.7bn), less than Malaysia or Thailand. The foreign liabilities of the UK banks are $4.4 trillion – or twice annual GDP – according to the Bank of England. The mismatch is perilous.

It is why sterling has crashed 10 cents from $1.49 to $1.39 against the dollar in two days. The markets have given their verdict on Gordon Brown's latest effort to "save the world".

He goes on to say:

The core of countries deemed safe is shrinking by the day to a half dozen. Sadly, Britain is no longer one of them.

David Cameron isn’t talking down confidence, he just isn’t being blindly Pollyanna-ish. We’re completely Mottramed, and its largely Brown’s fault. And no amount of garbled soundbites and unconvincing smirks can disguise that.