It is the world’s largest political party and has held absolute power for 60 years through state control and media censorship. So when the Chinese Communist party decided to overhaul its propaganda machine, there was only one place to look: the spin tactics of New Labour.
Sir John also warned of bleak economic times ahead, adding: “It’s beginning to unravel in quite a serious way. The economy is running into serious difficulty.”
Pointing out that Mr Brown as Chancellor introduced the financial regulatory regime that allowed the near-collapse of Northern Rock, Sir John predicted that the bank’s failure would cost taxpayers more than the £3.4 billion his Government spent trying to keep the pound in the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
“We don’t yet know what the cost of Northern Rock to the economy will be, but it is quite likely that it will exceed the cost to the taxpayer of Black Wednesday,” he said.
The best way, I think, of understanding how the special relationship works is to answer this question. When a visiting American actor comes here and makes nice noises about Britain, do you feel all warm, gooey and proud? I bet you do. Now think how it works the other way round. When a British actor goes over there and makes nice noises about America, do you think they even notice?
Honestly? I believe it’s time we stopped deluding ourselves about our relationship with America, which since the late 1940s has produced virtually nothing. And tried to make friends with the French. Because the last time we did that, the world got Concorde.
