He can't see it, can he?

Last week G. Brown gave an interview to the Guardian, the blind talking to the blind.

In it he said that the economic crisis had taken place on his watch (wow, almost a "sorry", but not quite), but it demonstrates the failure of laissez faire capitalism.

Where do you start?

If we ever had laissez faire, we have not had it for at least 60 years. Our society and economy have been regulated and controlled by all sorts of bodies, and suffered constant nudges and forces by no less than G. Brown himself. There are commissions for this and that, there are anti-democratic quangos, a large part of the economy is in direct control of the government.

Above all, G. Brown had taken more and more control of private industry, and draped it with red tape, regulation and scrutiny. The failure we are suffering from is the result of interference by governments and a failure by regulators. "Capitalists" do what they always do, respond to their gain to the signals and opportunities thrown up.

He was famously quiet in the period of uninterrupted economic growth which began with the Tories, and strutted about as if he performed the miracle. Either it was capitalism, or it was him.

We can only assume that to ingratiate himself with another leftie at the Guardian, he did not mean what he said. His problem is that he is running out of scape goats. He has blamed the Americans, the banks and the world for his failures. Who else is there?

Later in the interview he claimed that "progressive forces alone have the answers to the challenges we face", so capitalism somehow overcame the supposed effective controls of socialism in a matter of months, presumably having been dormant for the previous 15 years, and that it "is essential we win the next election for the sake of the country." The hubris, the blindness and arrogance are staggering.

It's similar to Nazi Germany's arguments for invading several of its soon to be conquered countries. Cause trouble, and then you use that as a pretext for greater control than before, until your control is absolute, and we all live in reduced circumstances.

The man is blind and arrogant.