Word: labourers
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Recession, damp, shorter days and soaring unemployment: there's precious little to cheer Britons this fall. Luckily, a rollicking tale of a Labour grandee and a toffy Tory involving the betrayal of secrets and the lure of obscene wealth is adding considerably to the nation's gaiety as each day brings fresh revelations about a series of encounters that took place on and around the Greek island of Corfu this summer...
...Heading the cast is Peter Mandelson, the co-architect of New Labour, recalled by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the start of October from his post as E.U. Trade Commissioner, and installed in the House of Lords as Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool to serve as Business Secretary. Sharing top billing is George Osborne, the Conservative Party's azure-blooded Shadow Chancellor, a cherub-cheeked 37-year-old son of a Baronet. Their interactions with each other and with Nathaniel Rothschild, scion of the eponymous banking dynasty, and Rothschild's friend and business associate Oleg Deripaska, a reclusive oligarch...
...this amounts to a particularly tricky issue for a man who has played a key role in the City's growth: Prime Minister Brown. In the 10 years when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, his support for financial services was especially notable because his Labour Party had a history of antagonism with the City. Brown sought to convince the financial community that New Labour would be pro-business, pro-enterprise, noninterventionist and keen to cosset the rich, believing their wealth would trickle down to the wider economy. Brown also championed a new governance system for financial services that...
There was more than a hint offered at the annual Labour Party conference last month in Manchester, where delegates adopted a new vocabulary. In fringe meetings, speakers inveighed against "the spivs" (British slang for slick criminals) who caused the mess, while union leaders and politicians raised cheers by bashing the rich. In his keynote speech, Brown talked of a new era that demands heavier regulation...
Brown's speed-of-light transformation from champion of market liberalization to strict regulator has left even his allies shaking their heads in disbelief. "Who would have dreamed that a financial crisis would have given Labour a lifeline?" marvels former Home Secretary David Blunkett. One reason is that Brown has shifted blame to greedy bankers (he inveighs against "the age of irresponsibility") and to America's subprime mortgage debacle. "It is pretty clear to me that this problem started in America," Brown declared as he unveiled the bank bailout. The idea of a global contagion originating in a distant country...