Gordon Brown fool or knave?

In 1997 Gordon Brown outlined his plans for the UK economy . "Stability is necessary for our future economic success" he informed the CBI. "The British economy of the future must be built not on the shifting sands of boom and bust, but on the bedrock of prudent and wise economic management."

Unfortunately the other components of Gordon Brown's 'bedrock' included a trillion-pound debt mountain and a decade of unchecked and unparalleled house price inflation.

In 2003 a then less than well-known Lib-Dem MP, Vince Cable, asked Gordon Brown an embarrassing question:

"Is it not true that...the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?"

A fair question, and in retrospect a farseeing one, however Gordon doesn't like criticism and responded thus:

"The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers, as reflected in his contribution, that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..."

"Without substance"? Well done Gordon, so nobody saw what was coming?