Gordon Brown, Please Don't Come Back

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was visiting the US at the same time as the Pope's visit. Needless to say, Brown didn't get much coverage, so the speech he gave slipped past me.

He bagan his speech by lavishing praise on Senator Ted Kennedy, calling him "one of the greatest Senators in more than two centuries." The speech just went downhill from there. While he mentioned our Declaration of Independence, he seems to have forgotten what it took for our Union to gain independence when called for a new "Declaration of Inter-
dependence".

He went on to say "And the benefits will flow most widely and more effectively if instead of trying to pursue beggar-my-neighbour policies, or erecting national barriers to shelter people from change, we cooperate across frontiers to maximise the opportunities. But to do this we have no choice now – and this is my main argument - but to consider and agree new global rules and create new global institutions so that not some but all can benefit from change." So if he has his way you can forget about protecting our borders.

He summed up his argument by saying:

"And my proposal here is that we set new global rules for a new 21st century global economic system with:

-a global trade deal that benefits rich and poor countries alike;
-new international financial architecture and economic institutions that end the mismatch between global capital flows and only the national supervision of them — with the IMF an early warning system for the global economy, focused on crisis prevention rather than just crisis resolution;
-and a new deal as bold as the Marshall Plan of the 1940s between rich and poor under which as developing countries open up to trade, address corruption and pursue policies for economic development and developed countries agree to make available new resources so that we can say of this generation: the preventable diseases of TB, polio and malaria are eradicated and for the first time in our history every child enjoys education. "

I wonder if he is crazy. Maybe he thinks we're all so crazy that we will put our economy, health care, and security in the hands of North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba in the name of "Globalization". We have the Democrats calling for a "New New Deal" for America and now this guy calling for a "New Deal" for the whole world. This guy is downright scary.

There is much more in the speech and it doesn't get better. For further analysis of the speech and of Gordon Brown's record in the UK read this column by Phyllis Schlafly.