Gordon Clown .Com

It seems that Gordon’s plans to help first time buyers onto the housing “ladder” have been met with total and abject failure, after the Telegraph revealed today that only 100 buyers have taken up the offer of the key workers scheme. The Government had targeted 6,500 completions a year, and yet has managed only a fraction of that since the scheme was launched over a year ago, in late 2005. Seems as though Gordon may be planning a rescue strategy in his Budget speech due on March 21st, although with the failure already there for all to see it’s hard to believe he can do much good to rescue the situation now. The article has more:

Just 100 first-time buyers have taken out mortgages under the Government’s pioneering shared-equity home ownership scheme with the private sector.

The Chancellor unveiled “Open Market Homebuy” with much fanfare in late 2005, setting a target of using the partnership to lift 20,000 key workers onto the housing ladder by 2010. It was officially launched five months ago, on October 1, with building societies Nationwide and Yorkshire as well as investment bank Morgan Stanley, under the Advantage brand. Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage provider, has still to join despite being hailed as a flagship member. Even so, Gordon Brown wants more private sector involvement and is expected to launch “a new competition” in the Budget on March 21.

…

A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government department said the scheme has had an “encouraging start” with 6,400 keyworkers qualifying for Open Market Homebuy. He added that a further 700 home purchases should be completed shortly.

For the Government to hit its target, however, it needs 6,500 completions a year and it is already raising its goals.

A couple of nasties for Gordon have hit the front pages this week. The Times and the Telegraph brought us these headlines:

First of all, the Daily Telegraph gave us the frontpage seen on the right here, with the headline Brown losing his touch on the economy, say voters. The Telegraph/YouGov poll is the second bad result in two days for Gordon, following on from the Guardian/ICM poll the day before that said he is currently completely failing to convince the country that he would make a better prime minister than David Cameron. The Telegraph gave these results in their article, also highlighting some of the problems that Gordon has run into lately:

Gordon Brown is losing his reputation for economic competence and failing to convince voters he would make a better prime minister than David Cameron, a Daily Telegraph-YouGov poll shows today.

The Conservatives are now seen as more likely than Labour to run the economy well — the most significant turnaround in the public’s view of the Tories since they were swept from power by New Labour a decade ago.

The poll is a big blow for Mr Brown on the day that:

• Michael Meacher, the veteran Left-winger, threw his hat into the ring for the leadership race;

• one of Britain’s leading businessmen said the delayed handover of power at the head of Labour was slowing efforts to cut costs and improve efficiency in the public sector;

• he announced his 11th, and almost certainly final, Budget will be delivered on Wednesday March 21.

When voters were asked which party was likely to run the economy well, 30 per cent said the Conservatives and 27 per cent Labour.

At the 2005 election, Labour had a commanding 22-point lead, with 49 per cent regarding them as economically competent compared to 27 per cent for the Tories.

While the regular survey of voting intentions gives the Conservatives a five-point lead over Labour, this jumps to nine points when voters are asked whether they would prefer a Cameron or a Brown-led government.

This last result is particularly damaging for Gordon, showing that he is even less popular than Blair even now, while Blair is being accused of dodgy dealings in the cash for honours scandal, plus all the sour tastes associated with Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Times also had this to offer on its Saturday front page: Consumers hit by credit squeeze as debt spirals. While not directly mentioning Brown, the Times article shows the ridiculousness of the situation that Gordon and his Miracle Economy have left the country in, with debt soaring and consequently bad debt costs for banks hitting unprecedented levels. Of course the next phase of the debt bubble is likely to be somewhat more painful than previous phases, as the inevitable credit crunch threatens to bring Gordon’s house of cards collapsing around his ears sooner rather than later.

Personal insolvency levels rocketed to a record 107,000 cases last year. The Financial Services Authority said last month that Britain’s huge personal debt levels — now more than £1.3 trillion including mortgages — were one of the biggest risks to financial stability.

It added that, although most people were managing, a rise in unemployment or interest rates could tip many households into real difficulty.

Up to 2 million households are estimated to be “permanently indebted” — able to meet minimum interest payments but with no real prospect of ever paying off their debts. Total unsecured borrowing by households in Britain has doubled to £212 billion in the past nine years.

It won’t be much fun when the music stops.

Not much of a happy 56th Birthday for Gordon on Tuesday, as The Guardian reported that he is now trailing Cameron by 13 points in the latest opinion poll:

Gordon Brown is failing to persuade the public that he would make a better prime minister than David Cameron, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today which suggests the Conservatives could win a working majority at the next general election.

Voters give the Tories a clear 13-point lead when asked which party they would back in a likely contest between Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Sir Menzies Campbell.

The result would give the party 42% of the vote against Labour on 29%, similar to its performance under Michael Foot in 1983. The Liberal Democrats would drop to 17%. The result is the highest that the Conservatives have scored in any ICM poll since July 1992, just after their last general election victory.

Pretty unhappy birthday all around for Gordon then. It is now just under a month to go until Gordon makes what will probably (one way or another) be his final budget speech, and with such a dramatic deficit to claw back in the public opinion, who knows what crazy hair-brained schemes he may introduce in attempts to boost his popularity before it’s too late?