Across the pond

Which was on the economy. Gordon Brown won it, because he understands it far better than either Cameron or Clegg. All three leaders agreed that our present crisis was caused by the excesses of the unregulated banking sector. Clegg argued, when he was allowed to get a word in, that tough measures were needed. Cameron put his faith in the Governor of the Bank of England to regulate them.

Neither Clegg nor Brown told him that, in fact, the Governor had done his best, with his enormous formal and informal powers, to stop the bankers betraying all the Bank’s rules about prudent banking practice.

And he was ignored.

Brown clamed he was regulating the bankers. And talked about all sorts of taxes he was planning. But he did not explain why he had not stopped them granting themselves vast bonuses.

Now maybe the ordinary voter is totally ignorant of such matters.

But maybe they are not so ignorant.

Perhaps they have noticed that one of the most respected Wall Street banks, Golman Sachs,  is now subject to an investigation by the US Congress. Accused of fraud.  

Obama is tackling this problem. Brown has avoided it. Cameron is passing the buck to the Governor, who tried, but failed, to stop the banking excesses.

Tonight, Clegg tried to show that the Lib Dems were going to tackle it. But he had a poor night and was not as effective as getting his view across as in the first debate.

The debate, this time hosted by the BBC, also allowed a question in immigration.

Which is the subject of my next blog.

Brown, amazingly, had totally recovered from his awful gaffe. And demolished Cameron on inheritance tax. Cameron stuck to his paymasters, he is still determined to reward the people who have made all these excessive profits, by exempting them from inheritance tax.

So they can pass on their huge  ill-gotten gains to their children, who may be complete wasters.