Clever spin that gets Brown off the hook

The Labour spin machine has gone into overdrive this morning.  It has succeed very well in deflecting attention from the huge losses that the banks have reported and kept the spotlight on Sir Fred Goodwin.

Firstly, Prescott is wheeled onto the Today programme to rant away, saying it is all the banks fault.  Now we have Brown shifting the blame for his own failures onto the banks:

the government would act to protect the public interest over the payment of Sir Fred Goodwin's pension.

Bit late now.  Why wasn't this done last October?

and

I think it's a matter for legal consultation.

My guess is that is where it will end.  If Goodwin has a legal right to the money, and the Government did agree to the pension being paid last October, there is hardly a strong case to pursue.

and now Brown’s jaw dropping comment:

I was brought up to believe that integrity and responsibility were the important things - you cannot suspend that behaviour for the banks

Really!  These little matters are suspended for Brown and the Treasury.

This is all clever stuff, deflecting from the bad news of yesterday and the role of Lord Myners in this sorry tale.

At the end of the day we are all focused on a few million quid that Goodwin is probably legally entitled to.  When what we should be concentrating on is the trillions of debt that the Government has forced on the taxpayer, whether the bankrupt banks should be nationalised and on the policies that have clearly not worked.

Clever spin that solves nothing.