Brown's Marshall plan for world poor

[Englander]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1385132,00.html

Larry Elliott and Michael White
Friday January 7, 2005
The Guardian

Gordon Brown launched Britain's campaign for a Marshall plan for Africa yesterday when he called on the international community to harness the "passion of compassion" generated by the Asian tsunami disaster to make 2005 a breakthrough year for the world's poorest continent.

Unveiling the government's three-pronged plan for greater debt relief, more generous aid and better trade access, the chancellor said the global response to the tsunami disaster was an expression of the public's demand for action to tackle poverty.

"While 2004 was a year which ended in the horror of a natural disaster, 2005 is a year that can start with the hope of human progress," Mr Brown said in a lecture in Edinburgh, which conjured up the spirit of the postwar American plan to rebuild the shattered economies of Europe. "2005 is a year of challenge but also a year of opportunity when - from the foundation of hope - we can, I believe, see real change."

Mr Brown's launch of the year-long campaign coincided with a similar push from Tony Blair to harness the upsurge of public sympathy following the tsunami to a wider mission to tackle global poverty.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,1385222,00.html

[sweetheart]

1. Browns path to greatness

I agree with Mr. Brown. 2005 is his time. He should put all the
energy in to empowering the world's poor, as a heartfelt national
mission. It makes britain the moral leader, and puts him in the
geopolitical drivers seat in the atlantic relationships.

He should take ALL the energy of repressing civil liberties, like
the UK's imprisonment-works strategy for getting people back to work
in terms of the nations cannabis smokers as well. If he could see
to being civil with the criminalization of cannabis smokers, and
the letting-go of that hatred and judgement in his private heart,
he will be the most excellent outstanding prime minister britain's
ever had.

He should empower businesses that empower the world's poor, that the
model of british econo-balance, work through the financial community
to achieve a fair deal for the world's poor. He'll find a friend in
Paul Martin to achieve this in full, as he himself chaired the UN
commission to achieve "uplift" by financial means. Sometimes a
great evil requires a greater evil... in the sense, that maybe the
socialist solution for giving greater freedom and opportunity to all
is achievable through the capitalist's free market... just one that
uses the invisible hand properly by exposing the proper ratios
from the companies involved, female/male pay ratio, race hiring, and
let the public punish where the courts are a poor proxy.

Blair should get out and take his war with him. I'm sorry it sounds
so harsh, but strangely, with the bush-reelection, blair lost any
credibility he had, as the british national opinion be opposite what
he himself voted for with his imperial wars of the bosh terror.
Brown needs to find a good solution for this. Showing that he's
coherently re-thought the labour platform from top to bottom that it
supports poverty uplift worldwide, will make britain the global
market leader for the next century. Bush has dropped the ball, and
the gauntlet is on the ground. It is not just raising money, but
the whole coherent picutre. There is a power vacuum for political
coherence these days. This might be Browns day, and the West lothian
question be damned.