Gordon’s ‘depression’

Wag economists are inclined to say that the difference between a recession and a depression is that in the former your neighbour loses his job, in the latter you lose your job. But it seems that Gordon is doing his best to put himself out of work by lurching into depression territory in what can only be described as a Freudian slip.

Today at the despatch box, the Prime Minister uttered the following words:

“We should agree as a world on a monetary and fiscal stimulus that will take the world out of r… depression.”

Watch it here.

As I write this various talking heads are specualting on the end of the Gordon bounce - the short lived bump in the polls received by the government from the time the depth of the economic crisis became evident. No one has a crystal ball, but things look terrible for Brown and his government.

And his performance at PMQ’s today make it too easy for the opposition. It is often asked whether the weekly 30 minute sessions in Parliament matter. Well, probably not in scrutiny terms, but today’s mis-speak demonstrates in glorious Technicolor that they are the prism through which the world outside SW1 observe politics. Poor Gordon.