Picking up after Tonee was always going to be a poisoned paper cup.
I think he may have believed that Tonee was his friend. Sadly not. And here we are.
The mess is at least as much Tonee's fault as it is his. I'm not sure how much policy leeway he really had as a chancellor. I do know he kept some suspicious company. For example:
Financial crisis: Gordon Brown sets up economic 'war cabinet' - Telegraph
Paul Myners, the new Minister for the City, is on the board of GLG Partners, which quite legally made huge profits by "short selling" shares in Bradford & Bingley, a practice which has now been banned by the Financial Services Authority. GLG held the biggest "short" position in B&B while its share price plummeted. The hedge fund, which has £12 billion under management, traded tens of millions of shares in the bank. The collapse in its share price forced the government to nationalise it last month. Short selling involves traders borrowing shares, selling them and then hoping the share price drops before they have to buy shares to give them back to the lender. Any difference in the two prices is the trader's profit. The practice, denounced as "vulture capitalism" by critics, can help drive down the price of shares in companies by undermining confidence in them, though there is no suggestion that GLG was responsible for B&B's demise. GLG's founder Noam Gottesman, an Israeli-American, rose to prominence earlier this year when it was reported that he had paid himself £400 million in 2007, making him one of the highest-paid men in Britain. Mr Myners, who is also chairman of Guardian Media Group and a former chairman of Marks & Spencer, donated £12,700 to Mr Brown's leadership campaign last year.
Paul Myners, the new Minister for the City, is on the board of GLG Partners, which quite legally made huge profits by "short selling" shares in Bradford & Bingley, a practice which has now been banned by the Financial Services Authority.
GLG held the biggest "short" position in B&B while its share price plummeted. The hedge fund, which has £12 billion under management, traded tens of millions of shares in the bank. The collapse in its share price forced the government to nationalise it last month.
Short selling involves traders borrowing shares, selling them and then hoping the share price drops before they have to buy shares to give them back to the lender. Any difference in the two prices is the trader's profit.
The practice, denounced as "vulture capitalism" by critics, can help drive down the price of shares in companies by undermining confidence in them, though there is no suggestion that GLG was responsible for B&B's demise.
GLG's founder Noam Gottesman, an Israeli-American, rose to prominence earlier this year when it was reported that he had paid himself £400 million in 2007, making him one of the highest-paid men in Britain.
Mr Myners, who is also chairman of Guardian Media Group and a former chairman of Marks & Spencer, donated £12,700 to Mr Brown's leadership campaign last year.
Aside from the obvious - OBVIOUS - conflict of interest, and questions about why there's even a need for a Minister for the City - the fact that Brown let himself be bought for a little short of £13k suggests that he's not even very good at being corrupt. Tonee would have had a house in Hampstead and a lucrative consultancy contract from the same deal.
Never trust a politician who doesn't take his bribes from a guy in a trenchcoat and a fedora. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
