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Bad News for Banks Is Great News for Brown

British PM gets poll boost in crisis, silencing critics

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 1, 2008 12:20 PM CDT

(Newser) – In America the financial crisis has dealt yet another blow to an already unpopular President Bush. But in Britain, collapsing banks and volatile markets are the best thing to happen to Gordon Brown in recent months. In reasserting his global economic know-how, the prime minister, who is reportedly preparing an American-style bailout, has seen his once dismal poll numbers climb fast, reports the Daily Mail.

Finance remains one of Brown's strong suits: He served for 10 years as Tony Blair's chancellor, running the Treasury with an essentially free hand. While he still wouldn't win an election if it were called today, the PM is now polling higher than the Tories on economic competence for the first time in months. The crisis has also silenced Brown's critics inside the Labour Party, who only a few weeks ago were publicly trying to force him out.

President Bush, right, with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008.
President Bush, right, with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008.   (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks during the closing plenary at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting Friday, Sept 26, 2008 in New York.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks during the closing plenary at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting Friday, Sept 26, 2008 in New York.   (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown waves to the audience at the end of the Labour Party Conference, in Manchester, northern England, Wednesday Sept. 24, 2008.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown waves to the audience at the end of the Labour Party Conference, in Manchester, northern England, Wednesday Sept. 24, 2008.   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is seen  in  Downing Street, London, Wednesday Oct. 1, 2008.  Britain's financial regulator said Wednesday it is considering increasing the level at which savers' bank deposits are guaranteed even sooner than the government has promised. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a BBC...
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is seen in Downing Street, London, Wednesday Oct. 1, 2008. Britain's financial regulator said Wednesday it is considering increasing the level at which savers'...   (AP Photo)
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