Gordon Brown brings economic optimism to US Congress
Gordon Brown predicted yesterday that two decades of growth would follow the global recession and called on America to lead the world to recovery.
In a strikingly upbeat speech in Washington he suggested that the world economy would double in size over the next 20 years as people in the Third World became consumers of goods produced in the West.
In an enthusiastically received address to both Houses of Congress, the Prime Minister said that other countries wanted more than ever to work with the US to recover from the "economic hurricane" that had swept the world.
He said that people would cast off their anxieties to create twice as many opportunities for business, twice as much prosperity and the biggest expansion of middle-class incomes and jobs the world had ever seen.
Central to his speech was a challenge to America to reject protectionism and safeguard the planet, and he urged its politicians to "seize the moment" and lead the world out of recession.
Mr Brown's optimistic tone echoes that of President Obama after their talks on Tuesday when Mr Obama urged people to start investing in the stock exchange again. It follows criticism of Mr Obama for being too downbeat in recent utterances on the economy and contrasts strongly with the Prime Minister's more pessimistic forecasts on the state of the economy.
He urged America's politicians to match the vision of their predecessors, who had emerged more than 70 years ago from the deepest of recessions to produce a bold economic plan to restore prosperity.
Mr Brown was given 19 standing ovations during the address - the same as Tony Blair in July 2003.
The Prime Minister confronted unions and other interest groups that are represented in Congress by backing President Obama over his $789 billion (£557 billion) stimulus plan, climate change and trade. To those who have been urging Mr Obama to put up trade barriers to save American jobs, Mr Brown said that it was wrong to "succumb to a race to the bottom and a protectionism that history tells us protects no one".He added: "We win our future not by retreating from the world but engaging with it."
To those opposing Mr Obama's efforts to combat global warming he said that America, the nation that had the vision to put men on the Moon, "are also the nation with the vision to preserve our planet Earth".
He made a strong plea for direct government intervention in times of trouble. "When banks have failed and markets have faltered we the representatives of the people have to be the people's last line of defense," he said.
In one of several rhetorical flourishes, he said: "For me this global recession is not to be measured just in statistics, or in graphs or in figures on a balance sheet. Instead, I see one individual with their own aspirations and increasingly their own apprehensions and then another, and then another. Each with their own stars to reach for. Each part of a family, each at the heart of a community now in need of help and hope."
Mr Brown, the fifth prime minister to address Congress after Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, told America that its reach went far beyond its geography. "For a century you have carried upon your shoulders the greatest of responsibilities: to work with and for the rest of the world.
And let me tell you now more than ever the rest of the world wants to work with you."
He assured them that today there was the most pro-American European leadership in living memory. He was cheered loudly when he added:
"It is a leadership that wants to co-operate more closely together, in order to co-operate more closely with you. There is no old Europe, no new Europe, there is only your friend Europe."
Britain and America would succeed and lead if they tapped into the talents of the people, released the genius of the scientists and set free the drive of the entrepreneurs.
"We will win the race to the top if we can develop the new high-value products and services and the new green technologies that the rising numbers of hardworking families across our globe will want to buy.
"So we must educate our way out of the downturn, invest and invent our way out of the downturn and retool and reskill our way out of the downturn."
He insisted that his message did not represent "blind optimism or synthetic confidence" to console people. It was a practical demonstration of their faith in the future.
"So once again I say we should seize the moment because never before have I seen a world so willing to come together."
Mr Brown called for a worldwide reduction of interest rates and for other countries to stimulate their economies. He called on countries to share in America’s abiding optimism, echoing Roosevelt’s battle against "fear itself". Roosevelt had not triumphed simply by the power of his words and personality. What mattered more was that the American people were at their core "every bit as optimistic as your Roosevelts, your Reagans and your Obamas".
His words on climate change were cheered, but those on protectionism were heard in respectful silence. The biggest applause came when he said that all shadow banking systems and offshore tax havens should be outlawed. Throughout his visit Mr Brown has resisted calls to apologise for mistakes that he may have made which contributed to the economic crisis.
Mr Brown had lunch with leading Democrats and Republicans from both houses. As he made his way to Andrews Air Base to fly home, Mr Brown received a telephone call from Mr Obama complimenting him on his speech and telling him that he felt that it had been "a very productive visit".
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