Sunday February 1, 04:07 AM
'Superman' Brown falls to earth as recession hits Britain
By Katherine Haddon
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LONDON, (AFP) - A blizzard of bankruptcies and job cuts has brought British Prime Minister Gordon Brown crashing back down in the opinion polls, after an initial ratings boost from his handling of the credit crunch.
As the crisis moves from headlines to the high street, wintry Britain is getting rapidly used to daily company closures and staff culls, while long booming house prices have plummeted even faster than the country's currency.
Brown claimed to have "saved the world" from economic meltdown in a slip of the tongue last month, while Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of his governing Labour Party, delightedly described him as "Superman".
This was at the height of the "Brown bounce", when Labour slashed the main opposition Conservatives' opinion poll lead thanks to the former finance minister's decisive leadership on the economic crisis.
But such grand claims have started to ring hollow as Brown's poll ratings plunge and whispers start among Labour lawmakers that things may be going wrong with his handling of the crisis.
"His predicament looks dismal and he seems more and more at the mercy of events rather than the self-proclaimed saviour of the world," The Independent newspaper said in a recent editorial.
The picture looked very different in October, when Brown's 500 billion pound (545 billion euro, 716 billion dollar) package to help British banks was hailed as a world leader for its decisiveness and clarity by commentators including Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman.
"Has Gordon Brown saved the world financial system?" Krugman wondered, adding that the Scot had "defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort, with other wealthy nations playing catch-up."
Other European countries subsequently followed Brown's lead.
That, though, was before the glut of job cuts and company failures -- plus official confirmation that Britain is in recession -- which have brought the credit crunch to the "real economy" since the start of 2009.
New job cuts have hit the headlines almost daily in the last few weeks -- over 4,000 at Barclays Bank (NYSE: BCS-P - news) ; 2,500 at Indian-owned steelmaker Corus, plus a swathe at carmakers like Nissan and Jaguar.
Company (CPNY3.SA - news) liquidations are rising, with retailers particularly hard hit as Britons curb their shopping habits. Sweets-to-toys retailer Woolworths (Munich: WWR.MU - news) , a high street institution until recently, and CD/DVD chain Zavvi have collapsed.
Brown had to announce a second round of bank bail-outs this month to a hostile reception on the London stock market, where shares in part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) and others plunged.
And there was more criticism this week when the government announced a 2.3 billion pound package to help the car industry, which has seen sales slump because of the downturn.
Unions and industry representatives said the measures would not be enough to prevent potentially tens of thousands more job cuts.
And Conservative business spokesman Ken Clarke -- the former finance minister whose return to frontline politics has boosted the Tories, previously shaky on the economy -- described the move as "small beer".
Labour lawmakers are reportedly worried that voters are turning against Brown's handling of the economy.
Senior backbencher Jon Cruddas warned Thursday: "People were wildly optimistic before Christmas; they are wildly pessimistic now."
The latest opinion polls confirm such fears. An Independent/ComRes survey Monday said that the Conservatives' lead over Labour has soared from five to 15 points in the last month.
Analysts say that Brown will struggle to win the next general election, which must be held by mid-2010, because the credit crunch will still be biting then.
Steven Fielding, political history professor at Nottingham University, said Brown won support after he "staved off the immediate emergency" last year, but now voters were worried by the prospect of a long recession.
"People want a quick fix and they're not going to get it. It's unreasonable to expect it because politicians only have so much power," he said. "These processes are much more deep and complex."
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