KING CANUTE
REVISITED
Hardly a day
goes by without some poorly educated political or economic commentator
taking in vain the name of this great man, whose history is summarised
concisely at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_the_Great. Like all rulers he
came to understand the limits of power, both military and diplomatic
and, like all who rose to command empires beyond his immediate
surroundings, he suffered from the complaints of his subjects when all
was not to their personal and local advantage.
Pestered by
sychophantic courtiers who sought his intervention in forces beyond his
control, hoping by flattery to have him back their projects, or save
them from the tides in the affairs of state and men that inconvenienced
them, Canute was driven to the end of his patience when it was
suggested his power extended to controlling the tides of the sea
itself. He had his throne carried to the sea-shore and sat on it
commanding the tide not to come in, to show that the power of rulers is
limited when dealing with the foirces of nature.
It is ironic
then that those who this weekend likened Gordon Brown to King Canute
should be his critics when such a connection can be made in support of
his actions in Jeddah where the leaders of the oil-producing countries
and their main customers have gathered for an exchange of views on how
to manage the current excess of demand over supply and the evident
likelyhood of a continuing trend in this direction unless demand is
reduced by recession.
Gordon's view is
that the money now passing in increasing amounts to the producers
should be recycled by investment in research and development of new,
sustainable energy sources. By investing in this way in the UK, Europe
and the US the oil-producing countries will have a share in the future
even when their oil reserves diminish. They will extend the life of
their own assets and have a stake in the alternative energy systems as
well. They will seriously enable the international efforts to limit
global warming.
Gordon Brown
knows that only a temporary increase in the supply of oil can stop the
price rising further unless a degree of recession is to be accepted in
some economies to balance the unstoppable growth in others. Such a
recession would occur automatically in those economies that are
globally the least competitive unless aid and subsidies, unsustainable
in the long run, are introduced. It could then cause a global
recession. But if they are to increase production, the oil producing
nations have the right to demand that their customers behave
responsibly and refrain from ordering more beer in the
last-chance-saloon. The oil is not running out, but the rate of supply
is limited and to increase it steadily as we approach the point where
the actual reserves DO run out is perverse and nonsensical as it would
lead to global conflict led not by governments but by uncontrollable
mobs.
So the idea by
media commentators that Gordon Brown is acting like King Canute is
right, but the said commentators know nothing about Canute, Brown,
hisory, oil or anything else. Why do we have to listen to these
pillocks.