Gordon Brown doesn't get the oil crisis

Even by the low standards of his Government, Gordon Brown's recent pronouncements on oil have been surprising. Writing in a national newspaper on Wednesday, he argued that the price of a barrel had soared to $135 because of barriers to production that are "technical, financial and political".

There are problems here, sure enough, but the word he left out was "geological", and the omission is crucial. It means he really doesn't understand the profundity of the current crisis, and explains why panicky initiatives are bound to fail...

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