# Poor old Brown! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2008, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704 "2008-04-17T10:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/1 "2008-04-17T10:05:40Z")
Our beloved Prime Minister is visiting America. But you wouldn’t know it from the press. Never mind being the headline, he’s not even on the front page of CNN or MSNBC or the Washington Post, and he’s way down in the small print on the NY Times. Apparently, according to the BBC’s Nick Robinson, British Embassy officials didn’t know that the Pope was coming to Washington at the same time. Poor old Brown. The blunders keep on coming. A blunderer and a bottler. Well, I suppose you could spin it as a never-should-have-been visiting a soon-to-be has-been. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/2 "2008-04-17T10:20:32Z")
I wonder how comparable Sarkozy’s visit was in terms of coverage? It’s certainly a gaffe, but I’m wondering how big a deal this actually is. Though I’m not a fan of Brown, nor an apologist, and I think the upcoming local elections will slap Labour in the face, hard - what “bottling” has he been doing of late? ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/3 "2008-04-17T10:20:34Z")
Touché! (although I would have characterized it as "a never-should-have-been visiting a _never-should-have-been-born_.) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/4 "2008-04-17T10:54:30Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Though I’m not a fan of Brown, nor an apologist, and I think the upcoming local elections will slap Labour in the face, hard - what “bottling” has he been doing of late? [/QUOTE] He bottled the election last year, he bottled responsibility for selling off the gold reserves. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/5 "2008-04-17T12:40:20Z")
“Bottler” Brown! Heh, that’s almost as fun a nickname as Tony Bliar. B-Liar! Geddit!? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/6 "2008-04-17T15:52:27Z")
I’m sorry, is Britain a net exporter of oil? No? Then we really don’t have anything to talk about, do we? When come back, bring oil. 😉 Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/7 "2008-04-18T05:09:49Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] I’m sorry, is Britain a net exporter of oil? [/QUOTE] Surprising as it may seem to some, it _probably is_ at the moment, although it fluctuates between “net importer” and “net exporter” from quarter to quarter. It was a [consistent exporter](http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/United_Kingdom/Oil.html) from the 1970s to 2005, when it [switched to net imports](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae-uks-switch-from-net-exporter-to-importer-of-oil-will-not-have-a-dramatic-downside-514645.html), but [as recently as 2007 we have](http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=50745): > [@](#): > > The start-up of the oil fields transformed the U.K. into a net oil exporter during the second quarter of this year, exporting 0.8 million tons more than it imported of oil and oil products. Obviously, this is a drop in the bucket compared to the global oil market, but it’s certainly a better situation than, say, France or Germany. More to the point, however, is that since the OP was comparing Gordon Brown’s visit to the high media coverage for Benedict XVI, one might [paraphrase Josef Stalin](http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1492) and ask _ **“How Many Oilfields Does the Pope Have?”** _. ---
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/8 "2008-04-18T06:30:01Z")
[QUOTE=Brown] The world owes George Bush a huge debt of gratitude. [/QUOTE] > **[British PM: Bush owed 'a huge debt of gratitude' - CNN.com](https://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/17/bush.brown/index.html)** > > President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown discussed a range of topics at the White House on Thursday including terrorism, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran and economic issues, Bush told reporters afterward. Is Brown pretty buddy buddy with Bush, too? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poor-old-brown/445704/9 "2008-04-18T06:45:06Z")
[QUOTE=Crocodiles And Boulevards] > **[British PM: Bush owed 'a huge debt of gratitude' - CNN.com](https://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/17/bush.brown/index.html)** > > President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown discussed a range of topics at the White House on Thursday including terrorism, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran and economic issues, Bush told reporters afterward. Is Brown pretty buddy buddy with Bush, too? [/QUOTE] I took to to mean that “The world owes George Bush a huge debt of gratitude… because he makes everyone else’s leader look good.\*” I don’t actually think it’s buddy buddy, it’s more like sucky uppy. \*Strike out North Korea, Zimbabwe, etc. as required.