I'LL PUT TROOPS ON THE STREETS

"Do you realise how bad this is going to get? ... We’re going to be in recession by the New Year. And there’s nothing we can do. And people will make that the big issue, but that’s not the worst of it ... The whole bloody thing could collapse. I’m serious! The whole bloody thing ... We’ve just got to get ourselves ready in case it goes wrong tomorrow. And I mean really wrong ... Even if there’s a panic in another country, people will see it on the TVs, and they’ll start panicking here ... If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cashpoints aren’t working, and people go to Tesco and their cards aren’t being accepted, the whole thing will just explode ... If you can’t buy food or petrol or medicine for your kids, people will just start breaking the windows and helping themselves. And as soon as people see that on TV, that’s the end, because everyone will think that’s OK now, that’s just what we all have to do. It’ll be anarchy. That’s what could happen tomorrow. I’m serious, I’m serious . . . We’d have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back? ... I’d have to resign — but I couldn’t go if there was just carnage out there: someone would have to be in charge."

Zu den Aussagen von Gordon Brown, dem ehemaligen, britischen Schatzkanzler, Premierminister und Vorsitzenden der Labour Party im Buch "Power Trip" seines engen Beraters Damian McBrides, in Auszügen zitiert im Daily Mail (20. September 2013) »

Anmerkung: Interessant sind Gordon Browns Aussagen - sollten sie wahrheitsgemäß sein - nicht nur im Hinblick auf die Befürchtungen der britischen Regierung zu den unmittelbaren Konsequenzen einer Bankenkrise, sondern durchaus auch im Hinblick auf die gesellschaftlichen Folgen einer andauernden Rezession und dem Ende des Wachstums durch Peak "Easy Oil". Gordon Brown ist mit seinen düsteren Visionen zudem nicht allein, denn das britische Verteidigungsministerium schrieb in der Studie "South Asia out to 2040" im Oktober 2012 (pp. 14;16):
"South Asia’s industrial rise, along with continued volatility in the Middle-East and the imminent passing of the point of peak ‘easy oil’, will mean that hydrocarbon-based energy prices will rise significantly out to 2040 ... The increasing economic growth and prosperity of South Asia could lead to the stalling and subsequent decline of many western economies as global GDP per capita levels approach the same level.  This may lead to long periods of recession and rising disaffection within the UK population.  This could subsequently lead to increased incidents of internal unrest, a rise of nationalistic groups and a demand for protectionist economic and defence policies.  The western way of life with cheap access to a wide variety of consumer choice and cheap energy will be increasingly challenged as lifestyles follow GDP levels and balance across the globe."