What does this 'Brownie' tell us?

From PMQs on 26th March 2008

Nicholas Clegg

Home repossession orders now stand at 100,000—the same as in 1990

http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/filegrab/1AP4.xls?ref=2753

Repo actions entered - 145350 in 1990 and 132972 for the 4 quarters ending Q3 2008 (Q4 data not yet available)

—and house prices are falling faster than they were even then.

http://www.hbosplc.com/economy/includes/08_04_08historic_data.xls

By the end of 1990 the average house price was £69030 down from it's peak of £70246 in May 1989 a drop of 1.7%.

Does the Prime Minister still deny that the crisis facing British home owners today looks at least as bad as the Tory recession of the early 1990s?

Gordon Brown

I do not know when the Liberal party (Liberal Democrats actually but hey what's in a name Newlabour/Old labour?) will ever learn.

Interest rates were 18 per cent. at one point in the early 1990s;

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/rates/baserate.pdf

Nope - 15% yes but hey what's 3% if it's not spun and lied about

they are 5.25 per cent. today. The number of repossessions in the last year was 27,000;

http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/filegrab/1AP4.xls?ref=2753

True - although these are repossessions not repossession orders. A repossession order comes before a repossession. So a classic Brownie.

in the first two years of the 1990s, it was 200,000.

Not true - 119,400 in 1990 & 1991. 188000 if you include 1992

We are dealing with a quite different situation and the reason is that we did not take the advice of the Liberal party, but pursued policies for economic stability.

No response to the house price question - Halifax house prices were at £196465 in Feb 08 down 1.5% from £199600 in Aug 07. A further 2.5% fall in March adds to the woe.

So the question is this-

- does Gordon not understand the question
or
-does Gordon understand the question but believes his answer that things are not as bad?
or
- is Gordon simply delusional?