Gordon Brown and Bernard Madoff are separated by a single detail – Bernie's pleading guilty

Telegraph
"What's the difference between Bernard Madoff and Gordon Brown? Answer: one has drained fortunes from gullible victims, plundering their income and savings to create an illusion of prosperity. The other is going to jail. ....Mr Madoff has thrown in the towel....Nobody knows for sure how much has gone missing, but Wall Street scribes are calling it a $65 billion fraud.Not bad for peddling fresh air. It is, however, a nickel-and-dime swindle when set alongside the 12-year con trick perpetrated by Mr Brown on British taxpayers. That, too, has been a form of Ponzi, but with many more zeroes and little chance of the mastermind ending his days in what Americans call Crowbar Hotel.
....While Big Bucks Bernie was snaffling billions, Mr Brown had his sights trained on trillions. Five trillion, to be precise – that's £5,000,000,000,000 – which is how much Labour has taxed and spent since it came to power. In 1998-99 its Budget was £333 billion. By 2008-09, the Government's annual expenditure had grown to £618 billion. Every year, the sums required to shore up the house of cards became bigger and bigger. But while the good times rolled, too few cared to notice what was really going on."