Not «full» responsibility

Gordon Brown hasn’t used the word “sorry”. But the UK prime minister has said he takes “full responsibility” for his role in the economic crisis, in an interview in the Guardian. That counts as an apology of sorts. The snag is that Brown’s mea culpa is too narrow. The only specific failure he admits to was not pressing for tougher global supervision of banks after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. That was certainly an error, but not the only one. It is easy to see why Brown focuses on the “g...