These people have absolutely zero credibility, whether they admit mistakes or not.
Gordon Brown was a laughing stock in the City from day 1, because he claimed repeatedly, over many years, to have somehow miraculously ended the business cycle - his mantra was “an end to boom & bust”. To the financially savvy this was the most ridiculous thing imaginable. It’s like me telling you that I’ve abolished the Moon, just because it’s daylight & you can’t see it. Brown’s only job outside of Politics was as a sports journalist, yet he was held up as being some kind of economic guru. And he sucked up to the bankers, telling them how clever they were in 2007, just as the whole system was beginning to collapse, after a 10-year orgy of credit-fuelled asset booms. Brown was, at best, asleep at the controls for 10 years. Tax receipts soared in the Noughties, from this artificial credit boom, and Brown spent every penny of it, and more! He increased public spending by 5% p.a. compound, from 2001 onwards, creating a bloated & inefficient public sector, and somehow managed to still run spending deficits in the boom years. As the tide went out with the banking crisis, and tax revenues collapsed, this left us in the mess we are in today. Of course the bankers were the immediate trigger for the financial crisis, and must share some of the blame, but it was Brown’s job to ensure that the Govt finances were run prudently (something he claimed to do, but in fact actually did the opposite). Britain should have sailed through this crisis with our banks unscathed, and a budget surplus turned into a modest & sustainable deficit. Instead Brown created the biggest boom & bust in living memory, whilst seemingly unaware of what was actually happening. The man was a total charlatan. THIS is what Labour need to ‘fess up to. That they were imprudent, totally incompetent across a broad range of areas, and under their stewardship the UK has plunged into the worst crisis since the 1970’s (which funnily enough was also under Labour’s stewardship when we had to go to the IMF for a Bail-Out). Every Labour Govt in history has ended the same way - with a financial crisis brought about from over-spending. It’s what they do. Every time. I pity the young people starting out in their careers now. A hefty chunk of their lifetime taxes will be used to service (let alone repay) the debt which has been needlessly incurred in the past 5 years. It’s about £500bn at the moment (on top of £400bn existing debt), and will continue to rise for several years yet.
My generation should hang our heads in shame that we will selfishly leave a legacy of over £1trn of debt to the next generation - not to pay for a World War. No, just because we’ve been too greedy to accept more modest public services now. Instead Brown built up a completely unaffordable public sector that future generations will pay for, with interest. They will have correspondingly worse public services. What a smashing legacy. Well done Brown. Let’s hope these dreadful fools are kept away from the levers of power for a generation (at least).

First his brother, now Ed Miliband’s at war with Ed Balls - UK Politics, UK - The Independent