Brown Claims Responsibility For Falling Oil Price

Our glorious leader Gordon Brown, desperate for a bit of positive publicity, claimed Friday that the government "had had some success in getting the price of oil down," adding "I want these price cuts passed onto the consumer, and passed on as quickly as possible."

Brown failed to elaborate on exactly how he'd single-handedly fixed the price of oil to fall.

Maybe he meant that by taxing petrol at 81.5% he'd finally managed to get us all to start consuming less of the stuff.

The prime minister's statement came on the same day that the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its forecast for oil demand growth to its lowest level for 15 years.

Crude fell almost $9/barrel Friday thanks to Gordon's best efforts to close at $77.70/barrel in New York, Brent finished around $8.50/barrel lower at $74.09/barrel.

Crude has now fallen 47% from its all-time high at the beginning of July.