Like Going to a Spa

Bizarre analogy for soliciting International Monetary Fund financing, that some suspect is part of a British de-stigmatization strategy.

Discussing the possibility that Britain may be forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, Andrew Porter, the political editor of The Daily Telegraph, quoted an (unnamed) senior Cabinet member:

Previously a country would only go [to the I.M.F.] if they were in a very bad state. It was a bit like going to accident and emergency to get urgent help. … This new facility will not be like that. It is a bit more like getting well-being care or even like going to a spa to recuperate.

Although British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had previously rejectedspeculation about an I.M.F. bailout, a number of commentators claimed that this latest briefing was part of a strategy to spin public opinion: the influential Conservative blogger Iain Dale declared “Let the Softening Up Process Commence!” and in The Spectator, James Forsyth asked “do they really expect us to believe this?”