In some ways it's crude and heavy-handed, blazing with coarse indignation, but in its day it was, creatively speaking, a game-changer.
A senior Russian government official – who spoke to Reuters – said separately that Russia has started supplying grain, equipment and construction materials to Iran in exchange for crude oil under a barter deal.
As a crude pound-per-job ratio, investing in homes looks a shrewder investment, with a new job created for every £300,000 invested compared to more than £1.5m invested in road building.
If so, the gambit would go down badly as a crude blackmail attempt.
He also made several "day one" promises, such as securing the border to curb illegal immigration, rescinding a nuclear agreement with Iran and authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline – the long-in-development crude oil project that has been maligned by environmental activists.
But Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, claimed the sharp crude price falls will be short-lived.
And a passage in Brown's party conference speech was explicitly critical of the crude meritocracy which had been his predecessor's definition of a good society.
"I just did a crude comparison - and it was back when the pound was strong - which is why we ended up with a £25,000 commitment in the UK".
In the dense city and slums, sanitation often means open defecation, the use of bags or chamber pots emptied into rubbish heaps or canals, or the construction of crude, shallow pit latrines – everywhere and anywhere.
Despite Brent crude edging up 0.2% to $94.86 a barrel, the recent falls below $100 have unsettled investors in oil companies.
For me it's raised some questions that I think need a wider debate: Would a similarly crude message be written if the article was about a man?
