Gordon Brown’s Future
It was late on Sunday night, and like everybody else I was wrestling with the issue of the moment.
Would Labour get rid of Gordon Brown? Or would they stagger on?
In just a few hours’ time I would have to hand in my copy, which is now due at breakfast time on Monday, and as the evening advanced, and 10.30 turned into 11, I knew there was nothing for it. I would have to pronounce. Telegraph readers would be entitled to a crisp, clear and categorical conclusion, and so I ransacked the internet for clues.
Here was a statement from Jack Straw, in which he firmly dissociated himself from any plot. And yet here was a brilliant piece by Andrew Porter of this paper, revealing that 30 Labour MPs were already cooking up a killer letter, ready to be unleashed on the PM at the end of August.
By now it was 11.30 and my brain was swimming with data. As if in a trance, I rose from my desk and went down to the kitchen. Robotically I opened the fridge -and there, in the eerie radiance of the fridge light, I saw the truth. In that simple, reflexive act of yanking open the fridge, and beholding the cheese within, I had answered the nation’s question.
No, my friends, the Labour Party will not get rid of Gordon Brown, or not before the next election. The Gordathon will continue until the bitter end, and I came by this certainty as I looked at a pound of refrigerated cheddar.
Let me explain. It is all about survival, and the sacrifices you need to make to prolong your existence. If I am going to see my 64th birthday in 20 years’ time, then it is probably essential that I lose a stone.
And if Labour is going to prevent itself from suffering a Canadian-style wipe-out, then it might well be a good idea to have a change at the top. The Labour rebels do not seem to mind so much about the result of the next election, which they have written off. They care about their own seats, their own survival, and many of them have concluded that they could probably save their seats by whacking Gordon, just as I could probably prolong my life by axing cheese.
But as TS Eliot points out, between the thought and the action falls the shadow. Between the diet plan and the execution, between the idea and the reality, between the plot and the assassination falls the shadow.
It is like our strategy for combating global warming. We find it easy enough to will the end; but can we will the means? I can fantasise about being a stone lighter, and bounding about the tennis court like a greased panther.
But before I get to that state I must make all kinds of brutal choices. It means spurning that late-night cheese, and pushing aside the second helpings, and provoking endless impudent remarks from schoolchildren as I lollop around Highbury Fields.
I can certainly brood about losing weight. I can theorise and strategise, and devise ever more hyperbolical diet agendas. I can outline in detail to my wife the measures I will enact tomorrow – always tomorrow – that will bring about this blessed transformation. But will I actually do it?
My psychological inertia is nothing compared to the quivering invertebracy of these Labour plotters. “This is not the beginning of the end,” said one would-be Brutus as he surveyed the carnage of Glasgow East. “This is the middle of the end.”
Well, another half-week has gone by, Gordon Brown is still in office, and we might as well ask the Labour conspirators where they think we now stand in their timetable of doom. Is this the beginning of the end of the middle of the end? Or is it merely the end of the beginning of the end of the middle of the end?
For most of the next two years, it can be confidently predicted, the story of the Labour Government will be about coups and plots and Cabinet rivals warring for succession. One day we will be told that the armies of Hattie Harperson are mustering in the wings; the next day the media will be talking up the claims of Geoff Hoon – “Who Hoon?”, as Lenin so pungently put it.
One day a female columnist will announce that Miliband has the magnetic good looks to see off Cameron; and the next day a rival female columnist will proclaim that, on the contrary, James Purnell is the man, what with his sideburns and his interesting views on welfare reform.
On and on it will go, day after day, and at no stage will the plotters come within a million miles of actually jugulating Gordon Brown. For all their bluster, for all their off-the-record briefings, they know that the practical difficulties are immense.
They know how tricky it will be to line up those union block votes. They know they don’t really have a better candidate than Gordon Brown. Above all, they know that the British people will not tolerate, at any price, the insertion into No 10 of a second Labour Prime Minister who has yet to test his claims to government at a general election.
It is anti-democratic. It is wrong. It is not a runner. If they perform the switch this autumn, the new leader would have a year or more of trying to explain how he or she had the nerve to be there.
If they save the great switcheroo to the end, the manoeuvre will look like panic, and the rout could be all the greater, and therefore we arrive at the irresistible conclusion, that nothing and no one will prise Gordon from Downing Street save the electorate themselves.
All this came to me in a flash as I opened the fridge. As I stared at the cheese, I had a further inspiration.
It would be easier for me to lose weight than it would for Labour to lose Gordon, and I will bet anyone £100 that I can lose a stone – and tip the scales at less than 15 stone – before Gordon Brown ceases to be PM.
[First published in the Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2008]
123 Comments
Bris – if Labour are saying the truth I leave your Party. If nobody proves otherwise, I accept Labour are saying the truth. And subsequently leave the Conservative Party!
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Boris, that’s it, you’ve been deserted.
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1 letter to the constituecy, I don’t like it anymore.
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Doreen, are you a man or a woman? And what are these LGBT Labour whistles that have “crowds begging for them”? Please may I have one? Sounds like they’d go down really well in Steeple Bumpstead.
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Ooh yes I’d like a whistle too please.
Wizard fun.
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I just do not believe the polls that say more people would vote for the Labour Party if Gordon Brown left. These are probably the same people who were declaring that more people would vote for the Labour Party if Tony Blair left and everything would then be hunky dory.
The Labour Government are collectively responsible for the dreadful state of crime, the stance we took on the war with Iraq, the National Health, the economy, our schools, the way immigration has not been monitored, they were all there all of the time. If they strongly disapproved of the decisions taken by the government, they should have resigned on principle. They all went along with it all, so it is no good trying to dump on Gordon Brown just because he has zero media appeal and a huge personality problem. The people of this country are not fools, and they just want the Labour Party to go.
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Yeah but quite a sizeable chunk of the voting population of this country aren’t that keen on the Conservative party either.
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Party 1 wants civil partnership legalized because it thinks people deserve the right to be committed to each other officially regardless what sex… Party 2 opposes, but the law is established. Party 1 says fox hunting is cruel and should be banned – Party 2 leader opposes strongly. Party 1 says, lil’ Darina should be able to go to the café with her mum and not have to smoke other people’s smoke there, so smoking indoors in public places should not be allowed so as to protect all lil’ Darina’s and their mates, but Party 2 leader, not even thinking of the lil’ kids, says “No, it shouldn’t really, maybe not so strongly…” Party 1 has the idea og NMW – fairer deal, 5.40 for an hours hard work, however, Party2 leader says “Noooooo! That can’t be done! People’s labour can’t be appreciated so much!” Party 1 has the idea of paternity leave – Party 2 says “Not a good idea…” (Not a good idea for fathers and their children to bond????) Party 1 says Lesbian couples should’ve IVF treatment and be able to adopt a child if they so wish, and if they will always put the child’s needs first and love and care for the child, Party 2 says 2 parents of the same sex that can harm a child’s development. Bollards, it’s hardly about gender for kids, all they care about is being loved, being important to their carers, have all their needs met… Party 1 cares about all, Party 2 just families, not marriages, civil partnership, not those who cannot live with others, it only cares about very few. That is the brutal truth. If you can’t see that then what can you all see… I would not leave a party for nothing. I have MOUNTAINS of evidence against the Conservative Party, my friend has been referred to as “your friend with the rubber lips” by the current mayor of London in may when we came from the Ribena festival… I felt like throwing my pie at him if it wasn’t for the sake of eating that lovely pie I would’ve thrown it right at him. 2 other girls also heard him saying what he did. They are Mary and someone else.
I am a member of the Labour Party and so are most of my friends, those who aren’t are not members of any party but would vote Labour. And 2 of my friends are actively campaigning against the Conservatives using the evidence there is what the Conservatives don’t want everybody to know, they’re telling the public one thing and their trusted members another. Now, my friend has previously been in the Conservative Party and knows the secrets and has evidence, and she will be telling all the people she meets about them, should they show any interest in elections, politics, Labour or Conservatives. And I support her campaign, and so do many other people, even her shop.
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I’m a woman, and winning for LGBT Labour and Labour winning for women.
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Jaq the Conservatives are 20% ahead in the polls, they would get a sizeable majority. It is only fair to call an election now. Let the people decide.
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Angela – let the people decide? If only they would – more people voted for Big Brother than in the last election for the government.
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Now I REALLY want one of those whistles. I can spend the day being lesbian / gay / bisexual / transgendered, bonding with children, having IVF, cuddling foxes and shouting at smokers – all for a minimum of £5.40 an hour. Sounds good to me.
Incapacity benefit as well?
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Paul, do you want to go back to 1.20 an hour (todays prices: 1.38 an hour) and do you really think my 3 year old daughter should inhale other people’s smoke, and do you think LGBT people should not have the same rights as hetero sexual people, and do you think that fox hunting should be re-legalized – if so you need to be on the look out for a heart. No Conservatives ever have a heart. And I’m enjoying myself ripping their agenda apart. May they be in front by 20% for now, let’s see how it looks in a year, when I’m finished campaigning, when I release some great information, now, that’s when people realize that the Tories are hiding something, and they won’t like that, that’s because nobody wants to be conned. Do you want to pay for borrowing books and using PC’s in libraries – oh God, I forgot, you must be a toff who simply couldn’t care less. I’m a law student and I DO care! I bet you would never wanna bond with your children, Conservatives don’t bond with their offspring… I’ve seen it all, I know what’s going on, I’ve visited some Conservatives’ houses and seen it all for myself. I know how loveless the all are. I think your comment sounds totally ridiculous, sorry, but it just does.
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I’m already succeeding ripping your arguement apart, I’m looking forward to putting voters off Conservatives. I can be quite successful when it comes to that. You Tories are making such fools of yourselves and that without even realizing how obvious it is!
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Jaq, you say more people vote for BB than voted in the last election – I didn’t know that, but you must be right. It is the evils of spin that have caused the lack of faith in politicians. Alastair Campbell thought he was justified in blackening the names of people who opposed him, he believed the public could be fooled into accepting any version of events he chose to deliver and Tony Blair cravenly went along with this.
However, in the last London Mayor’s election, the turnout was more than twice what it was in the previous election. Public interest was at a very high level, and that was due to the charisma and calibre of the two main candidates, but mostly Boris Johnson. That election was the greatest fun,because you had two candidates, both determined to win, giving it their absolute all, two candidates who could not have been more different in style and character, but each with a devoted band of supporters, who backed them to the hilt and fought to protect their reputations.
David Cameron is also very popular. He campaigned non-stop in recent by-elections and Boris Johnson campaigned 7 days a week to be London Mayor.
Boris Johnson is known to people who couldn’t give a damn about politics who hold him in affection and also admire and respect him. He has huge warmth and brilliant communications skills, he is sincere and has no desire to mislead. If he makes a mistake, as we all do, he apologises and puts it right at top speed, he knows how to bounce back and go on. He is generous to his opponents and never descends to sniping or nastiness.
David Cameron is a totally new breed, brilliant intellect, but also feet on the ground, down to earth, sensible, does the cooking at home and takes an equal share of child rearing. On his holiday, he speeds reads huge piles of books, and asks his shadow ministers to read them too. Both these men make a point of talking straight and they are undoing the poinsonous effects of the spin of the Blair government.
I believe that Boris Johnson and David Cameron are restoring the country’s faith in politicians, they do not talk down to us, or feel we must be spun a false facade. Cameron does not pretend the ills of our economy can be solved overnight, he refuses to promise tax breaks if he feels the country cannot afford them. Boris does not pretend the evils of knife crime can be sorted in a trice. Because of this, the evils of the lies of the last administration will eventually be forgotten. A larger portion of the electorate will become engaged in the national debate and there will be a much bigger turnout.
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Poor Franziska. Were you bullied at school? Or perhaps you had a nasty older brother who locked you in the broom cupboard.
Your puerile twaddle reminds me that socialism is not so much a political system as a mental illness. It’s not too late to seek help, dear.
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This is for Boris toward happiness-oriented policies:
White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951) contends that bureaucracies have overwhelmed the individual city worker, robbing him or her of all independent thought and turning him into a sort of a robot that is oppressed but cheerful. He or she gets a salary, but becomes alienated from the world because of his or her inability to affect or change it. (Mills 1959)
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Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but Yaroo! Hooray! We won the third Test! The first win under KP’s reign! Angel face Stuart Broad took two wickets in S.A’s second innings and Flintoff won the match with a six! Don’t worry Michael Vaughn, you will be back, but I do like K.P’s panache, his brio, his brimming self confidence, he got brash man!
OK back to more suitable subjects……
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Paul if you were bullied at school, it’s over now. I have no brothers, so you probably are the one with an older brother, my twin sister and I get along well, and I got her to join Labour! And as you don’t know me you couldn’t tell whether or not I’m ill, so I assume that again you go by your own circumstances and try and put them onto me like some kind of coat. That’s what useless Tories do, all the time, I’m used to it already. Whenever a Tory is losing an arguement, they get personally offensive and try and insult Labourites. That’s what all Tories do, I haven’t even got a problem with that because it shows that I’m the one who’s got the arguement. Conservatives = a very weak defense.
Cameron and Johnson are assholes, both of them, they’re vermin. I read that both of them oppose the hunting ban, both of them don’t agree with the smoking ban (Darina, man… Darina!) and they only care about themselves and their (rich) British friends. My sister was in the Conservative Party, she left because they looked down on her for being half Danish, half Swedish. Having observed it for myself on one occasion, I can say with 100% certainty that she is not lying or exaggerating. If you’re British or Commonwealth, then the Conservatives care about you, but if you’re not, you’re absolutely snookered, and do they tell you – do they heck. Get in the party and find out, no problem. Get out the party, and the problems are all solved!
Conservatism is the biggest problem of them all, whether we can get rid of that however is a different story.
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Franziska, I totally don’t agree with any point you make, but I am sorry that your sister felt badly treated.
It is patently untrue that Cameron and Johnson only care about themselves, I can’t begin to put that one right.
I am only half English myself, but have received great treatment from my local Conservative party, who thank me warmly when I help. I am sorry if you don’t feel cared about, that is not a good way to feel, but if you read these posts, I have only good things to say about Cameron and Boris Johnson.
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My sister isn’t any English, not even half.
If you have good things to say about these evil two people, then it’s because you’ve got some British in you, and neither me nor my sister do, and that is why the Conservatives treated her like… *blimey* I mean they’d even ask for my sister not to attend the conference – my sister was a member, but not the kind they’d wanted her to be – no British in her. She’s gone – do you really blame her?
These horrible Conservatives wanna try and remember the amount of viking blood in their own venes!!! *Jesus*, their argument is falling apart at the slightest push!
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You are totally wrong about the attitude of the Conservative party to peoples’ nationalities, but I am just sorry that you and your sister have had awful experiences.
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I am not wrong about how horrible, horrible the Conservatives were to my sister. I love her, she means the world to me, and the Conservatives do not deserve to treat someone like MY sister the way they did. I have seen their attitude, how can I be mistaken and my sister about what we saw?? Conservatives do not deserve someone like my sister so she left the party and joined us the ones that do deserve her, we treat everybody with respect.
Regards, the Labour Party
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Franziska, I have some difficulty understanding you or your sister Alida. I must apologise for appearing to dismiss your posts but they do not make much sense to me.
Discussions like this are normally conducted with reasoned argument and clear logic. Sadly I cannot even begin to unravel your thoughts, which seem to be driven by an emotional upset you have suffered.
Who, for instance, is Darina? Your daughter? And who is insisting that she goes into a smokey cafe? For the record, Boris has only expressed the view that any smoking restrictions in pubs should be determined at local level by the landlord and/or local council. A great many people – smokers and non-smokers alike – who want to stop the drift towards a totalitatian state would agree with that. David Cameron has said that he supports the ban in public buildings. So which one of these is trying to hurt your three-year-old? (and I won’t even start on the point that every fit and healthy adult alive today was exposed to smokey rooms as a child with no ill effect).
Where I become totally stuck is your claim that “all Tories (that’s nearly half the population by current reckoning) get personally offensive and try and insult Labourites”, followed by “Cameron and Johnson are assholes, both of them, they’re vermin”. See the irony, Franziska?
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Indeed. So you can taste some of your own. They are horrible. They just are. They can’t expect landlords to recognize children’s needs (how many children isn’t it who go and have a family meal and juice in my local pub on a sunny weekend in the garden or inside if the garden is full up) they are not responsible, there are politicians whose job it is to sort that out, that’s what they’re being paid for, and they’re not getting paid too bad so they can’t even moan. You tried to insult me as far as I remember. I have got no older brother nor any mental health issues, neither does my sis or anyone else in our family. You were very rude to make such assumptions and jump to conclusions. I would rather not have any discussions with you as you can’t articulate properly. No Tories can actually, so I just wanted to say what I knew and leave it at that it lead to you going personal showing what sort of lowlife Tories are so here we go, I’ve also passed it all onto the Labour Party for a long time ago they’ll even campaign using how Tories articulate, I don’t think you did your party any favours there. I dislike the Conservatives very intensely indeed. And there’s not even any law against that (yet).
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Comment by PaulD on August 11, 2008 @ 8:57 am
Poor Franziska. Were you bullied at school? Or perhaps you had a nasty older brother who locked you in the broom cupboard.
Your puerile twaddle reminds me that socialism is not so much a political system as a mental illness. It’s not too late to seek help, dear.
That’s the best laugh I’ve had all day, thanks Paul, excellent.
Franziska – you said “My sister isn’t any English, not even half. If you have good things to say about these evil two people, then it’s because you’ve got some British in you, and neither me nor my sister do, and that is why the Conservatives treated her like…” To call someone evil is very strong indeed, but to tar a political party with the same brush, a political party made up of individuals with a general but not specific commonality of political opinion is just stupid and if it were not so would be highly offensive without justification for each and every Conservative MP. As it is you simply offend all British people with your implied accusation of intolerance. I have had unfortunate boyfriends, teachers and bosses but I do not say that ALL men, teachers and bosses are therefore bad. I would, with respect, suggest you grew up a bit but your writing and grammar suggests someone very young indeed. However, if you are at university (you said you were a law student) then if this expansion of thought and mode of expression is the best you can do then the education system is indeed failing miserably.
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“…how many children isn’t it who go and have a family meal and juice in my local pub” (Franziska)
Children? What are children doing in a pub? If you’re going to force them onto adult turf, you might as well give ‘em something decent to drink like Greene King IPA.
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Jaq I did not say anything about all british! Would you please not make any false accusations? And the educational system is not failing, it’s your racism that strikes me as it’s probably obvious to you that my first (primary) language is Danish, and you’re having trouble putting up with us Vikings in your country. It’s hardly gonna make me feel bad though. If you think I’m stupid, you’re very much mistaken. Also how would you suggest people grow up twice? Just because I grew up in Denmark, and you didn’t doesn’t mean I should grow up once more in order to be having the same bad quality as you had. Good thing that people only grow up once. And I would like to ask you to leave me alone, please.
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Children like Fínn are taken to the pub by their mums, not mine, but some people’s I take my one to the café.
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Hope you don’t mind me logging in as my cousin – she’s Conservative!! because my email address doesn’t seem to work. I hope you can understand why when my email isn’t working – it’s me, Franziska, an I’m a Labourite.
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Franziska – I suggest you re-read your comments and if you want to be left alone then don’t make such remarks on a public weblog. Sit in a wardrobe, maybe..
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You could sit there – the best place for you really! Racist lowlife, that’s all you are. Worthless, racist, unexciting and useless like all of your Tory mates.
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Franziska – time to stop, huh?
I want to say this as kindly as I can, but nobody is being racist except for you. And playing the race-card every time you run out of answers is not in itself the answer. It just trivializes the meaning of the word “racism”.
I do actually have sympathy for some of the feelings you’ve expressed. I think it is hard to be in a country that is not your own and Europeans generally are not very well represented over here at all.
Even among the anti-racism groups (mostly left-wing), there is a pecking order. And Europeans, including those from Eastern Europe, are way down on their list.
But I don’t think that insulting people is acceptable, nor is it going to resolve any problems.
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No, I mean it, racism can be when you’re envious because someone grew up in a nicer country than you did and therefore you wish they’d start over again and grow up in a sh..hole instead. Also I’m not willing to go in a wardrobe. And don’t you ever make any false allegations against me again. If you died, that would solve 50 problems, and another 50 would be solved if jaq died. I just asked that worthless germ to leave me alone, not even that can it handle! I hate to say that I’ve actually even seen how much you Tiry shites hate us vikings, and even forget the amount of viking blood in your own venes! So, never make any more false allegations. You are also barred from all BHF shops, so you know that if you eneter one legal action will be taken.
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A comment from Franziska has been deleted as it was deemed to break the house rules.]
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What if someone grew up in a nicer part of the country than me and I was jealous? Would that be racism? Or a nicer town, or a nicer village, or a nicer house…
A lazy expression, Franziska. And I have to say it’s the first time I have heard of “racism” between Brits, Swedes and Danes – unless you wind back 1,100 years to Eric Bloodaxe.
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Eric Bloodaxe was homosexual, Paul. He was also a socialist and totally against clan leadership. He wasn’t averse to a little horn blowing so the stories go but that might be just legend. Perhaps you were thinking of his sister (or was that cousin? Hard to tell in a small community) Erica Bloodaxe was a ferocious little soul but being small that was understandable – small people often grow up to be resentful and spiteful.
As for me I’ve often longed for tulips (we have canals and such like). I’ve romped over the wilds of Wales and Scotland longing for tulips (ok they’re mostly in Holland I guess but I can’t long for anything else as what you’ve never seen you’ve never missed unless you’ve heard the stories surounding Christopher Hitchens) Yes I’ve climbed the peaks and completely agreed with Austen, but there’s a little part of me, real tiny, that…. OK I’m lying – it’s living in a tent and eating dried reindeer meat I’m all misty-eyed over.
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Jaq, how dare you spread these rumours about Eric? Some of my best friends are axe murderers.
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Well, whatever Franziska’s comments, I’m sure she hasn’t been censored altogether, and I would like to pick up on some topics touched on above.
And no, I have no intention of making generalised comments, but I have to admit that I find it difficult to stomach some of the stuff that’s been written in a couple of right-wing newspapers (apart from the gutter press).
I’m giving 2 examples – the second is that of obvious racism, the first seems to be a question of kicking those already in a weak position.
1) Evening Standard – on smoking
The ES has written on the smoking issue, particularly in the time leading up to the ban. In one instance, it was the tone used that really bothered me – belittling smokers, portraying them as quite useless human beings (particularly in the work-place) and generally trying to demean them.
I wrote to the ES at the time, complaining about the language that was being used, but needless to say, this wasn’t published. OK, maybe it wasn’t written well enough. However, no criticism at all was published, so my suspicion is that only one viewpoint was allowed at the time, while anything opposing that view was, in effect, censored.
Both the language used and the censorship bothered me. It is NuLabour that is getting the blame for the smoking ban, but I don’t really think the fault lies totally in that corner.
2) The Times – on the Poles
A couple of weeks ago (26/7), there was a pretty nasty article written by Giles Coren in The Times about the Poles (“Two waves of immigration, Poles apart”), offensive in both content and tone.
Thankfully, there also follows a whole list of comments in response, criticising the article – not just from Poles, but also many from English and Jewish people. But what I can’t understand is how The Times, which rates itself as a reputable paper, can descend to the level of The Sun and allow one of its columnists to write such idiocies – racist, inaccurate and just plain nasty. My conclusion is that The Times agrees with him and that really worries me.
Now, there may be a lot of hostility towards the Poles at the moment because of the numbers coming over – and this should be discussed, as all immigration issues should be discussed – but it is no reason to condone blatant and inflammatory racism. Although The Times has been asked to apologise, I’m not aware that it has done so and, meanwhile, a lot of harm has been done.
So, yes, I am finding certain aspects of the right wing disturbing. And there’s my moan…
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Lively debate folks! What saddens me reading some of the remarks made by ‘frank’ is that so many people think like this. That it’s okay to attack something you don’t agree with, or understand. By and large BJ has made some very good points. What I adore about him is he really does not evade a question, he answers it. Sadly not many like the answer when they’re in opposition parties to BJ’s Conservatives.
David C is interesting as a leader, certainly he eclipses Brown without effort – the man he truly needs to eclipse is William Hague, for me, WH is a formidable man. If DC could capture just some of WH’s ability to debate he would blow away the opposition without trying.
Ultimately Labour are the tax and spend nightmare – equally though, isn’t it time the rich got taxed more than the working class? Gordo Brown only seems to tax those his party claims to represent.
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Well, spot the elephant in the room. Even Michael Heseltine almost exploded with exasperation on some TV show when trying to make the point to a Labour representative about “ordinary people” being far worse off now (or something to that effect).
Do you know, I sometimes think that the Tories would be better at helping the less well-off than Labour at the moment… But then I say to myself – “Control yourself. Don’t give way to these flights of fancy. They haven’t done you any good before, and they certainly won’t do now…”
But yes, a fairer taxing system would be a step forward, I imagine.
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Helena, they WOULD be better than Labour in helping the less well off, because Gordon Brown has shown what an utter sham any Labour aspirations are in that direction. He may care to a point, but it all takes second to his personal aspirations.
A male friend of mine was talking about why most of the country are so resentful and have so little sympathy for the drubbing Gordon Brown is getting at the moment. He thinks that people sense that democracy has been abused – Gordon was foisted on us without an election, and if we had known the full facts of what he was really like, as we do now, nobody would have wanted him in in a month of Sundays.
If the Labour Party dare to do that again, and foist someone else on us without an immediate election, there will be even more resentment and, he thinks, Labour will be finished as a political party for decades. David Miliband take note.
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Boris, what is your weight in kilograms? Did you know that the original ideas for metric came from an English bishop? Stones come from ancient Babylon.
It also sounds so old-fashioned to use stones for weight, and as I have never used stones, nor been taught about stones (I am 41 and lived in the UK all my life), I cannot comprehend what 15 stones means, other than a collection of small pebbles on the ground.
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Have some pity for Gordon. This is not all of his making, just a lot of it.
The old adage says You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool most of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all the people all of the time.
ADD to that You need to fool enough of the people enough of the time. When the time is up, exit stage left in a lively manner and if possible leave a luckless lad there to distract the audience.
Sorry, Gordon, you have been had by a master.
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Gordon Brown: a man in office, but not in power.
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Boris you are a brilliant writer and i must say possess a very classical knowledge and style. It is a great pleasure to read your works.
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I really have to say thanks very much, because they were talking about this very subject in my politics class today and I was the only one who understood it due to reading Boris’s brilliant wee article prior. I never knew he could be so educational and informative. I’ll ring you up next time I have homework trouble lmao.
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Gordon bROWN: a man having been deserted by a coward when the going was gonna get tough. A man who couldn’t have been more unlucky. If my manager deserted me in a situation like that I would make sure they’d regret doing that. And why are we still paying for Mr Blair being guarded by police? Why can’t he afford his own bodyguard, like, someone private?
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What is needed is a modern Shakespeare to write about the Brown Tragedy. Overweening pride in his ability combined with genuine incompetence. I do think there might be a good line in selling distressed Gordon Brown Teddies to gullible tourists in Oxford street. Sarah Palin as Wonderwoman? I have penned a line if anyone would care to embellish it.
“Methinks ’tis more a tragedy than fair governance”.
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As a confirmed conservative I was very upset to hear of the mayor’s involvement in the resignation of Sir Ian Blair.
Our chief police officer is politically independent or he is not.
Then I think of the desalinization plant that got the go ahead the day after Boris was elected (do we really need more water?), the South London Tram that seem’s to have been put on the back burner the bendy buses that will stay for 10 years or more and the congestion charge that seems to be and be and be, Oh no, we are going to have discussions on wether we should enlarge it or not.Methinks Boris is not really in charge of anything.
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