C4 - Gordon Brown, fit for purpose?
15 May 2007, 09:56 AM
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C4 - Gordon Brown, fit for purpose?
Talk about negative publicity! 
The programme was absolutely damning of glorious Gordon with quite a few Labour MPs taking their opportunity to stick the knife in. They painted a picture of an inflexible, grudge-bearing, opinionated control freak who took all the glory for new initatives and then hid behind junior ministers when things fell apart.
Wonder how long he'll stay in office as PM, either voted out by the public or ousted by his own party?
It was interesting to see that quite a few of the Labour MPs he had held grudges against are now dead - Robin Cook, Mo Mowlam....
The programme was absolutely damning of glorious Gordon with quite a few Labour MPs taking their opportunity to stick the knife in. They painted a picture of an inflexible, grudge-bearing, opinionated control freak who took all the glory for new initatives and then hid behind junior ministers when things fell apart.
Wonder how long he'll stay in office as PM, either voted out by the public or ousted by his own party?
It was interesting to see that quite a few of the Labour MPs he had held grudges against are now dead - Robin Cook, Mo Mowlam....
15 May 2007, 10:23 AM
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yup, i thought it was an excellent programme. peter oborne is an old school tory and was probably gunning for an indictment anyway but GB came off very, very badly, much more so than i expected, with only two redeeming features - that he was intelligent and pleasant to the very few close friends he has. otherwise he appears to be a dysfunctional, intolerant, boorish, arrogant and socially inept monomaniac. even if he's only half as bad in reality, that still makes him a pretty odious individual.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
Last edited by Holy Ghost; 15 May 2007 at 10:26 AM.
15 May 2007, 10:35 AM
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in fact, peter oborne is a bit of an oddball himself. i heard him in conversation with david gilmour on radio 2 and all he could keep repeating was "don't you think it irresponsible to have spent your career glamourising drugs to young people?"
apparently oborne doesn't do music of any sort. which is pretty abnormal behaviour in itself.
it was quite bizarre - gilmour was completely non-plussed and so was jeremy vine.
apparently oborne doesn't do music of any sort. which is pretty abnormal behaviour in itself.
it was quite bizarre - gilmour was completely non-plussed and so was jeremy vine.
15 May 2007, 10:46 AM
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Nice summary there HG, in an abstract way he reminded me of a dour Scottish version of Hitler, albeit more intelligent and rather more of the 'socialist' than the 'national'
15 May 2007, 10:50 AM
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yup, i thought it was an excellent programme. peter oborne is an old school tory and was probably gunning for an indictment anyway but GB came off very, very badly, much more so than i expected, with only two redeeming features - that he was intelligent and pleasant to the very few close friends he has. otherwise he appears to be a dysfunctional, intolerant, boorish, arrogant and socially inept monomaniac. even if he's only half as bad in reality, that still makes him a pretty odious individual.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
Alcazar
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15 May 2007, 10:55 AM
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Gentlemen, when you have the top job in Great Britain, and I emphasize the word GREAT, (we live in a marvellous country) it is important to be able to ''roll'' with the punches.
Regards
Gordon
Regards
Gordon
15 May 2007, 11:10 AM
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Since Billy Boy is well and truly sussed out by the vast majority of people in this country, Flash has little choice but to distance himself from the old NL policies. He has got a hard enough job as it is to attempt to get any kind of trust from the electorate.
I reckon we will see a step back to dyed in the wool socialism which will get us nowhere but even further into the red as far as the world economy is concerned.
All we can do is sit back and see what he really aims to do and whether it will actually do some good for the people of this country. We all have our doubts of course. I find his effective lying about each budget by witholding the bad bits from his Parliamentary speeches or at best glossing over them, does not engender any confidence as far as I am concerned.
In the meantime we will have to put up with Billy telling us how good he has been, and he has only done what he thought was best of course, and how he apologises if he has made any mistakes! Pull the other one Sunshine, we have all got your number!
Les
I reckon we will see a step back to dyed in the wool socialism which will get us nowhere but even further into the red as far as the world economy is concerned.
All we can do is sit back and see what he really aims to do and whether it will actually do some good for the people of this country. We all have our doubts of course. I find his effective lying about each budget by witholding the bad bits from his Parliamentary speeches or at best glossing over them, does not engender any confidence as far as I am concerned.
In the meantime we will have to put up with Billy telling us how good he has been, and he has only done what he thought was best of course, and how he apologises if he has made any mistakes! Pull the other one Sunshine, we have all got your number!
Les
15 May 2007, 11:39 AM
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yup, i thought it was an excellent programme. peter oborne is an old school tory and was probably gunning for an indictment anyway but GB came off very, very badly, much more so than i expected, with only two redeeming features - that he was intelligent and pleasant to the very few close friends he has. otherwise he appears to be a dysfunctional, intolerant, boorish, arrogant and socially inept monomaniac. even if he's only half as bad in reality, that still makes him a pretty odious individual.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
the next 12 months will be fascinating - and certainly not dull.
the amusing thing is that brown is now starting to distance himself from blairism, as if he hasn't been an integral part and co-architect of the new labour project for the last 15 years. but then again, a significant tranche of the british public are, and always have been, imbeciles so they'll probably buy it. for a while, at least.
Spot on HG
15 May 2007, 12:07 PM
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;-)
black is white; white is black; 2+2=5. all sounds so familiar doesn't it?
i often wonder if our latest generation of politicians ever stop for a moment and actually critique what they say and how it sounds? obviously not. they have become a different species to the rest of us.
by the way, SNetters may be interested to hear that i (finally) received a reply from the DoT regarding my february letter posted here challenging wee dougie alexander on road pricing.
naturally, the reply was from a civil service policy wonk rather than the secretary of state's office. and naturally, it addressed none of the points raised. and naturally it was another tragic demonstration of the institutionalised way that government now ignores the concerns of the electorate and is irrevocably unable to give anything approximating straight answers to straight questions. it made me angry, resentful and resigned in equal measure.
i'll post his reply when i have a moment. along with my frank response. because it deserved one.
;-)
black is white; white is black; 2+2=5. all sounds so familiar doesn't it?
i often wonder if our latest generation of politicians ever stop for a moment and actually critique what they say and how it sounds? obviously not. they have become a different species to the rest of us.
by the way, SNetters may be interested to hear that i (finally) received a reply from the DoT regarding my february letter posted here challenging wee dougie alexander on road pricing.
naturally, the reply was from a civil service policy wonk rather than the secretary of state's office. and naturally, it addressed none of the points raised. and naturally it was another tragic demonstration of the institutionalised way that government now ignores the concerns of the electorate and is irrevocably unable to give anything approximating straight answers to straight questions. it made me angry, resentful and resigned in equal measure.
i'll post his reply when i have a moment. along with my frank response. because it deserved one.
15 May 2007, 12:34 PM
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;-)
black is white; white is black; 2+2=5. all sounds so familiar doesn't it?
i often wonder if our latest generation of politicians ever stop for a moment and actually critique what they say and how it sounds? obviously not. they have become a different species to the rest of us.
by the way, SNetters may be interested to hear that i (finally) received a reply from the DoT regarding my february letter posted here challenging wee dougie alexander on road pricing.
naturally, the reply was from a civil service policy wonk rather than the secretary of state's office. and naturally, it addressed none of the points raised. and naturally it was another tragic demonstration of the institutionalised way that government now ignores the concerns of the electorate and is irrevocably unable to give anything approximating straight answers to straight questions. it made me angry, resentful and resigned in equal measure.
i'll post his reply when i have a moment. along with my frank response. because it deserved one.
;-)
black is white; white is black; 2+2=5. all sounds so familiar doesn't it?
i often wonder if our latest generation of politicians ever stop for a moment and actually critique what they say and how it sounds? obviously not. they have become a different species to the rest of us.
by the way, SNetters may be interested to hear that i (finally) received a reply from the DoT regarding my february letter posted here challenging wee dougie alexander on road pricing.
naturally, the reply was from a civil service policy wonk rather than the secretary of state's office. and naturally, it addressed none of the points raised. and naturally it was another tragic demonstration of the institutionalised way that government now ignores the concerns of the electorate and is irrevocably unable to give anything approximating straight answers to straight questions. it made me angry, resentful and resigned in equal measure.
i'll post his reply when i have a moment. along with my frank response. because it deserved one.
I was discussing your first statement on Sunday, the one abiding political result of the last 10 years has been a gradual rush to being totally unaccountable for lies, improprierties and downright negligance when it comes to any senior politician who is *needed* with Blairs framew*rk of progress.
15 May 2007, 01:37 PM
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I was discussing your first statement on Sunday, the one abiding political result of the last 10 years has been a gradual rush to being totally unaccountable for lies, improprierties and downright negligance when it comes to any senior politician who is *needed* with Blairs framew*rk of progress.
bizarre isn't it? the only way i can rationalise it is thus.
whether a policy succeeds or fails, is appropriate or stupid, tell the people it's a success, it's needed - or both. whether a minister is competent or incompetent, tell the people he's competent and that it's others who are at fault.
what's behind this, i think, is a deliberate strategy that if you say the same thing often enough and make sufficient people state-dependent through policy, then you have sufficient electoral resource to stay in power.
NL came to power with a view to staying in power, at all costs - rather than actually governing - despite presentation to the opposite. it's very ugly and demonstrates the bitter, grasping, anti-democratic, statist and intrusive socialist flesh that lies under blair's scab of acceptability. the result is the sort of creeping, sclerotic inertia that made segolene royale unelectable in france.
and prescott will still grasp tightly onto his peerage ...
15 May 2007, 01:56 PM
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15 May 2007, 01:57 PM
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hey, mystic meg! ;-) nope. just when you think the left can't get any worse than the paralysis of callaghan, the lunacy of foot and the comedy of kinnock, this lot plumb new depths of slow-reveal, dishonest ineptitude.
give me principled, fair-minded, liberal, small government, common sense, free-market conservatism with a small c any day.
but where can i find it? i can't see it. can you?
sometimes i think a good dose of anarchy might be a useful reboot.
hey, mystic meg! ;-) nope. just when you think the left can't get any worse than the paralysis of callaghan, the lunacy of foot and the comedy of kinnock, this lot plumb new depths of slow-reveal, dishonest ineptitude.
give me principled, fair-minded, liberal, small government, common sense, free-market conservatism with a small c any day.
but where can i find it? i can't see it. can you?
sometimes i think a good dose of anarchy might be a useful reboot.
15 May 2007, 02:01 PM
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15 May 2007, 02:03 PM
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15 May 2007, 02:03 PM
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'Big Government' is about to get a whole lot BIGGER - inflated to a size few can imagine at this stage.
15 May 2007, 02:07 PM
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