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Posts Tagged ‘Gordon Brown’

This week sees the publication of Alistair Darling’s memoirs covering the period that he was Chancellor when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. Along with previously published tomes of the like from those who were intimately involved with the “New Labour” Government, it does not make for good reading.

That Gordon Brown was/is a dysfunctional creature with a far greater opinion of his own abilities than the facts demonstrate is by now a “given” and from that arises perhaps the most interesting question of the lot, the one raised by John Rentoul writing in The Independent on Sunday: “Why wasn’t he stopped ? http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-why-did-nobody-stop-gordon-brown-2348855.html

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My previous entry touched on my views of the “A” Level results and how inappropriate is our current Higher/Further Education setup which needs to be refocussed on high quality and challenging advanced training rather than dodgy and over priced degrees.

I now want to focus in on two very interconnected groups of people: Consumers and the Businesses that serve them because clearly, the expectations and behaviour of both need a radical overhaul in the light of a totally changed economic landscape. However and before that, a story I have told before about a very wise Chinese Gentleman I once met back in the 1960s.

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Having been away from the UK for the best part of a month and although I did browse the news from “back home” over the web, I don’t think that I felt that much engaged any more than I did with the Tracy Anthony trial taking place in the US whilst I was there. However since my return a week ago, you soon get involved even though as with myself, I haven’t turned the TV on even.

Does this give me extra objectivity in looking at the News International/News of the World Scandal ? I don’t know but I do find it a curious spectacle that speaks all too loudly of “Tears before bedtime” all round…

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The latest bit of scandal that has fallen into the hands of the Daily Telegraph concerns leaked papers from the “Desk of Ed Balls” that chronicle his involvement in the coup/negotiations to remove Blair and replace him with Brown after the 2005 Election. These papers include hand written notes by Brown commentating on Blair’s written proposals in a highly derogatory manner.

When approached by the media, Balls was his usual simpering, denying self, a pose we have seen before. Of course there was no plot, these were just part of the normal political negotiations between two people who disliked each other, I was just helping… Yes Pinocchio and what is this really about ?

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It is interesting just how many on the Tory Right have muttered complaints that “…If only Cameron had been more right wing, we would have won a majority…” Oddly, it is matched on the Labour Party side by those that feel that their ‘salvation’ lies in being ever more “Leftie” but of these two extremes, the Labour one is more threatening to it than the right wing Tories are to Cameron.

In the end and as Blair that ultimate “Champagne Socialist” showed, success at the ballot box and jobs for Labour boys and girls, trumps supposed “party principles” every time !

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Although and to be fair, they are not the only ones, the BBC yesterday made much heavy weather of what is a provisional figure for GDP at – 0.5% for the last quarter of 2010, today’s Independent in an Editorial really took the biscuit: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-economic-contraction-will-have-political-consequences-2194338.html

If the “Media” is in dire straights and therefore needs to dramatise every little thing, I suggest they concentrate on their favourite market “Celebrities” – “Celebrity X from Reality Show Y, passes wind as she leaves China Whites…”, rather than serious stuff like the economy which is way outside their comprehension even if a broadsheet it seems…

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This I mean on both accounts, Alan Johnson having to resign as Shadow Chancellor and Ed Balls taking over his post as Shadow Chancellor. Although I have never been a fan of Johnson or, “Postman Pat”, he always looked to me as if he should have a bell on his hat and a fishing rod, the manner of his going is in personal terms, very sad and I am sorry for him on that and wish him well.

As to Ed Balls returning in the No.2 role to Ed Miliband as Shadow Chancellor, that is truly sad for the Labour Party and absolutely, hilarious for the Coalition Government. As they will become increasingly unpopular in the polls because of the economic medicine they have to administer and the public regardless of political persuasion ‘acknowledge’ it has to be done, George Osborne will face an unrepentant Brown ‘clone’ so for them, it must amount to a “Bring it On !” One wonders whether Balls is bright enough to see that before he falls in it..

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The oddest thing about Labour going into Opposition is the complete absence of Gordon Brown, this “Political Colossus” as he was often called has disappeared from from the face of British politics. That he would continue on the backbenches as an MP is rather like a Lottery Winner swearing to carry on with his job as a Dustman, is likely a load of bullshit as well as not terribly practical. It reminds me of a description of “Fame”: Stick your hand in a bucket of water, swish it all around and then remove your hand. Once the water has settled again, no one knows that your hand was even there.

It was amusing to see Harriet Harmon as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, standing in in the debate on the Queen’s Speech. Obviously the Labour Party is still in some disarray following its defeat and a prolonged Leadership Contest which will drag on for 4 months, just won’t help too much either. Also set against the background of David Cameron positively glowing and growing in the role of Prime Minister.

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With Gordon Brown’s departure from Downing Street yesterday and his also standing down as Labour Leader with immediate effect, there will be a Labour leadership contest in the fairly immediate future and this raises some interesting forward projections.

Donald Macintyre wrote an article in the Independent on this but frankly, I don’t think that he has got the right angle on it. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/donald-macintyre/donald-macintyre-labours-leadership-needs-the-stamp-of-a-genuinely-new-era-1971404.html

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We have really been in “Election Mode” since the start of the year and I’m afraid that I am still of the opinion that if Brown had cared a fig for this Country, he would have called this last Autumn even though he would have lost then as he will today. The delay has placed us in both deeper and more dangerous waters, a new Government will have to follow Ireland’s lead to avoid Greece’s Fate.

Of course the other issue concerns just what the British Electorate decide, I suspect already have decided and whether we get a majority Tory Government or a Hung Parliament with another election within the year. I will be particularly interested in just how accurate the Polls have been of whether people have lied to them deliberately, we shall know all by tomorrow !