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Posts Tagged ‘Gordon Brown’

Gordon Brown is apparently calling the General Election after the customary visit to the Queen to request a Dissolution of the current Parliament and all I can say is about time too ! We should have had this election in the Autumn (Fall), of last year.

The Media expects it to be a “tight run thing”, with David Cameron’s best hope being a very slim overall majority and the likelihood of a “Hung Parliament” where no Party has an overall majority. I am not so sure and whilst we have a whole host of “newish” variables at play, the consensus is that the least likely outcome is 5 more years of “Bottler Brown” who if he hadn’t been such a coward, would have called an Election in Autumn 2007 and today still have 3 years left to run because he would have won it, then.

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I am a fan of John Rentoul who writes in the Independent today, another highly intelligent well written article which is a pleasure to read about David Cameron and the upcoming election. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-dave-has-always-been-a-good-finisher-1929217.html

One of his points is that the poll swings against the Tories are based upon the average punter thinking: “Government Debt = unreal, means nothing to me. Increased Taxes = The Tories will increase taxes so real, to me”. I think that is probably right, the British public have become increasingly infantile under Labour and their profligate financial policies.

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Being a journalist and having to churn out ‘regular stuff’ to deadlines must be tough but occasionally and the following is a fine example by Matthew Norman in the ‘Indy’, great stuff, brilliant use of language and more than well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-theres-a-charming-symmetry-to-the-latest-new-labour-scandal-1925992.html – enjoy !

I have quoted it before but Napoleon’s question to Marshall Ney on the latter extolling a young Cavalry Officer for promotion, still rings true to this day: “Yes Ney, but is he lucky ?”

In this context and despite the recent narrowing of the opinion polls that seem to indicate that Labour is still in with a chance, I never believed them for one minute. Labour just doesn’t have a prayer and the reason is Gordon Brown, surely the unluckiest of all Prime Ministers and for us the luckiest of citizens when he and his Government are no more.

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They say that a sign of ageing is when Policemen look “terribly young” but I suspect there is another barometer too. As I have got older, I am increasingly incensed by the total lack of intellect in the British Media generally. This is not based upon other people having and promoting different views to my own but simply that in most situations there is an in-built set of ‘circumstances’ that need to be taken into account, regardless of one’s personal views and conclusions.

Today there is an Editorial in the Independent saying that a “Hung Parliament” would be fine : http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-hung-parliament-would-not-be-a-disaster-for-britain-1922247.html

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For all the fuss, I suspect that the outcome of the General Election will still be a Cameron Government, the situation is rather more like the vote in Northern Ireland yesterday over Policing and Justice. For all the fuss made by the Unionists, interventions by George Bush and so forth, the vote got a substantial majority as it had to.

Sure there are doubts, quite serious ones: For Sinn Fein, they needed Policing and Justice to be “local” to undermine the “British Rule” slur put out by dissident Republicans to justify illegal behaviour. The Unionists understood that but doubted whether it would undermine the ‘die-hard’ elements… but really there was little choice in the matter, for good or ill, it was an inevitable step forward albeit it, into the darkness.

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I know that the Independent along with most papers in ‘Fleet Street’ is suffering financial problems since the “paid for by advertising” business model they all relied upon collapsed and to be honest, is not likely to return in the future but, that is no excuse to continue being stupid.

Although it is really a bit of a dead duck, in their main editorial today, Sunday, they return to the Lord Ashcroft story again. The last time they did this, some 90% of the people who wrote in dismissed the story as just Labour Party election campaigning and so on.

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I must admit to becoming a fan of one of the regular Independent columnists John Rentoul because although I think his natural instincts are likely left wing, his approach is very broad and he examines issues without bias and lots of common sense.

Today he was writing on the narrowing of the polls between Labour and the Conservatives, well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-policies-smash-personalities-1912985.html

And another one but if one is crystal ball gazing, well worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-convention-says-voters-like-big-spending-governmentsits-wrong-1912836.html

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Sometimes it might be better not to write some Editorials and a prime example was this one in the Independent today on Lord Ashcroft funding and directing the Tory campaign in over 100 key marginal seats. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-how-money-can-distort–the-democratic-process-1912359.html

The whole Lord Ashcroft thing is rather boring in the sense that the Law bans foreign nationals from funding British Politics for obvious reasons but a British national who arranges his affairs to minimise tax is hardly the same case. Also one might question the Labour Party’s acceptance of the support of Rupert Murdoch and the Sun Newspaper, he is now an American citizen and before that, Australian. Some people do not only write total crap, they obviously think it too.

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On Sunday we shall see Gordon Brown on the Piers Morgan on ITV Show, talking emotionally about the death of his daughter, Jennifer.

The Times in an Editorial has lambasted him for this and for their reasons follow this link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7024184.ece

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