Disturbance levels
- 25 Sep 06, 05:34 PM
Students of labour trivia will instantly notice that Cherie鈥檚 alleged comment (鈥渢hat鈥檚 a lie鈥) is exactly the same phrase as that octogenarian peace protester Walter Wolfgang shouted at Jack Straw last year. You鈥檒l remember his fate. The Labour party membership has rather taken him to their hearts and voted him onto the ruling National Executive Committee.
So why wasn鈥檛 Cherie slung out by Labour stewards this year? Well apart from being the wife of the PM, this year Labour has a far more nuanced approach to crowd control. We understand there are five levels of disturbance, each of which will elicit a different grade of response. I don鈥檛 know what they are, but here鈥檚 a guess:
Level 1 鈥 looking bored
Level 2 鈥 eating crisps or other noisy food
Level 3 鈥 booing
Level 4 鈥 swearing
Level 5 鈥 suggesting Gordon Brown may not have the electoral appeal to win Labour a fourth term.
Whatever happens I can't see Cherie being the membership's choice for the NEC next year.
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For me there have been two obvious warning signs about Brown.
1) Its beyond common sense that he didnt know about the Tom Watson affair - the visits, his lack of immediate support for Blair.
2) He talked publically on a train about the loss of his daughter - as Claire Short said with a raw truth, it was about "improving his image" The most important things for me will be what he does about global climate change, social inclusion and then his relationship with the "toon" in the White House.
And no he is not going to "get by with a lie"
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Can anyone confirm that Gordon Brown had an empty platform behind him yesterday while Tony Blair had a well staged backdrop of applauding supporters? Is this stage management or - like the unexplained Realplayer problem which prvents mne watching tonight's Newsnight - pure coincidence?
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