大象传媒

I don't think it's necessarily the end of the road for this government (unlike with John Major's government in the '90s, when it was clear from 1994 onwards that they'd had their chips.

However, whoever's telling the Dear Leader that all people wants is "more of the same" is living in Narnia. Gordon Brown says he's listening - maybe, but he does not hear. The voters recognised that it was time to give the public services some more cash in 1997, and billions upon billions have been poured in to the likes of the NHS and education (along with some perhaps less descerving causes). Whilst it would be churlish to say there has been no improvement, I think it would be equally wrong to pretend that the level of improvement has matched the level of funding.

Although I don't doubt that Gordon Brown genuinely believes his actions have been right for the country, the fact is that he has taxed the country to such an extent that there is now nothing left to raid. He has wasted so much money on nonsense that he now has no scope to reduce taxes when it would really help those of us who actually go to work to pay our own way and the taxes that pay for those who don't.

If the government doesn't see this, and the economy doesn't improve soon, they will lose the next election, and they will decerve to do so as a result of their arrogance.

MY PARTY CRASS OR DUMB

The idea of parties having character, as in 鈥榥asty party鈥� is fitting. But I suggest all parties have more in common with each other, than differential. In the minds of adherents, parties deserve loyalty and allegiance; in return they confer licence (to behave badly in defence of, or furtherance of, the party) and to carry placards and balloons in displays that would embarrass a seaside pier. Clearly, political parties have a lot in common with religions and football teams.
All parties are members of the Westminster Club where games are played with our lives, to agreed rules that would wither and die in the air and sunlight of real life. The root of Britain鈥檚 malaise not nice or nasty parties; it is unspeakably foul and disgraceful Westminster, that we now see seeping into view.

Where has all the money gone? For years Brown has told us that the economy was booming and the boom-bust cycle was over. His ministers are like parrots with clear spin lines. Britain has had enough of traffic warden mentality in charge of the country.

Signs on buses at Gatwick airport say "driver not allowed to carry suitcases for health and safety reasons" represent one of thousands of examples of the madness of New Labour.

In the end, referring to the ordinary decent citizens of Crewe whose only crime was to vote for lower taxes as "bentley driving" and "toffs" represented the last straw with New Labour. With diesel more expensive per gallon than some supermarket wines, and Brown blaming the Sheiks though his taxes account for most of the diesel cost, the voters have reached the end of the line with them.

Lieboar must realise that the writing is on the wall. They and their Common Purpose friends will try to do as much damage as possible during their remaining time in "government".

God knows what the people of Britain have done to deserve this lot.

Their every move must be watched.

DEMAND A REFERENDUM ON THE EU!

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Re-4. Hi Mancroft.
I totally accept the sentiment of what you're saying. But if you want a democ decision on eg. the EU you will have to look outside the 3 old parties IMO. They simply could not offer this as a policy alternative, because of the realities of the way in which they're funded. They've been so hog-tied by ...ahem... sectional interests that that could simply not happen; those of us who seek that type of change to preserve our way of life and national identity, will have to rip it from this corrupt and crumbling system, peopled as it is by unprincipled graspers. That's how it looks to me, now that we have a mugabe form of democracy. Best from grumpy-jon.

@grumpy-jon: I agree. MuggerBrown has thieved democracy from the people of Britain. I really wish people would wake up to the stealth revolution that is going on before it is too late. Stealth - emphasis on the "steal".

Four previous "blogs" on this subject have ended in the e-mail cyber-space so I will try again.

As stiil an active Labour Party member the current hiatus I predicted over a year ago when Tony was in power. The mood then was a feeling of "buggins turn" irrespective of how well or not Labour was doing. Since then things have gone from bad to worse. New leader, new policies, a move to the Left/Right/Centre will have no effect as the fickle voters of Crewe wanted a "CHANGE".

I am getting tired of this easily tripped off the tongue reason why people should vote for Cameron and Obama. Not one political commentator, and that includes Jeremy, has probed what change means and how it is to be delivered. Together with the "We will learn lessons/we are listening" excuse, it really gets up my nose.

As many have said on Newsnight that the only hope for Labour is that when it comes to elect a Government and we can see (if any) Tory "Solutions/Policies" perhaps people will tumble that Cameron has no more idea than Brown. As they say " a week is a long time in politics".

If the swing to Tories is that what has been predicted we will be near to a one party state dictatorship and another 18 years of Tory misrule., but that is democracy.

Personally I have never liked Brown and the way he treated Tony and always "missing" when things got difficult. Worse still will someone stop telling him to smile, it is so false. He should just be himself.

We will see what rabbits he pulls out of the hat before the Labour Party Conference which, by then there could be a move to a new leader, if we can find one.

We live in interesting times as the Chinese proverb says. It keeps the political pundits in a job which is more we can say for the 200 odd Labour MP's.

Our day will come probably in another 20 years time, when the game will be trying to find anyone who actually admitted voting Tory as happened in the Blessed Margaret's time. Perhaps she might take on the Labour Party.

My solution is to offer a major 拢50m transfer fee to Ken Clarke to lead us. What is good enough for Ronaldo is good enough for us. Now there's a thought!!

NO CHANGE

Hi Bill Bradbury. Thanks for some opinion to engage with.

In Brown I see a man who watched Blair (oh how he watched) and thought he saw how easy it was to fool all of the people all of the time.
Poor Gordon, with his limited human function, he had no idea what a consummate con-man Tony was-is. As for the Gordon grin, Blair's was no more genuine, just better executed most of the time.
For all the words to the contrary, I am sure that Blair held Brown in contempt, as a person, just useful as a calculating machine.
Kenneth Clarke, one time health minister, is enriched from tobacco and will accept no criticism. Are you sure you want to buy this man?

Barrie,
Perhaps I was "having a laugh" as at present, I've not much to laugh about. I did think Ken was a good Education minister and not too bad as Chancellor, and he wore brown suede shoes and liked Jazz and a cigar which got up the nose of all the politically correct/nanny state brigade.

Blair was better at smiling than Brown which appears as a grimace/leer.

Brown has caused a lot of strife in my house as both my son, single and low waged and my wife were big losers with the 10p tax, which I raised over 1 year ago with my MP, so what took everyone else so long? Now my wife is again fizzing as her 9 year old KA car is now to be taxed more heavily and mine will be at 拢300/year, which, as I am on a pension. my party is not helping me. We go out less, spend less on food and use our bus passes with abandon, not easily done for those in the country wih no adequate transport.

But I remember the Tories and they will soon revert to type when they gain power. Savings can only be made at the expense of the public sector but of course they need say or do nothing about this until in power and spend their first two terms blaming the previous Government for being unable to reduce our taxes. What's new, you may ask-a trypical politician's trick.

But let us look on the bright side. In two years time Cameron will make everything better, people will cheer (as they did with Blair) and very soon all those fair weather Labour supporters will be wondering why they ever voted for them, which, as I have written, it will be difficult to find who will admit to voting them in.

Boris's promises are already becoming unravalled. I just hope Jeremy et al start to put the Tories under the microscope. I look forward to at least 18 months of excuses by Cameron saying, as he has already done, "You don't expect me to say in advance of a General Election what our policies will be, they will become clear in our manifesto".

That should be the shortest read on record!!?? A snake-oil salesman par excellence.

NEW LABOUR DEFINED

Just heard a bloke on Any Answers describe the New Labour Project as a vehicle to launch Blair into the stratosphere. Somewhere deep in the shadows of Blair's psyche, he knows the truth of that. Sadly very few voters know. The fact that Blair was able to hijack a nation of 60 million people, for that one end, says all we need to know about dysfunctional, fake democracy.

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I do believe I can see the whisper of a strategic thought from Nu Labour.

And it is capitalising on either a mistake, or foolish tack by their opponents and the commentariat who wallow in endless discussions of style over substance (we'll come back to this).

There is now an eminently sensible attempt to point out that you don't have to 'like' a leader, as way too many critiques of Mr. Brown harp on his lack of mates, personality... etc.

I doubt I'd have been swapping anecdotes with Churchill down the boozer, and even in her heyday was more than grateful that Mrs. T was not in my front parlour but running the country. I sure as heck didn't/don't 'like' these political statespersons, but I surely respected them, and felt that my country was being run by them with its best interests at heart.

And there's the rub for this strategy. I may not like Mr. Brown or what he and his cabal of all the talents stand for, but I also have zero respect for them, and can only await with dread the next misguided idiocy that they come up with to run down this country still further.

12. At 3:26 pm on 24 May 2008, brossen99 - '...who prescribe paying for disposable bags..'

Might this include those '... invited to take part in a talk on 鈥渃orporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability鈥�...



'After the speech, Rose jumped into a helicopter, which whisked him to the airport, where he was due to fly out to clubbers鈥� paradise Ibiza for the bank holiday.'

Not just hypocrisy...

Interesting that this is considered 'on message'.

Well, it certainly looks like the end for the current government, but it's not the Tories' doing. Unfortunately, they'll almost certainly be winning the next general election, when it happens, which could be delayed as Brown clings to power....

All about 'image' said, there is also this bit of homely wisdom being spun in some supportive media following the various mitigations broadcast on Sunday's Andrew Marr show: "John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, told [them] that Brown should stand firm because he is a serious person. "I hear he doesn't smile. Well they used to talk about me not smiling: 'miserable beggar'. But I tell you what, when you get on an aeroplane, [do] you go and look in the cockpit, see if the pilot's smiling? Or you just hope there's a pilot there going to guide the plane, fly the plane and land successfully?"

Um... see where he's going. But actually I do a lot more than hope when it comes to enjoying a successful flight, and it's not too surprising that I may opt for another carrier (given the choice) if they are flying the friendly skies and greet you like they want your business. It also helps not to have crash landed on almost every flight.

"I'm going to listen and respond..."

This is not leadership, I'm afraid.

This is Brown's answer to a world that is changing so rapidly that there is no time to 'listen' fail and then 'listen' again.

Brown is a manager not a leader.

If he was really listening he'd resign.

WISDOM OF FOOLS

Prezza also declared that three election victories in a row was what the electorate wanted to see. No John no. It is what excites the politically obsessed likes of you.

Rule 1: gain power by any means.
Rule 2: hold on to power by any means.
Rule 3: govern only in accordance with rules 1 and 2.

Prezza made light of Blair's overt deviousness that wound Brown to a frenzy; I do not. Having absorbed their two characters and the nature of Blair's chosen ones, his contempt for Brown was axiomatic.

Wesminster is a bizarre club, for a weird self-perpetuating sub-set of the population, where games are played with our lives. It is just possible that Prescott's problems arose from the pressure of deceit denied, and viscerally buried, to re emerge as throwing up.

It's not excessive to say as above:" a nasty pary" for the topic discussing. Many "promises" had arised but few things done. Mr Brown should have more efficient action to "consolidate" his chair and his party, or else...

Another week goes by and yet another Corporate Nazi inspired policy is trotted out. This time its the health fascists demanding that tobacco products be removed from display in shops and the end of vending machines in pubs. Packs of ten are also to be banned, but it wont make any difference to young smokers who start for the same reason they always did, to look older. This is more than amply portrayed in one of Harry Enfield's spoof 1930s advertisement breaks, many a true word spoken in jest. Perhaps many people don't care about living longer if their life consists of endless corporate slavery.

Last week it was the safety fascists with 20 Mph speed limits, but no sign of budding eco-fascist Joan Ruddock complaining about the damage to the environment ( 10% increase in CO2 ). However, she was quick to dismiss calls for a cut in fuel duty and would appear to be the driving force behind the proposed Bin Tax.

The only way that the Labour Party can ever hope to win the next election is to ditch the Corporate Nazi ideology and stop pandering to fascist leaning minorities. The Green Party only got 77,000 votes in the London mayoral elections out of almost three million.

People seem to think that a referendum on the EU will solve all the problems. We need to embrace the Euro to stop being cheated and lied to about the prices of items in rip off britain. Look at how all the new members are rushing to join it. We were told that the euro would collapse under the strain and it looks like the opposite is true. The sooner we embrace the fact we are europeans the sooner we will prosper

If you don't know where the moneys gone look no further than an illegal war in Iraq, and other adventures abroad which contribute to continued misery for millions. Guns or butter anyone?

Both, actually. Every war is illegal - thank God for Churchill, but quite what Poland had to do with British interests, I'll never fathom, but some things are just right, legal or not.

Edit: yes, I know, it was actually Chamberlain, but you know what I mean.

SUGGESTION FOR 27 MAY:

A Christian Science Monitor staff writer from Washington suggests, on May 27, that the US and Iran may be heading for talks.

Sanity may be returning to Washington.

A look at the map will show what an important strategic ally Iran could be for the USA.

With half of its population under the age of 25, one suspects that Iran would be much more receptive to the overtures of American culture than to the restrictions of the mullahs.

17. At 1:15 pm on 26 May 2008, Crickomaster wrote: Brown is a manager not a leader.

I'd have to say that, on current evidence, the ability to manage... um, anything... is a tad lacking.