Blair on Brown

A devastating article in the Sunday Mail. According to it

The Darkness in Gordon's Heart and his lies will bring him down.

The article also says

Friends of Mr Blair say he has been 'saddened' by Mr Brown's performance and believes that he has failed to show the necessary leadership or policies.'Gordon's performance has confirmed Tony's reservations about his suitability to be PM,' said one source.'He hoped he would be a success and has tried to support him and offered what advice he can. But he always feared Gordon may not have the right temperament or character to do the job and that's how it has turned out.'Another source close to Mr Blair claimed Mr Brown's wounds were 'self-inflicted'. He added: 'Tony's view is that Gordon has brought this all on himself. He spent years plotting against Tony and is in no position to complain now that it is happening to him.'The people trying to get him out learned how to do it from Gordon's people. It takes a moment to inject the poison, but years to drain it.'

This is just one of a series of articles in many of the papers indicating that the whole Cabinet is fighting and briefing against each other. Total chaos is reigning and yet our Prime Minister keeps insisting they are getting on with the job. In fact it is a living death, a cabinet of zombies, paralysed by fear and loathing of each other.

FFS Gordon just Go Now.


Blair: The darkness in Gordon's heart will bring him down | Mail Online

The Drip Drip Drip Water Torture of Gordon Brown

The Drip Drip Drip Water Torture of Gordon Brown is continuing. Already tonight we have this story of a series of leaked emails sent by Lord Mandelson, he reveals:

• Gordon will lose the next election.
• the PM cannot do "X-Factor politics" of his predecessor Tony Blair.
• he slams his leadership style.
• Brown is "complex", unable to hide his insecurities and too self-conscious.
• voters are put off because they think Brown is "angry".

The devastating comments were sent in emails to disgraced former spin-doctor Derek Draper, the man behind the "Mcbridegate" smear scandal.

Next we have this story, again in the News of the World about senior cabinet Ministers facing election under Brown and Labour.

ICM polled in the parliamentary seats of the Cabinet - and in Gordon Brown's back yard.

This is the first poll to show how voters in crucial seats will behave in a General Election.

And the poll shows these previously loyal voters - in previously safe loyal seats, want Brown out.

A massive 12% from Labour to Tory will unseat many of Brown's most senior Cabinet Ministers.

That would unseat SEVEN Cabinet Ministers - the same as Labour managed to kick out when they beat the Tories in 1997.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Work and Pensions Secretary John Denham, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and Scottish Jim Murphy will all lose their seats.

We also have reports that Harriet Harman was not happy. Tory Bear says

Gordon's desperate reshuffle is unraveling quicker than one of his budgets. Sources have let it be known that Harman came very close to quitting and was prepared to walk if Gordon had made Mandy Deputy Prime Minister. The idea of this was openly discussed and Harman got her claws out.

What more torture can we expect for Gordon today, whilst he is away in France lauding Obama and being booed by Veterans.

Peter Mandelson tells closest former aides that Gordon Brown cannot win the next General Election | News | News Of The World

A Man to be Proud of .....

It's amazing to see this true gentleman at 113 still being so full of life and energy. Happy Birthday Mr Allingham.

The oldest survivor of the First World War, Henry Allingham, is celebrating his 113th birthday with a party organised by the Royal Navy.

The veteran soldier also holds the record as the last survivor of the Battle of Judland, the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service and the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force.

The Royal Navy and the RAF take it in turns to host Mr Allingham's party and this year it is being held at HMS President, a building overlooking the River Thames, near London's Tower Bridge.

World War One's Oldest Survivor Henry Allingham Celebrates 113th Birthday With Royal Navy | UK News | Sky News

D-Day Remembered

Ronald Reagan's finest and most moving speech.

we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Winston Churchill.

Flipping Trougher Brown

How convenient the Telegraph has this to be buried tomorrow.

Mr Brown, who "flipped" the designation of his second home before moving into Downing Street, submitted an estimated electricity bill for his home in Fife which partly covered a period when his London flat was his designated second home.

He also claimed for council tax and service charge bills for his London flat which included periods when his second home was in Scotland.

In total, Mr Brown appeared to make claims totalling £512 for the "wrong" properties.

As the Telegraph says

It is a humiliating blow for the Prime Minister, who publicly rebuked Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, this week for doing a similar thing.

It would have been even more humiliating if had been released before the elections.


mps expenses: Gordon Brown billed taxpayer for two second homes - Telegraph

Bob Ainsworth Paxoed

A Total Incompetent led by a Complete Incompetent. Gordon has shown his utter contempt for the Armed Forces by this move. Repost of this old blog.


YouTube - Bob Ainsworth Paxoed

The peculiar irony of New Labour's endgame

Marina Hyde writes an interesting article in the Guardian today, which reflects on the fact that

The peculiar irony of New Labour's endgame is that it was all foretold by an accidental prophet named Tony Blair. "My project will be complete," he once declared, "when the Labour party learns to love Peter Mandelson."

Today we saw Lord Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool installed, in all but name, as the No 2 to Gordon Brown. Unfortunately he is surrounded in the Cabinet and his party by a bunch of Toadies, Has-Beens, Never-Beens, and those who have simply been promoted way beyond their capabilities. Truly a Government of absolutely no talent.

The article also reflects upon the issue that

"We are witnessing the final self-destruction of what those who ­created New Labour were given to calling 'the Project', apparently oblivious to the Orwellian overtones of the phrase. Then again, perhaps they weren't ­oblivious – after all, the Project appeared to be closely modelled on the Party, which, you will recall, 'seeks power entirely for its own sake'"

This is so true of Gordon Brown and his party who cannot see the damage they are doing to our country. They cannot see that they must, instead of trying to save their own skins, save our country from the abyss that it is rapidly descending into. They need to unite together and throw us a lifeline by getting rid of Gordon. As Marina says

The Project is complete. It was never about ideas, as became ­depressingly clear to many of us well before the 1997 election. The Project was the formal expression of the gut instinct for survival in power. Its sole aim was to make Labour ­electable, and the manner in which it realised that ambition has now left it even more ­unelectable than it was before its inception.

The problem is that not only is Labour unelectable, as has been amply demonstrated today, but that they are also not fit to Govern. When they rely on 7 Lord's a Leaping and a plethora of non-entities, all led by someone who has no aim but to further himself as a man of history, it is time to call for the Grim Reaper to dispatch this malfunctioning and self-destroying Government. As Marina Hyde says as the end of her article

Think not of it as a murder, but a fated suicide.

Let us only hope it is not a long-drawn out affair as our country is in need of change.

Misery. It's Gordon Brown as Kathy Bates. And Westminster as Lilliput | Marina Hyde | Comment is free | The Guardian:

Lies, Damn Lies and Ainsworth lies

A pointer to an old blog entry This is a typical bit of Ainsworth lying and he is gong to be our Defence Minister. He is not worthy to lick the lowliest of our squaddies boots. As I said then

This is just yet further news of the deep and dirty corruption that stains this government. Bob Ainsworth should resign immediately and Gordon will need to issue yet another apology for his stinking corrupt Government.

Go now

MicroShaft Blog: Lies, Damn Lies and Labour lies that kill

When Sugar wasn’t so sweet on Gordon

Amazing what a peerage can make you do. Arise Sir Alan, hopefully you'll soon be fired as you are nothing short of a lickspittle.

FT has this

This is absolutely hilarious. The Tories have found Sir Alan Sugar’s scathing letter about Gordon Brown to the FT in 1992.

“I have noted with disgust the comments of a certain Mr Gordon Brown who has accused me of doing well out of the recession….I do not know who Mr Gordon Brown is. Excuse my ignorance, but I don’t. Whoever he is, he has not done is homework properly. The man doesn’t know what he is talking about….Labour offers no route out of recession.”

Go Now

FT.com | Westminster Blog | When Sugar wasn’t so sweet on Gordon

Party First Country Second

George Osborne commenting upon the continuing disintegration of this Country's Government had this to say at lunchtime today.

The government is disintegrating, and accused Labour of acting in a “self indulgent” manner, putting the party’s interests ahead of those of the country.

“The real story of today, as well as the election result, is the meltdown and chaos in the Labour government.

He said Labour are acting in a “self indulgent” manner, “putting the Labour party’s interests ahead of the country interests”.

On Gordon Brown’s position he said, “if he survives this he will be in a desperately weak state. He won’t have the Cabinet he wants, he won’t have the Chancellor he wants.

“The British government is disintegrating in front of the eye of the British people. We need a strong and united government.”

FFS Go Now Gordon.

PoliticsHome | On Air Today

Cabinet of Has-Beens, Toadies and Cliques

Fraser Nelson in the Speccie has this

It looks increasingly likely that this will be a Cabinet of has-beens (i.e. Beckett); clique members (Balls, Cooper, Vadera and - God help us - Alan Sugar); and toadies (Sean Woodward). Cameron's lot will look like veritable titans compared to this new axis of pygmies being assembled in No10. For the Tories this gets better and better.

More reshuffle snippets | Coffee House

Lincolnshire Massacre for Labour

Conservatives in Lincolnshire gained a further 15 seats whilst Labour lost 17 seats. Labour overall vote dropped like a stone, nearly halving from 20.8% to 11.1%.

Lincolnshire is the county of my birth so it's good to see it contributing to the slow death of our Prime Minister Gordon Brown. If this is repeated across the rest of the results it will leave him with little choice but to scuttle along to the Palace and as David Cameron said

For the sake of the country, Gordon Brown must carry out the one final act of authority left open to him, go to the Palace and call the general election we have been demanding.

Go Now!

Results for the County Council Election 4th June 2009 | Lincolnshire County Council

Britain Needs Better - Go Now

Final thoughts of the night from David Camero.

First a Quick Video


Then some Quotes

• For the sake of the country, Gordon Brown must carry out the one final act of authority left open to him, go to the Palace and call the general election we have been demanding
  

• United government was needed to deal with the recession and political crisis. Instead we have a government falling apart in front of our eyes. Britain deserves better than this.

• the government is "falling apart" after the third resignation by a cabinet minister in three days.

Go Now!

BBC NEWS | Politics | Cabinet falling apart - Cameron

The half-dead prime minister - Polly Toynbee

Another killer blow from the Guardian and Polly Toynbee

Inside the party this is a miserable debate of the despairing, most of whom agree their prime minister is leading them to calamity. The dismal question is whether the chaos of a second regicide might bring yet worse voter revenge than soldiering on with a leader who rates lower than any other since polls began. For a while yesterday, Hazel Blears's selfishly-timed resignation with her rude "rock the boat" brooch send shudders of revulsion through some in the party. Was this a Blairite putsch? Purnell, as a second Blairite assassin, will not calm those fears among some.

Go Now!


The half-dead prime minister | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Gordon Brown: The endgame nears

Guardian says it is the endgame

"Any prime minister, however powerful, serves as a member of a cabinet. When that cabinet loses faith in him or her, and its members start saying so in public, the leader cannot stay. Gordon Brown must face this reality today, after losing three cabinet ministers in three days, attempting to terminate his chancellor's career in public and reportedly offering a series of posts to people who refused to take them. Tonight's dramatic resignation of James Purnell, the welfare secretary, was a massive blow, a deliberate full-frontal attack. Even a strong leader would struggle to survive it, and Mr Brown is not that."

When will he realise, he is past his sell by date. Three ministers already, Miliband rumoured, Burnham rumoured. More than 50 MP's rumoured to have signed the resignation letter.

Go Now!

Gordon Brown: The endgame nears | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian:

Rumours Andy Burnham will be next to go;

LabourList rumours that

Rumours are spreading within the Party tonight that Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, is likely to resign from the cabinet over the next few days. He would be the sixth minister in as many days to step down after Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell left the government tonight.

Meanwhile, Radio 5 and Sky News are both strongly hinting that David Miliband may also step down in the next few days.

Burnham and Miliband were both staunch Blairites during the 1990s.

Rumours Andy Burnham will be next to go; Reports Miliband could follow | LabourList.org

Why Purnell resigned

According to Fraser Nelson in the Spectator

"I can reveal that James Purnell was offered education, which he turned down, and decided to resign because he couldn't go on continuing to support a PM whom he'd lost faith in months ago.

It's an open secret that Purnell supported David Miliband for the leadership last summer. And reports of Miliband's resignation make sense - four resignations in four days.

If Purnell was offered education, that means Ed Balls has porbably been offered the Chancellorship. My hunch is that this was likely to be the trigger for Purnell and many other ministers.

Brown got rid of Blair by getting private secretaries to resign hour after hour. It seems Brown is going to go after ministers resign day after day."

Why Purnell resigned | Coffee House:

RUMOUR: David Miliband to resign Friday

The word on the street which I haven't confirmed is that David Miliband will go tomorrow.

RUMOUR: David Miliband to resign Friday | Coffee House

Guardian thinks it's all Over

Guardian says

But there is more to it than this. Purnell has long argued it is time to discard the old tropes of Brownite and Blairite.

And if Purnell has been talked about on the right of the party, then Jon Cruddas can be broadly defined as on the left. Cruddas is known to be in a quandary about how to respond to the Hotmail plot. However, in the last year, Cruddas has been very complimentary about Purnell – regarding him to be a Blairite the left could be able to do business with. Purnell's ascension to the backbenches will add to the many meetings Cruddas has been convening in the last few days to figure out what to do.

"This coup has no legs," said one Brown supporter yesterday. Purnell has given it very long legs.

How James Purnell's manoeuvre changes everything for Gordon Brown | Politics | The Guardian

Open Revolt against Gordon Brown

Two seconds after the polls closed James Purnell resigns and calls for Gordon Brown to

Stand Aside

James Purnell's letter reads

Dear Gordon

We both love the Labour Party.

I have worked for it for twenty years and you for far longer. We know we owe it everything and it owes us nothing.

I owe it to our Party to say what I believe no matter how hard that may. I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more not less likely

That would be disastrous for our country. This moment calls for stronger regulation, an active state, better public services, an open democracy.

It calls for a government that measures itself by how it treats the poorest in society. Those are our values, not David Cameron's.

We therefore owe it to our country to give it a real choice. We need to show that we are prepared to fight to be a credible government and have the courage to offer an alternative future.

I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our Party a fighting chance of winning. And as such I am resigning from Government.

The Party was here long before us, and we want it to be here long after we have gone. We must do the right thing by it.

I am not seeking the leadership, nor acting with anyone else. My actions are my own considered view, nothing more.

If the consensus is that you should continue, then I will support the government loyally from the backbenches. But I do believe that this question now needs to be put.

Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving.

Yours

Rt Hon James Purnell MP

This must be the death of Gordon's reign. He should just Go Now before he takes this country into an even deeper abyss.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Pressure on PM as minister quits

A very British form of anarchy

A delightful read for a voting morning. Remember Vote Conservative!

The days when pretentious gits like me invoked tragedy in a Gordonian context have long since passed. Tragic heroism relies upon a certain largeness of spirit, or at the very least a sudden moment of self-knowledge so acute that it induces intolerable psychic anguish. Ajax slaughtered his sheep when made aware of his fatal flaw, Oedipus put out his eyes when faced with his. Despite his ocular head start in that direction, Gordon is as nugatory a figure as Nero, fiddling with ritualistic lines at yesterday's PMQs while his government self-immolates.

It's the smallness of the man, the lack of grandeur in his dreams, the pathetic dressing-up of rank self-interest in the translucent cloak of dutifulness, that makes guilt-free schaudenfraude less a temptation than a moral obligation. For this has become a morality play – specifically, the first morality high farce in politico-theatrical history - about a system so deranged in its complacency that it gifts such power to one whose personal ambition is surpassed only by his lack of talent, without any mechanism to remove him once that power has drained away.

H/T Mr Eugenides

Matthew Norman: We are witnessing a very British form of anarchy - Matthew Norman, Commentators - The Independent

Why bother with UKIP when you can get the Real Thing

Why bother with UKIP when you can get the Real Thing.



Tomorrow at the EU elections vote Conservative to get the Real Thing.

EU Manifesto here.

YouTube - David Cameron: We need a referendum now

Go Now Gordon -Don't sit about

The Telegraph asks if Gordon could sit this crisis out?

As it says

As Anthony King, constitutional historian and professor of government at Essex university, puts it: "No one alive can remember a crisis quite like this one. Prime ministers have been in deep trouble before – for instance, Sir Anthony Eden in 1956, and John Major a decade ago – but they have never been in such trouble in the midst of an economic crisis and when the legitimacy of Parliament itself was called in question. There is also no precedent since the 19th century for a government and a governing party disintegrating so publicly.

Let us hope he finally has the chair kicked out from under him by his spineless colleagues.

Gordon Brown: Even now, he might sit it out - Telegraph

Stating the Bleeding Obvious - Too Little too Late

The BBC's Nick Robinson has obtained a copy of the email being circulated amongst Labour MPs to test support for the prime minister. It is reported to consist of the following short message to Gordon Brown:

"We are writing now because we believe that in the current political circumstances you can best serve the interests of the Labour party by stepping down as prime minister."

PoliticsHome | News | Labour backbenchers' letter to Gordon Brown

Letter to the Guardian

A letter in the Guardian from a Mr Aitchison of Hove, East Sussex has this to say

Do I notice an increasing amount of anti-Gordon Brown sentiment in the Guardian's editorial content of late? Whatever his faults, Mr Brown strikes me as a man of integrity - something increasingly rare in UK politics nowadays. While we're at it, does anybody seriously believe any of the other political parties would have avoided the credit crunch - or indeed handled it any better now that it's here?
Stuart Aitchison
Hove, East Sussex

Perhaps Mr Aitchison has had his letter answered by the slightly anti-Gordon Brown Guardian editorial in the same issue when they say "Labours Dilemma: Gordon Brown".

Amongst some of the choice quotes are

The public is calling furiously for a better system. People want an honest parliament. They want leaders who are prepared to act. They loathe the old system, and many of the people who are part of it.

and

The truth is that there is no vision from him, no plan, no argument for the future and no support. The public see it. His party sees it. The cabinet must see it too, although they are not yet bold enough to say so.

and finally

But Mr Brown will never do it. The prime minister was absent from the start of the debate and cautious now he has joined it. His instinct is usually to hesitate, and to establish reviews and commissions. Meanwhile, the chance of a generation is being missed.

Mr Aitchison may now just about have got the idea. Hopefully the rest of the country will get the idea and continue to tell Mr Brown to go on Thursday.

Letters: Not the time to drop the chancellor | Politics | The Guardian

Another little Earner for MEP's

MEP's who "retire" or are voted out this Thursday along with those caught with their hands in the very deep pockets of European Expenses and the generalised fraud (anybody signed off their accounts recently?) that characterises the European Parliament can expect to pick up their share of various "pots" of money set aside to make sure that they continue traveling first class on the gravy train that is the EU.

As the Times explains

Den Dover, who was expelled from the Conservative Party for gross misconduct after claiming £500,000 in “unjustified expenses”, has a pension valued at £235,000 and will receive a “transitional allowance” of £59,367.

So after taking us for a cool half-million he still gets a nice pension and a tax free sum, whoever said crime doesn't pay never saw the workings of the European Parliament. Alongside him the Times reports we have

Tom Wise, the former UKIP MEP who faces trial for fraud and money-laundering related to his expenses, has a pension valued at £235,000 and will get a £32,382 transitional payment.

Another jolly into crime paying as long as it's in Europe.

Another (now former) UKIP member Ashley Mote who was jailed for six months has according to the Times

a pension worth £174,968 and will receive a transitional payment of £32,382

Not bad for spending much of his time lazing away inside one of our prisons.

In all British MEP's will share over £20 million in the European payout, true value for money. Unfortunately this may be the tip of the iceberg as in a previous story the Times highlighted that the

generous second pension scheme enjoyed by Members of the European Parliament is likely to be bailed out by the taxpayer after falling stock markets left it with a deficit of €120 million (£105 million).

The best bit is of course the fact that these amounts are for their "second" pensions over and above the standard pension.British MEPs already receive a main pension, which is the same as that for MPs at Westminster. This is worth up to two thirds of their £63,291 salary, depending on length of service.

This "second" pension is, and I loved this bit, paid from a 1/3 deduction from MEP's Ofiice Expenses. This allowance was about £45,000 per annum. The rest was paid for by the EU (Meaning us). MEPs are supposed to reimburse this account but there are no checks and it is accepted widely that many do not repay the money, potentially making the pension an entirely taxpayer-funded perk.

Yet another scandal that is so typical of the wastefulness that characterises the EU.

When you vote on Thursday vote Conservative and let this country have the referendum we were promised by the two other main parties in the UK.


Shamed MEPs take share of £20m payout - Times Online

Will Labour be Flushed Away?

Bit light on the blogging over the weekend due to a malaise of the stomach which leads me onto another story.

Ian Dale is covering the Euro and Local elections this coming weekend on PlayRadioUK , the side banner on this site gives more details. Hopefully, as the the polls are predicting, Labour will confirm they have been flushed away by the UK public and the Lib Dems will be dumped by the Scottish public.

Worth tuning in because the last time Iain covered the elections back in 2007 for 18 Doughty Street the coverage was worth listening to apart from one slight hiccup, or at least a similar bodily fumction.

Please Iain remember to turn your microphone off this year!

Iain Dale's Diary: Election Results: Calling all Political Bloggers