(If you are going to wear the Flag do it with some style Gordon)
WE have had a chat about the 1997 election in which the Saintly Mr. Cassilis has passed a scented hanky before his courtiers nose at the reek of partisan acrimony wafting from this admittedly Brown detesting Blog.( His blog which will soon be up in the top spot is terrific do look its on the blog roll). Full of humble contrition I have resolved to be positive from this point on.
Let me say then, that I am absolutely positive that Brown is the most dishonest and incompetent politician that I recall . Can we stop all this “man to be reckoned with “, rubbish. He has made a pigs ear of everything he has touched( Tax credits and welfare most importantly). I think it’s the claim to be a new type of politics that really makes you laugh the hollow broken laugh of a dying white face mime artist though. Lets have a wander though the delightful garden of ‘new politics’ shall we, and compare it with the stinking quagmire of little smiling Bamby from whose glib mendacity OUR LEADER is so keen to be distanced.......
Blair -Enters Downing street outlining priorities as education and the NHS and “To be a government that seeks to restore trust in the politics of this country ...That is our objective, for the people of Britain. Today , enough of talking its time to do .”
Brown-Enters Downing street outlining priorities as “ Change in our NHS , change in out schools , change to build trust in government ...That is my promise to the people of Britain, and now let the change begin “
Blair - Mandy, his PA , gets cabinet office minister and snooping role
Brown -Ed Milliband , his PA gets cabinet office minister and general; snooping role
Blair - Appoints SDP founder Roy Jenkins to chair commission on electoral reform
Brown- Appoints Shirley Williams as adviser on Nuclear proliferation
Blair - Appoints former Conservative front benchers Chris Patten and Michael Heseltine as Millenkium Commisioner and RUC enquiry person or something
Brown- Appoints former front benchers Mercer and Bercow as advisers on security and children with learning difficulties
Blair- Holds hour long meeting with Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street within three weeks of Moving in
Brown- Holds hour long meeting with Margaret Thatcher in Downing street within three months of moving in
Blair -Dithers over referendum about whether to rule our EU entry, brown noses Sun editor Stuart Higgins, sticks his snout into the Diana story and alters Party conference rules to end composite motions which had been used to embarrass the leader .
Brown- Dithers about whether to rule, out referendum on EU treaty, brown noses Paul Dacre of the Mail, sticks his snout into the McCann story and changes conference procedure to end emergency motions raises at the last minute which had been used to embarrass the leader.
For god`s sake didn`t anyone ever listen to the Who....
“
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss “
Can I suggest this Ditty for the Tory conference
21 comments:
I tip my hat to the new constitution...
Can we have one please? Or at least a Bill of Rights:
-Free speech
-Separation of powers
-Local accountability for local decisions
-Voters' initiatives
Mr Brown really is the heir to Thatcher. I have outlined why chez moi.
Thanks for the link, the plug and the digs - St Cassilis!
I willcatch up with Cheaz Ed tonight ...crust to earn
Who??
Ed - Broon the heir to Thatcher? And there was I thinking you were quite brilliant. Erm didn't Blair attempt to ditch habeus corpus and the magna carta and stuff that has been the basis of freedom and democracy in this country for... centuries isn't it? The heir to Blair I think.
Ed - thought the comment copied below (from here) was insightful and I agree with much of it, but I admit I don't quite understand the first para about Thatcherism, thought it might interest you.
ArthurFKing
September 28, 2007 2:03 AM
This article is as deluded as the progressive mind can get because it typifies the outlook of Polly Toynbee that politics is a constant secular style crusade that has is aim in legitimising post-Christian notions of progress that owe much to religious thinking. The point Toynbee fails to understand is that Thatcherism was militantly progressive in its neoliberal modernising agenda and Blair remained true to the vision of remodelling Britain along the lines of an American business corporation.
Certain aspects of social democracy that Toynbee yearns for are admirable and she is correct about the greed of the City and so on. Yet its all sound and fury against the fat cats and unproductive capitalism and never any constructive sense of what reforms would be needed to remedy the dysfunctional nature of British politics and society.
There's more to Britain's malaise-what about the level of debt that New Labour has encouraged, the creation of lots of useless public service sector jobs and so on. The parasite economy doesn't just apply to city financiers but there are swathes of people employed in education who offer duff courses that do nothing to improve Britain's skills base or revive manufacturing, engineering and so on.
What is the real benefit of having half of all youths go to university when they don't study science or anything that benefits the economy ? R and D is still underfunded. Does Toynbee ever comment on this kind of thing because its seems more directly relevent to creating a meritocracy than her dreary insistence on state social engineering and jaded Fabian rhetoric.
Moaning on about class is just so much guilt ridden guff because primarily even those who benefit from social mobility still end up in PR or jobs that, to use Kingsley Amis' words on certain useless academics, 'offer non-solutions to pseudo-problems'. Britain is full of people who do jobs that contribute nothing to the sum total of human welfare whilst pretending to because they lack the intitiative to do anything really productive with their lives.
That applies to the private sector no less than the public. In fact, the professional has been downgraded everywhere by a cult that lauds idiots schooled in market speak who don't have a clue about the nature of the operations they seek to run such as those in the NHS Trusts. But the government employs its fair share of parasites such as 'diversity consultants' and far more that I'm just too depressed to even bother contemplating as I'm so fortunate not to have to live in Britain any more.
Naturally, the biggest parasites are often journalists and professional politicians who fail to offer insights and pander to the prejudices of their targer readership eg spin doctors.
I meant that Brown is the direct result of Thatcher: a conviction politician (rabid socialist) who has been given the keys to a centralised powerful state machine. Nothing can stop him.
Whilst we're on the song lyrics before their time;
"Watch out now, take care, beware of greedy leaders they'll take you where you should not go"
More apt for B.Liar I guess but perhaps McStalin's betrayal to the corrupt EU(George Harrison 1970 Beware of Darkness)
"Let me tell you how it will be, that's one for you 19 for me"
Gordon's utopian vision for Middle England (Taxman The Beatles 1966)
Very good TB
What about
You start wearing blue and brown
Working for the clampdown
Clash- clampdown
Ed , I `m not sure I quite agree...
here I am thinking you ar eon sabbatical then a whole enormous load of blogging appears. Somehting to catch up on over the weekend.
well done on your ranking mr n.
voluminous output has its reward.
Never mind the quality enjoy the length sir...as I always say , the longer I have the shorter ( and better )I make it.Its frustrating but I just have to slap it opn the tabel ...so to speak
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
This whole piece is brilliant, n, but I 'specially love that last Yee...aah
It rwminds me of an Elkie Brooks oldie too...and you know what that means :)
Auntie Flo'
But why did it take so long?
Before we saw the light
And found the heart to say
NO MORE THE FOOLS
Who wait around
Waitin' for you to bring us down
Those days are gone now
No more the nights
Lying awake
Cryin' and waitin' for the day to break
No more the sound as freedom falls and hits the ground
While we're waitin' around
No more the fools
You thought we'd break
Then you were wrong
That we wouldn't see what's goin' on
But we knew
And here we are
We're alive
Fighting back
Doing more than just survive
No more the fools
Who wait around
No more the fools
No more the clowns
No more the fools
No more the sight
No more the sound
And hit the ground
No more the fools
No more the fools ...
No more the fools
No more the sight
No more the sound
No more the fools
Auntie Flo'
People say that April
Treats me cruel
Yet I smile when they jibe at me,
April's fool.
The first time I met April was the middle of September
And she's taught me so many things I'd rather not remember
In winter time she has me wearing summer clothes
In summer she has Jack Frost nipping at my nose,
People say that April
Treats me cruel
Yet I smile when they jibe at me,
April's fool...
I hope old B ruin's wearing his thermal long johns these chilly old days. There's such a cruel nip in the air. Enough to make nulabbers take to their armchairs until April.
HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!
Auntie Flo'
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering 5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 15
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock, 25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
I fear we will not have to wait until April Flo
There's an interesting post on this from Paul Walter at his Liberal Burblings blog:
"This week the Tories have beaten Labour in Corby, Dover and Portsmouth North. It is remarkable that there have been by-elections in such key swing seats, known over the years to us election anoraks as totemic. I doubt whether Brownie would like to gamble losing Corby, Dover and Portsmouth North in a "snap" general election. Without the aid of a swingometer, and feeling a bit low on powers of anal retentiveness today, I would guess that those sorts of swings would wipe out most, if not all, of Labour's Commons majority.
But being an old git, I go back to boring things like lighting up times and weather forecasts. These are the things might feature low on the radar of those three upstarts, Balls, Miliband (E) and Alexander, who are advising Brown on the election timing.
Being at that age when the weight of the testosterone in their bodies exceeds the weight of their brain cells, I suspect they are more on the balls of their feet wanting to knock the Tories out for another ten years."
A brown bounce? No, says the Burbler, it's the SNP who'll be bouncing in Scotland and perhaps the Conservqtives in the marginals - and that scares the daylights out of old B ruin.
And Burbler's been researching weather forecasts.
"On the Friday before the election, 26th October, those activists will be canvassing in the dark from 17:49hrs. So they will find that many people will not open their doors to them in the evening. Also on that Friday, those activists will start to hear the odd whistle, bang and flash of light. The start of the Bonfire parties in the run-up to November 5th. Another reason for people to keep their doors firmly closed for fear of allowing pets and children to be further frightened by the fireworks.
As they go out canvassing on Monday October 29th, those activists will find that it is even darker in the evening. The sunset will be earlier at 16:42, due to the clocks going back on October 31st.
On the evening of Wednesday 31st October, the day before the election, those Labour activists will find that everytime they knock on a door they will either not receive a reply, or be met with a handful of sweets or, worse still, an earful of swear words ending with the preposition "off". It's Halloween. Best not to bother to try canvassing then.
On the actual election day, November 1st, the sun will not rise until 07:21 hrs, 21 minutes after polls open. Not a great incentive for people to bother to vote on their way to work. And the sun will set at 16:35, discouraging many people from voting after work.
Obviously these vote-discouraging factors may impact the SNP vote as much as the Labour vote, but will Gordon Brown want to gamble on that? And in other constituencies with similarly restricted light situations (most, if not all, of the constituencies in the UK), the Tories will be able to rely on their hefty postal vote share and their electorate with its high proportion of people with heated cars and the ability to vote during the working day.
A point about the weather. In the first week of November last year, the temperature on some days in Scotland barely got up to 4 °C. In Oxfordshire, it went down to -5.2 °C at one point. Again, not ideal conditions for encouraging people to vote.
Of course, Gordon Brown may go for October 25th, even though this seemed to have been fairly authoritatively ruled out earlier in the week via Nick Robinson. He will avoid the Halloween, Guy Fawkes parties and clocks going back. But it will still be dark when most of the canvassing is being done in the evenings, and dark on election day from an early hour.
On October 25th in that weathervane seat of Basildon it will be dark at 17:45hrs. In Portsmouth North it will be dark at 17:53hrs and in Alloa the sunset will be at 17:51hrs. Not easy conditions under which to encourage those stubborn voters to venture from their comfy armchairs down to the polling booths"
Auntie Flo'
Those who work in close daily contact with people from every walk of life as I do will understand the debilitating effect that a cold or wet snap has on the some parts of the British Psyche.
For those who don't, here are a few examples:
Text Flo' to John: "Great news, Wonderwiz co. want to interview you for the that wonderwiz job you've been asking me to find for you these past 6 months."
Reply from Jon: "Brilliant! Thanks for swinging this, Flo. Friday at 9am? I'll be there."
Monday morning.
Text from Flo' to Jon: "What happened, John? Why didn't you show up at the interview?"
Reply from John: "You saw it! It was pelting dahn. They didn't expect me to show up in that, did they? I fought they'd a cancelled the interview like and give me anovver one."
Text from Flo' to Bill: "Why the no show this morning?
Reply from Bill: "It's gonna snow, aint it?"
Text to Jim from Flo': "What happened this morning?"
Reply from Jim: "It's pouring dahn and I got 'oles in me shoes."
Reply from Flo': "You only got your toe protectors two weeks ago, why didn't you wear them?"
Reply from Jim: "I'd 'ave wet feet at work, wouldn't I?"
Text from Pete to Flo': "Sorry Flo', can't work today, lost me shoes."
Text from Charlie to Flo': "Sorry to let you dahn, Flo, I got half way there and wuz arrested by the bill"
Reply from Flo' "Why - because it was snowing? "
Text from Flo to Jason: "Where the *!@!!*! are you?"
Text from Jason to Flo': "Don't bollock me Flo', I couldn't 'elp it, when I woke up, there she was lying next to me in all her glory and it's -5 out there ...what could a man do?"
Auntie Flo'
Auntie Flo'
However, having vigorously courted the Labour left and Lib Dems by spinning his position as 'honest Joe', pro-democratic and sanctioning peaceful protest since he became PM, B ruin is alienating the left, Lib Dems and Stop The war all over again by BANNING a Stop the War march on 8th October.
That supports your view, n, though I see this as an absurdly incompetent, just in case, measure on B ruin's part which shows just how conflicted the wee man is about when to call this election.
B ruin cannot afford to alienate Stop The War and the left wing Lib Dems.
Here's the notice from Stop The War:
URGENT - ATTEMPT TO BAN STOP THE WAR MARCH
On Monday 8 October the Stop the War Coalition will be marching
from Trafalgar Square to Parliament calling for all troops in
Iraq to be brought home immediately.
**After a series of relatively co-operative meetings, the police
now say they have been instructed not to allow the march to take
place and that all demonstrations are banned within a mile of
Parliament whilst in session.**
This is a new development which threatens our democratic rights.
When Gordon Brown became prime minister he promised to liberalise
the laws on protest, saying that one of his principles would be,
"civil liberties safeguarded and enhanced". Government ministers,
including Gordon Brown, have lined up to support the right to
protest in Burma. It is important that these same ministers also
defend the rights of people in this country to protest
peacefully.
**We are determined to march to make our views known to parliament
on 8 October**, when Gordon Brown will make his long awaited
statement on Iraq. We urge everyone who opposes the war policies of our government to join the call for all British troops to come home immediately and to help defend our civil liberties now under attack. We have produced a petition calling on the authorities to review the decision to ban the march.
SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE aimed at defending our right to protest
peacefully. You can do this here: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
2) DEMONSTRATE: PARLIAMENT MONDAY 8 OCTOBER
NOT ONE MORE DEATH - BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW
ASSEMBLE FOR RALLY 1.0 PM TRAFALGAR SQUARE
Speakers include:
TONY BENN
MARK STEEL, comedian and writer
BEN GRIFFIN, ex-soldier who served in Iraq
BOB WAREING MP
GEMMA TUMELTY, president, National Union of Students
LINDSEY GERMAN, national convenor, Stop the War
BILLY HAYES general secretary, Communication Workers Union
For more details, see: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
Looks as though the Lib Dems have all been fooled again.
Auntie Flo'
I`ll have to pint that off to read it all Flo
There's a girl in Edinburgh City,
Calls herself the human trampoline,
Some day when she's falling flying
Or tumbling in turmoil
Broon'll say,
Whoa so this is what she means,
She means we're bouncing out of Scotland.
And Broon'll see losing Scotland's
Like a window in his heart,
Everybody sees he's blown apart,
And nulab feels the wind blow.
Scots Labour leader Wendy Alexander:
“The role of government is to say that, instead of providing a safety net – we can’t guarantee you a job for life – we can provide you with a trampoline that makes you feel confident and makes you feel secure enough to move between jobs. My entire skills strategy is about making that trampoline.”
"The danger is that she [Alexander] may make Labour unelectable in Scotland by abandoning those it is supposed to champion...If Labour has nothing better than a trampoline to offer them, they will surely look elsewhere" (Mills at labour Home)
Auntie Flo'
I don't like looking at that Pete Townsend bloke with his re searching eyes.
I see what you mean Lillith....
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