Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Labour's PPSs Start Civil War - Whips Sit on Arses

The measure of when a Prime Minister has lost control of his government is when his Ministers' PPS's start saying that other Ministers should resign. Yesterday I wrote about Stephen Pound's little outburst against John Prescott. Today it's the turn of Alan Johnson's PPS Marsha Singh to call for Charles Clarke's head. Not that I'm suggesting that Alan Johnson could benefit from Clarke's departure. Not for a minute. I just wouldn't. You know me. If any PPS in the Major or Thatcher governments had shown such disloyalty to their government they would have been out on their ears within minutes. Whipping ain't quite what it used to be. The Conservatives should be making hay with this. Let's see what David Cameron does at PMQs. I know what I'd be asking if I were him.

Talking of PPS's I heard Prescott's PPS Paul Clarke, the MP for Gillingham on 5 Live Drive yesterday. 'Hapless' is not a strong enough word to describe his performance? Where do they get these people from? Like ferrets in a sack.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

During the weekend Wayne David ( Adam Ingram's PPS) asked Blair to provide a clarification in the not-too-distant future about his departure:

http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=17019366&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=calls-for-stability-after-labour-s-crisis--name_page.html

I suppose it's a nice way to say "name a date"