Wednesday, January 31, 2007

You Say it Best When You Say Nothing At All

So says Ronan Keating. You may recall the wonderful response from Rab Butler to the question: Is Sir Anthony Eden the Prime Minister we've got? He said 'yes'. This answer said so little but also so much. It became known as a Butlerism. Gordon Brown has today uttered his own Butlerism... On Ceefax he is quoted on the Cash for Peerages Inquiry...

"I believe that when people see the full facts, then they will be satisfied."

Which presupposes that Brown knows the full facts. And who will be satisfied? The country, or Gordon Brown himself?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is he going to let us have the full facts, or do the police have to trawl through computer hard drives to find it?

Anonymous said...

Is the word "best" missing from the question to Rab Butler, Iain? (Doesn't seem to make much sense as it stands.)

Anonymous said...

Mr. Dale -

Continuing the analogy, Lloyd George said Butler was "playing the part of the imperturbable dunce who says nothing with an air of conviction."

It seems that history does after repeat itself.

Anonymous said...

I've just got this awful sinking feeling that Blair might somehow get away with it yet again. Then he'd do his ghastly crowing thing, like he did after Hutton. "This has been the biggest police enquiry in the history of the world and they've proved that we did nothing wrong... blah blah blah."

Who knows what? Who's leaking? Is the whole thing a massive spin?

Anonymous said...

Gordon is licking his lips over this one, just as Tony is licking his lips over the Smith Institute. Shame they may both go up in flames together.

Anonymous said...

Gordon knows "the full facts" and his boys are busy drip-feeding them to the Met.

It could come back to bite him on the bum though.

Anonymous said...

Or perhaps Gordon knows the facts, and believes that, after we have seen them, we will be satisfied with the proverbial s*** hitting the fan for Blair and co., leaving him free to get on with the job he really wants.

Anonymous said...

Surely 'So says Bob Dylan' ?