Now here's a sentence to strike fear into the heart of every Tory up and down the land. If Gordon Brown becomes leader of the Labour Party he will bring Neil Kinnock into his Cabinet. He intends to make the Welsh windbag Leader of the House of Lords. So at long last Kinnock will get his wish and sit at the Cabinet table, albeit not quite in the position he had planned.It will mark a full return to frontline politics for the former Labour leader who led Labour to two election defeats in 1987 and 1992 and was then shunted off to Brussels to continue his career of selling this country down the river. As a European Commissioner he allowed fraud to spiral out of control, victimised those officials in the Commission who blew the whistle on fraud and was part of the European Commission which was forced to resign on the issue. With his wife Glenys as an MEP and his two children in nice jobs in Brussels the Kinnock family was making close on half a million pounds a year on the Brussels gravy train at one stage.
Kinnock promoted Gordon Brown onto the Labour front bench in the mid 1980s and was amon the first to recognise his talents. Had Labour won, as expected in 1992, Brown would have been a leading member of Kinnock's Cabinet. For Brown to return the favour now and make Kinnock Leader of the Lords would be no surprise. The country may recoil in horror at the prospect, but Kinnock still warms the cockles of the hearts of many Labour Party member. His appointment would be a sop to them. For the rest of us? We can but laugh.
53 comments:
How do you know this?
You cannot be serious!! This total idiot, whose best known posture is to be seen bent over the public trough with his snout deeply embedded, as a government minister!! No, surely not, although comparing him with Prescott, Hoon, Hain, Hewitt......oh no!!
Since Davy Boy is so keen to offer the same as NuLab only better, it'd be easy to trump this - bring back Maggie as tory leader in the Lords. Make the gas-bag re-live his worst nightmares.
Bet tory party shadow cabinet meetings would perk up, too.
Well All Riiight!
Punches the air and falls over in the surf.
Iain
a) You don't know that for sure, and b) The Tories are ones to talk with some of the jokers they have had on their front bench over the years!
This would only be good news
Plus when Gordon Brown worked for Neil Kinnock, Kinnock wasn't in power and never dramatically wiped the value of sterling in one afternoon. David Cameron doesn't have that luxury
Lets see you attack 'The Daily Pundit' for posting tripe, then you come up with this! I think the pundit story is more credible.
Vote Brown, get Kinnock.
This unsubstantiated post is rather ironic given what you said in your last post.
And David Cameron will appoint Lady Olga Maitland to be Secretary of State at the Department for Public Morality?
We've all got them, why take the piss?
PS, Lembit Opik - the man's a star.
Laugh? Or cry?
Now I know why I saw Kinnock at the Smith Institute's John Smith Memorial Lecture at Number 11 the other week... It seems the lunatics will soon be back in charge of the asylum.
Kinnock was twice rejected by the British public in general elections.
He should take the hint; we don't want that fool in Government.
I watched a programme with the comedian Alan Davies and Neil Kinnock.Davies confided:' I've got all your speeches,they meant a lot to me.'--I was thinking:this is the greatest p#ss take of all time and was waiting for the 'NOT'!!. When I realised that Davies was serious!!!
"We're still here you know" could come as well from Gordon Brown as Gerry Adams.
Huge tax takes - condemned even by the IMF.
Unbalanced redistribution to peripheral economic zones of collapsed manufacturing and primary resource production.
Collapsing manufacturing investment as the state take is so enormous.
Producer-led, physical measurement targets in services rather than client-led demand .
Means test-induced social irresponsibility.
Extravagant aggression towards constitutional checks on the use of executive state power disguised as up dating an aging constitutional settlement to make way for the new order.
Kinnock - the word says it all.
If I wanted to read unsubstantiated guff, I'd buy a newspaper.
Or is this a case of can't beat 'em, join 'em, Iain?
It is good to see that your blog has such a loose affiliation with any resemblance to journalism, which as I understand relies on little things like facts, truth and balance. You also seem to forget how many Tories are on the 'gravy train' as you seem to refer to it.
You seem to have omitted how Kinnock threw out the 'Militant' tendency and made many of the reforms which John Smith, had he lived, would have seen to a conclusion. In the end it was Tony Blair that took up the mantle of reform. People say that Tony Blair is the architect of New Labour, but it wouldn't have been possible if Kinnock hadn't laid the groundwork.
His famous speech when the Tories got back in was prescient enough. Warning us not to get sick or grow old under a Conservative government and by fuck, he was not wrong.
Are we just going to have to take your word on this, Iain? How very New Labour of you.
This total idiot would in fact bring some competence to any Labour cabinet. Shame that competence is in apalling administration and selling us out to Europe. He'll fit in well with Brown and his cronies....
You have to be joking!
Doesn't Kinnock rhyme with Pillock?
Do you think when Kinnock takes up his position there will be a big celebratory edition of one of the tabloids - to collect and cherish for always.
"Kinnock, Leader of the Lords - it's The Sun wot done it!"
Will the last person out of Gordon Brown's Britain please turn out the light...
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
But then you have to remember that Labour already has, wasting space, time and money, that bar steward who has more interest in his 'croquet mallet' and 'carpeting' his staff than sorting out local government and Transport. And the chipmunk too.
Is it appropriate for a former EU Commissioner to sit in the Cabinet having sworn, when he became a Commissioner, not to allow questions of national allegiance to affect him?
Perhaps this is why they want to do away with the Privy Council...
Paul Burgin said: "Plus when Gordon Brown worked for Neil Kinnock, Kinnock wasn't in power and never dramatically wiped the value of sterling in one afternoon."
Perhaps you could tell us the Labour party's policy on ERM membership at the time? I seem to remember it was "stay in at any cost"
Kinnock was (and is) a total twat. But, oh, how I *wish* he'd WON in 1992 (why did you do the Sheffield Rally nitwit?)
Ok, so we wouldn't have had rail privatisation and the national lottery - the only two good things the Major government contributed in the 92-97 government - but we also wouldn't have had; Tory tax rises, ejection from the ERM, Maastrict, splits over Europe, "back to basics", John Redwood as Welsh Secretary, cash for questions, "the bastards" and no total rout in 1997.
I would *kill* to have seen how Kinnock would have handled all that shite. Hmmm.. Yum yum.
He'd have been toast in the polls by 1993 and booted out with sadistic satisfaction by 1997; a one-term wonder. The Conservatives would never have been wiped out and would probably still be in power now.
Can Kinnock work his magic for us again, under Brown?
Go on Neil, pleeease!
can't he bugger off back to wales?
"Well All Riiight!"
I've never figured out whether he meant to say "We're alright!", or "well, alright?!" ?
Either way, it was a bit of a crap power chant.
What's wrong with a good ol-fashioned; "Hip Hip!! ... Hooray!" or "What do we want?... A LABOUR GOVERNMENT... *When* do we want it?... NOW!!"
Actually, on second thoughts..
Paul "Christian Socialist" Burgin
"I am a member of the Christian Socialist Movement and stood several times for District Council in Baldock Town Ward and in Baldock East Ward (North Herts). "
You're obviously a popular talented man. Despite standing 'several times' you've failed to secure election even once.
Obviously that experience as a "campaign intern in Hemel Hempstead" didn't do you much good, eh?
You'd get on well with Kinnock.
"I'm 44, and as bald as a chimp's arse.."
[Spitting Image]
titzareglitz,
If Major hadn't won in 92, then you would not have had Ken Clarke as Chancellor - whose stewardship set up the strongest economy in decades. He set it up so well that Gordon Brown has had the easiest of rides a Chancellor could ask for.
When Brown talks about the wonderful statistics of the British economy - the longest run of growth stuff - it all starts under the Tories. All he did was - well, not much. Gave interest rates to the Bank of England and pretty much implemented the Tories tax plans for the first Labour term. But then, his beer-and-bingo Socialist tendencies started to well up - and he had to start ratcheting up spending in the state sector. Hence the stealth taxes, the raids on pensions, the fudging of his economic tests of prudence.
One day - maybe not soon - history will be quite kind to Major and Clarke, at least in how they built up the British economy. Oh yes...
"Plus when Gordon Brown worked for Neil Kinnock, Kinnock wasn't in power and never dramatically wiped the value of sterling in one afternoon. David Cameron doesn't have that luxury"
No, but Harold Wilson did - and loved every minute of it.
Besides f**kwit, everyone knows perfectly well - and so do you - that Kinnock would have had to deal with exactly the same problem if he'd be in power.
Except, he was *totally* committed to ERM and would have sacrified even more of our sterling reserves and raised interest rates even higher to try and keep us in.
We learnt our lesson - you haven't.
So take your smugness and your misplaced sense of moral superiority outta here and p*** off.
I do hope Madam Kinnock is made Ambassador to the US and Kinnock Jr. could be British Ambassador to the EU
I am looking forward to the Great Brown Disaster as the Labour Party unravels and splits into an English and Scottish Group and so on.
This is going to be such fun - Scotsmen, Welshmen but certainly no Englishmen
Seems to me that Brown will merely be immitating Cameron - DC has a wind-farm on his roof, GB will have a windbag (sadly the MOST renewable energy source) right in his cabinet.
But I think it is a good idea - Kinnock is like a weather-vane - just look at which direction he points, and safely do the opposite !
Alan Douglas
Having Kinnock on TV representing the Labour party would be good for the Tory party.
I remember being out canvassing in Battersea in '92 where we thought we would lose. If anyone gave us a hard time for having caused high interest rates, unemployment etc the standard answer was 'so you like to see Neil Kinnock in Downing Street?'. Worked every time and we won the seat!
Remember his cries of "Oh Yeah!"
We answered it then and we'll answer it now, "Oh NO! NO! NO!"
Although I am not and never will be a Labour supporter,I must confess some regard for Kinnock even though I'm sure he would have made a rotten PM.He was right over devolution in 1979 even though it meant that there was no junior ministerial office for him and cleaned up his party.Whatever you think of NewLab, by 1997 a change was inevitable and we may have been landed with the heirs of militant as a government without him.
Given the state of the Labour Party in 1983 when Kinnock took over my guess is that history will give him a lot of credit for the changes that eventually led to 1997 and the Tories being despatched to the wilderness. I suspect that this success is why he'e so disliked by Tories - and explains why many of you have such a soft spot for Tony Benn!
anon 11:09
His famous speech when the Tories got back in was prescient enough. Warning us not to get sick or grow old under a Conservative government and by fuck, he was not wrong.
And now all is wonderful?
Private pensions having dropped in value 78% in real terms over the last 10 years , the NHS in meltdown.
I know Iain doesnt like swearing on his blog but you really are a f******* imbecile.
The Tories, every election, must have a bogy man. If you haven't got a programme, a bogy man will do.
Aneurin Bevan
Nothing changes!
NHS in meltdown?
A pathetic lie.
Bungalow Kinnock at or near the heart of goverment. O god help us!
A little bird has just told me [he whispered it] that Brown is also going to bring back " Peter [witchcraft] Mandleson" and "david [the blind shagger]blunket. The future looks Rosy!
Brown cabinet appointments:
Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer: Gordon Brown
Foreign Secretary: Tony Benn
Home Secretary: Michael Foot
Trade and Industry: Frederick Engels (deceased)
Education: Glenys Kinnock
Health: A Bevan (deceased)
Social Security and pensions: Ant and Dec.
Surely an elected House of Lords would select - that is to say, elect - its own leader?
This is what Labour are all about - Jobs for the Boyo's.....
I happen to think Iain might be right about this.
The only other name I have heard mentioned for Leader of the House of Lords is that of Margaret Beckett, but that would mean a by-election in predominantly muslim Derby South which Labour would be absolutely certain to lose to the Lib Dems.
Lock and load, this will be fun
It would be the 10th year of Prime Minister Portillo, Chris.
If Kinnock had beaten Major in 1992, the Tories would have immediately realised their mistake in not electing Michael Heseltine in 1990, and made him leader. With the Kinnock administration imploding after Black Wednesday, and thereafter increasingly in office but not in power, Hezza would have won a crushing victory in 1997. But the man who had dreamed of No 10 since his university days would be destined to be Prime Minister for just 48 hours before his heart attack following the 1997 election forced his retirement. Portillo, narrowly re-elected in Enfield Southgate, would have defeated Ken Clarke in the ensuing leadership election, and gone on to make his "New Conservatives" once again the natural party of government.
In best BBC fashion, yesterday's 'You and Yours' (well, they have to fill it up with something) suggested that the Scouts were out of place in today's world, since they pledge allegiance "to God and the Queen". Well, I for one don't remember any sort of time limit, and when, in view of that consideration, you think about just how many of us old Scouts and Guides there are in this country...
And now this. Which would win out, Kinnock's Privy Council Oath, or his oath as a European Commissioner to be unmoved by national considerations? Here's hoping that it's 2:1 to Britain, because he has promised on his honour to do his duty to God and the Queen, to help other people, and to keep the Scout Law.
It really, really is time to get the passport and tickets ready. We escaped this buffoon when he ran for office. To have him foisted upon us by appointment is outrageous.
"Warning us not to get sick or grow old under a Conservative government and by fuck, he was not wrong."
Because Gordon Brown hasn't shafted our pension system and our NHS is so wonderful now.
LOL!
The LibDems just admitted they dreamt this up to stump Brown, so he'd be forced to deny it and could be painted as running scared on Europe.
Maybe he'll call their bluff? Doubt it, Kinnock keeps rebelling.
Funny story though.
This came from a comment made after Kinnock's Fabian Society appearance last night. It was just a light-hearted comment, Iain, not Brownite policy.
Maybe the Lib Dems are causing mischief with it, but its a bit tenuous to suggest it confounds Gordon Brown on Europe.
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