Sunday, August 05, 2007

Gordon Brown: Read the Small Print

A week ago I wrote THIS post suggesting that CCHQ should publish a document outlining the spin and small print behind Gordon Brown's first month in power. I said...


Brown needs to be constantly challenged when he makes grand promises which bear no relation to what's actually going on on the ground. We always had to read the small print in his budgets to get the real story, and his prime ministerial announcements are no different. Gordon Brown is the very opposite of a Ronseal
prime minister. You really do have to check that it does what it says on the Brown tin. What we could do with now, is a document from CCHQ that details all Brown's announcements in his first month, and an analysis of how they meet the Ronseal test.
Well, I'm glad someone there is listening! Today, Chris Grayling is publishing just such a document called READ THE SMALL PRINT, which highlights just how spin is very much alive and well in the Brown administration. Read it HERE.

UPDATE: Chris Grayling also takes Gordon Brown to task over the fact that pensioners have got poorer. Britain's poorest pensioners are seeing their incomes falling by up to four per cent a year - costing them on average more than £250, he says. More HERE.

15 comments:

It Will Come to Me said...

For goodness sake Dale WAKE UP. We're no longer the Nasty Party.

Unknown said...

Ian,

First good job. CCHQ is full of kids. They need people with solid experience...

Secondly, when i click on the link for check the small print how come the post is from July 24th?

Best, Lucy

Iain Dale said...

Lucy, it is such a long document that I didnt want to put it on the front page as people would have to scroll down for ages for other stories. so I sed the POST OPTIONS facility to put it back a couple of weeks so as not to inconvenience anyone. Hope that makes sense!

Newmania said...

Great work that man , I had some of that but not all by any means .

Bravo

Hughes Views said...

'Politician attempts to promote policies in favourable light shock'. Now that would never have happened in Margaret Thatcher's time would it? Bernard Ingham was there just to make the tea.

Give up Iain, you're still fighting last decade's battle. It's lost, David Cameron, not Gordon Brown, is tarred with the spin-master's brush...

Newmania said...

'Politician attempts to promote policies in favourable light boring'

" Politicians introduce such continued dishonesty into public life as to undermine the voting process..."


David Cameron, not Gordon Brown, is tarred with the spin-master's brush...

That is the lie that must be nailed

Walking for a living said...

If Brown was my neighbour and behaved as deceitfully as is documented here, I'd consider him a serious danger to my children.

oldman said...

I have just read the article in The Telegraph about pensioner poverty, and how income is dropping for the poorest pensioners.

The response from the Dept..of Work and Pensions was “ ignoring council tax, pensioners' net incomes have been rising faster than average earnings.”

What an idiot, Council Tax is now my biggest single payment, and how about ignoring gas and electric, and everything else a pensioner has to pay to live, that would make us really well off.

Where do these people come from, and more important how did they get control of the country.

John Leonard said...

It's about time!

I like Michael Gove's take on it:

'Something Old, Nothing New, Much Of It Borrowed, Most Of It Blue"

Brown pretended to support Blair when he clearly didn't
Brown pretended to give Tax Cuts when he didn't
Brown pretends to listen but not on the EU or WLQ

Gordon Brown is THE GREAT PRETENDER

Anonymous said...

It's about time somebody rattled Gordons cage.

Unsworth said...

Rebuttal is the name of the game - as Nulab already know. But it's high time for solid and direct response to each and every government 'announcement' and press release.

Chris Paul said...

Remarkable.

Chris Paul said...

Can anyone remind us how well off pensioners were in 1997 under the last Tory government?

Or explain what the next Tory government, the Hague government of 2017-2018 probably, will be dealing with pensions and pensioners.

Newmania said...

This is crucila though , it demonstrateds clearly that there is no break with the Blair period whatsoever. I wionder if he will get away with it .

If he does , when he is found out the odium earned by the Labour Party will be endless

Unknown said...

Complete and total deceit.

Yet why isn't anyone from Camoron's lot doing anything about it ?

This is surely gold dust in the hand of any able speaker in the House.

However, I fear silence as usual....