Tuesday, October 02, 2007
The New Politics: No 94
Remember Gordon Brown saying that he would announce big decisions in Parliament, particularly over Iraq? Yup, so do I. And today my Sky News alert tells me he has just announced the withdrawal of 1000 troops from Basra, not in Parliament, but no doubt with smiling troops in Iraq. The man sickens me.
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65 comments:
There you go- you've just printed his opt-out from what he said regarding decisions announced in Parliament! 1000 troops out of a disaster zone can be construed as not being a 'big decision'! Brown , as he admitted himself, hasn't a head for figures ( no tasteless joke inserted- for a change!). I'm waiting for his u-turn on inheritance tax next....
Iain
What sickens me is that there are so many out there who will not see this for what it is, the political abuse of our Armed Forces. This is a Government which fails to look after its injured Service men and women, which fails to provide them with adequate equipment and thinks so little of them that they have a part time Defence Minister. Gordon Brown is not fit to walk in their shadows, which is where you will find him, hiding behind real men and women in the hope that some of their Courage will rub-off on him.
Certain confusion in the reports as to whether it's 1,000 or 2,000 and indeed when this is likely to take place.
In view of Darling's announcements over Northern Rock and subsequent 'further anouncements' of 'good news', it's likely that the actual number to be withdrawn within the next year will be more like 27.
Certainly the guys on the ground and those in the forces back in the UK view these statements with real cynicism. Rightly so. Would you trust Brown to be straightforward about anything?
He'll get back here and do the usual bollox about 'I can announce today that....' but by now, and after so much smoke and mirrors, those in the military have learned not to trust this man or his colleagues (Reid, Browne etc) a single inch.
This season's must have colour scheme - Brown and khaki......
Gordon has lied yet again. This is one thing he does very well. Obviously the Tory conference has rattled Newliebour a bit. Well done
No doubt about it, the Gord is a fraud!
New liebour? I like it.
Anyway, if people ( especially the troops) can't see this is cynical manipulation then they deserve another 5 years of this cowardly incompetent. The convention used to be that " the other side" left politics alone during conferences, but Flash is so terified by eveything he can't leave well alone
If only you'd said sooner, we could have written your speech for you !!
But pleeeeeeeease..no mention of Porky's, Beaver, Dick - it won't upset the conference crowd; they just won't have a clue what it means...
best get used to it Dale he's gonna be around for a bit longer!
incidently hows your parachute these days?
To paraphrase Louis XIV:
'I am the Parliament.'
The more of these stunts Flash tries to pull off, the more the electorate will see him for what he really is - a sham.
Anyone remember those nice photos of Lady Thatcher in battledress on a tank during the Falklands spat? Not exploitative of our brave boys at all were they? No, thought not.
Anyone who makes bumptious little Iain feel sick can't be all bad in my book.
Last time I commented on the previous thread I said hanging is what Brown needed. That would be to good for him he should be hung drawn and quartered and left out for the birds to pick his leavings. He is a disgrace to Britain and British Politics.
Why doesn't just admit defeat, and make his site link directly to Ben 'The Brain' Brogan's site ?
It actually has [shock, horror, probe !] news and proper analysis and lots of comment.
Dale just recycles other stuff from the blogosphere, and has lost the ability [or is just too bloody lazy] to produce any original content of his own.
I mean, he hasn't even told us who was sick in the taxi...Poor Show !
Has Brown ever bothered to visit Selly Oak Hospital and been pictured with injured troops?
Or will he just do what James Purnell would do and arrange to be photoshopped into the picture?
Iain
you don't think that this decision was made on the hoof and in direct response to yesterday's IHT announcement do you? Surely not from such a great (according to BBC) statesman.
And he'll probably have the audacity to label the Conservatives as opportunistic when he gets back.
The lied to get us in and now they are lying to get us out.
Has the military situation in Basra changed to enable the withdrawal of troops? Or is the announcement of some withdrawal a cover for the rest of the troops staying far longer than previous government spin?
The whole thing is governed by electoral and not military considerations.
This government is truly morally bankrupt
This politics stuff is getting fraffly dull..Can't you tell us who of the bright young things is zooming whom, wot ?
Labour's New Election Campaign slogan
"Our Boy's Home for Xmas"
makes a change from "I will NEVER let you down!" I bet he doesn't try that one on the lads in Iraq !
Great to see that on-line coverage of BBC Parliament has been bumped, so few will get to see whether Mr Dale managed to remember the key points of his speech or not...
travis bickle - even the PM couldn't get his travel arrangements done that quickly.
No, torpedoing the Tory conference from the top of the BBC News stories, on the same day the details of Post Office closures is being announced has been planned on the 'Grid' for a very long time indeed..
You know when you've been tangoed..
"The man sickens me". LOL.
Most of the public will soon see this nauseating performance of Brown's for what it is.
They know so-called troop withdrawals announced now are just a cynical move by him to upstage the Tories.
The man is already sinking to depths that even Blair knew to avoid.
But Brown has blown it big time. If there's one thing the public despise it's scumbag poiticians who blatantly play party politics with British soldier's lives.
Brown is going to get his arse whipped over this and doesn't the sly bastard deserve it.
Iain,
This is too blatant and tacky to work, if of course the media report it properly.
Many of the public's comments on the BBC site show that people have spotted that this is just a nauseatingly cynical ploy by Brown, in league with his stooges at the BBC, to upstage the highly sucessful Tory conference.
Mark my words, Brown's vile opportunism in abusing British soldiers will backfire on him overwhelmingly this time.
The backlash will finish him.
@ Ex-cheshire: "Brown is going to get his arse whipped over this and doesn't the sly bastard deserve it"
From what one hears he might enjoy that...
(yet another) Anon
"even the PM couldn't get his travel arrangements done that quickly"
You are joking of course.
Its funny that you get sickened by the same type of politiking that Cameron is famous for.
Remember any of this?
"I want to see an end to punch and judy politics" (cue punch and judy politics).
"We're not for grammar schools anymore, well we are, well kind of."
"All these hospitals are closing, except that one and that one."
"We're for economic stability - heres an new unfunded tax cut."
"We're going to have an open primary for london mayor, oh we can't find any, we'll cancel it until we get the one we want."
"We are the family party (if by family you mean married)."
Its sickening that Brown is doing this - cue more announcements on our "broken society" "economic meltdown" "house price timebomb" "Rising unemployment" (by about 1 job) the end is nigh how can we survive etc etc etc.
Get real Iain, you're starting to sound like Guido.
As said above, note the bad news on post office closures is being "buried" today.
Cynical and furtive.
BBC's 'Have Your Say' on Flash's troop movements has gone down for 'essential maintenance'. The servers are probably overloaded with scathing comments from disgruntled readers.
Gordon has proved himself to be a complete moron with this move - talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
OK, so at the next PMQs let Dave ask him specifically why this announcement was not made to parliament.
It's actually something Labour MPs are touchy about. They don't like being left out of the loop.
Mind you, with Gordon the loop comprises no more than two or three close advisers who never contradict him. That's his weakness.
Have you been selected as a candidate for the imminent election???
Anonymous 12:17 PM said...
"..note the bad news on post office closures is being "buried" today. Cynical and furtive."
The announcement was by the Post Office not the government.
anyonebutbrown said: "They lied to get us in and now they are lying to get us out."
... and the Tories backed the lies when we went in and William Hague has just told Andrew Neil that they are backing the pull out.
Stupid people.
"The announcement was by the Post Office not the government."
And the Government just happens to own the Post Office..
Muppet!
As for Gordon and his announcemnets, anyone who expects the truth from him - or any politician - needs help. .
According to the BBC's Mark Urban, of the "1000 troops coming home for Christmas", the withdrawal of 500 of them has been announced already.
It's a classic technique from Brown: Reheat old announcements to grab the headlines. Shame on him.
I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, now I'm really let down by this cynicism.
Bob,
They assumed that the Government wouldn't lie when our lad's lives were to be put at risk. They were wrong. The shame is on your side.
It's clear that there is a head of steam building up across the airwaves this afternoon over Brown's cynical politicking with British soldier's lives.
This is one bit of Brown spin too far. He has made a profound mistake this time.
The British public and growing sections of the media have seen through him and are disgusted.
Unlike when dave goes and visits british troops, thats just a "fact finding mission" not a synical photo opportunity, obviously!
and look at the BBC front page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/. No mention of any Conservative conference there.
From the start with the Brown it has all been about the headlines. Academies supported and quietly dropped. A coastal defnece that turns out to be renaming a few bits and bobs. We seem to be hitting a hitherto unimagined moral nadir . Or is it that we know what to look for now ? After all Blair learned it from Brown not visa versa . What a contrasting pair they are :
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!
How can Britain elect this Nixonite slimey wierdo with his power kick and worrying paranoia . I cannot believe even the Labour Party are much impressed
" The man sickens me " - Good for you Iain - the BBC failed to mention the conference in the 1 o'clock news - they must be getting very worried.
The only way one can describe Nick Robinson's relationship with the Labour Spin Machine is " craven"
We can remember only too well his "interview" with Gordon Brown a few days before the latter became PM.
Is he after a peerage too?
The BBC must surely be the subject of an ongoing campaign over their behaviour over the last few months . The whole "New Brown£ concept is such an open goal that when they consistently fail to slot it you have to wonder who was bribed and how.
500 of the 1000 were already on notice to return by Christmas so once again the PM speaks half truths.
There's only black and white. No grey. Every day I get called a fascist ****. My parenthood is regularly called into question. So why do I do it? Because blogging is a liberating experience and it's a way of saying what you want to say, when you want to say it and without a media filter.
What happened to this touching evocation of the sadness greatness brings ? Its a three hankley weepie and I was loving it ( ...sniffle )...
I love the way Vivienne Westwood is having a pop at Gordon Brown this week with her new collection!
She might be barking mad - but she's always been a libertarian. Vivienne supports Cameron - times they are achanging. It's great news!
GORDON MUST GO!
:)
The usual pattern from Gordon Brown: tactically clever but strategically stupid.
This is turning into something of a David and Gordylieth contest.
Oh My! Calm down chaps - people will begin to think that you're all a bit rattled! I have, in my time, worked for the Ministry of Defence and can tell you that it would have been as easy to criticise the Tory Government for lack of investment in the Armed Forces as it is to criticise Labour. In a time of war the troops obviously make headlines - when things are quieter you watch how lack of investment slowly underminds their strength - it was and always will be the case - in peacetime education and health take precedence - whoever is in power. The fact of the matter is that all parties use everything they can to gain political advantage and to pretend otherwise, Ian, is to be disingenous - but then you are a player of the same political game. Doesn't matter how you win - as long as you win. It is the people of Britain who lose.
In an earlier post Iain you had a go at the bbc for running this troop pull out story for being without substance; now it turns out 1,000 troops are coming out. Got that wrong then.
This is big boy politics and the Tories have got plenty of previous on dirty tricks, bypassing parliament, upstaging other parties and using the army for their own ends.
Sickens me? Get a grip. Such language only comforts the Brownites.
Johno said "I have, in my time, worked for the Ministry of Defence ...have been as easy to criticise the Tory Government for lack of investment in the Armed Forces.... you watch how lack of investment slowly underminds their strength - ... - in peacetime education and health take precedence"
yes agreed.
But how long have we been at war?
Oh 5 years...
Even the MOD must in 5 years work out you need to invest in a war..
But then if your thinking is typical of the MOD, perhaps not:-)
I think most ordinary people think that Basra is absolutely the place to make such announcements.
Sour grapes do you Tories no good at all.....
Even the BBC are hedging on this one.Eddie Mair on Radio 4's PM was making some pointed remarks about it.Good and measured comment by Sir John Major who was always personally far more popular than his administration.I think the papers(apart from the usual suspects) will not be kind to Brown tomorrow.This was just too cynical.
Brown has just been shown on BBC news signing a tank. Trouble is the tank has the name of cylops.
Isn't revenge sweet?
Oh bother - Cyclops.....
The figure of 1,000 gets even more interesting. According to Sky 220 of the 1,000 are already home; 500 are the Basra Palace Contingent already due to return by Xmas; so by my calculation that makes an actual "new" withdrawal of precisely 280 !. Who says spin is dead in Gordon's Labour Party !
Fortunately he seems to have been rumbled and his announcement is being widely portrayed as political and on top of that Sir John Major has just delivered a devastating critique of Gordon's broken promise to announce such matters in Parliament and Osborne has written to Gus O'Donnell asking for an explanation by this evening of why the Treasury could supply Non-Dom Stats to the Labour Party for Darling to rubbish his policy on TV yesterday evening but not to Parliament as the Treasury didn't collate these figures !. Ed Balls and Dawn Primarolo being on record in Hansard to this effect. Oh Deary me - not the result NuLab wanted this week
NuLabour have brought the Law and the Justice system into contempt. They have made the BBC untrustworthy. They have brought the Civil Service into disrepute. And now they have brought shame on the army by using them as bit parts in a cheap spoiling exercise. The army's willingness to engage in a Labour Party Political Broadcast is as crude and distasteful as the Navy's photo ops and engagement with The Sun after their personnel were taken captive by Iran.
Iain,
I am just curious about your opinion on the current BBC Headline 'Tory anger at Brown's Iraq visit.' I know in the past (http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-bbc-does-labours-dirty-work.html) you have been outraged at the biased BBC not reporting the bones of policy announcements, but rather leading on the objections of other parties to these announcements. I was wondering when you would be blogging your outrage at this blatant BBC bias?
Merseymike said...
"I think most ordinary people think that Basra is absolutely the place to make such announcements.
Sour grapes do you Tories no good at all....."
October 02, 2007 4:38 PM
Can I welcome another useful idiot to the conservative blogashere! And some people think scousers are stupid!
Try reading the other replies on here, OH! and even the Labour-loving Beeb have changed their tune on this repulsive piece of exploitative spin.
AnyoneButBrown said..."Has the military situation in Basra changed to enable the withdrawal of troops? Or is the announcement of some withdrawal a cover for the rest of the troops staying far longer than previous government spin?"
The situation has changed in that many more Iraq troops have been trained to a sufficient standard and are now in a position to take over some of the duties of the British Army.
Iain
Did you see Bob Ainsworth kicking at the hands of Paxo on Newsnight?
This man,his boss and this administration is a disgrace,there is more spin under 'King Brown than anytime under Blair-which is stupifiying thought.
What our guest trollers havn't worked out is they have had 10 years to 'sort things out' and have done nothing except lie,cheat and steal.
Never the less the NuLab trollers are quite happy to support a Convicted PM....I suggest if the Tory's win the next election then they can get a one way ticket to North Korea-I'm sure they would be happy reading the NKCP propaganda regarding how wonderful socalism is.
Lost Moral Compass, no reward for finding. Please return to Gordon Brown, last seen heading Middle-Eastwards. Courage is also reported as ready to desert as well. Conviction has well and truly been squashed.
Promises forgotten and Covenants broken a specialty.
Bob Piper
"and the Tories backed the lies when we went in and William Hague has just told Andrew Neil that they are backing the pull out."
No-the Torys didn't like Saddam who gassed his own people and treated his country like a death camp.Oh yes not forgetting the 1000 year 'friendship' with Iran that cost 1 million dead.
No chemical weapons found-unless they are called 'chlorine bombs' which go off in Baghdad every couple of weeks.I'm sure that brings back memories of the good old days of the An Anfal campaign.
No Al Quieda link-except Mr Zarqarwi was allowed to wander around Iraq for eight months BEFORE the war and the group Ansar Al Islam was setting up bases near Mosul.Ooops I forgot that Saddam Fayadeen were foreign volenteers who 'suddenly' became insurgents.
Blair did indeed spin it bad-but nothing like the spin from the likes of Galloway and SWP or Al Beeb.
Trying reading Butler and Hutton instead of Minitruth's spin for a change.
Reading today's papers and listening to the Today programme I think that this attempt by Brown to take the limelight from the Tory Coference has badly backfired.
As he made great efforts not to mention the Conservatives in his conference speech Brown has made himself look daft with what is transparently a stunt.
It will of course mean that the election may not happen after all.
One starts to wonder whether there are any sensible advisors at the tops of both parties.
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