"Twice a year Gordon Brown fills his party's sails with pride. His tornado
of facts and figures magics up images of untold national wealth and success.
Standing at the dispatch box, the towering superiority of his brain makes
intellectual pygmies of his opponents."
For those of weak dispositions, let me give you some highlights...
This was more than a horrible humiliation for the prime minister. This was the week that social democracy ebbed away in England...This week Brown and Darling all but killed off social democracy too...To give the children of the well-off a £1.4bn
inheritance bonus while the children of the poor only got another 48p a week in tax credits is symbolically far worse than that otorious 75p for pensioners...There is a stunned disorientation among Labour MPs, alarmed by both Brown's vision void and his sudden incompetence. Talk to ministers and wise old heads of Commons select committees, and they are reeling with shock. The backbenches sat through Darling's politics-free performance on Tuesday like the Animal Farm beasts gazing through the farmer's window in the final scene. Far too late they realised something awful was happening before their eyes: you could have cut their silence with a knife. How has Gordon Brown managed in such a short time to shipwreck himself and his party? The seriousness of it is only beginning to sink in after Labour's long hegemony.
Bungling the will-he-won't-he election was a survivable self-inflicted injury. The intellectual injury is the real damage. Retreating armies raze the ground behind them to deny their enemy forage: but what Brown and Darling did on Tuesday was to flame-throw the ground ahead, right up to the far horizon beyond the next election. They have nowhere to go, nothing to feed on, no narrative path ahead, no clear political turf to occupy... But when Cameron threw "phoney" at him in Prime Minister's Questions, it stuck like napalm. He could duck the bottles thrown over his election funk, but "phoney" will stick because his comprehensive spending review smacked of panicky, comprehensive cowardice... His party is suddenly gripped by doubt that the big brain has a strategy. Looking back on his content-light conference speech, it asks what he has been thinking this past impatient decade...
Go Polly!
61 comments:
no link to Toynbee in the post?
It's as much a humiliation for the media and people like Toynbee who've been saying Brown is a genius for ten long years.
He never looked much of a genius to me, and neither does Toynbee.
As Brown disappears down the plughole, couldn't he take a generation of media grovellers who've readily spun New Labour's lies with him? It's not only a new government that we need.
a few short weeks ago slash in december 06, but whatever. i'm a labour voter and i cannot believe the extent to which brown has hobbled himself and the party
here is the link - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2189461,00.html
Brown has a higher agenda than anything poitical - his own emotional needs. Like all bullies, he cannot lead, and falls to pieces once the boot is on the other foot.
The media like PT have spent ten years telling us he's a genius. Why should we listen to them any longer? Brown is a disaster from which Labour will take a long time to recover - and so unfortunately might Britain.
Until Polly Toynbee and her ilk explain why they have been so badly conned by Brown, they are discredited as serious commentators. If they try to duck the issue of their own credibility (as Toynbee is trying to do), then they too are no better than Brown.
"I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out..."
She really does fancy herself as Lady Macbeth.
Suicide would not be inappropriate.
Well the great thing is that we have a couple of years to enjoy Gordo getting the kicking school bullies deserve. At the same time, Dave can see if he can work up some vision of his own. Why can't shadow cabinet members get to see him for meaningful discussions?
That didnt take long did it ? some of us saw GB 10yrs ago and thought he aint right and now polly and co have caught up.gordo schemed and plotted for this job and now he has it what? ive heard no vision no goal just tax and spend calling it investment is just wrong its spending and i have a question for him "wheres all the money gone?"
I always read Polly Iain. You have to remember she is way off to the left and advocates a tax system on Swedish lines at 70% of GDP.
Her support of Brown was embarrassing to him and her dissatisfaction could hadly be avoided by anyone seeking to claim the centre .
The interest however is what the Labour rank and file make of it. This could be the first sign that Brown cannot control his own Party.
They ended up by hating Blair and they will not have another ten years of the same
Looks like we have reached the boundaries of Brown`s ability to manouvre . I think its time for Cameron to offer another dubiously funded tax cut. IT is quite clear that the electorate think most of it disappears into waste anyway.
Fund it with efficiency savings ....why not ..better than Brown just borrowing £4 billion
People on the left and in the Labour Party have suddenly realised the sickening truth. They were "conned" by Blair and they've been "conned" by Brown.
"Never glad confident morning again!"
I think one of the really issues is that Gorden et al, are trying to be all things to all men. They are wooing middle england, but the only real party which understands middle england is the Torys. So when they try and steal the Tory's clothes, they never do it right and come unstuck.
Take a look at any accountancy website. The profession is universal in its scathing attack on the changes to Capital Gains, which hit small business, people who have held assets for year, and people who pay into work share schemes.
Tony Blair understood middle england. Brown doesn't. That is the difference which labour is now floundering on. And with Brown they will do it time and time again.
I think Polly is voicing what a lot of people on the Left of the party are feeling right now. Tony Blair was very centre-ground but at least he gave the party direction, but now they're just floating somewhere in the centre of British politics with nothing to anchor them.
Put Brown and Darling together and the result is the Labour Party are Drowning.
Much of what she wrote is true, but there's a bigger problem. Brown is just not a very nice man and it showed at PMQs and it will show increasingly often. That's what will do for him in the end, not policies and politics. He talks compassion, talks courage and all the other things he feels he should but he cannot hide his true self. Ranks will be broken before too long. Labour MPs will begin to panic and there will be blood on the rooftops.
It couldn't happen to a nicer man.
Well, that gave me a good laugh to start the day! Can we have a link to the whole article please?
Isn't there some quote about better one sinner that repenteth...?
Rats leaving the sinking ship?
Saw you with the rat Draper last night. Where on earth did the BBC manage to find him. I thought he was listed missing believed dead.
Sad that my belief was wrong
Even Diane Abbott couldn't mount any sort of defence of the "great leader" this week. So far the best endorsement of Brown consistently coming from the Labour sides is that he didn't go to Eton.
Does this mean I should now stop reading the Telegraph (nee Torygraph) and start reading the Guardian? What a crazy world: up is down, left is right ;-) Glad to see Polly sticking the boot into the bottle...
Polly Pygmy?
Do not forget Iran.
Gordon Brown is now determined to look strong and courageous. And look what is on the horizon.
There is a very real risk that Brown will commit our forces to a US/Israeli attack for no better reason than his own need to restore an authoritative self-image.
He, and therefore we, are now at risk of being manipulated into a major conflict that will expand across the Middle East.
Brown needs to go, and fast. Labour needs a safer pair of hands than his on the tiller as we head into the stormy seas that lie ahead.
Derek Draper for PM. He has all the qualities needed to replace Brown Bottle!! What a creep he is...
The labour party is finished longer term. they have no idealogical base, no memebership base, no activist base and their slow death as we head to the next election will see the real left split away. bring back Michael Foot!
Look-out, I don't think the electorate will stomach an attack on Iran. Voters are jaded and have seen the cost in lives in Iraq for little benefit to Iraq or Britain. If Brown weighs in with the US it will finish him off even more quickly.
The look-out
I think the EU Reform Treaty negotiation is a more likely forum for Gordon Brown to demonstrate his strength (or lack of). Am I the only one who notice that Lady T arrived at Number 10 with a handbag, and left without it? She's lent it to him, and he'll have it out next week, mark my words!
I'm enjoying the fun, despite the gratuitous insults that may come my way once I point out to you that you are celebrating a poll result that would return a Labour majority if it were reflected in a general election to-morrow.
Polly is a columnist with space to fill.
(Private Eye's Polly Filla?)
She said the opposite a few weeks ago and she'll be saying something different in a few weeks time.
Column written.
Cheque banked.
Off to the country for the weekend.
Iain, please can you add a link for the story in the Guardian today? Thanks.
Absolutely, 'Go Polly'. And right now would be a very good thing.
I wouldn't want la Toynbee as a 'friend'. Far better to view her over the foresight of an AK47. At least you'd know where you stand, then. She has always shown herself to be completely fickle in her affections (or should that be 'affectations'?).
Anyway, why would any sane individual believe she'll not be barracking from the other side just as soon as it suits her personal agenda?
What are the odds that she'll be praising him again in a few months time.
Oooh that Gordon Brown! He can fill my sails with pride anyday!!!!
Gordon Brown - Aincherjustsickofhim? Turns out his head was padded, nowadddamean?????
Byeeeee!!!!
whilst she is quite correct about brown and darling being useless, you then get the utter bollox about killing social democracy.
What drugs are these people on ???
It's good to see Toynbee has finally opened her eyes to the grim reality of the nauseating Brown. let's hope she doesn't allow herself to be conned by him again.
BTW I hope poor old Dolly Draper is feeling a bit better this morning after his embarrassing meltdown on TV last night.
He really isn't cut out for this politics lark is he?
Ed said...
Look-out, I don't think the electorate will stomach an attack on Iran....
Sadly, the electorate won't have any say in the matter.
She's not willing to share any of the blame herself then ?
The real question is why hasn't she twigged that socialism is a failure that spreads misery and hopelessness.
What this proves is that Gordon Brown has let down the entire country - he has let down his own side, he has let down people of all political persuasions.
It doesn't get much worse...
Brown is flip flopping like a fish.
One minute we need to help our urban poor, not inheritance cuts. Teribble.
John T - no sensible Tory thinks that the task is all over bar the shouting; the polls will no doubt go up and down in the coming months, and Brown will have his little successes.
However, remember the mid-90's. Once over the ERM debacle, Major's government did some good things but all was subsumed in a miasma of desperation (and some sleaze). During his time as Opposition Leader, Blair was clothed by the MSM and public perception as young, fresh and successful - Cameron is now following the same course. The difference is that Cameron can make hay with the exceptional incompetence of this Government over the past decade.
A propos the scandal of Maidstone hospital and proposed DGH closures, do you recall Blair's election slogan "24 hours to save the NHS"?
From this week's Order of the (Brown ) Nose in Private Eye:
"Change will not be cosmetic, not just swapping a dapper smiler for an old sobersides. There will come a man of conviction, of brain, intensity and seriousness; a strategist, not a mere tactician; a long-termist, not a quick-fixer; a man on a moral mission. "
Polly Toynbee.
You couldn't make it up.
Never the less dear Polly has aged much better than I, as a true blue tory, have.
What value a clear conscience?
Grrr Iain I had already done this......
Mr.,has-to-be-first-with-everything Dale has blogged about the Polly volte face already today and sure enough she tears into Brown , like a posh hypocritical tigress in this morning’s Grauniad..
“ When Cameron threw phoney at him in PMQs it stuck like napalm , he can duck the bottles but phoney will stick....his comprehensive spending review smacked of panicky comprehensive cowardice “ she shrieks .
Can this be the same woman who with unerring political instinct summed up the forthcoming Age of Brown in the following gushing and now hysterically funny terms .? ...I think it can(* barely restrained giggling fit *)......
“Change will not be cosmetic, not just swapping a dapper smile for an old sobersides . There will come a main of conviction , of brain, intensity and seriousness , a strategist not a mere tactician; a long termist , not a quick fixer, a man on a moral mission....”
The Metropolitan University of Toynbee( previously Toynee Polly) is an important figure for the left. He true wish , often stated , is to see taxes rise to Swedish levels at about 70% of GDP . In this she is typical of the Labour activist. They has been happy to look the other way while Brown has fostered a Nationalist ( almost racists) small c Conservative relationship with the Mail as long as he was free on taxation . This constituency has chuckled quietly as brown has spun successfully, concealing his true mission “ Labour at its best when it is Labour “
. Now she has realised that by continuing dishonesty Blair and then Flash have succeeded in surreptitiously nudging the state forward but have forfeited the debate, which they have lost. Her terror now is that the Conservatives will push another Pawn forward and that’s why she signals a 'Grande Non'.... "Your licence to deceive has expired Flash, you must get back in the game and justify tax rises.”
This will be suicide for Brown. Go on Dave ...... he cannot follow you any more , how about a tweak on income tax at low levels. Why not ? Gord –help-us has just borrowed another £4 billion , use that for a fig leaf..
Poor Brown , trapped blind and helpless... ....ooer a strange violence is clouding my brain
“ Come away.
There's going to be trouble.
Kill the beast!
Kill the beast!
Kill the pig!
Slit her throat! Bash her in!”
Sorry went a bit ‘Lord of the Flies’( script except) there . He should be treated humanely of course.
What I meant to say was
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”
Pollyana will say she meant something else by tomorrow - how can anyone read her (often under researched and verified) vitriol is beyond me - she is the sort of monied old Labour that they should have disowned years ago. I am ashamed she is female.
Josephine, Eastbourne
Judith, I entirely agree, and there are (just enough) sensible tories on here to keep me interested. Same goes for Cameron's front bench.
The NHS - very emotive, and an election winner or loser. Sensible Labour voters, and since Cameron announced "free at the point of need" sensible Tories as well, continue to shout "spend the money and make it work!"
My fear for Cameron is that a re-surgence in the polls may lead to him listeniong to a shout from the right of "privatise!", which could lose him the next election.
If Blair hadn't got in 97, I'd be worried about the "one-party state",but he did, so I don't. The longer Labour stays in, the sooner the Tories will return!
Recycling opportunity: A Private Eye cover from long ago showed G(eorge) Brown asking "Brothers, what is the problem?", to which the response was "You are brother"
Iain - please note that *bad language* in a poem is Art ...
(warning: strong language, strong sentiments, and mild peril)
There’s a one-eyed yellow Scotsman of a dour and sullen hue
There’s a stench of pious bullshit all around
There’s a broken-hearted woman dreams of socialism true
And the yellow Scot forever lets her down
He was known as Red McBroon, and he made the Party swoon
Though his cowardice had long begun to smell
But for all he was a wanker he was feted by the bankers
And Polly Toynbee smiled on him as well
He’d been stringing her along with his socialism strong
She’d swallowed all he put into her head
When she judged Blair’s time was short, she said Broon had her support
Provided he would prove himself True Red
He wrote to ask what promise she would like from Red McBroon
They met for lunch as many times before
And fervently she told him then that nothing else would do
But his vote against Blair’s mad Iraqi war
On the night of the debate, Red McBroon was in a state,
His followers could bring mad Tony down
But he’d never in his life had the balls to wield the knife
For he knew the wielder never wears the crown
When it came to the division, courage gave way to ambition
And his scruples failed as surely as his balls
When she heard them read the vote, fury welled up in her throat
And ‘betrayal!’ was her cry around the halls
Now Hell it hath no fury like a jilted Polly Toynbee
First Blair and now McBroon had sold his soul
As she stomped off in the night, for her op-ed piece to write
She vowed vengeance on the yellow Scots arsehole
There’s a one-eyed yellow Scotsman of a dour and sullen hue
There’s a stench of pious bullshit all around
There’s a broken-hearted woman dreams of socialism true
And the yellow Scot forever lets her down.
It was always thus. But 'Backroom Boy' hid it well.
I liked the 'Lord of the Flies' reference. Nice to see that Newmania reads proper books.
re Brown: Trust him. He has a plan. No, I correct myself, he has..a VISION!!! He knows something you don't. He's in charge. Only those who join his club get to know the full vision, mind you. That's why he has been smiling like Gary Glitter in a kindergarten! If you don't agree he has gotten it totally right, we will bash you. I will send my mates to bash you. I will even scrape the barrel for third rate losers who can pop up on the red eye shift on TV and they will bash you. Give us all your sweets you wet poofy Tories, or we'll bash you.
*****
Do you remember Bogart's portrayal of Captain Queeg?
"Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I'd have produced that key if they hadn't of pulled the Caine out of action"
About six months ago I ventured to suggest that Brown would be carried away in a straightjacket. After his last few outings I can see I was not wrong.
What is most interesting to me about that Toynbee article is in the comments. They are, with a few exceptions, utterly riddled with cretinous tosh from unreconstructed Marxists who after ten years of waste, corruption and sleaze still think that the answer is more socialism.
This, I think, goes a long way to explain why the BBC is as bad as it is. The BBC is staffed out of the Guardian and the average Beeboid probably thinks that, if he manages to sound like the broadcasting wing of the Brownite Labour Party, he is achieving the impartiality he is supposed to exhibit. To the rest of us they sound like deranged left-wing nutters - pro-EU, pro-UN, pro-Islam, anti-America, anti-Israel, anti-capitalism, anti-enterprise - but then when you at how to the left they are starting from it explains them perfectly.
Serve your Country and be horrifically injured and be awarded £285K.
Kill at least 90 of our citizens and be awarded between £150 - 400K
Do not join the Army, join Gordons HNS
Gordon Brown has LOST THE CHANGING ROOM.
nick drew: brilliant
As for Polly...she's a champagne socialist.
full stop.
I need say no more
Iain, I see you have conveniently failed to answer the point about whether you support Polly's point that helping the children of the poor is more important, more moral and has a better ethical foundation, than helping kids of already rich people ?
Truth or Dare, Mr Dale ?????
Anon @ 11:41
"...helping the children of the poor is more important, more moral and has a better ethical foundation, than helping kids of already rich people"
What a ridiculous question to ask. Only an idiot would answer "no" to that.
By the way Nick Drew - Excellent
But the problem that we have, or rather you have, is that you truly believe that Gordon Brown is actually helping the children of the poor.
Flip flop, double facing nonsense. Polly, the very woman that Iain and his lovies on this site has been slagging off for years.
Anonymous 11:41
Just what do you and La Toynbee consider rich - someone on £35K a year? That doesn't go far in London I can tell you. My modest 3 bedroom terrace is now worth £400,000 because of market forces that have nothing to do with me. I have struggled to keep this house in good times and bad, worked, paid my taxes both direct and stealth and find my disposable income severely straightened. I now have a son to put through University. Frankly, it is going to be a huge sacrifice and we will have to work until we drop. When we finally do peg out I feel absolutely morally entitled to pass on the fruits of our hard work to my son.
We should of course help the poor to gain social mobility but that does preclude helping middle earners.
Anonymous said...
Iain, I see you have conveniently failed to answer the point about whether you support Polly's point that helping the children of the poor is more important, more moral and has a better ethical foundation, than helping kids of already rich people ?
How about helping the poor not to have any more children. Cheaper for them, and much,much cheaper for me!
Genius Nick.....clap clap clap.
Anon poor childen are not helped by creating hopless welfare traps and the state is not helping anyone .The state is merely not taxing the same money again. This is not help !!!!
Welfare policy by being targeted on one measure has failed and throwing money at it is useless. You will convice noone that we are not due further tax cuts from waste and I predict that they will be offered.
Welfare can be adjusted along Clintonian lines to free resources for good outcomes and this will be the plan.
Brown and the centralising statist dinosaurs will never get this and nor will anon who is stuck in the intellectually moribund "Polly" paradigm. Couldn`t look more tired in bedslippers and a nightie.
Out with the Old , in with the new
And if its not clear BROWN this means YOU
Simon Hoggart was as cruel and impish as ever yesterday:
"He is the first prime minister in history to flunk an election
because he thought he would win it!" Mr Cameron continued.
He jeered at Gordon Brown's book, Courage, about "people who took
brave decisions in the service of great causes - especially when
more comfortable and far less dangerous options were open to them!"
Did he realise what a phoney he now looked? "Has he found a single
person who believes his excuses for cancelling the election?"
Throughout all this the Labour benches sat in morose and gloomy
silence. Two weeks ago they heard they had an 11% lead in the
opinion polls. Now their electoral hopes seemed destroyed, their
houses burned, their land salted over. Many looked shocked and
bewildered. Most have never seen the Tories like this. It must be
like being attacked by a squad of killer gerbils - nothing could
possibly prepare you."
Newmania i didn't think you were Chinese! (apologies to invading pc brigade for perceived lascism!)
You make a serious point,though, and I can't wait to see where the waste will be cut first, and how the tax cuts targetted.
The quickest way to spend money is to employ more people, and pay more in wages.
The converse is true, and one of the problems that Osborne will have as C of the Exc., is in persuading his depts to announce sufficient job cuts, without alienating the voters, to cut taxes significantly.
attila the hun - if you are serious, then you would be aping Chinese policy, and i don't think you really want to do that!
Shock Newsnight Poll adds to Gordon's agony:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/politics/7041457.stm
Brown 'spins as much as Blair'
'Three quarters of voters do not believe Gordon Brown has ended political spin as promised, a poll suggests.
In a survey for Newsnight's Big Fat Politics Page, 61% said Mr Brown's government was as likely to spin as that of predecessor Tony Blair - 15% thought it more likely to spin.'
Brown was a genius when he only had to pop up 1 or 2 times a year to do the Budget, Pre Budget Report etc. But now that he is in the public eye, he cannot take the heat...
...bring back Tony, the Labourites must be thinking...
"'Three quarters of voters do not believe Gordon Brown has ended political spin as promised, a poll suggests."
I worry for the other quarter.
I'm starting to agree with your earlier analysis that a tipping point may well have been reached.
"Brown was a genius" as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
What?
You have to point of the genius bit to me.
I can see he has taken approximately 5 billion a year from pension funds.
I can see he has introduced so many stealth taxes that on average people have to work for the tax man until the 1st June each year.
I can see huge amounts of tax payers money spent on health and education with little improvement in standards or delivery.
I can see the spin and the lies, and millions wasted on ill thought out schemes such as tax credits.
I cannot however see the genius.
Let's step back from the cabaret (Brown's petulant stupidity) for a moment and look at the broader picture.
Suddenly, it's OK to argue for tax cuts. The sky does not fall in. Voters agree with you. Are you paying attention, ladies and gentlemen of the shadow cabinet?
Talking of cabarets, isn't Polly Toynbee a hoot? She seems to combine the political insight of Girls Aloud with the persuasive skills of Mr Punch.
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