...Mr Brown left for Lisbon where we could watch him on TV failing to sign the treaty with the other 26 leaders. He had left the task to his foreign secretary, David Miliband, whom he does not like or trust. (The wife of a middle-aged MP I know said last month, "I can't take the Miliband brothers seriously, because I used to change their nappies." If Gordon had that job, they might have been found floating head down in the fish pond.)
The sight of our prime minister turning up three hours late to sign the document was deeply tragic. He was in the position of a teenage girl who hates the hostess but can't
bear to miss the party. So she turns up, but very late. So there. Yeah, but no but.
Britain not so much in the heart of Europe, but hanging round on its own in the pub.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hoggart on Brown
Simon Hoggart's Guardian column on Gordon Brown today is brilliant. Truly brilliant. Here are the final couple of paragraphs, but you can read the whole thing HERE.
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13 comments:
I don't think Brown will be in office by this time next year.
A shame Cable won't be around to make the inevitable 'From Mr Bean to Vicki Pollard' jibe...
I think it just confirms how ignorant Brown is. He used to accept the city invitation to their annual bash and then turns up in a lounge suit. To think someone without manners is representing Britain on the World stage.He is still an overgrown spoilt student.
The phone in on Talk Sport is about whether Brown is a bad PM or just unlucky, so far he hasn't had one supportive caller.
Iain,
Tom Bower, also in the Grauniad, makes a better case.
And all this before the "credit crunch" in the UK really starts to bite in the first half of 2008 - and the World Economy starts to tip into "recession". Gordon's luck just ran out.
Good stuff. Hoggart was just as scathing yesterday about Brown's performance in PMQs.
I wish I could give a link to Quentin Lett's take on the Liaison Committee meeting in today's Mail.
As usual, hilarious. Letts is a national treasure.
First he goes to the House of Commons where he put on a petulant and moody display in front of the MP's Committee. Then he turns up late in Lisbon because the sixth-former’s club that surround him in Downing Street obviously decided this was the way to show he wasn't really a party to the treaty. The fact is he signed it, we as a country have signed up to it and that's that. All Gordon Brown has succeeded as doing is to further undermine his leadership credentials, while at the same time embarrassing Britain. In the long run this is another nail in his coffin and a severe dent for Britain within the EU. Whether you agree with being a member or not, we are, and we should be showing a whole lot more class. We're either a world player or a bit part player. Brown is doomed.
No one voted for him as PM, it was just a case of no one stood against him. He knows that, he realises that he's unloved and unliked and that's a big part of his undoing. Like him or loath him Tony Blair had the confidence of a winner. Gordon Brown has the smell of defeat clinging to him.
The display was so churlish that I wonder if the fellow is well.
This is one more event that shows not only Brown's rudeness but his lack of judgement.
He's ended up pilloried on the front page of the Sun anyway today, so he might as well have gone and at least gained some allies in Europe. But no, he ended up antagonising them too and looking weak into the bargain.
The longer he stays as PM, the more people will realise that he never had any political judgement in the way that Blair did. Anything Brown did or did not achieve whilst at the Treasury was because Blair's leadership created the political space for him to do it. With Blair gone, Brown is boxed in by his own lack of leadership.
Labour is on a kamikarzi course with Brown. How much more damage will the party put up with?
I am baffled about why people are slagging Brown off for signing the constitution late. He signed away the independence of our once great, free nation, other of liberty and English Common Law. Who cares if he did it on time or did it a couple of hours late? I really do not understand what the issue is.
It is always amazing to me why some people enter public life when they are unable to string a sentence together without repetition. Brown is plain awful at speaking off the cuff and turns into a blithering lump of lard the more upset he becomes.
The other guy (nice as he is!) is Adam Boulton who has always had an "er" problem which he managed to sort for a while, but has now returned with a vengeance.
Brown is a complete and utter disgrace.
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