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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Where Was Gordon, Ask Labour MPs at Gwyneth's Funeral
At the same time as Gordon Brown was attempting to rescue his political career appearing with Fern Britton on THIS MORNING, Michael White tells us that David Cameron and George Osborne were paying their respects at Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral.
54 comments:
Anonymous
said...
My God! He didn't go to Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral?
I don't know why I'm so shocked, given the craven and duplicitous nature of the man, but I am.
"Prime Minister Gordon Brown was unable to attend the service as he was travelling to Northern Ireland to meet Irish counterpart Brian Cowen and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg."
I wonder if Gordon has lost his moral compass in the same place as the Blairs lost theirs. How low can the man sink? Even for Tories, Mrs Dunwoody was highly regarded as a decent, hard-working parliamentarian...but Gordon would rather sit down with Fern. What a loser....
Even if it were not illegal is it not incumbent on a PM to set a good example and not use his two votes in two elections that are for the same layer of Government?
Why was Gordon Brown meeting an intelligent, civilised, self-made rich man like the Mayor of New York? Gordon and the socialists believe in mayhem, not order.
And why wasnt Brian Cowen coming to London to see the British prime minster, a much more important and significant post. George Bush wouldn't come to London to see Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown has to go to Washington. and Mr Bush certainly wouldn't come to Britain to meet a mayor! Dear God, he can't even get protocol right!
I don't think we need to go into issues of protocol too much. Quite apart from the fact that Cowan has been in the job for all of two minutes I think it highly unlikely that the Irish would appreciate the first act of the new pm being to nip over for a bit of prostration and obeisance before any British pm, let alone this one.
You weren't repeating what Michael White had reported. You said that Brown was being interviewed by Fern Britton at the time of the funeral, which is totally untrue, and Michael White said nothing of the sort in his blog. It was a cheap shot, it was untrue, and you should correct it.
Gah, just as I started to feel a shred of sympathy for the sorry snotgobbler, he sinks to a new low. He'd rather make small talk on daytime TV than do the decent thing. Thoroughly and unashamedly dishonourable. ALL SPIN AND NO SUBSTANCE.
"I don't know why I'm so shocked, given the craven and duplicitous nature of the man, but I am"
Surely it's more appropriate to refer to Cameron's craven and duplicitous nature, and be not at all shocked or surprised that he and Osborne attended the funeral? There's a bye-election in the offing, didn't you hear the dog whistle?
I would have thought that if Gordon was unable to attend(we'll give him the benefit of the doubt regarding non-attendance- he is after all STILL PM(for the moment) and the business of government needs to continue but surely Harriet as Deputy Leader and Leader of the House should/would have attended. Did she ?
I'm no great admirer of Labour but if Harman did attend then this is a non starter
The programme will begin with a welcome reception at the Folk and Transport Museum on May 7. The main conference will be on the morning of 8 May followed by afternoon forums for delegates. A gala dinner will be held that evening at Hillsborough Castle. On May 9 delegates will be invited to take part in a tailored business programme specific to their sector.
I've just asked the same question on Nick Robinson's newsblog... My comment has been referred to the BBC moderators as potentially inappropriate (and no I didn’t use strong or offensive language).
I can’t see why it’s inappropriate to ask why our PM would prioritise a soft-focus, TV interview on daytime telly over and above, attending the funeral of a much loved and respected former parliamentarian.
interesting - Tony O'Reilly has called on Gordon Brown to introduce the same corporation tax in Northern Ireland as the Republic enjoys. This was said at the NI investment conference that both Brown and Cowen are attending.
if he does this, who is not to say that Scotland and Wales will also demand it.
The PM did not know her. Why did he have to attend her funeral. I do not understand why did Mr White would feel the need to note this. Dunwoody and the PM were not close or to the best of my knowledge enemies. I thin this is actually quite rude point to make. Mr White is supposed to be pro labour.
Perhaps sitting down with Fern and talking about his favourite breakfast cereal was preferable to doing a proper interview, given the way Jim Fitzpatrick died on his arse on Newsnight last night.
How many times do you think Brown will be seen in Crewe, or have they put a travel embargo on the PM like most councils did the other week, owing to Brown being such an obvious shit-magnet?
dirty european socialist said... The PM did not know her. Why did he have to attend her funeral.
She was a well respected veteran Labour MP. GB as head of the party should have attended. Simple as that. It's called respect (an alien concept to lefties).
I'm not shocked, but merely amazed that Broon can score such an own goal. It won't look so good if the Tories take C and N. The more we see of this sub-prime minister the more we wonder what possessed NuLab to replace the artful, vote winning Tony Blair with Broon the inept.
When and where was the funeral? When was he meeting the Irish PM and where?
What time was the tv interview, was it live or a recording?
When Alistair Campbell wrote that Gordon was a master strategist, he must have been joking.
The more serious problem for Broon is unravelling the mess created for him by Wendy Alexander.
I know, it's childish, but I want Broon to be not just defeated, but humiliated too. And what more suitable humiliation than to be remembered only as Snotgobbler, the bogie-eating, failed Prime Minister.
Dirty European Socialist - Gordon Brown didn't know Gwyneth Dunwoody? Do you know anything at all about anything? Gwyneth had been a Labour MP since 1974 and Gordon entered Parliament in 1983 - so I should think he did know her pretty well, wouldn't you?
He's the PM (God help us) so if he wanted to go to the funeral, he could have arranged his affairs to allow him to do so. He just has no idea about how to behave - no manners either. I notice David Cameron found time to attend........
Tony H, who writes: "put the simple, insignificant Paddy in his place, is that it Verity?"
Why would I lay claim to the feverish imaginings of a chippy naive like yourself? Why do you think you can voice my thoughts better than I can articulate them myself? - espccially as you are a bit feverish. Are you Jack Straw posting as a different moron? The truly powerful are "too busy" to be inconvenienced by travel to see those of lesser importance.
Jack Straw also totally misunderstands power, despite loving it so much. (Remember his 114 mph motorway trip down the MI? ZOOM!! Make way for the Nomenklatura!)
Straw made the same mistake as you, Tony Chippy, when he put his hand under the elbow of the US Secretaray of State, Condoleezza Rice, under the guise of "helping" her as she walked down some perfectly normal town hall steps. It's always patronising when a man does this, but Ms Rice will have made a mental note of this impertinence.
Anonymous 4-something - can't be bothered to look it up. No. My mind doesn't work along the lines of peeing on walls, although dogs seem to enjoy it.
4:21 - I have cut back on referring to Cameron's duplicitous behaviour out of respect to the blog owner of this parish. And also fear of being banned.
Not attending the longest serving female MP's funeral - and she a member of his party - is a disgrace and what lingering shreds of pity I felt for the man (they were under my fingernails, and I work scraping pork pie fat out of drains) has gone.
And as for that eegit Jim Fitzpatrick, last time I saw a dumb animal in that much distress the vet was giving it the needle.
@ the truth will out @ 4.00pm, perhaps this was Gordy's reaction to advisors' suggestions that he become more empathetic? GMTV is the place to be for all that.
@ anon @ 4.21 pm, yes the cynical could claim "craven and duplicitous" for Cameron and Osborne at Dunwoody's funeral, but there's also a thing called respect for true parliamentarians. And those who'd like to make the mark too, are more able to recognise this asset than those who have been embedded in power and lack a link to reality for a decade. Yes, C & N is an opportunity for C & O, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I saw Dunwoody in the corridors of the HoC in the late 90s, looked at her and wondered how she found the stamina then. She went on for almost a decade more, dying unexpectedly and tragically on the job. She had passion and belief; integrity and substance. She was a fine example of a true parliamentarian in the democracy that we have. Perhaps one of the last of, but I do hope not.
It's all advisors and spin these days. Create a mirage - get the vote, or so they thought (and so the electorate previously bought). Perhaps, that's why Gordy Boy - I do have to call him that as he now seems so immature as well as the rest - ended up on GMTV, bastion of the home-dwellers who have just taken their kids to school.
But if Gordy-Boy had any respect for parliament, democracy, what it means and his own party, including his detractors, as well as the life and public service of that one woman in the form of Dunwoody, he'd have been at her funeral.
Well at least this time it wasn't as bad as the Treaty of Lisbon debacle where his moody attitude would have been better instead of Miliband clapping his hands and jumping around like a small boy in a sweetshop....
I mean, at least it was a PROPER snub for a respected Labour MP, rather than a half-baked snub....
So, Brown's pressing and long booked meeting at Stormont does not kick off until tomorrow.
Even if it did start this afternoon I am sure the new head of Ireland and Mayor Bloomberg of New York would have understood if Gordon was a few minutes late because he attended the funeral of one of the BEST Labour MP's ever.
Sorry folks but Gordon's non attendance of Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral is an insult to Labour and Parliament in general.
There can be only one reason why the Dunwoody family decided for a Westminster funeral and that was to make it easy for Westminster to attend and celebrate her life. Gordon did NOT agree.
"Not attending the longest serving female MP's funeral - and she a member of his party - is a disgrace and what lingering shreds of pity I felt for the man (they were under my fingernails, and I work scraping pork pie fat out of drains) has gone."
We've lost respect in the case of legions of the younger generations and here's an example to follow; so why are we surprised at the state of Britain today and the status of out PM?
An analogy: carbon bonds in more than one form. In a covalent bond it makes diamond, the strongest bond known on planet earth - last time I studied this subject - and it can cut other hard substances. There's also another form of bond for carbon in graphite, where layers of carbon slide across each other, as in your pencil lead, slippidy doo, sliding away!
What lasts longer? Your pencil lead or your engagement ring, or the engagement ring you bought last for your most recent loved one? You get the picture. Gordy-Boy just does not understand the substance of covalent bonding... Call it loyalty and respect.
[Sorry for a possibly inappropriate reference re engagement here, as marriage is now dying thanks to Labour, which I believe to be part of the root cause of problems we experience in society today.]
Graphite in your pencil lead goes where you direct it; a diamond stands firm. Guess which one Gordy-Boy is? The ask, what would you prefer?
Its not clear to me that party leaders go to the funeral of MPs as a matter of routine, but given the haste - completely driven by political expediency - with which the by election was called I think Brown might have rearranged his itinerary.
He has after all got form, he managed to turn up late to the signing of the EU constitution. Does anyone care if he keeps the Irish PM waiting. i don't.
Was not Dunwoody the longest serving female member of parliament? Quite a notary.
Oh, and as for Fitzpatrick on Newsnight - it was not so much the savaging by Paxman, he overdid it as usual, it was that he could not close the issue off, he could not take the point and move on, he did not 'perform', which is what government ministers are paid to do these days.
The other point re Newsnight was the abject performance by Milliband, whose pseudo greenness and laughable lefty-liberal positioning was exposed by Paxo.
Presumably Paxo is getting his retaliation in first before Labour leaders of the future refuse to be interviewed by him.
I recall Broon found an excuse to delay flying to Lisbon last December (where 26 European leaders were gathered), so you'd think that he'd be excused for being late for meeting one, in order to pay tribute to one of Britain's greatest women parlementarians.
As for accusing David Cameron & George Osborne of "craven and duplicitous nature", just note that (a) both David Cameron and Nick Clegg attended, and (b) George Osborne is MP for one of the neighboring constituencies.
May 08, 2008 6:47 PM Cameron found the time. Well he does not have a country to run. So will cameron go to your funeral. I do not see why the PM has to attend everyone's funeral. This is making politics out of a funeral.
Nicholas said ; Most of the Cabinet were there but Jack Straw's tribute was of the best , witty ,self deprecating but full of affection for a magnificent rebellious MP who will be so missed by all true democrats . Betty Boothroyd read with such authority and the music was ethereal . Truly , with or without Gordon , Gwyneth would have approved .
54 comments:
My God! He didn't go to Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral?
I don't know why I'm so shocked, given the craven and duplicitous nature of the man, but I am.
Cheap shot, Iain. (And where were you?)
From the BBC website:
"Prime Minister Gordon Brown was unable to attend the service as he was travelling to Northern Ireland to meet Irish counterpart Brian Cowen and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg."
I wonder if Gordon has lost his moral compass in the same place as the Blairs lost theirs. How low can the man sink? Even for Tories, Mrs Dunwoody was highly regarded as a decent, hard-working parliamentarian...but Gordon would rather sit down with Fern. What a loser....
I was merely reporting what Michael White had reported. No cheap shot at all.
On another point.
Should Gordon Brown have voted in last week's elections?
Even if it were not illegal is it not incumbent on a PM to set a good example and not use his two votes in two elections that are for the same layer of Government?
Why was Gordon Brown meeting an intelligent, civilised, self-made rich man like the Mayor of New York? Gordon and the socialists believe in mayhem, not order.
And why wasnt Brian Cowen coming to London to see the British prime minster, a much more important and significant post. George Bush wouldn't come to London to see Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown has to go to Washington. and Mr Bush certainly wouldn't come to Britain to meet a mayor! Dear God, he can't even get protocol right!
I don't think we need to go into issues of protocol too much. Quite apart from the fact that Cowan has been in the job for all of two minutes I think it highly unlikely that the Irish would appreciate the first act of the new pm being to nip over for a bit of prostration and obeisance before any British pm, let alone this one.
"Prime Minister Gordon Brown was unable to attend the service as he was travelling to Northern Ireland to meet
And how long does a funeral take ? It's almost on the way.
Such a caring PM.
You weren't repeating what Michael White had reported. You said that Brown was being interviewed by Fern Britton at the time of the funeral, which is totally untrue, and Michael White said nothing of the sort in his blog. It was a cheap shot, it was untrue, and you should correct it.
"And why wasnt Brian Cowen coming to London to see the British prime minster, a much more important and significant post."
He should've put the simple, insignificant Paddy in his place, is that it Verity?
Gah, just as I started to feel a shred of sympathy for the sorry snotgobbler, he sinks to a new low. He'd rather make small talk on daytime TV than do the decent thing. Thoroughly and unashamedly dishonourable. ALL SPIN AND NO SUBSTANCE.
This man seems to lack even basic levels of judgement. Not just political judgement, but any kind.
Verity Said...
And why wasnt Brian Cowen coming to London to see the British prime minster, a much more important and significant post.
I thought it was all about getting businesses to set up in Northern Ireland. Obviously you see it as a pee-ing up the wall competition!
verity said...
"I don't know why I'm so shocked, given the craven and duplicitous nature of the man, but I am"
Surely it's more appropriate to refer to Cameron's craven and duplicitous nature, and be not at all shocked or surprised that he and Osborne attended the funeral? There's a bye-election in the offing, didn't you hear the dog whistle?
Hey! what happened to the Maggie t-shirt and DVD set you were giving out for Telegraph TV? did you take our ideas and run?
I would have thought that if Gordon was unable to attend(we'll give him the benefit of the doubt regarding non-attendance- he is after all STILL PM(for the moment) and the business of government needs to continue but surely Harriet as Deputy Leader and Leader of the House should/would have attended. Did she ?
I'm no great admirer of Labour but if Harman did attend then this is a non starter
It is of course possible that Gordon wasn't invited or told to stay well clear ...
Gordon's excuse for not attending the funeral does not ring true. He did not have to be in Northern Ireland until this evening.
US - Northern Ireland Investment Conference:
The programme will begin with a welcome reception at the Folk and Transport Museum on May 7. The main conference will be on the morning of 8 May followed by afternoon forums for delegates. A gala dinner will be held that evening at Hillsborough Castle. On May 9 delegates will be invited to take part in a tailored business programme specific to their sector.
its not a cheap shot.. brian cowen was only selected as leader of Ireland yesterday.
he could have easily postponed the meeting until after the funeral (as any decent person would have done)
verity -> actually it was the Irish guy who came the UK ... the meeting was in Northern Ireland at Stormont.
more here
I've just asked the same question on Nick Robinson's newsblog... My comment has been referred to the BBC moderators as potentially inappropriate (and no I didn’t use strong or offensive language).
I can’t see why it’s inappropriate to ask why our PM would prioritise a soft-focus, TV interview on daytime telly over and above, attending the funeral of a much loved and respected former parliamentarian.
Why isn't Politico's stocking Ron Paul's new book? I want to buy it but can't find it for sale here.
interesting - Tony O'Reilly has called on Gordon Brown to introduce the same corporation tax in Northern Ireland as the Republic enjoys. This was said at the NI investment conference that both Brown and Cowen are attending.
if he does this, who is not to say that Scotland and Wales will also demand it.
The PM did not know her. Why did he have to attend her funeral. I do not understand why did Mr White would feel the need to note this. Dunwoody and the PM were not close or to the best of my knowledge enemies. I thin this is actually quite rude point to make.
Mr White is supposed to be pro labour.
Perhaps sitting down with Fern and talking about his favourite breakfast cereal was preferable to doing a proper interview, given the way Jim Fitzpatrick died on his arse on Newsnight last night.
How many times do you think Brown will be seen in Crewe, or have they put a travel embargo on the PM like most councils did the other week, owing to Brown being such an obvious shit-magnet?
Was the appearance on the ITV programme live or recorded?
So Gordon did not go to Dunwoody's funeral eh?
And he calls himself a moral man.
I wonder how many will attend his funeral?
dirty european socialist said...
The PM did not know her. Why did he have to attend her funeral.
She was a well respected veteran Labour MP. GB as head of the party should have attended. Simple as that.
It's called respect (an alien concept to lefties).
I think someone should write an entry for Gordon here
Dickipedia - A Wiki of Dicks
http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Main_Page
I'm not shocked, but merely amazed that Broon can score such an own goal. It won't look so good if the Tories take C and N. The more we see of this sub-prime minister the more we wonder what possessed NuLab to replace the artful, vote winning Tony Blair with Broon the inept.
When and where was the funeral?
When was he meeting the Irish PM and where?
What time was the tv interview, was it live or a recording?
When Alistair Campbell wrote that Gordon was a master strategist, he must have been joking.
The more serious problem for Broon is unravelling the mess created for him by Wendy Alexander.
He was probably at home eating his bogies.
I know, it's childish, but I want Broon to be not just defeated, but humiliated too. And what more suitable humiliation than to be remembered only as Snotgobbler, the bogie-eating, failed Prime Minister.
You said that Brown was being interviewed by Fern Britton at the time of the funeral, which is totally untrue,
Ooooooh, get her!
It's true in the sense that blair's lies were true. 'Nkay?
Labour and denial: not just a river in Egypt.
I wonder how many will attend his funeral?
I shan't attend the funeral but I'll be at the graveside some hours later, just as soon as my bladder is sufficiently full.
I'm afraid Michael is being a bit touchy about any criticism of Gordon in this matter. See his responses.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/05/where_was_the_prime_minister.html
Ooops. Forgot the link
Maybe he just didn't like her?
greg
Dirty European Socialist - Gordon Brown didn't know Gwyneth Dunwoody? Do you know anything at all about anything? Gwyneth had been a Labour MP since 1974 and Gordon entered Parliament in 1983 - so I should think he did know her pretty well, wouldn't you?
He's the PM (God help us) so if he wanted to go to the funeral, he could have arranged his affairs to allow him to do so. He just has no idea about how to behave - no manners either. I notice David Cameron found time to attend........
Did gordon arrive later and had a private burial?
Tony H, who writes: "put the simple, insignificant Paddy in his place, is that it Verity?"
Why would I lay claim to the feverish imaginings of a chippy naive like yourself? Why do you think you can voice my thoughts better than I can articulate them myself? - espccially as you are a bit feverish. Are you Jack Straw posting as a different moron? The truly powerful are "too busy" to be inconvenienced by travel to see those of lesser importance.
Jack Straw also totally misunderstands power, despite loving it so much. (Remember his 114 mph motorway trip down the MI? ZOOM!! Make way for the Nomenklatura!)
Straw made the same mistake as you, Tony Chippy, when he put his hand under the elbow of the US Secretaray of State, Condoleezza Rice, under the guise of "helping" her as she walked down some perfectly normal town hall steps. It's always patronising when a man does this, but Ms Rice will have made a mental note of this impertinence.
Anonymous 4-something - can't be bothered to look it up. No. My mind doesn't work along the lines of peeing on walls, although dogs seem to enjoy it.
4:21 - I have cut back on referring to Cameron's duplicitous behaviour out of respect to the blog owner of this parish. And also fear of being banned.
Not attending the longest serving female MP's funeral - and she a member of his party - is a disgrace and what lingering shreds of pity I felt for the man (they were under my fingernails, and I work scraping pork pie fat out of drains) has gone.
And as for that eegit Jim Fitzpatrick, last time I saw a dumb animal in that much distress the vet was giving it the needle.
Brown in so far into denial that he lives on a house boat on Lake Victoria
@ the truth will out @ 4.00pm, perhaps this was Gordy's reaction to advisors' suggestions that he become more empathetic? GMTV is the place to be for all that.
@ anon @ 4.21 pm, yes the cynical could claim "craven and duplicitous" for Cameron and Osborne at Dunwoody's funeral, but there's also a thing called respect for true parliamentarians. And those who'd like to make the mark too, are more able to recognise this asset than those who have been embedded in power and lack a link to reality for a decade. Yes, C & N is an opportunity for C & O, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I saw Dunwoody in the corridors of the HoC in the late 90s, looked at her and wondered how she found the stamina then. She went on for almost a decade more, dying unexpectedly and tragically on the job. She had passion and belief; integrity and substance. She was a fine example of a true parliamentarian in the democracy that we have. Perhaps one of the last of, but I do hope not.
It's all advisors and spin these days. Create a mirage - get the vote, or so they thought (and so the electorate previously bought). Perhaps, that's why Gordy Boy - I do have to call him that as he now seems so immature as well as the rest - ended up on GMTV, bastion of the home-dwellers who have just taken their kids to school.
But if Gordy-Boy had any respect for parliament, democracy, what it means and his own party, including his detractors, as well as the life and public service of that one woman in the form of Dunwoody, he'd have been at her funeral.
It's almost unbelievable that he was not.
Well at least this time it wasn't as bad as the Treaty of Lisbon debacle where his moody attitude would have been better instead of Miliband clapping his hands and jumping around like a small boy in a sweetshop....
I mean, at least it was a PROPER snub for a respected Labour MP, rather than a half-baked snub....
He could have turned up at the wake after all.
This post strikes me as playing politics with a deeply personal matter. I'm not sure you needed 'report' it again?
I wonder if George Bush would avoid the funeral of one of the Republican Party's longest serving Congressmen in order to meet the Mayor of Hartlepool?
So, Brown's pressing and long booked meeting at Stormont does not kick off until tomorrow.
Even if it did start this afternoon I am sure the new head of Ireland and Mayor Bloomberg of New York would have understood if Gordon was a few minutes late because he attended the funeral of one of the BEST Labour MP's ever.
Sorry folks but Gordon's non attendance of Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral is an insult to Labour and Parliament in general.
There can be only one reason why the Dunwoody family decided for a Westminster funeral and that was to make it easy for Westminster to attend and celebrate her life. Gordon did NOT agree.
Gwyneth was a rebel and her soul was not soled.
grex @ 7.03pm said:
"Not attending the longest serving female MP's funeral - and she a member of his party - is a disgrace and what lingering shreds of pity I felt for the man (they were under my fingernails, and I work scraping pork pie fat out of drains) has gone."
We've lost respect in the case of legions of the younger generations and here's an example to follow; so why are we surprised at the state of Britain today and the status of out PM?
An analogy: carbon bonds in more than one form. In a covalent bond it makes diamond, the strongest bond known on planet earth - last time I studied this subject - and it can cut other hard substances. There's also another form of bond for carbon in graphite, where layers of carbon slide across each other, as in your pencil lead, slippidy doo, sliding away!
What lasts longer? Your pencil lead or your engagement ring, or the engagement ring you bought last for your most recent loved one? You get the picture. Gordy-Boy just does not understand the substance of covalent bonding... Call it loyalty and respect.
[Sorry for a possibly inappropriate reference re engagement here, as marriage is now dying thanks to Labour, which I believe to be part of the root cause of problems we experience in society today.]
Graphite in your pencil lead goes where you direct it; a diamond stands firm. Guess which one Gordy-Boy is? The ask, what would you prefer?
Its not clear to me that party leaders go to the funeral of MPs as a matter of routine, but given the haste - completely driven by political expediency - with which the by election was called I think Brown might have rearranged his itinerary.
He has after all got form, he managed to turn up late to the signing of the EU constitution. Does anyone care if he keeps the Irish PM waiting. i don't.
Was not Dunwoody the longest serving female member of parliament? Quite a notary.
Oh, and as for Fitzpatrick on Newsnight - it was not so much the savaging by Paxman, he overdid it as usual, it was that he could not close the issue off, he could not take the point and move on, he did not 'perform', which is what government ministers are paid to do these days.
The other point re Newsnight was the abject performance by Milliband, whose pseudo greenness and laughable lefty-liberal positioning was exposed by Paxo.
Presumably Paxo is getting his retaliation in first before Labour leaders of the future refuse to be interviewed by him.
I recall Broon found an excuse to delay flying to Lisbon last December (where 26 European leaders were gathered), so you'd think that he'd be excused for being late for meeting one, in order to pay tribute to one of Britain's greatest women parlementarians.
As for accusing David Cameron & George Osborne of "craven and duplicitous nature", just note that (a) both David Cameron and Nick Clegg attended, and (b) George Osborne is MP for one of the neighboring constituencies.
Perhaps given Brown's habit of turning everything he touches into shit the Dunwoody family asked the nation's #1 Jonah to stay well away?
Brown's contribution to the NI investment conference was his usual re-announcing and re-packaging of previously agreed stuff.
Cant say anyone in NI was to interested in his appearance here, nor his bullshit.
May 08, 2008 6:47 PM Cameron found the time. Well he does not have a country to run. So will cameron go to your funeral. I do not see why the PM has to attend everyone's funeral. This is making politics out of a funeral.
Anonymous 4.25 said...
".. surely Harriet as Deputy Leader and Leader of the House should/would have attended. Did she?"
YES, she did.
Nicholas said ;
Most of the Cabinet were there but Jack Straw's tribute was of the best , witty ,self deprecating but full of affection for a magnificent rebellious MP who will be so missed by all true democrats . Betty Boothroyd read with such authority and the music was ethereal . Truly , with or without Gordon , Gwyneth would have approved .
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