Monday, July 07, 2008

Breaking the Chipmunk Code

A Labour MP has rather gleefully passed to me a copy of a speech by Hazel Blears to the LGA last week, which went unreported. However, the final few paragraphs make for interesting reading, especially if you are a Westminster villager and enjoy doing a bit of codebreaking...

Let me finish with a final thought, and it’s about the importance of courage in politics.
I started by talking about Aneurin Bevan, and the NHS he created through force of will and political drive. The NHS is a great example of how today’s controversy is tomorrow’s commonplace. In 1948, the Conservatives voted against the NHS Bill in Parliament.
Yesterday, as I queued for the Westminster Abbey service to commemorate the NHS, standing behind me was my good friend David Cameron, leader of a party committed to the NHS.

In the 1960s my mentor and heroine Barbara Castle introduced seat belts and the breathalyser, and was called every name under the sun for restricting drivers’ freedom to drive whilst drunk and without a seat belt. No-one today wants to reverse that policy.

In my time in parliament, we’ve seen controversies such as Academy schools. Opposed tooth and nail at the time; now an increasingly accepted part of the local education system. Or the smoking ban. One year one, considered a great success.

My point is that every new political idea has its opponents – people who lack imagination, who fear change, who benefit from the status quo, or who want a quiet life. But those people fade away. They make little mark, and they are gone.
The people who drive forward human progress are the brave people, the people who are prepared to argue their case, who value courage and conviction above consensus. It is to them that we owe our liberty and our democracy. And I am convinced that in local government, the future belongs to the innovators, the visionaries, the trail-blazers and risk-takers.

It belongs to people with courage.
What can she mean? Is she talking in code? Some Labour MPs certainly think so...

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unless it's a "typo" this sentence rings warning bells as a "set up or a piece of "black ops"

".....................standing behind me was my good friend David Cameron, leader of a party committed to the NHS."

Can you honestly believe Blears would actually say THAT in a speech ? She spends most of her time rubbishing Cameron and the Conservatives for not supporting the NHS at its concept and for them wishing to dismantle it. It's gotta be a wind up from somebody either that or Blears has finally "lost the plot" entirely and is either contemplating departing Labour for the Conservatives or wishes to end her Ministerial Career with Brown when he announces his re-shuffle later this month(or, of course perhaps she knows she being thrown out of Cabninet anyway ?)

Dick the Prick said...

Mr Dale - I'm disappointed in you Sir. Are you insinuating that Mizz Blears was using a satyre based upon the No1 bestseller to inspire a putsch? Can you not read the polls? Gordon Brown's the most popular leader since Richard 3rd - ah, oh, hmm.

Anonymous said...

It's time this myth that the Tories opposed the idea of A (my emphasis) National Health Service.

After it all it owes its conception to the Beveridge Report (Liberal) and the White Paper published by a Tory Minister of Health during the war.

What the Tories - and others - opposed was the total Nationalisation of the country's hospitals by Bevan and Labour.

This was completely unnecessary and the creation of a publicly-owned, state-directed monopoly provider of health care alongside a tax-funded means of paying for universal care is at the centre of all the problems with the NHS today.

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous 2.50. I did check the speech against the transcript on the Communities website and it is identical. The link is in the story at the top.

Tim Hedges said...

I want to reverse the law on seatbelts - it's no business of the state if I choose to put myself (and no one else) at risk.

Anonymous said...

'call me dave' had better hope and pray that he isn't found 'guilty by association' or else be more selective whom he stands behind!

Anonymous said...

Maybe in the bit about Cameron there is sarcasm meant?

Anonymous said...

this is an amazing scoop Iain, is she going to defect?

Newmania said...

Come on oh sphinxy riddle O Dale spit it out , let the dog see the rabbit , what are some Labour MPs saying ?
Do you mean that Brown is dead ? Thats what I read,whatever happens in Glasgow, but Hazel Blears is talking a language of the progressive left when she would want a swing right ( The only realistic option? ).Browns cowardice has been on failing to be proper Labour( so think Compass etc.). I am getting mixed messages .

PS-The smoking ban has not been a success it has driven countless pubs out of business and the seat belt laws , since she mentions it had no effect at all.Its not year zero yet Hazel

Bill Brinsmead said...

It is is to equate being perky with being bright.

Little Hazel is a perky redhead but her alert expression hides a pedestrian and unimaginate mind.

Wow, too much already, back to muck spreading.

Anonymous said...

One can only hope that, in her references to innovators and local government, she isn't referring to Newham and the dictatorship that is Sir Robin Wales' Mayoralty.

There is no worse an example of a crackpot opportunist making the most of:
General apathy among the local electorate;
Weak, if not non-existent, opposition;
spineless Labour local membership;
Only one local rag that is right up his arse;
and the fact that very few can be bothered to question the amount of his "mates" on the Council who are raking in allowances of up to £40k a year.

Anonymous said...

"I want political parties to be able to hold their meetings in council buildings, and to have stalls at council-run public events, so that political parties are seen as every bit as legitimate as the chamber of commerce or the voluntary sector."

So open door for the BNP and any other political party to promote themselves at Council expense!

Tapestry said...

OK Hazel, if you want to show some 'courage', it is becoming clear that mobile phones are a greater threat to health than both smoking, and asbestos combined, with a clear cancer link now established.

What will you do about it?

Make it illegal for the under 18s to use them?

Limit use to 30 minutes a day and 6 minutes an hour?

Or go and hide away in confusion like Dear Gordon?

Thought so.

Ben Gray said...

"the people who are prepared to argue their case, who value courage and conviction above consensus."

Sounds like David Davis if you ask me.

Anonymous said...

Tim Hedges said...
"I want to reverse the law on seatbelts - it's no business of the state if I choose to put myself (and no one else) at risk."

That's fine. As long as you don't expect to be treated on the NHS when you are injured.

strapworld said...

She never wrote this, it is far too good for her brain to think up!

But it IS a lie that the Labour Party 'created' the NHS. As already stated it was a Tory, following Beveridge, aand they were opposed by Bevan!

She and the labour shower are trying to say that all good idea's came from Labour.

Cameron should come up with many the Tories brought in.such as
COUNCIL HOUSES. Macmillan and his drive to build thousands of council homes.SAFER BRITAIN with the Nuclear Weapons so fiercly opposed by Labour! A police FORCE (not 'service') that ARRESTED people! An army that was backed with proper equipment. (But, there again better leave the armed services out of this, Tories record is not good!)

This was a speech for the our new Prime Minister, CHIPMUNK

Colin said...

She missed the bit about the NHS being a Tory idea and the bit about the labour party initially being against it.

That said, she's probably edited the Iraq war and her part in starting it, out of her memory as well...

Yak40 said...

It belongs to people with courage.

In today's UK that'd no doubt be John Courage.

Chris Paul said...

Tone of voice is lost is it not? On the page. This speech has been blogged by LDV and widely published all over the www when it happened.

Which was enough. No mystery here. Nothing to see.

And Tapestry and mobile phone cancer? What are you on abaht?

Lola said...

GeoffH 3.05. Exactly. take the Beveridge idea of National Insurance and traduce it into Nationalisation. Loads of well endowed hospitals were nationalised and I have never been able to find out what happened to their endowments.

Anonymous said...

I think its the Chipmonk saying what she wishes she was, knowing that in reality she isnt....

Anonymous said...

tim hedges, I have no idea if you have any dependents, but assuming you do, then you are harming others if you choose not to buckle up. If you are not alone in a car, then there is a risk to others (cf the recent govt campaign which I am sure many readers of this will abhor as nannyism about a son who killed his mother by crashing into her head from the rear).

If you are alone and have no one else, then it seems OK not to wear a seatbelt; otherwise, why not?

Clunk Click Every Trip.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

"And I am convinced that in local government, the future belongs to the innovators, the visionaries, the trail-blazers and risk-takers."

Absolute rubbish!

The dead hand of local authorities has ruined many a company by dilatory service and lack of attention to getting planning permissions for commercial enterprises through quickly.

It is also her government's position to delay any new innovation for as long as possible! Just ask Trevor Baylis, or Dyson!

Anonymous said...

Miss Blears says:

"My point is that every new political idea has its opponents – people who lack imagination, who fear change, who benefit from the status quo, or who want a quiet life. But those people fade away. They make little mark, and they are gone.
The people who drive forward human progress are the brave people, the people who are prepared to argue their case, who value courage and conviction above consensus. It is to them that we owe our liberty and our democracy."

Seems like she may be describing Mrs T to a T.

Someone who had the imagination, who did not fear change, who wanted and did change the status quo and certainly did not want a quite life. By rolling back the frontiers of statehood, Mrs T started the long march to freedom and individual liberty, a liberty based and rooted in society not statehood. Hopefully that march will soon continue, after being so rudely interrupted back in 1997.

So bravo Hazel, when are you crossing the floor? :-)

Anonymous said...

I am puzzled because on following the link to the speech - this is what she said "Yesterday, as I queued for the Westminster Abbey service to commemorate the NHS, there standing behind me was David Cameron, leader of a party committed to the NHS." No good friend there. Did you misread or has it been edited. We should be told!

Anonymous said...

The words "my good friend" preceding "David Cameron" don't appear on the Communities website version...

Evan said...

She prefers people that exhibit courage to those who write about it. She may have been given the nod that she is on her way.

Anonymous said...

"And I am convinced that in local government, the future belongs to the innovators, the visionaries, the trail-blazers and risk-takers."

It's not so much code as deception. The future of our local government, as with everything else, is with the EU controllers.

Anonymous said...

Tim hedges puts no-one else at risk if he doesn't wear his seatbelt.

Really?

Tell that to the person in the other car when you go through their windscreen in a head-on impact and break their neck. Seen it happen mate - not pretty.

Tom Ogg said...

I think I know what she's saying Iain- that Gordon should field a candidate against David Davis in the upcoming by-election. Perhaps you should have put in bold the sentence after the one you chose?

Anonymous said...

Readers will be aware that if you're ever wishing to find a throbbing pulsating well-oiled bike, an approach to Ms Blears will provide you with all you desire.

Anonymous said...

You missed this bit "and I am sure one of form of Government or another, local or national can solve all our problems."

All she is saying is national Government has failed, it's too big, so lets spread it out and try local Government.

She's missing the point that big Government is the problem, it doesn't matter if it big or small.

strapworld said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roger Thornhill said...

The status quo is the centrist, statist left-"liberal' consensus. It is the NHS.

Yes, the future belongs to those who see past the bankrupt Stalinism that it represents.

Anonymous said...

Yes Iain, code. Deciphered it means, "Maggie didn't have the balls to privatise healcae but we will do it."
Unfortunately The Smurf makes the mistake that will destroy Labour. She continues to take for granted the core vote of the "they'd vote for a dog turd if you stuck a Labour rosette on it Labour voters.

Unfortunately fot "The Project" that breed are dying off as quickly as Daily Express readers.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but wasn't she just being sarcastic ?? And suggesting that Gordon 'Courage' Brown is a better man than Tony 'focus group' Blair, or 'Call Me Dave' Cameron ?

Anonymous said...

Come off it, Iain! You know that this is simply very good 'look at the hat that I may throw into the ring' stuff. It says 'I have Labour roots and can sell Labour policies with conviction. I am brave. I am a big enough politician to half sarcastically call the Leader of the Opposition my friend.' Superb speechwriting -who has she recuited? Bad Press Officer work though; it should have gone straight onto the front pages.

Anonymous said...

you got the hots fer the little chipmunk or what ...Ian ?

your seeing hidden depth's when its strictly elf n safety friendly padding pool only ....

The very sight of this woman gives me a migraine .... you have to wonder how this ...this ..person !gets re-elected ? have the water board not yet managed to remove the old lead pipes in her constituency?

Are there additives added in the chip shops ?

just what is it ?

Lola said...

It's just even more Nu Liebour spinning bollocks. None of what they say is what they mean. They are all lying twisting little shits

Anonymous said...

I missed Hazel's speech, but I'm 99% sure she is referring to her desire to foist elected mayors onto every council under the sun, whether the residents there want them or not. In my experience a lot of Tories are rightly suspicious too (although Cameron alas sees it as another badge of his "modernity")

Very strange, given that in the 35 referenda held to date, no less than 25 have had "No" votes (most recently in Bury this month)....

Anonymous said...

The original health bill of 1944 had cross party support.

Anonymous said...

"just what is it ?"

Have you never come across anyone who keeps, or fantasises about keeping, savage pets?

Anonymous said...

It could mean "I'm desperate for Alan 'Polyclinic' Johnson to give me, er, a good seeing to.."

Anonymous said...

It means: Gordon's a dead man walking. It mean nulabbers like Blears are so terrified of their snouts being ejected from the trough that they'll do anything to get him out - even spinning a love in with Cameron.

She's thinking: Right, if the only way to worm my way in with the electorate is to love Cameron, Cameron-alikes and hate Gordon, call me Dave! But Dave who? That's the question.

Anonymous said...

Iain, you're an awful blether, and paranoid to boot. What on earth did HB say that is so suspect? That people in politics should be courageous like Bevan and Castle, and not vanilla like Cameron and Major? Wow! Hold that front page there, Sparky!

Anonymous said...

Anon. 9:45 PM

May well be right. Take it from someone who lives (and has been a councillor) in a local authority area with an elected mayor (Newham), all accountability goes out the window.

Sadly, in Newham's case the Labour Party as an organisation will do nothing about the Mugabesque regime that has developed here because it just happens to be a Labour mayor running the show; the Tories couldn't give a fuck as they don't see themselves winning a council seat here this side of the second coming.

Anonymous said...

If the Chipmunk is looking for lurve, that Mini Me bloke over in LA sounds just the ticket.

Small, perfectly formed and goes like a sewing machine.

There, and I never swore once.

Anonymous said...

Incredible! If only because the utterances are so contrary to the worldview of this fabulist fatale, this myrmidon of credulity, who denies the existence of anything beyond her understanding, and is prepared to vote to enshrine her ignorance in law.

It's all code for "We are in charge because we are right" - Blears calls it "courage and conviction above consensus", I call it despotism and disregard for democracy.

The speech is a paean to self-conceit, credulity and cynicism.


Thank God David Cameron has started talking about "right" and "wrong"

TheFatBigot said...

"The people who drive forward human progress are the brave people, the people who are prepared to argue their case, who value courage and conviction above consensus. It is to them that we owe our liberty and our democracy."

But only the courageous ones who were courageous against threats to liberty and democracy.

It takes courage for someone to risk his life and stand for election in a troubled country, but that courage is counterproductive when he turns out to be a vicious dictator.

The putrid ginger chipmunk has no courage, she grinned inanely through all the economic damage done by Gordon and all the infringements to personal freedom introduced over the last 11 years.

I know of no policy initiated by her, no difficult Bill taken through the Commons by her and no occasion in which her level of debate has risen above "don't vote for the toffs" and "look at me grinning, I'm nicer than a tory".

She is as out of her depth in the cabinet as Darling is as Chancellor and Brown as PM. It is no coincidence that she is the colour of ferret diarrhoea.

James Higham said...

Courage? Chippie?

Anonymous said...

Mike law said...

"a local authority area with an elected mayor (Newham)"

Newham has always lived in it's own little universe of utter incompetence, hopeless inefficiency, and 'interesting' 'renumerations/payments'. The only way Newham could ever be improved would be direct rule from somewhere else, Wandsworth or Richmond perhaps. Then again, the locals don't care so sod 'em.

Anonymous said...

strapworld. hello?? council housing: subsidies began under Lloyd George. There were a few Tories in that govt too, but as soon as they had dumped the Welshman, the Chamberlain Act (1923) put a stop to that, redirecting subsidy to the private sector. Macmillan's council housing drive sacrificed quality for quantity, and thus began many of the problems associated with rushed, poorly built social housing.

And the NHS? Well, really! Just as it took Bevan's guts and vision to build PROPER housing for working class people, so it did to create social medicine that was any more than a second-rate safety net.

Anonymous said...

Yes, she's spotted a post-Prezza gap in the market for bizarre and incomprehensible NuLab drivel. Hazel Blears - the new Prescott.

Unknown said...

If Iain is really suggesting that a Hazel Blears defection is possible... well, I would be gobsmacked if it ever happened.

There is so much stacked against it.

Blears would have to fight Salford And Eccles (a new seat) under the Tory banner. Salford had a 7,000 Lab majority in 2005, and Eccles had 12,000. It would take a big swing to the Tories to make that even competitive.

Blears would also have to explain why she left the party of which, until recently, she fought to be second-in-command.

Would Blears be willing to be parachuted into a safe Tory seat, possibly waiting a Parliament for the right opportunity to arise?

And yet, the more you think about it, it just MIGHT be possible. She's about to be sacked. She has good dirt on Brown.

Stranger things have happened. Bloody hell.