Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Is This Harriet's Moment?

Harriet Harman has all the political finesse of Martine McCutcheon. According to The Times she has told aides: "This is my moment". She then issued a very badly drafted statement denying she had said any such thing. The statement just added further fuel to the already fanning flames.
“In respect of Labour’s defeat in the Glasgow East by-election, I did not tell aides - or any one else - that ’this is my moment’. I was bitterly disappointed by the Glasgow East by-election result in which I campaigned in support of Margaret Curran - a woman who I admire greatly. My ’public protestations of loyalty’ to Gordon Brown are no different to what I have expressed in private. I do not accept ’it is over’.”

Er, best not to start using language like that, Hattie. Careless talk costs Prime Ministers, and I suspect it has caused the odd Southwold sandcastle to be kicked over this afternoon.

I am still of the view that if the Labour Party is about to do what many political journalists tell us it is about to do, that way lies madness. Labour MPs in marginal seats are desperate to hang onto them. I don't blame them. But if they ditch Brown and get someone new, do they really think they can avoid holding a more or less immediate election? If they are not careful they will render themselves unemployed eighteen months before they have to.

But, go right ahead. Make our collective days!

I must say I had thought the media storm on the Labour leadership would have died down by now, But if anything, it has got more virulent. Gordon Brown must be hoping for some big news story to develop, and develop quickly.

UPDATE: For those in the comments who are clearly not into popular culture like wot I am, Martine McCutcheon's number one hit song was called THIS IS MY MOMENT.

UPDATE: A McCutcheon enthusaiast has rightly pointed out that her hit was actually called PERFECT MOMENT. The first line was THIS IS MY MOMENT. Glad we've sorted that out :)

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown must be hoping for some big news story to develop, and develop quickly.

so, not a good time to be Iranian, then...

Guthrum said...

Well she obviously feels that she does not need to rely on white middle class male voters then who are pretty unlikely to be too impressed by her record, by going the route of another Palce coup, that does not involve the electorate.

Paul Linford said...

They could drag the election out to next May, but no farther than that. Gordon would announce he was going at the conference, the leadership election would be concluded by Christmas, and the winner would then make clear there will be an election in the spring.

Anonymous said...

Tory Bear spotted the similarities earlier today. So much competition, so little time ;)

Anonymous said...

Surely Dave doesn't want to be PM yet?

The best chance for a two-term Conservative government with a big majority is for a Gordon to preside over the forthcoming recession and lose the next election just as the economy is picking up.

Anonymous said...

From Bean to the Harpie ==

'Out of the frying pan and into the fire'

Aaaagh!!

Anonymous said...

It might be better for Labour to get booted out now(for them and obviously the country). I think we all know the Tories would have been better off if they had lost in 1992.

Dave wants to be careful. We need to keep Jonah as PM for as long as possible(and that isn't even factoring in the comic value). There is a serious danger they could get a better leader(well less worse). With Jonah it would be a massacre, and we could see Cabinet ministers lose their seat in 18 months(worth waiting for I think).

Anonymous said...

The Labour leadership issue won't just die down and go away. Not least because Brown, isolated in a tacky celebrity mansion in darkest Suffolk with the paparazzi gathering round and the political ground falling away from under him, will be unable to stand it and will rush back to London to take charge of the crisis, ensuring it continues throughout August.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Iain, the reference to Martine McCutcheon means nothing to me. Is she tactless?

Anonymous said...

'Popular culture' ?

3rd rate talentless shite more like..

So I suppose appropriate for Harriet Harman..

p.s. I notice how craftily Michael Crick left her off the list of his 'runners and riders' in the upcoming leadership election - no doubt to goad her into panicking that the train was leaving the station without her...

Bill Quango MP said...

HH. The old boiler scrubs up well doesn't she.

Scary Biscuits said...

Hariet Harperson standing is just too good to be true. It would surely be even more disasterous than Brown's premiership.

I'm not sure I agree with you, Iain, that Labour MPs would be mad to ditch brown. Hanging on to an unpopular unelected PM could be even more unpopular than selecting a less unpopular unelected PM. With Brown as PM it is by no means sure that 24% is rock bottom for Labour or even that Brown won't start drilling when he reaches it.

Anonymous said...

does she ruin everything she touches? or sells gold very cheaply.

Anonymous said...

Surely it was 'Perfect Moment'?

Anonymous said...

The sight of her dragging her family around Number 10, as if to get their views on the best curtains to get when she installs the entire tribe in the flat above 'the shop' in a kinda bizarre nepotism... Vomit inducing..

Mike Smithson may have a point that she is ruthless and greedy enough, and with sufficient understanding of her shortfall of talent, to want to go for the top job..

SHE MUST BE STOPPED !!!

Anonymous said...

Harriet Harman is a joke. However, I do think she'd win the election to be the next leader of theLabour party.

She walked all over some of the so called big beasts for deputy leader.

There's nothing to like about her, but the "wimmin" in Nu Liebour love her.

You read it here first.

MikeyP said...

To be serious for a minute, at least Martine McCutcheon has a nice pair of jugs! :-)

Anonymous said...

I see Harriet as a very great asset for the government. Anyone hated that much by the rabid right must be doing something right, and she has an admirable record in fighting for her causes. She is far from prime ministerial material, however, worse even than Gordon. If these reports contain even the merest scintilla of truth, then it's clear her better-than-expected-but-no-better-than-OK performances at PMQs have gone to her head.

Bill Quango MP said...

Harriet Harman: A stalking Whores?

Anonymous said...

Whoever wound her up with this has succeeded brilliantly.

Her best tactic would have been to either ignore it or slap it down with an well thought out "off the cuff" verbal dismissal.

As it is, she makes herself look sneaky and stupid.

Anonymous said...

Come on peeps...leave the Harpic alone...cos every time the silly cow opens her large gob another 20,000 votes go to Cameron...long may she reign ( well 18 months at the maximum)


ps watching her do the revolting family tour of No 10 must have made Camerons holiday!!!!

Anonymous said...

ross - I fear that her trip around Number 10 has given her the smell of power in her nostrils - and she may want some payback for her husband, Jack Dromey, having taken some of the shite about the 'Loans for Lordships' scandal, when it was nowt to with him - just between Lord Levy and our Tone

Anonymous said...

Agreed: Martine has an excellent pair. Check out and Google for her topless (not Harman, god help us, she's a two bagger) in a swimming pool :-)

Anonymous said...

Ha Ha Ha, Harriet Harman for PM! This is surely a collective wind-up by all the Labour Party? A smoking gun to put us all off the scent of the truth........ that Tony B(wait for it)enn intends to come out of retirement and lead Labour to a new and even more glorious detachment from reality on the opposition (current Lib Dem) benches.

Oscar Miller said...

Anyone catch Mandy on C4 praising Gordon Brown's efforts in the failed Doha talks? Just what he needs for his Perfect Moment.

Anonymous said...

With Labour, denying something has become synonymous with lying. Nobody likes being lied to!

Lola said...

Of all the stupid dopes that inhabit planet nu labour harperson is the most deluded and mental. She lives in as little world of manic women libiness that is more daft and dopey than anything. She is the archetypal non event. If she was a bloke she would be a total wanker

Sir Dando Tweakshafte said...

If I understand the new murder laws correctly, she can top GB in the Cabinet Room with the lead piping and get off scot-free (as it were) by pointing to the old lady-bumps and claiming she was in fear of her career.

Job's a good'un.

Paul Linford said...

If the Times story about a Harman v Miliband contest is true (and Francis Elliott's is a byline to be reckoned with) Harman will not only lose the leadership election, she will also lose the deputy leadership to Johnson.

Unknown said...

The way that people on this site talk about Harriet Harman is pathetic, and not even very imaginative. Is some-one out there getting an odd little kick out of every misogynistic word they can put out on t'interweb? It's the worst side of the Tory party, and knowing people like that are out there makes sympathetic voters (me included) think twice about the Conservatives. Very much the Nasty Party.

With that out the way:

Iain - aren't you willing Labour to hang on to Gordon, because you don't want the Tories to win an election soon, and have to do Brown's dirty work for him?

For what it's worth, as a marginal voter I would never vote for Brown, but I would think hard voting for some of the other mooted candidates. If MPs want to replace him with someone more temperamentally suited to power, they've got my full backing.

Anonymous said...

Check this Youtube video out about the Glasgow election


http://youtube.com/watch?v=I4n--IXg6HY

Anonymous said...

Toby: Harriet Harman is a dopy cow. The fact she's a woman (well I guess) is no reason not to give her a hard time.

She's the one continually going on about her being a woman.

She's a throw back to the unwashed 'ladies' of Greenham Common.

She's a sort of female Michael Foot (except he's better looking)

This is a silly cow who thinks that banning white men from certain jobs is all about 'equality'

Funny she doesn't seem to be bothered that the number of men going through university is decreasing and that boys are doing worse at school.

Anonymous said...

Lola, again so right, and in so few, well chosen words.

Anonymous said...

Toby...perhaps you would be so good as to enlighten the rest of us (nasty tories apparantly) just what exactly are the more attractive aspects of Harman. Try as I might I cannot find any redeeming features for this hard left, boot faced, machine politician.The gender is irrelevant....do tell

Anonymous said...

You are a Labour Party activist Your party faces meltdown in the polls. You are lead by the most unpopular leader in recent times who hasn't the faintest idea what to do next and is unable to empathise with the electorate whatever he does and you think - "Well things can get no worse if we change the leader" Er ! Yes they can - you can elect Harriet as leader. Absolutely unbelievable - the Labour Party has finally lost what remaining sense it had left and they say turkeys NEVER vote for Christmas !

Anonymous said...

Harriet: I never said, "This is my moment!"

Cherie: I never said, "That's a lie!"

Balls: I never said, "So what!"

I think they are in denial.

Anonymous said...

@ mirtha tidville -

you are Verity and I claim my five pounds

Anonymous said...

I have always, always, always had the absolute hots for Martine McCutheon.

Now were she to be offering to step in to save the Dear Old Labour Party, I might be persuaded, but Harranguing Harperson just doesn't do it for me, sorry!

Sad isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Could we have more pictures like this one please? As long as it's relevant to the story of course! I'd forgotten just how good she looked!

Letters From A Tory said...

At least Martine has some talent, unlike Harriet.

Guthrum said...

'The way that people on this site talk about Harriet Harman is pathetic, and not even very imaginative. Is some-one out there getting an odd little kick out of every misogynistic word they can put out on t'interweb?'

She is one of the worst types of mid seventies misandrists I have evercome across, just look at her track record. In her eyes none of us stand equal in the eyes of the law regardless of sex,race or creed- we are graded according to which 'special' group we belong to

That coupled with a massive ego, makes her particularly unsuitable to be PM at a general election, lets hope she goes for it.

Thanks for the explanation of the interface between modern politics and the West end- I missed that completely.

Anonymous said...

Ok. Harman is a typical Champagne Socialist. She was educated in the private sector then rather than send HER kids to some third rate Nu Liebour concentration camp comprehensive school, she decided that grant maintained Grammar schools would be more suitable (are they Labor party education policy then?)

Just like Diane Abbot, one rule for the great unwashed and one rule for Nu Liebour. And there are morons out there that still vote for them.

Anonymous said...

She's a sort of female Michael Foot (except he's better looking)

Michael Foot was profoundly wrong, but he was a decent chap and intelligent. Harman is neither.

Anonymous said...

"UPDATE: For those in the comments who are clearly not into popular culture like wot I am, Martine McCutcheon's number one hit song was called THIS IS MY MOMENT."

Never mind the excuses. Just post more totty.

Anonymous said...

Mr Richard Nixon said...

"There is a serious danger they could get a better leader(well less worse)."

No there isn't.

Anonymous said...

Harriet Harperson is currently too busy for plotting coups as she is adding the finishing touches to her plans to legalise the murder of any man by any woman at any time for any reason.

Anonymous said...

Oscar Miller said...

"Anyone catch Mandy on C4 praising Gordon Brown's efforts in the failed Doha talks?"

Indeed I did. It was excellent news to hear that the talks had collapsed. Mandy was nearly crying over our failure make ouselves poorer. Then he praised Brown by making clear that Gordon was all for giving away yet more of our money to foreigners.

Anonymous said...

Toby said...

"makes sympathetic voters (me included) think twice about the Conservatives"

Good. Don't vote tory. Or lib. Or lab. They're as bad as each other.

Anonymous said...

I so glad you put up a picture of Martine McCutcheon, she’s a beaut

Colin said...

I've said it on this blog before and I'll say it again; they cannot replace brown without calling an immediate general election. As well as being politically and morally bankrupt, the regime is financially bankrupt; they can't afford a sharp knife to dispatch gordon, never mind a full blown election campaign.

As a result, and unless there is someone in the shadows willing to bung the regime £20 to £30 million to fight an election, he's here till 2010 or until they drive him into an early grave...