Oh what joy. Do click on THIS link to see Alistair Darling undergo 90 seconds of hell as he attempts to "clarify" his remarks in his Guardian interview by BBC Scottish Political Editor Brian Taylor. He's asked about his comment on Wendy Alexander being 'unlikeable' and ties himself up in knots. In his second evasive reply watch his bottom lip. It's quiver-tastic television.
One other thing. I know we are supposed to be going back to the 1970s in a number of ways, but does Alistair Darling really need to grow Denis Healey's eyebrows too?!
46 comments:
What an odd caption: "Chancellor Alistair Darling has clarified critical comments about former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander." No he hasn't, he's muddied them even more. Is this another example of the Beeb's desperate attempts to shore up the Labour government?
And what is happening to those eyebrows? They seem to be moving to the side of his face, leaving a large gap over his nose.
I think someone's pointed this out before, but Healey, Lamont, Darling - is there a pattern here?
Darling should have just said "I stand by what I said"...
He would have at least been respected for his honesty!
That's what badgers do when they've been cornered.
Haha! I thought the best bit was when he said it was important that he was straightforward with people!!
Come to think of it though, we didn't say he WAS being straightforward...
Whose a pretty boy then ?
Why do interviewers insist on 'moving on to the next question'? Darling denies saying that Wendy is unlikeable. So was he misquoted? Yes or no? Don't let him off the hook, for God's sake. Don't throw him the lifeline of a completely unrelated question about Cherie's book. Incompetent journalism.
Just watched that interview - surely the game is now up for Darling ?
Why can't the labour party just get the general election over with a we can have a government who know what they are doing ? ( Yes you'll lose your jobs boys and girls, but put the country first for once in your lives).
This what Jonathan Cainer the astrologer at the Daily Mail said today.
"If you want to appear successful, just convince people that they can't expect much from you. When you later manage mediocrity, you will be hailed as a genius. Alistair Darling says the economy is heading for a long recession. What does he achieve by saying this, other than to help fulfill his own prophecy? Or does he secretly know that things are not so bad, and that he has up his sleeve a way to make them seem better? He is either woefully stupid or quite clever. My money,(and yours too) is on the latter."
You read it hear first.
Or as Gordon would say "No marks on the face laddies just tighten the vice more on his "nadgers" !
"Nah - Alistair 'ave ye got it straight what yere to say to the media people an' naw strayin' from the script this time - now mind !"
I wonder? I wonder?
Is Darling basically a decent bloke caught up in the debacle that is the New Labour "Project"? And now that this can be seen by everyone (except the most purblined dyed in the wool tribal labourites) to be a fraud he is finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile his decency with the facts, leading to visual evidence of the strain of keeping up the appearance?
Or is it that he is part of the problem and has realised that he has been found out? That the game is up for New Labour. And that the stress of maintianing the fiction of governemnt competency in the teeth of a hurricane of evidence to the contrary is just too much?
According to what I have read he seems to have been a loyal mucker to Brown for some time. So is this loyalty now being tested and the conflict within him - of letting down someone he likes beacuse he knows now that person is NBG - is causing the strain?
Or was he 'loyal' just for the purpose of political expediency and personal advancement? And now that he realises that Gordon is NBG he is looking for a way out? He will worry that he now looks opportunist to the electorate and the media. He will have all the pressure from the remaining loyal Brownites at him all the time as he worries about how to save his own political skin.
He could be the John Major of New Labour. A decent bloke with genuine compassion and a desire to do the right thing.
Me? I actually think he is a decent bloke. Intelligent and humane. And has realised that the game is up and that the mistakes are down to him and his colleagues. The pressure is mounting on him as his less honest colleagues clamour at him to preserve their shallow political lives and the judgement of history.
I bet it's Hell in No.11 and the Treasury.
To be straightforward, I am confused. Is she unlikeable or not?
From today's Diary Column in the Glasgow Herald:
"Proper Charlie
WITH calls for the sacking of Chancellor Alistair Darling growing after his weekend comments about the economy, well done to Radio Scotland's comedy team, Desperate Fishwives, for the foresight to sing on Friday evening - to the tune of Charlie is My Darling - "Darling is a Charlie, he won't last a year."
Darling needs to go back to school to learn to add up.
He has a track record of incompetent forecasting, both as Chancellor and at as minister at the Dft, because he bases his forecasts on dreams and schemes of political expediency, not on hard facts and figures.
1. Darling will soon have to cut his utopian UK economic growth forecast by 1.5%.
2. He will also be forced to cut his bogus air travel and runway growth forecasts by a substantial figure.
3. Instead of darling's doubling of demand for air travel and runway expansion by 2020, demand is falling dramatically.
4. Passenger numbers at Stansted alone have fallen by 14% to 20% when, according to Darling and his inept SERAS report, they'd be up 50% on 5 years ago by now.
Why do Darling and nulab make such inept serial errors? Because, of their arrogant and utopian inability to accept that nulabour utopianism does not enable them to walk on water.
And because they refuse to learn from history, which they treat with such contempt
Almost 25% of Heathrow staff were made redundant in the last recession because aviation was so hard hit by the declining demand.
Aviation experts among Stop Stansted Expansion and the Heathrow protestors, who, having studied aviation and its trends for 20-30 years, have far greater expertise and knowledge of the factors governing demand for flights and runways than Darling does, told Darling that his forecasts were hopelessly utopian because they failed to account for the effect of recessional forces.
Nonsense, said Darling. He refused to listen and refused to meet the aviation experts. Well now he'll pay the price for that.
Years ago it was suggested that the worst job imaginable in politics would be "Gordon Brown's Chancellor". How true - clearing up the mess left behind by one of the most destructive politicians ever known was always going to be a thankless task. But sympathy for Darling is misplaced as he could always have foreseen a time like today and turned it down.
Iain, sorry, I cannot agree with :
"I actually think he is a decent bloke. Intelligent and humane."
Decent blokes do the decent thing - minimum resign, and state decently exactly WHY, maximally with a bottle of whisky and a loaded revolver.
THAT would be the truly humane thing to do in this case.
Alan Douglas
Auntie Flo' said...
"Darling needs to go back to school to learn to add up.
... Passenger numbers at Stansted alone have fallen by 14% to 20%"
You also need to go back to school. You have trouble with numbers. Passengers numbers at Stansted have fallen by about 5% from their peak, not 14-20%.
killemallletgodsortemout said...
"So, has he read it or not?"
He has obviously glanced at it but not read it all. Surely we have all looked at a book, e.g. in the library, looked at the Contents page, read a few passages and made up our minds about it.
It is a well-known fact that many professional book reviewers don't actually read the books they review. They simply skim through them for a few minutes and home in on a few key passages that they can then comment on.
A great shafting by Brian Taylor. At first I thought he had fluffed it, but to see Darling hanging, by a thread so tenuous, even Dan Brown wouldn't dare use it as a plot line, was a stroke of journalistic genius, showing experience and gravitas. Paxman could learn. It exceeds the infamous Howard interview in my not very humble opinion.
Thank you Iain, it made my day.
Anonymous said:
"Auntie Flo': You also need to go back to school...Passenger numbers at Stansted have fallen by about 5% from their peak, not 14-20%."
Rubbish, Mr/Ms DfT anon,
"The publication today (11 June) of passenger numbers for Stansted airport show a 4.4 per cent reduction in Stansted passenger traffic for the period January to May 2008 compared with the same period last year. ***THE SEVENTH MONTH IN A ROW STANSTED HAS POSTED DECLINE *** now running at an average of 23,000 fewer passengers a week."
However, as you, yourself, have stated, that decline has continued, the latest figures show a drop of 5.3% FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS to start of June.
However:
"Ryanair unveils 14% capacity reductions at London Stansted on Jul 17, 2008 - 10:17: AM"
"Ryanair, Stansted's largest airline, today announcast Winter had 36 aircraft based at Stansted, will this Winter reduce that number to 28 aircraft (a 25% reduction), and approx
***14% reduction***
Ryanair estimates that its traffic at London Stansted will decline this Winter by some 900,000 passengers compared to last Winter’s schedule."
Why? Because a small portion of aviation's massive taxpayer subsidy has been cut.
According to analysts a 10 per cent increase in fares typically leads to a 6.5 per cent fall in passenger numbers.
Budget airlines carry an estimated 45million British passengers a year. If fares rise by 20 per cent over two years, passenger demand looks set to fall by more than five million.
I rest my case, you may apologise at your leisure, anon.
Agree with the Weasel; Taylor made Darling look extremely foolish. Darling then dug deeper into the hole of his own making with his 'straightforward' comment - we know all too well about trusting pretty straight kinds of guys in a New Labour cabinet!
Woops, cut off a sentence midway through there, this should have stated:
"Ryanair, Stansted's largest airline, today announced, last Winter had 36 aircraft based at Stansted, will this Winter reduce that number to 28 aircraft (a 25% reduction), an approx
***14% reduction***
in the number of weekly flights from over 1,850 per week last year to just under 1,600 this year.
Ryanair estimates that its traffic at London Stansted will decline this Winter by some 900,000 passengers compared to last Winter’s schedule.
Just imagine if it had been a Tory government and Darling was the Tory chancellor. Think of what the BBC would have made of it, but the BBC cannot wait to get it off its front page because it is its party.
There would have been a special programme to examin what he had said and who was right the Chancellor or the PM. But of course it is a Labour government and its friends at the BBC want to minimise the impact rather than report it.
The BBC has let down this country down big time with its attitude to the Labour government. They must take the blame for not investigating what Labour has been doing over the years.
Since Blair got rid of the DG they have also been frightened of Labour.
Auntie Flo said ..
"Passenger numbers at Stansted alone have fallen by 14% to 20% ... "
DECLINE ...now running at an average of 23,000 fewer passengers a week...
I rest my case, you may apologise at your leisure, anon."
Apologise? I think not.
Stansted passenger numbers peaked at about 24 million per annum.
Your 23,000 a week reduction is 1.196 million a year which, as I said, is about 5% and not the 14-20% you claim.
Perhaps you would care to apologise.
Lola - I know that Darling was popular with civil servants in the early days of the Labour government.
Your analysis may be right.
Buit equally killemallletgodsortemout asks the relevant question:
Q. How the hell do they get away with it?
My answer is that Labour MPs and party membership, when confronted by the avalanche of evidence that their government is no good and is destroying the country ( in many ways from breaking it up to making it bankrupt having blown its pensions on unreformed public services and buying elections ) decide to put their selfish wishes before the national good. [ A few will be of the old left who have in the past actively wanted to bring this disaster about to give them credit ].
Socialism is essential a selfish creed, as Labour and its membership demonstrates all too clearly.
@Henry Mayhew said...
"To be straightforward, I am confused. Is she unlikeable or not?"
I think it is hard not to like Wendy Alexander, but it is worth making the effort.
Despite DEFRAs promises, I think a badger cull might go ahead after all, humanely dispatched by a mobile phone blow to the head.
"I think it is hard not to like Wendy Alexander, but it is worth making the effort." (Alex)
priceless.
I wish I had said that....
Rubbish, Mr/Ms anon DfT.
It's not just Ryanair that's slashing flights, it's all of them, for example:
"EasyJet to slash Stansted flights by 12pc as fuel rise bites
By Jonathan Russell
Last Updated: 1:35am BST 25/07/2008
Wrinkled Weasel said...
"I think it is hard not to like Wendy Alexander, but it is worth making the effort." (Alex)
priceless.
I wish I had said that....
You will dear boy, but then so shall I.
As someone said previously, why didn't he just say "I said what I said..now pick the bones out of it"
Plenty of people would have taken notice.
Perhaps Dave should try and entice him over the line..I mean they've got Quentin Davies for what that fat jerk is worth.
Auntie Flo' said...
"Rubbish, Mr/Ms anon DfT."
The pea-brained rubbish is all on your side. You stated that "Passenger numbers at Stansted alone have fallen by 14% to 20%".
The FACT is that they have fallen by only 5%. You are confusing actual numbers with projected FUTURE cuts by individual airlines which may or may not happen.
And if you think Heathrow is going to stay on a high, Mr/Ms anon DfT, think again. Heathrow made around 24% of its staff redundant during the last recession.
This recession will be deeper because UK companies' survival packs have been red taped 'internationally uncompetitive' by nulab.
It's only just begun, anon.
Auntie Flo, no apology then?
You can never admit that you are wrong.
Pea Brain.
I do think Darling is a decent bloke as well but put in an impossible possible and now caught in the headlights.
I think it unfair that to be called a decent bloke some think he should resign. Many times the Tories have been shot in the foot over self indulgent resignations. There is something admirable about party loyalty even though from the opposite political view I may not understand the reasons for it.
I think what's happened here is that Brother Brown's Henchman don't rule with the fear and black-leather clad fist that Citizen Tony's did.
Rather than thinking about what is probably the best message to put out there without sounding too 'spinny', Dastardly Darling told it how it is rather than being a bit more reverential and circumspect with the truthe.
This is the one of the few times that telling the patient he is going to die was not required, methinks.
Shouldn't there also be a "Political Eunoch's" list for those politicos who don't appear to have any firm views on any of the major policy planks?
Anon 5.11:
Eunoch, n.
1. A person who has the political views of Enoch Powell, but not the balls to express them.
2. Any organisation set up by the EU, as in 'The European Commission is a load of eunochs.'
I was thinking more of those who spend all thier time trying to "evad" the big issues.
A great shafting by Brian Taylor"
Twaddle, wrinkled weasel!
Brian let him off the hook, as befits the amateur he is! darling said he hadnt read the book, then commented on its contents!
Also, darling was NOT driven to DENY his previous statements re Alexander!
This was typical Scots jounalists in action-NO professionalism whatsoever!
Man in a shed said - "Socialism is essential a selfish creed, as Labour and its membership demonstrates all too clearly." - yep. Interesting that isn't it?
The credo professes fairness and helping people and all that sort of lovely touchy feely stuff, and also that it would be far better for everyone if a few of their expert bods could be allowed to run all the means of production and how they would then be able share everything out more fairly. But all it means is that in every case of the attempted implementation of socialism is that a small clique of the top blokes mates get to run it all and do very nicely whilst rationing out the bits left over and exhorting the 'workers' to even more futile efforts to prtoduce more left boots on each shift.
Mendacious berks.
anonymong 6.21: don't you think it likely that if Taylor had pressed on, a la Paxo, about the 'unlikeable' comment, Darling would have legged it? Then we wouldn't have heard the unconvincing twaddle about Mrs Blair's book or that laughable 'straightforward' comment from Darling?
'Wriggle, wriggle'. and then without a hint of irony "I think its important that I am straight with people. " Delicious. I am so enjoying watch the slow protracted death of new Labour.
New Labour: No more boom and bust. Just doom and bust.
Obviously I am with Mac on this. Interviewing is about having a sense of the moment. If they are going to give you the "line" there is nothing you can do. But occasionally, like Max Mosely, they want a spanking. It is some weird thing. When that happens just have to let them hang themselves. You have a sense that they are going to do it, want to do it. Darling clearly was begging to disembowel himself. He has given up. He is basically an honest man who cannot be bothered with it any more.
What you are trying to get is the truth. When you look at the interview, you get the truth; you get a man who cannot even lie properly. Brian Taylor knows what he is doing. I have been there.
Darling is about to resign.
It will all be over by Friday. There I have said it. I will take money on it.
Wrinkled Weasle said:
He [Darling] is basically an honest man who cannot be bothered with it any more.
There hasn't been much evidence of his honesty during the past dacade, ww.
Looks more like a combination of terror and hell having no fury like a bloke scorned to me.
Seemed like an 'If I'm going down you're all coming with' moment.
A CID officer I know thinks the stress, fear and fury of a decade of guilt, of being used as Broon's Patsy and his terror at the prospect of being sacked have pushed Darling over the edge.
Like so many captured old lags, it's a cathartic relief to cough and get it off his chest and even more satisfying to lash out implicate his co-conspirators in the process.
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