These are the three stooges put up by Team Brown to defend the Prime Minister against 'incoming' from Charles Clarke.
Is that really the best they could do? Failed junior minister Nigel Griffiths, an MP even I have never heard of called Helen Jones, and junior minister Phil Hope (who he?).
I suppose it is possible they were trying to downplay it all, but normally you'd have expected the big guns to be out there coming to the PM's aid. Perhaps they were all 'unavailable'.
And then the piece de resistance was Alastair Campbell's appearance on Newsnight. Not sure that helped...
34 comments:
You clearly missed a very sycophantic Ben Bradshaw Mp on yesterday's World at One!
Phil Hope ?! The words 'Phil Space' spring to mind..
O/t... I am a small-l liberal, but one has to say that the quality of rumpy-pumpy is surely better if one is a Republican. Possibly with the exception of John Edwardes..
I was thinking just the same thing Iain. Who are these people? Even as a dedicator reader of political blogs I haven't come across them. The Today programme claimed this morning that the Labour party is rallying round Brown. If so they are doing it off the record. The big cabinet names (such as they are) don't seem to dare show their faces in public
Same thing occurred to me. Things must be very, very desperate if this the best support Broon can find.
On the radio he even fielded the propective candidate for Streatham, who fully justified his obscurity by coming out with a stream of laughable on-message platitudes.
Good grief, I actually felt embarrased for the poor sod.
As MP for Corby, Hope is all he has come the General Election....
Ironically, after it was opened, Hope was all that remained in Pandora's Box.
I know I should get a life and my friends think I'm bonkers for following the US Election but doesn't it make us look boring by comparison? Watched Alastair Campbell and his hair appears to falling out. As he is very vain will this affect him? Funny when he kept saying they (Labour) should emphasise their successes. Who now remembers my prediction of the next election taking place with rising unemployment and house prices in freefall?
Freedom to Prosper
PS I LOVE Palin
TO give Helen Jones her due she is my MP and a pretty decent one, Not a massive profile but does a sterling job for her constituents (Im not a labour member)
we should not criticise an MP for quietly doing her job.
the wider point about her being a strange choice to defend GB is pretty fair tho
He's going to need more than three stooges to defend him from the backlash after the "help with winter fuel bills" one-off payment which now will not be forthcoming, after being trailed and hinted at for weeks. I though he was trying to "relaunch" himself, for God's sake - isn't he supposed to be saying things which will be popular?
Incidentally, notice the BBC's sycophantic "Ministers back under-fire Brown" strapline, which they keep repeating despite the text following it, which says that two Cabinet Ministers have come out with public support [out of twenty-three in total]. Biased or what?
The only big name defending Gordon is Ed Balls and he is a big name for all the wrong reasons.
I cringed for the poor sod. His desparation came through..
They may have wheeled them out to have a go at Clarke -- but who will they get to contradict Woodley who was blistering in his attack on Brown and his fuel aid climbdown on breakfast TV - interesting that the BBC just let him rant on quite unopposed until his final 'if Brown cannot do any better he will be out' line.
If Labour MPs were sanguine about Clarke before the fuel aid fiasco i doubt that they will be giving Brown much benefit of doubt after it.
What really sticks in my throat though is the downright lie Brown used to excuse the U turn, namely that loft insulation was somehow better and more principled. A blatant lie (like the non election excuse) that once again takes us all for a load of mugs.
And to show how des[perate he is to win the Glenrothes byelection he promises Scotland tax raising powers (hmm - or rather he hints at it, does anyone believe a word he says these days?)
The picture is more like
"Three brass monkeys"
Crap weather since Brown took over, Crap Government since Brown was in it. Any connection?
And now in 'criminal' cases the EU proposes that we can all be dragged away to any EU state without any proof to convince a magistrate that extradition is justified. What a load of To**ers.
In Romford-speak the EU is a load of old (but dangerous) cobblers.
No doubt if the entire Cabinet were paraded across the TV screens to declare their support for Brown the right would be calling him Stalin and saying they were behaving like the Soviet Politburo.
A bit of a lose-lose situation really.
Did you see those two scruffy MPs that Newsnight had on the other day discussing the pros and cons of a windfall tax? I thought Blair banished the bad suit days of old. One of them needed a good shave too.
Iain,
Would it be possible to be told whether or not the decision to cancel the £50/£100 winter fuel help for those in need was a simple "No you don't" from our EU masters?
So far the only mention of a EU veto was on ITV last night. The state broadcaster, needless to say, has reported Brown's hilarious excuse that he doesn't go in for short-term gimmicks as the received wisdom.
Campbell eh? Thought (hoped) he was no longer on this planet.
Then again, was he ever?
As to the others. Well they all look relatively human - you can never tell these days. But they certainly are just cannon-fodder.
Why do you persist in commenting on things you know nothing about? Or could it be that you're just a propagandist? (It was of course to downplay Clarke's intervention.)
Helping Brown! smoking & poisoned chalice comes to mind!
Oh well! If Brown can't get the big guns to help him I'm sure these water pistols will do their best!
It's unlike you Iain to go slagging off MPs that you either a) know nothing about, or b) have never heard of.
Helen and Phil are really good MPs.
I agree with Richard S - we should not criticise an MP for quietly doing his/her job. I work in the voluntary sector, and Phil Hope is the minister for it. The fact that the minister for the third sector isn't well known is perhaps the responsibility of this government, who make the post a lowly one in the Cabinet Office. Seems to tie in with their attitude to the sector imho.
Campbell "advised" Newsnight to start dishing the dirt on the Tories. Why do we let them get away with these NuLab seminars at licence payers expense?
Campbell was a shadow of his former self.
As for supporting Gordon, why bother.
He has no concept of managing expectations - essential in any politician - and any suggestion he could relaunch was torpedoed by himself.
C Clarke should keep quiet. Gordon does the job well enough without any help .
The "job" apparently involves raising expectations and dashing them . Kiss of death.
You could not make it up. His advisors must be pulling out their hair.
If all the Caninet stood up and supported him, we would not know whether to laugh (it would be a joke) or cry (that they would be so stupid).
In my former life as a civil servant, I came into contact with both Nigel Griffiths and Phil Hope. Both were actually good eggs and not as stuffy or full of self-importance as many junior Ministers or MPs in general.
I suspect that Phil Hope will lose Corby, but then maybe he could return to teaching as I'm sure 'our yoof' would benefit by him.
As for Nigel Griffiths, his Edinburgh seat is (I think), the third most affluent by income in the UK, so by right it ought to be Conservative (and was until TB struck). However, predicting its outcome at the next election is for better people than me.
J
"In Romford-speak the EU is a load of old (but dangerous) cobblers."
Oh the EU are really gearing up now, cannot get rid of the useless HIPS, cannot do anything about energy, have to suffer useless green targets as the world gets colder; extradite us with no proof, regulate blogs. Must have the ID cards, which they've started already with the children's database.
But then, 'oh look it's that nasty boy Putin - let's run away and hide'. Dear God, get us out of this mad house!!! I wonder if Palin could fit the UK in along with Alaska if we became the 51st state!!
Did I hear Helen Jones namecheck Violet Elizabeth Bott when attacking Charles Clarke? Oooh, finger on the pulse of popular culture
Why is there a minister in the Cabinet Office for the voluntary sector? (11.13am) There seems to be quite a lot of taxpayers' money being redistributed not by the local authorities who are democratically elected, but by 'charities' and 'third sector' bodies which are self-selected or government appointed. A quick look shows they are concentrated heavily in Labour heartlands as well, (and in what was until so recently, Labour London).
The modern-day Three Stooges already exist, as devotees to the Labour cause.
Step forward Philip Webster, Tom Baldwin and David Aaranovitch of The Times.
Did anyone else see that Campbell appeared to be wearing trainers on Newsnight? Not sure if the dark arts master was trying to make a subtle point or just desperate to jog home afterwards
Let's face it if you were in the Cabinet would you want to go on the air waves to defend Brown and fix your flag to the wreck of Brown's Premiership ? It's now all about positioning and deciding when and who to support when Brown is finally prised from power particularly for the younger more ambitious members of Cabinet - one wrong word now could put at risk their future rise up the "greasy pole". after all
Jamie said...
I agree with Richard S - we should not criticise an MP for quietly doing his/her job
We're not. We are criticising MPs for publicly defending the indefensible and talking a load of rubbish in the process.
As Sir Dennis Thatcher said, whales don't get harpooned until they come up to spout.
Could be worse, the Minister of Gaydar, Chris Bryant, could be keeping the Brown end up!
Not the Three Stooges" more like "The Marxist Brothers" - Gordo, Blinky, Badger and Jacko. Nobody would join a party that had them as a member!
"Incidentally, notice the BBC's sycophantic "Ministers back under-fire Brown" strapline, which they keep repeating despite the text following it, which says that two Cabinet Ministers have come out with public support [out of twenty-three in total]. Biased or what?"
Um, I think "what" is the correct answer here. More than one minister has backed under-fire Brown and none have criticised him, ergo the ticker line is correct. Yesterday it was saying that Clarke had attacked Brown, but now the story has moved on the reaction. How is that in any way biased? Please explain.
There are many, many examples of BBC-crapness out there, but this really isn't one of them.
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