Sunday, December 07, 2008
5 Minutes with Michael Portillo
Each week the BBC's Matthew Stadlen conducts a five minute interview with a political figure. This week his victim was Michael Portillo. It's rather entertaining. Portillo reckons he has moved to the right on several issues since he left politics and says it is "immoral" to tax people above 40%. Click HERE to watch.
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4 comments:
Very interesting. Michael comes across well.
However he says, paraphrasing here, "the right wing press is evil".
Hmmm ...
Michael, perhaps you would like to clarify this remark, particularly when you also stated that an income tax rate of over 40% was immoral.
Yes, Michael Portillo is interestingly politically.
I spent an excellent Hour or so listening to Michael talking about Finance and IFA’s recently back in November at Leeds Football club. I had hoped he would become leader in 2001 and even before the election in that year thought he would have got a better media than Hague despite Hague’s many gifts as a leader in the commons for instance.
When I went to see the ‘audience with Portillo’ I was struck at how formidable he was at working the room before the meeting. Excellent people skills and must of talked to much of the room!
I noticed that the theme in his talk was about the Global property bubble and politically he was spot on when he said the Labour government in this country were "immoral" in still encouraging people to get on an overpriced property ladder. The new homeowners would obviously loose money or experience negative equity as a consequence of Brown’s trickery.
The ‘morality’ of taxation and government policy is a very interesting concept and whilst I cannot hear his thoughts on it as I have no sound on my computer I would think many people would be struck by the construct of this argument.
I would say on observing Michael give his talk, I got the feeling that maybe he would like to go back into politics. Should the Tories form the next government, his skills from the early 1990’s across a number of departments would be very useful in a similar economic environment. I was struck by the quality, coherence and intellectual rigour of his talk, Portillo is definitely a class act. If Mandelson can come back, why not Portillo! His positives in terms of media skills, contacts and recognition are formidable. Unlike Mandelson Portillo’s career was not ended in disgrace, yes he was defeated in 1997 but I think that was the party as much as any personal defeat! His subsequent personal journey has rounded him intellectually and perhaps in terms of style and depth of awareness of the difference facets and features of society. The subsequent comeback and move into the media again was not the result of disgrace, Portillo could easily add weight to the Tories now or in the future.
However he says, paraphrasing here, "the right wing press is evil".
Obviously, that is a referrence to his 1998 admissions.
Given some of the tittle tattle about Brown, it seems a bit harsh in the extreme that a bulwalk against the New Labour project could be so badly critised yet Brown in this so called Liberal society has not had to suffer any of that nonsense.
Michael Portillo is a better man and a far better politician than Brown! Why Brown gets a blank cheque is beyond me!
Iain.
I would have thought the headline news was that Portillo coniders the most likely outcome of the next election to be a hung Parliament, with Labour as the largest party.
Given that Portillo is never slow to join the criticism of Gordon Brown, this is quite a turnaround. And on top of the Times poll today showing Labour just 4 points behind the Tories, and with Brown/Darling extending their lead over Cameron/Osbourne.
The Times poll suggests that whilst the Tories (and the rest of the Westminster village) have been working themselves into a self-righteous frenzy over Damian Green, and endless stuff about the Speaker, the rest of us are a little more preoccupied with the economy, and which party is better placed to steer us through.
I'm sure you'll be blogging on this later.... :)
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