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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Labour MP In Unspontaneous Protest
This is the moment John McDonnell was suspended from the House of Commons this lunchtime. He was protesting over the Heathrow decision. Watching it you get the feeling that it wasn't entirely spontaneous and that he had decided to do it well in advance. He spoke about his constituents losing their "villages,homes, churches schools and cemeteries." And, it seems, their Member of Parliament.
The BBC has the moment McDonnell grabbed the Mace here.
Yes, it was when MP's get a boost in the public eye when they stand up for the people they represent. Ironically the "authorities" do not like to see these candid moments.
Have to say I am in favour of the 3rd runway but Brown did say it would be debated on the floor of the house and not the roof. That should have been one of Cameron's questions at PMQs, he missed a trick there. Why don't they just Linkup Heathrow to Northolt or is that just too simple?
Looks to me as though the government is using Heathrow to bury "Standard Life". The Standard life regulatory failure 8 years ago is something that should have rung alarm Bells about the Regulatory regieme.
Maybe Brown & Mandelson figure better to take a hit in an area where they are doing badly anyway rather than a hit nationally?
A PM with no mandate, recently appointed Brownian Lords making decisions as they go, Lord Adonis not giving funds to elected Boris and cruticising him for asking for it, no EU referendum and now no Heathrow runway debate. As a Tory voter of 30 years, I admire what Labour MP John McDonnell has done. There are plenty of alternatives to the 3rd runway. Ilive literally 3 mins from a Piccadilly line station and for me travel to Heathrow is thus easy. But 3rd runway in that airport , no!
As soon as I heard that Geoff Hoon was being made Secretary of State for Transport, I realised the third runway had been given the green light. He will have been given the job specifically to make the third runway a reality. I wish him all the best of luck, as he will need it.
There will defo be a Lord or Sir Hoon if he pulls it off.
I wonder if any government ministers will have the guts to resign their pay packets and expenses over this, Mr Benn perhaps?
Whether we need a 3rd runway at LHR or not is irrelevant. This Stasi administration continues to run rough-shod over centuries of UK parliamentiary procedure.
Another example can be read here: http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Census_answers
I read this blog becase I support the Conservatives, but I would think twice at the next GE if I lived in one of the doomed villages.
Good for him. I will locate his email address to congratulate him. And so what if it was pre-meditated, it was passionate and it was in defence of his constituents - surely that is what being an MP is about?
Ordinarily i would be in favour of another runway if it was needed for expansion. However i recently had to travel from Terminal 3 at Heathrow twice in the last couple of months and i found it truly awful. Not just the cramped terminal itself and the total confusion, especially when going through passport control on re-entry to the country, but also just driving there. The traffic was horrendous and getting to the car park itself was an ordeal. Why anyone would build more there and so get more people travelling to that hell hole is a mystery. Cant they expand Gatwick?
Isn't planning such as this controlled by the Scottish Parliament in Gordon Brown's own constituency? What on earth happened to accountability? What on earth happened to DEMOCRACY?
Heathrow is an obsolete airport in a location that was the second worst in the world for the city it served until Hong Kong had the sense to close Kai Tak. And today we have received statistics that passengers are beginning to turn away from the obsolete Heathrow.
The only sustainable transport policy for expanding London's airport infrastructure is to create exactly the national airport than Hoon falsely claims Heathrow can be. This can only be done by implementing the good Conservative policy of building a High Speed Line North out of London, harnessing the capacity of BHX for London.
Sir Alan Hazlehurst has disgraced democracy by taking action against McDonell rather than that mendacious technocrat Hoon. Hazlehurst should resign and Hoon should be suspended for a month for lying to the house.
Good on him, I say - and I don't say that about many Labour MPs. So what if he's trying to hang on to his job? At least he's bloody *doing* his job - sticking up the interests of his constituents.
john dee and all, take a look at Ed Miliband's body language when Hoon is replying to McDonnell. You can see he HATES it. He is squirming.
The whole thing STINKS. It has to be BAA, not even the construction lobby, who could make a packet out of a brand new airport as much as runway 3 (or do they think a Dutch company would win the contract?).
I love the fact that it was the Hoon who had to announce this. How incredibly appropriate.
Let's have more maverick forms of protest in Parliament, please. If you look at parliaments abroad, you'll sometimes see MPs having fights. It would liven up PMQs, for a start. Whenever I hear him lying about how he "saved the world" and how the Tories would "do nothing", I just wonder why Cameron doesn't just throw a size nine boot at him.
I don't believe a word of it. He whinges about government by diktat but that's been going on for 12 years. He's suspended on full pay, he can wander round sympathising with constituents who'll listen and he's nicely made a name for himself and can say 'nowt to do with me guv'.
Blah, blah, blah - opportunistic guff.
In other news today:
Harperson announces expenses not to be published, Jack Straw can quash FOI requests, Yvette Balls covering up etc etc.
Cameron didn't need to ask Brown about decisions taken in the House. One of his back benchers covered it, although Brown, typically, didn't answer satisfactorily.
Re McDonnell: He's an honest chap, who despises Brown, but he had to oppose; he would be deselected otherwise. Expect other Labour MPs nearby to oppose also. They might just have a fighting chance at the General Election.
Oh Iain how pathetic. Tories fence sitting morons.
YOU are apparently 100% against Airport Expansion, YET it was a labour MP who made the most vocal and visible protest.
I personally think Airport expansion is good, but applaud the MP for having at least some conviction; unlike the whole Tory front bench who have gone to ground on today’s announcement.
Tories are all over the place when it comes to Airport expansion.
No No No they cry, the environment is more important.... errr except if Boris proposes a new one at the Thames estuary.
Only a few weeks ago the Tories were debating that Green issues must be put aside to concentrate on the economy, flip flopped again today.
Tories are so apparently opposed to airport expansion YET it was a Labour MP who made the most vocal and visible protest. ( all the Tories hiding away )
So if the Tories get into power, there will NEVER be any airport or major transport infrastructure projects due to there environmental impact, and we can all go back to a frugal existence?
The conservatives are against it because it is government policy. There is no principle involved, merely opportunistic opposition , as with everything else.
Gordo has lost the plot. What a pathetic sight to see Hoon of Dr Kelly notoriety and a New Labourite advocate of 'I only preach and you practice what I preach and I practice something else' doctrine ( preaching egalitarian for all but private coaching to his daughter for Cambridge entry). I liked the sight of Labour MPs, Hoon and Miliband squirming when one of their own infidels was enacting the drama!! We should leave it to Labour to fire at each other!!
Speaking of 3rd runway and John McDonnell's much watchable protest with Hoon the Goon watching, let us not forget the part played by the slimy Lord Sleaze. Heard that Andrew Gilligan is digging into Lord Sleaze's funds that bought his stately homein the millionnaire's row. We should have a good whip around to fund Gilliagan's research to send Lord Sleaze into a long hibernation third time from British politics. That should make Gordo sport eternal smile for a long quarantine in an institution.
My first thought was that he'd had a word with one of the whips beforehand and agreed that his seat was at stake so would it be all right actually if he put on a bit of a show, do something that would be sure to make the telly? Be friends again after the dust settles, little fingers?
That thought may be a real injustice to a genuine man for all I know. But that's how badly so many of us have come to think of politicians. We look for the angle first and just assume what we see can't be genuine because it almost always isn't.
I think you will see Iain that on this eminently pro Tory but objective blog the comments are strongly coming for no third runway.
I suggest you reassess your position. This runway is being proposed for one reason and one reason only - to create a political stick. All conservatives should unite to ram this stick back down Gordon Browns throat, and Brown should be glad that's the only place we are contented to stick it.
Thats ALL Conservatives. Everything the govt does now - thats EVERYTHING - is done for one purpose and one purpose only. Namely to gain a political advantage. Its nothing to do with the economy or the good of the country.
I find the prissy and self-serving way Parliament TV goes to the Speaker during a perfectly legitimate MP's protest rather creepy and Stalinesque. Could Gordon Brown or Jacqui Smith have been involved in creating this policy in their younger years?
Despite all the blather, I bet Mcdonnell doesn't give two hoots about the environment - he seemed very keen to get in a mention of the Gudwara though.
Trevorsden, I don't think you are quite right about motives. The runway, like other major capital projects planned by our glorious not-so-civil service, will reflect the needs of contractors. So for example, when one or other major civil engineering group is running low on work, a major new infrastructure project will suddenly be found to be of national importance. The contractors operate a "muggins turn" round-robin with their compliant senior civil servant buddies (who later go to work for them or did work for them in the past) and Ministers exist to rubber-stamp the process.
The problems at Heathrow could probably be fixed quite easily by cutting back all the little local flights from there to the rest of the UK and France, by installing the high speed train network that other EU countries now have. Alas, this sensible policy will not generate nearly enough graft for certain large corporations.
Once you realise that the UK now primarily exists to boost revenues for a number of large companies, everything becomes much easier to understand.
Yes, it was when MP's get a boost in the public eye when they stand up for the people they represent. Ironically the "authorities" do not like to see these candid moments.
ReplyDeleteWhy not show him putting it on the bench!
John McDonnell has integrity. Good on him for standing up against this undemocratic government.
ReplyDeleteYes, good one John. I'm sure his constituents will be fully behind him on this.
ReplyDeleteand why no vote?? How very Gordon Brown.
ReplyDeleteIn this link below you get to see the actual grabbing of the Mace
ReplyDeleteMP suspended after mace protest
Have to say I am in favour of the 3rd runway but Brown did say it would be debated on the floor of the house and not the roof. That should have been one of Cameron's questions at PMQs, he missed a trick there. Why don't they just Linkup Heathrow to Northolt or is that just too simple?
Looks to me as though the government is using Heathrow to bury "Standard Life". The Standard life regulatory failure 8 years ago is something that should have rung alarm Bells about the Regulatory regieme.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Brown & Mandelson figure better to take a hit in an area where they are doing badly anyway rather than a hit nationally?
And so what if it was pre-planned?
ReplyDeleteAt last a Labour MP with a pair of balls.
And if as the Hoon said, it was a matter for the whole of the country then why aren't the country's MPs being allowed to decide.
Shameful!!
Muppet.
ReplyDeleteWhat an attention-seeking clown.
I hope everyone - and there are many - employed by Heathrow that live in his consituency let him know exactly what they think of him.
Hit him where it hurts: in the ballot box!
FANTASTIC
ReplyDeleteWhat a complete fool.
ReplyDeleteThe Heathrow expansion is an obvious necessity. How stupid of him and the Tory party to oppose it.
A PM with no mandate, recently appointed Brownian Lords making decisions as they go, Lord Adonis not giving funds to elected Boris and cruticising him for asking for it, no EU referendum and now no Heathrow runway debate. As a Tory voter of 30 years, I admire what Labour MP John McDonnell has done. There are plenty of alternatives to the 3rd runway. Ilive literally 3 mins from a Piccadilly line station and for me travel to Heathrow is thus easy. But 3rd runway in that airport , no!
ReplyDeleteHe's got a point. Why isn't this being debated and voted?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I heard that Geoff Hoon was being made Secretary of State for Transport, I realised the third runway had been given the green light. He will have been given the job specifically to make the third runway a reality. I wish him all the best of luck, as he will need it.
ReplyDeleteThere will defo be a Lord or Sir Hoon if he pulls it off.
I wonder if any government ministers will have the guts to resign their pay packets and expenses over this, Mr Benn perhaps?
democracy is dead. the sooner we elect the tories the better.
ReplyDeleteMagic! Absolute Magic!
ReplyDeleteToo bad he didn't swing the mace and clobber someone, any NuLab type would do, after all, that's what it's meant for, innit !
ReplyDeleteO/T
ReplyDeleteTwo days ago, Tom Harris’s blog complained of “....absurdly high levels of anti-politics sentiment in this country.”
He made a slip of the keyboard. He meant to write:
...the understandably high levels of anti-politics sentiment in this country.
Fan-bloody-tastic! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThis is real democracy in shackles fighting back.
Whether we need a 3rd runway at LHR or not is irrelevant. This Stasi administration continues to run rough-shod over centuries of UK parliamentiary procedure.
Another example can be read here:
http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Census_answers
I read this blog becase I support the Conservatives, but I would think twice at the next GE if I lived in one of the doomed villages.
Good for him. I will locate his email address to congratulate him. And so what if it was pre-meditated, it was passionate and it was in defence of his constituents - surely that is what being an MP is about?
ReplyDeleteOrdinarily i would be in favour of another runway if it was needed for expansion. However i recently had to travel from Terminal 3 at Heathrow twice in the last couple of months and i found it truly awful. Not just the cramped terminal itself and the total confusion, especially when going through passport control on re-entry to the country, but also just driving there. The traffic was horrendous and getting to the car park itself was an ordeal. Why anyone would build more there and so get more people travelling to that hell hole is a mystery. Cant they expand Gatwick?
ReplyDeleteIsn't planning such as this controlled by the Scottish Parliament in Gordon Brown's own constituency? What on earth happened to accountability? What on earth happened to DEMOCRACY?
ReplyDeleteAn MP with a pair.
ReplyDeleteNote how the suspension had to go to a division.
Hoon is a buff. Heathrow is NOT necessary, in fact to continue to endanger the entire city of London by maintianing this airport is a disgrace.
Move it to the East so there is no overfly. Move it to the Thames Estuary.
Turn Heathrow in to housing, so people will not be forced to live "up on the marshes" in the grey, bleak Thames corridor.
Heathrow is an obsolete airport in a location that was the second worst in the world for the city it served until Hong Kong had the sense to close Kai Tak. And today we have received statistics that passengers are beginning to turn away from the obsolete Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteThe only sustainable transport policy for expanding London's airport infrastructure is to create exactly the national airport than Hoon falsely claims Heathrow can be. This can only be done by implementing the good Conservative policy of building a High Speed Line North out of London, harnessing the capacity of BHX for London.
Sir Alan Hazlehurst has disgraced democracy by taking action against McDonell rather than that mendacious technocrat Hoon. Hazlehurst should resign and Hoon should be suspended for a month for lying to the house.
He has a BLOG
ReplyDeleteTell him what you think. It's what a blog is for.
I wish haslehurst would resign! I want a new MP.
ReplyDeleteCanvas, did you know I come from Saffron Walden :)
ReplyDeleteWell done John McDonnel.Pity about Ed Miliband and Hilary Benn,a gutless pair.
ReplyDeleteHoon carries his half-truths from Iraq to Heathrow.
Good on him, I say - and I don't say that about many Labour MPs. So what if he's trying to hang on to his job? At least he's bloody *doing* his job - sticking up the interests of his constituents.
ReplyDeleteOops - clearly I meant "sticking up FOR the interests of his constituents"
ReplyDeletejohn dee and all, take a look at Ed Miliband's body language when Hoon is replying to McDonnell. You can see he HATES it. He is squirming.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing STINKS. It has to be BAA, not even the construction lobby, who could make a packet out of a brand new airport as much as runway 3 (or do they think a Dutch company would win the contract?).
I love the fact that it was the Hoon who had to announce this. How incredibly appropriate.
ReplyDeleteLet's have more maverick forms of protest in Parliament, please. If you look at parliaments abroad, you'll sometimes see MPs having fights. It would liven up PMQs, for a start. Whenever I hear him lying about how he "saved the world" and how the Tories would "do nothing", I just wonder why Cameron doesn't just throw a size nine boot at him.
I don't believe a word of it. He whinges about government by diktat but that's been going on for 12 years. He's suspended on full pay, he can wander round sympathising with constituents who'll listen and he's nicely made a name for himself and can say 'nowt to do with me guv'.
ReplyDeleteBlah, blah, blah - opportunistic guff.
In other news today:
Harperson announces expenses not to be published, Jack Straw can quash FOI requests, Yvette Balls covering up etc etc.
John McDonnell - good stooge. Complete Hoon.
He could take the anti-runway even further by supporting an organisation that fired mortar bombs at them.
ReplyDeleteMr Mr 2.58
ReplyDeleteCameron didn't need to ask Brown about decisions taken in the House.
One of his back benchers covered it, although Brown, typically, didn't answer satisfactorily.
Re McDonnell: He's an honest chap, who despises Brown, but he had to oppose; he would be deselected otherwise.
Expect other Labour MPs nearby to oppose also. They might just have a fighting chance at the General Election.
the most intresting part of the video is the fact that hazlehurst clearly has to be told what to do in terms of naming him by an underling.
ReplyDeletehasnt he been dep speaker since about 97? shouldnt he know what in these circs?
Iain, don't even think about it...please. no...haslehurst can stay.
ReplyDelete:)
Oh Iain how pathetic. Tories fence sitting morons.
ReplyDeleteYOU are apparently 100% against Airport Expansion, YET it was a labour MP who made the most vocal and visible protest.
I personally think Airport expansion is good, but applaud the MP for having at least some conviction; unlike the whole Tory front bench who have gone to ground on today’s announcement.
Tories are all over the place when it comes to Airport expansion.
ReplyDeleteNo No No they cry, the environment is more important.... errr except if Boris proposes a new one at the Thames estuary.
Only a few weeks ago the Tories were debating that Green issues must be put aside to concentrate on the economy, flip flopped again today.
Tories are so apparently opposed to airport expansion YET it was a Labour MP who made the most vocal and visible protest. ( all the Tories hiding away )
So if the Tories get into power, there will NEVER be any airport or major transport infrastructure projects due to there environmental impact, and we can all go back to a frugal existence?
The conservatives are against it because it is government policy. There is no principle involved, merely opportunistic opposition , as with everything else.
ReplyDeleteJimbo and Jimmy
ReplyDeleteGordo has lost the plot. What a pathetic sight to see Hoon of Dr Kelly notoriety and a New Labourite advocate of 'I only preach and you practice what I preach and I practice something else' doctrine ( preaching egalitarian for all but private coaching to his daughter for Cambridge entry). I liked the sight of Labour MPs, Hoon and Miliband squirming when one of their own infidels was enacting the drama!! We should leave it to Labour to fire at each other!!
Speaking of 3rd runway and John McDonnell's much watchable protest with Hoon the Goon watching, let us not forget the part played by the slimy Lord Sleaze. Heard that Andrew Gilligan is digging into Lord Sleaze's funds that bought his stately homein the millionnaire's row. We should have a good whip around to fund Gilliagan's research to send Lord Sleaze into a long hibernation third time from British politics. That should make Gordo sport eternal smile for a long quarantine in an institution.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was that he'd had a word with one of the whips beforehand and agreed that his seat was at stake so would it be all right actually if he put on a bit of a show, do something that would be sure to make the telly? Be friends again after the dust settles, little fingers?
ReplyDeleteThat thought may be a real injustice to a genuine man for all I know. But that's how badly so many of us have come to think of politicians. We look for the angle first and just assume what we see can't be genuine because it almost always isn't.
I think you will see Iain that on this eminently pro Tory but objective blog the comments are strongly coming for no third runway.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you reassess your position. This runway is being proposed for one reason and one reason only - to create a political stick. All conservatives should unite to ram this stick back down Gordon Browns throat, and Brown should be glad that's the only place we are contented to stick it.
Thats ALL Conservatives. Everything the govt does now - thats EVERYTHING - is done for one purpose and one purpose only. Namely to gain a political advantage. Its nothing to do with the economy or the good of the country.
Trevorsden, unlike some people my views don't swing with the prevailing political wind. My view on this remains as it always has been.
ReplyDeleteI find the prissy and self-serving way Parliament TV goes to the Speaker during a perfectly legitimate MP's protest rather creepy and Stalinesque. Could Gordon Brown or Jacqui Smith have been involved in creating this policy in their younger years?
ReplyDeleteDespite all the blather, I bet Mcdonnell doesn't give two hoots about the environment - he seemed very keen to get in a mention of the Gudwara though.
Trevorsden, I don't think you are quite right about motives. The runway, like other major capital projects planned by our glorious not-so-civil service, will reflect the needs of contractors. So for example, when one or other major civil engineering group is running low on work, a major new infrastructure project will suddenly be found to be of national importance. The contractors operate a "muggins turn" round-robin with their compliant senior civil servant buddies (who later go to work for them or did work for them in the past) and Ministers exist to rubber-stamp the process.
ReplyDeleteThe problems at Heathrow could probably be fixed quite easily by cutting back all the little local flights from there to the rest of the UK and France, by installing the high speed train network that other EU countries now have. Alas, this sensible policy will not generate nearly enough graft for certain large corporations.
Once you realise that the UK now primarily exists to boost revenues for a number of large companies, everything becomes much easier to understand.