James Purnell MP, Labour's Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Ed Miliband MP, Labour's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, today wrote to their shadow counterparts, Chris Grayling and Greg Hands, challenging them to say where the Tories' proposed cuts of £110m from their departments' budgets would fall.
Er, no, actually, it's Greg Clark. If they can't get a simple fact like that right, why would a journalist believe any of the ridiculous allegations in the rest of the press release? And it's quite clear that the press release wasn't even seen by Purnell or Miliband, otherwise it would have been corrected.
Fine, silly error, whoops. I want to know why the Tories are so cr*p at answering these nonsense "cuts!" accusations. Why are they not turning it around and getting ministers to justify some of the obviously wasteful projects the state spends our money on? Why do shadow ministers seem to flinch every time Labour uses this tired old attack?
ReplyDeleteThose dullards at Labour HQ, they're all the bloody same - I mean, what can you expect with that Gordon Blair bloke in charge?
ReplyDeleteRather O/T. I hope Andrew Lansley is ok. He seems to be going downhill rather rapidly.
ReplyDeleteDo they honestly think the tories will tell them? Auch they're not that daft.
ReplyDeleteLabour have stolen enough policies, time for the tories to keep specific details to themselves.
Same answer every time to "where's the money going to come from"
ReplyDeleteQuangos.
Quangos.
Quangos.
Imagine not knowing the name of the shadow paperclips secretary. Shocking stuff. Hopefully points like this will divert attention from the fact that the actual question remains unanswered.
ReplyDeleteOf course the tory front bench may want to consider the possibility that if even their oppos don't know their names it may not be entirely the government's fault.
So you are likening responsibility for Climate Change to being responsible for paperclips. A laughable defence of rank incompetence.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the UK political scene still totters along as normal - meanwhile, Guido appears to have lost the plot completely and is attempting to open his very own 'second front' to the Gaza conflict on his Blog...
ReplyDelete"A laughable defence of rank incompetence."
ReplyDeleteRank incompetence? I thought that was Grant 1234 Shapps's department.
Clerical error. Brings an awful lot of hoohah Iain.
ReplyDeleteYou've recently had a US Ambassador to the US and Gazza's daughter not his biological father for just too f'rinstances.
And that blogging expert post with all those broken links in it.
On the Quango answer, it was interesting to see Cam do a U-Turn on abolishing the RDAs in Manchester this week. And he's going to give us all the cash we want for transport too. While cutting taxes.
too? meant two ... doh
ReplyDeleteeven the best of us can do it
Chris Paul:
ReplyDeleteBack to the the Labour Party Press Office with you...
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ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what the tories think, the crunch will come before
ReplyDeletethe next election.
The more pertinent question is what budgets will the I.M.F force Labour to slash in return for the inevitable bailout.
Meanwhilwe "The Saviour of the world" is opening a school in Swindon which has been "open" since September 2007.
ReplyDeleteIt seems labour ministers are becoming as deluded as snotty!
Iain, I must admit I couldn't have picked Greg Clark out of a line either and was entirely unaware of his "responsibility" as you put it. Wishing to educate myself I've done a quick google but can't say it was time well spent. The fault of course may be mine. In order to gauge the magnitude of Labour's error here, perhaps you can indicate what you feel to be Mr. Clark's most significant contribution to public life. Or indeed anything.
ReplyDeleteThat's a dangerous precedent to set, Jimmy. His opposite number Ed Miliband could not be said to have set the world on fire with achievements outside politics, could he?
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ReplyDeleteI didn't only ask about achievements outside politics, I was wondering why not knowing (or momentarily forgetting perhaps) that Greg Clark had risen to the giddy heights of shadow climate minister was considered a "blunder".
ReplyDeleteMartin,
ReplyDeleteI had no intention of disparaging a man of whose existence I was at best only dimly aware. I'm sure he's a bright capable and decent individual. His is not however as yet a name that trips off the tongue. Perhaps one day it will be.
"dimly aware"
ReplyDeleteYep. That's certainly it.
Maybe 'awareness' (or lack of) is down to a whole range of factors.