Or perhaps tap by tap. Paul Waugh has a comprehensive, almost minute by minute account of last nights PLP meeting HERE.
And so Gordon lives to fight another day. Was that a collective sigh of relief I heard emanating from CCHQ at about 7pm last night? :)
49 comments:
What a spineless lot Labour MP's and Ministers are.
They appear to be more concerned about their own future than that of the country.
As a Labour voter (Well was up until last Thursday..) i'm bemused and angry why any group of poiticans would want to continue with a leader that is going to guarantee defeat.
Why any cabinet minister would continue to support and back a leader who didn't want them in their positions is even worse.
Darling and Milliband are a joke and not fit for public office.
I'm disgusted.
Nice to see that Gordon showed his humility and caring side. There was of course the samll comment from Blunkett that
"critics should put up or shut up and they have 24 hours to do so"
So what exactly happens at 9pm tonight when the 24 hours has expired? Co-ordinated raids by Jacqui's finest stormtroopers to drag them off for interrogation? Will they be imprisoned in the Tower? Heads displayed on pikes in Palace Yard? Or will the whips simply release a set of seedy and damaging stories to their friends in the Lobby to discredit and undermine them before they move to deselect them?
Here, this humility thing is easy isn't it
The notion that CCHQ want Brown to stay in position is something I find utterly irritating. I fully agree with their position that we need an election now - but do they seriously think Labour would have a better chance by getting rid of him? The problems the country faces weren't just created by Gordon Brown, they were created by virtually every Labour MP, they who so loyally (to their party rather than their country) followed their leaders into every vote and passed almost every piece of legislation that was thrown at them, they who never spoke up about the way Gordon was running the domestic affairs of this country from Number 11, they who unanimously allowed him to become their leader and couldn't even be bothered to get rid of him. And that's not even the half of it.
But the country would be a lot better off with him gone, no question. And the Conservatives can still win a general election with the same or a bigger majority provided they develop a sensible strategy to associate Britain's turmoil with the Labour party as a whole (rather than just Gordon Brown). It is important that they do that because Gordon Brown will, one way or another, go at some point (ignoring Kinnock's suggestion that he wins two elections first - he'll die of old age before that happens); even if it's after this election they will still have to fight this hypothetical new leader in elections down the line, so whether he goes now or later doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
So Geraldine Smith said: "Something very strange happened to me on Sunday morning, watching Andrew Marr....I started to love Peter Mandelson."
Tony Blair's prophecy is coming true - My project will be complete when Labour party learns to love Peter Mandelson.
New Labour is nearly dead. It is in the runes.
The same way "all publicity is good publicity" it appears labour have adopted the position of "Any government is better than not being the government".
Hanging on at any cost, no matter how lame, discredited and terminal.
What a bloody shambles.
Tom, your whole post rests on the belief that the electorate are rational, well-informed and interested, and that spin and manipulation is not the British government's and media's finest art form.
All this, after the very recent "expenses scandal".
I wish that I shared your touching faith.
kaufman making a joke about a 8k tv
hes lost the plot
Kinnock, eh?
Imagine Margaret Thatcher inviting Ted Heath back into the government in 1991 !
This whole debacle reminds me of a mutiny I am currently experiencing from my domestic servants, which I have written about in my journal: http://augustusjstigwood.blogspot.com/
Ahem!
1990, (sorry).
Dimoto, the public is sick and tired of spin. That seems to be people's main concern about Cameron - although he is slowly winning them over. The situation Labour has brought Britain into is something they can't spin their way out of; people know that government needs a change from the bottom up not the top down.
So it's true then. The PLP did actually applaud the one-eyed rocking horseman of the apocalypse.
I had wondered, more in hope than expectation, whether the media were being ironic with these reports, but no, they actually APPLAUDED him. God help us.
I feel like I've wandered into a Salvador Dali exhibition and become mysteriously absorbed into one of the exhibits. "Hallucinogenic Toreador" perhaps? A world where up is down, black is white and none of the established rules apply.
Is this what our democracy has come to? How have we managed to sink so low?
If Gordon Brown had an ounce of either courage, decency or respect for democracy, he would have put himself up for election as leader (just as John Major did at a similar point), even if only to the PLP. The fact that he didn't, and that he remains leader of the Labour Party today, makes me, for the first time, take even slightly seriously the suggestion occasionally made on this and other blogs that he just might find a reason not to call an election next year.
He has brought Labour to the very bitterest nadir of its electoral and financial fortunes in a century. On his watch, the British economy has collapsed to a point where its AAA rating is in doubt, and where the country sends two BNP MEPs to Brussels. And yet he remains the unelected leader!
Maybe it will be the rise of the BNP? maybe a terrorist attack? maybe another war? But for the first time, I think the man might be capable of suspending British democracy just for the sake of retaining personal power.
I don't think it is likely - but today, for the first time, it is thinkable.
And so Gordon lives on to lose another election.
Sod this for a game of soldiers - I'll have lost a fiver by tomorrow morning - this is a ridiculous state of affairs. As political betting points out - for baby boomers, their twilight years are gonna be Tory now. I like the Tories as much as anyone but to watch Labour eat themselves does affect one's appetite what what.
There is something though - I used to work in a joke of a civil service department and there's a lot of merit in working out how not to do things - this, I guess, should be an academic observation -
'looky here kiddies - this is how not to run a political party - look at them, aren't they odd?'
'Sir, Sir, i'm bored'
Don't be so sure this is in the Tory's favour in the medium term. Labour MPs will get rid of Brown in the autumn and have a 'clean' leader for the election.
1. This adds to the length of time they can stay in.
2. Brown is the lightning conductor and will, in the short term, receive all the manure ie. potential by-election defeats.
This situation suits the Labour MPs medium term planning.
Mark
Collective sigh of relief at CCHQ because there won't be an election before the Irish have voted in favour of the Lisbon Constitution!!!
@Kenny Murphy
Over at the Spectator, Miliband on R4
brown narrowed the scope to a rational argument. But as I posted the key issue is that Brown is unlucky and unhappy. According to the book "the 48 laws of power" you should avoid this type of person. Who knows why he brings misfortune, but he does.
I would not say these people are cowards , they just don't realize what Tony blair had and how to sell crap policies to the public. New Labour need 70 people who appreciate Blair - not blairites - but 70 salespeople. They don't have it and they are doomed as a result.
this is brilliant for the tories terrible for the country. Now we have to carry on putting up with a dead government where even the No10 spokesman cannot admit that Michelle Obama was in Downing St, despite a video on the beeb - http://simbits.blogspot.com/2009/06/hmmm.html
For God's sake Gordon, go and call election
Look it's obvious. No one in the Labour party wants to be Iain Duncan Smith. Labour are going to lose the next election regardless. So why not let the Captain of the Titanic take them down rather than someone else trying to risk saving the sinking ship?
Labour politicians will simply be positioning themselves for a leadership fight next year after they lose the election.
Of course I expect Brown to try to hang on then even after he loses the election. The man in clinically insane and has lost the plot.
If we're talking on purely party political terms Gordon hanging on and a May election are a good thing for us.
Gordon will smash the Labour party in to the ground. Also, it'll give the electorate the chance to feel the full force of the recession while under a Labour government.
If we put country first, well that's a different matter.
Might the sigh of relief have been from some-one who found his moral compass at last. Well, one can always live in hope.
Proof positive that Gordon Brown is honouring his recent commitment towards being more transparent...
Where's the army when you need it?
Oh yes. The Labour government sent it off the fight unwinable wars with sub-standard equipment.
Despite all the hoo-ha, I feel fairly sure that the talk of Broon's imminent departure is mainly a media invention and not a real phenomenon. Turkeys do not on the whole vote for Christmas. Labour backbenchers know they would be trashed in an election now, so they intend to wait at least for the Autumn and more likely to Spring '10, when they hope economic facts will have improved a little.
Your joke at the end Iain is particularly accurate, because it is also highly unlikely that either the Tories or the LibDems really wanted an election now - neither have gone up in percentage terms overall and they are both seen as establishment players in the bloated expenses saga. They hope the public will be more forgiving and forgetful next year and Cameron hopes for something more than his rather slender forecast victory on current figures.
sewer rats all of them
Martin, as you are convinced that Brown is "clinically insane", can you please tell us exactly which condition he is suffering from? Medical terminology please.
Or are you just bandying around mental-healthist phrases for effect?
Cynic 2.32 said
"Or will the whips simply release a set of seedy and damaging stories to their friends in the Lobby to discredit and undermine them before they move to deselect them?"
Time for some more Teletraph expenses fiddles methinks; maybe they'll not be so keen...
This flattering of the monster's ego will only stoke his delusions further.
Will we see a Jim Jones style denouement for the Labour Party? They have clearly lost the will to live.
If so, they'd better got on with it and put the rest of us out of their misery.
Paul Waugh's account reads painfully like one of those abusive relationships where the offending partner promises to give up the booze/the gambling/the women (or whatever). “It will all be different this time - please have me back.” The offender is given another chance and the abuse goes on…
>Brown is the lightning conductor and will, in the short term, receive all the manure
That will go in a special display case in my museum of mixed metaphors.
I think they all realise now that whatever they do at least half of them are going to lose their seats at the next election. Brown or Johnson won't make much difference, so they've decided to stay on for another year. To hell with the country of course.
re: your twitter about "regular visits to Mi6"
I thought it was common knowledge you are controlled by the CIA. Have you gone all patriotic?
Labour MPs in "Spineless Apparatchiks Want Next Pay Cheque From Taxpayers" shock!
Re Geraldine Smith's love in with Mandelson...
She was on R5 this morning and all the texters said afterwards that she was a great advertisement for why everyone should hate Labour.
Overbearing, talked Party nonsense, didn't listen - oh dear.
And she's been on the airwaves even more than Mandy himself.
Labour are getting very good at picking audience friendly heads aren't they :)
Geraldine Smith was one of the original loudmouths calling for Blair to go at the time of the great failed coup. I remember her vile dyed hair and incoherent interviews only too well. She was also wheeled out at the weekend to be bitchy about her fellow female MPs calling Hazel and Caroline "the Blair Witch project". Hmmm - very sisterly.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4983484.stm
Iain, I don't think these short term issues are the problem. "It's not the economy stupid, it's you. Sorry Gordon":
http://joshuachambers.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/so-theyve-made-their-choice-or-on-leadership/
Sorry, meant to say it's not the Labour Party that are the problem.
Latest from the BBC -
"Prime Minister Gordon Brown will make a statement to MPs on Wednesday about his plans to reform Parliament..."
Just what we need to make Parliament a little more independent from the executive.
Osborne was right after all. The man really is politically autistic.
If Brown tries to bring in PR before the next general election, it will be one of the most blatant acts of gerrymandering ever and the British public will not put up with it.
Cameron needs to nail him down on his electoral reform timetable at PMQs tomorrow.
Never mind the fall of Thatcher, Labour's keystone cops attempt at revolt should be compared with the overthrow of IDS. The Conservatives held a secret ballot, ousted IDS and by evening had a unity leader with Michael Howard able to rally support from all sections of the party and move forward to moderate success at the following election. Howard then knew when to step down while the crowd still wanted more, and the Tories had the foresight to hold a high profile, highly democtratic election campaign for their next leader. The contrast with Labour could not be more stark.
Iain
to date you have not commented on the fun this afternoon with Griffin and the UAF. Will you be looking at the issues raised ?
Thinking about this a little more Gordon's "argument" was that he was "best placed" - what does he mean. What he means is that, on the basis that you make your own luck he is best placed to have the best luck.
Well that simply isn't true. Gordon does not bring luck and sunshine. He brings bad luck and storms. Gordon is best placed to bring his bad luck onto the labour party.
I sincerely believe Guidos analysis of Gordon. Napoleon said he favoured lucky generals. The 48 laws of power - law 10 - avoid the unlucky. Some people really do have bad luck. Gordon is destined to be unlucky.
Look at his principal supporter. The man who fell over in the beach. Gordon will have a beach moment some time in the next few months. It will crystalise everything about him. He is unlucky. Gordon is not a cancer in the Labour Party, he is the bad luck that causes the cancer.
Um - got slightly carried away at the speed of Howard's coronation. Anyway it was only a week after the fall of IDS.
I wonder... did Gordon Brown ever seriously plan on making Ed Balls his chancellor, or have we actually seen a weekend of spectacular triangulation by the Prime Minister, forging deals with the "important" cabinet ministers (Miliband, Johnson, etc) and pushing out the ones he needed to get rid of (Watson, Smith, isolating potential troublemakers Purnell and Blears), to the aim of getting exactly what he wants - another year at Downing Street - by offering the possibility of Chancellor Balls as a bargaining chip?
There's something fishy about all of this and it smells exactly the same as the way Labour reneged on its pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty - because of all those concessions they got it would be unfair on the poor EU if they gave the British electorate an opportunity to reject it. I can't help but wonder if the Brown bunker had this entire weekend mapped out and (knowing full well they'd do as badly as they did in the elections) everything went according to plan.
Maybe I'm reading too much into things... but given that all they do in the Brown bunker is plot...
Disgusting spineless shits.
Iain, spineless shits is also the word for Bob Crow and his bunch of strikers.
Look at TrueblueBlood tonight. Great blog post. Did you know that a tube driver earns more than a nurse, a paramedic, a teacher and a dentsit.
Bloody disgusting.
These tube drivers are bloody well off and yet they are striking and causing misery tomorrow.
The Labour Party - sounds like one of those dying cults to me. You know - where the dear leader goes mad.
Let's hope they keep off the Kool Aid and emerge from the jungle intact.
I fear for the country having to put up with that lot until May '09 possibly.
Let us hope that something will come along soon enough to allow the people to voice their opinions (again) for a general election to occur.
um, of course I meant May '10
Silly me!
:-)
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