Saturday, June 06, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Mandy Emails Condemn Brown

Sky and the BBC News Channel are both reporting that the News of the World have emails from Peter Mandelson which are not exactly complimentary about Gordon Brown. More later...

UPDATE: I gather it's actually the Mail on Sunday who have the story, rather than the NOTW, although the NOTW is running a spoiler. UPDATE: The NOTW deny it is a spoiler. I give up! The emails to Derek Draper say...
  • Gordon will lose the next election.
  • the PM cannot do "X-Factor politics" of his predecessor Tony Blair.
  • he slams his leadership style.
  • Brown is "complex", unable to hide his insecurities and too self-conscious.
  • voters are put off because they think Brown is "angry".
I am very much looking forward to doing the BBC News Channel paper review tonight at 11.20pm ... with Yasmin!

33 comments:

Richard's mum said...

Obviously Draper's revenge! Wonder what else he's got?

Anonymous said...

what time are you on ? I keep missing you !

Silent Hunter said...

Could someone please provide the coup de grace to this abysmal Labour Government - it's starting to get embarrassing having "Obarmy Beach" in charge of the country.

TrueBlueBlood said...

So Iain.

You noticed that the News of the World reports these emails from Mandolsen were to....derek draper.

reckon this is derek draper getting some revenge on Labour by leaking eamils?

Man in a Shed said...

Mandelson is becoming a more worrying character every day. Brown is almost becoming his puppet.

Unknown said...

Why are people not marching in the streets yet? This Labour government has been a complete and utter disaster, and if we allow them to continue for an other year who knows what more damage they will cause.

We need a General Election NOW.

AUTOLYCUS said...

I won't be watching, I'm afraid.
Can't stand the woman.

Mirtha Tidville said...

I agree with oliver re Draper but it smacks of a disgruntled Mc Bride alright....

As for yasmin stick it to her

Boo said...

Now who could posibly have a grudge against Gordon and Mandy?

Anonymous said...

The story WILL be in the NOTW. The Mail website is running a spoiler, referring to revelations in "a Sunday newspaper".

simon said...

Yuck- being in the presence of Yazz makes me retch. She of the 'opinions (or bulls*it)' freely spoken in our country; but oddly enough, not in her own country of origin. As far as i'm concerned she is the female version of George Galloway.Anyway as for Mandy's comments- Oooooh Matron, it's stuff he's already to have said by various 'commentators' over the years.

Anonymous said...

GORDON BROWN IS A LAIR

GORDON BROWN IS A BULLY

GORDON BROWN IS A BULLY AND A LIAR

AN ARROGANT BULLYING LIAR

Anonymous said...

@Man In A Shed

He is his puppet! Might as well be now as Mandy is the only thing keeping Brown afloat, and even that seems to be waning fast.

Gordon Brown said...

Apparently the PM's job is going to be advertised in next week's The Times' Appointments section. I've got an exclusive preview on my blog....

Gareth said...

Iain,

Send Harrier Harpic a link to this story. It says "On Friday, the new First Secretary of State pledged his total loyalty to the Prime Minister and was made his no 2."

Alan Douglas said...

Iain, for your mental health's sake, DON'T do it - White AND Jasmin within any 24 hour period is too much for a man of your delicate sensibilities !

Man in a Shed - not puppet - the image I get is of Peter Cushing/Mandleson and his cobble-together monster/PM.

Alan Douglas

Paul Halsall said...

Wrong way round. The Mail on Sunday is running the spoiler. The NOTW has the letters.

Here is the question. Did Draper sell them to the NOTW?

Andy DM said...

* Gordon will lose the next election.
* the PM cannot do "X-Factor politics" of his predecessor Tony Blair.
* he slams his leadership style.
* Brown is "complex", unable to hide his insecurities and too self-conscious.
* voters are put off because they think Brown is "angry".

Can't see why this is news, anyone with half a brain knows all that and if anything I'm relieved that Mandelson knows it.

But even given that all that's true, the country doesn't need the distraction of an election (either internal Labour leadership or a general election). None of that says that Brown can't do the policy wonk stuff that a Prime Minister, just that he's awful at being the sort of charismatic leader that wins elections. That bit shouldn't be news to anyone, I figured that out in 1997.

Russell said...

Brown and Mandelson: if either one goes down the other will be dragged down with him.

Anonymous said...

One other possibility - other than a disgruntled McBride or Draper - is that someone successfully hacked Draper's own email inbox. Hence the McBride stuff two months ago, hence this.

Anyway, it really is time that Gordon - mad or bad or just sad - goes. When Normandy veterans boo and heckle the prime minister at a memorial service, something really has gone very badly wrong.

Andy DM said...

Oliver, I'll remind you of that when Osborne's clinging onto power in 2021 :-)

Andy DM said...

@Oliver, absolutely agree, fixed term parliaments have been an idea on the left since the Chartists. It's just that our Prime Ministers have always kind of liked the power to call an early election so haven't ever got around to enacting it.

Cameron doesn't seem too keen on it though "a Conservative government will seriously consider the option of fixed-term parliaments when there's a majority government." leaves enough wriggle room for an elephant.

The Purpleline said...

Iain- you must raise the Obama Beach fiasco on the beeb. It s not being used by any news outlets I think it is the final nail in his coffin

Tuesday night or latest Thursday Gordon is Brown Bread, Mandy to take reigns for 3 months as deputy PM.

Andy DM said...

@Purple, that's funny - for 2 years every Tory has been banging on about how Brown's an unelected PM and now you suggest a PM who's not even an MP.

That's the biggest laugh I've had all evening, thanks.

Anonymous said...

You do know that Yasmin now supports an English Parliament? Just remind her that Gordon Brown was elected to a Scottish constituency, on a mainly English manifesto, which is immoral at the every least, now that Scotland has its own Parliament. She will certainly agree with you on that.
Any policies he announces in the newspapers are undemocratic, whether or not they are good ones. No one in England can ever vote for him or against him. Only those in the Party will suffer for his arrogance.

Andy DM said...

@Anon (20:21) I've heard this line of argument before and I don't really understand it so please help a simple Socialist out.

We currently have a Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies, but no English Parliament or Assembly. Personally I would like to see an English Parliament but it's the policy of none of the three main parties and doesn't seem particularly popular to people I talk to (most say why would we want another bunch of politicians?)

So in the delightfully haphazard British Constitution, we don't have an English Parliament, just a UK parliament that sometimes passes bills of relevance only

to England
to England and Wales
to England, Wales and Northern Ireland
to England, Wales and Scotland
to Wales alone
to Northern Ireland alone
or to Scotland alone

I accept it's a muddle, but it has been that way for very many years. It's also an accepted part of the Constitution that MPs at Westminster may vote on all bills no matter if it actually affects any of their constituents.

But I can't see the logical step from there to saying that anyone representing a Scottish (or in some versions, a non-English) constituency from being allowed to become the UK's Prime Minister.

Can anyone help?

The Purpleline said...

Andy- I said takes the reigns for three months, meaning an election date is called with time to allow MP’s expenses to be resolved on de-selection.

With this Labour government anything and everything is possible. Constitutionally there is nothing to stop the king maker taking up the position.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Mandelson leaked these himself,using the 2 year gap they were written as a "well, that's what I thought THEN,but now it is all so much better Gordon",while at the same time smearing Brown with the facts as we all know them anyway.

Twig said...

Didn't Tony Blair warn about Brown's psychological issues a couple of years back when Brown made his move on power?

Shame the party didn't take him seriously, they could have saved us a lot of pain. Speaks volumes about their collective judgment.

Jimmy said...

He only has himself to blame. After the snooping in Smith's office and the hacking of Draper's e-mails there's no excuse for using e-mail as if tories still had standards..

PoliticalCorrectnessGoneTooFar? said...

Is there really no one British to do the paper review with you. Do we have to have that racist bint Yasmin?

Lord Monteagle said...

usually my thing but watched that tonight Iain and very much enjoyed it, good job!

Tom said...

Bleh, I thought it was Sky News and so I completely missed it (again)!

I see BBC Parliament is repeating Gordon's circus of insanity from yesterday (the press conference) several times over the next day or so... next showing at 2am.