Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Gordon Grandstands Over Yemen Conference

Sir Patrick Cormack asked a PQ yesterday on the Yemen conference Gordon Brown announced in the aftermath of the failed terrorist attack in Detroit. At the time the Prime Ministers said –

There is absolutely no doubt that the conference we will have in London in January, with a Yemen element to it, will be an important means by which we will help the Yemeni authorities who are fighting terrorism to develop the means and the will to do this even more. (Andrew Marr Show 3rd January 2009)
Yet it turns out that the conference is ‘likely to last up to two hours’ and will only be at foreign minister level –

Yemen
Sir Patrick Cormack: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what arrangements have been made for the conference on Yemen which he recently announced. [310932]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The meeting on Yemen which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced will take place on 27 January 2010, and is likely to last for around two hours. It will be principally at Foreign Minister level. We are in the process of discussing participation and the agenda with key international partners.

So it's not a conference. It's a two hour meeting. And it's for Foreign Ministers, not Presidents and Prime Ministers.

A bit of overselling and grandstanding by Gordon Brown, wouldn't you say?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see this from Gavin Hewitt of the BBC (talking about yet another meeting):

http://tinyurl.com/ycrwm3t

"It was the kind of occasion that the prime minister likes. The launch of an international plan, high on ambition, vague on delivery."

Priceless!

Brian said...

Two hours jabbering is hardly worth the carbon footprint. Why don't they extract the digit from egovt(isn't that Tom Watson or Kerry Thingy's job), have a video conference and donate the cost of the tea and biscuits to Haitian relief?

Sean said...

And this over-egging by GB is a surprise because ... ?

Unsworth said...

Brown really doesn't know the difference between a conference and a meeting.

Which probably accounts for a great number of this country's woes.

Note: Ivan Lewis 'The meeting on Yemen which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced...'

So not only is Brown clueless and a liar, but Lewis is also dissembling and actually unaware of who will attend this meeting/conference/jamboree/shopping trip to London.

JohnRS said...

From Gavin Hewitt? The real BBC Gavin Hewitt?

Amazing! You'd almost think there was an election coming soon.

strapworld said...

More like a sign that the Presidents and Prime Ministers do not wish to be seen with Jonah Brown!!

I feel dreadfully sorry for the workers at cadbury's, now that Brown has said he will do everything to ensure they keep their jobs!

Brown is a loser and attracts bad news.

Anonymous said...

Well if you have got 10 days to save the world, then 2 hours ought to be enough to save Yemen.

But really Yemen is oh so passe now. That headline was for last week. Brown now has announced he is going to save Cadbury's.

Ean Craigie said...

You might have missed the other screw up today, others have. On the day that we learn that we in the south cannot have the same arthritis drugs as those in the north on the basis of cost, Jonah stands up and says that the Haitians can have as much support in health and drugs and money as they need. We in the south of England now rate behind Haiti as far as he is concerned as we will nt vote for him. Does he never read his own briefings?

Jimmy said...

"We in the south of England now rate behind Haiti as far as he is concerned as we will nt vote for him."

You poor things. Those Haitians get everything.