Wednesday, March 17, 2010

How to Apologise (Are You Reading this, Gordon?)

Gordon Brown admitted at PMQs that he had given incorrect evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry when he said that defence spending had risen in real terms every year since 1997. He has now written to the Chilcot Inquiry, but his letter makes no admission of error or persinal culpability, let alone an apology.

Let me now do something which Gordon Brown seems incapable of doing, and apologise for something I got wrong earlier. I posted a blogpost about the above subject and asserted that it was the News of the World which had broken the story, rather than Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News. I was wrong. Why? Because I commited the cardinal sin of not checking with Cathy herself. I was told by a friend on the NOTW that Cathy had done her Channel 4 Fact Check story on Monday of this week. I was rushing to leave the office to get changed for a dinner speaking engagement so I didn't have time to ring Cathy to check it with her. Big mistake. Being the thoroughly nice person she is, she rang me not to berate me, but to point out the sequence of events. She then emailed me the link to her original story back on 10 March.

So, apologies to Cathy and to Channel 4 News, and to you, my readers. As my mother always told me, more haste, less speed...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still does not change the story that Gordo lied again, saying that there were 1 or 2 downturns and there was really 4. He lies even when he is confessing to lying.

The man has no conscience, he will do ANYTHING to stay in power. I have noticed for the past few months the enormous amount of state adverts. It must be costing 10's of millions. This is also just beginning to get a mention in the blogs.

Martin S said...

Or as Mr Brown's mother said to him: "James, shut up and eat your porridge!"

Nicely done, Iain! The taste of humble pie once in a while does us good. But it is not a taste Mr Brown will ever even try.

Cynic said...

Lied to the Inquiry

Lied to the House

Lied to the families of the dead

Lied to the people

Probably lied to himself.

No more lies Gordon. Time to go.

Jimmy said...

So your message is a true apology involves taking a cheap shot at a political opponent?

Londonerr said...

@ pete-s

Look at Fraser Nelson's arrticle on The Spectator's Coffee House

The cost of Brown's propaganda splurge

the orange party said...

I must admit I was somewhat surprised when you intimated it was the NOTW wot won it and my first thought was that you'd been nobbled by a spinner. Good that you've corrected it.

Cathy indeed should be credited for some seriously good journalism. She makes me proud of an often maligned profession.

I still don't think the implications of what she unearthed and the consequences has really sunk in. This is a prime minister who has misled parliament, Chilcot and the public. That's kinda big.

I gave here full credit when I posted up the story yesterday afternoon. Guido too but few others. Still that's hacks for you.

http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/porkie-brown-admits-lying-to-chilcot.html

Janner said...

Jimmy

A true apology means actually apologising

Gordon seems to be happy to apologise on behalf of the nation for past incidents for which he is in no way responsible

However he seems curiously incapable of apologising for anything he has got wrong in the past 13 years

Funny old thing

BTW the important thing is that this is clear evidence of the defence underfunding that the Labour govt has continued with while basking in the reflected glory of our armed forces

They have no honour, they have no shame, they must go

Cynic said...

I am not sure that Gordon thinks he is lying.

It's not even as though the issue with MoD finding was cash per se. If you look at the spending in those years money was lavished on pet projects and Departments.

Defence had three problems

1 it was expensive
2 it wasn't a fashionable left wing cause that would attract favour within Labour
3 it had a succession of Secretary of States who were Blairite and therefore had to have their life made difficult

Gordon has a social conscience. If I had that that much on my conscience - all those lies and troops who died because they were sent to war unprepared and unequipped and the reasons for that- then it would keep me up at night too.

Dave H said...

pete-s was there before me. Brown said he was wrong on one or two occasions. According to the R4 it was at least three.

What is it with Gordon Brown and truth? An allergy?