As well as Tom Watson (see below) a further 16 MPs from the 2001 intake signed a letter today calling on the Dear Leader ot fall on his sword. One of them was Watson's West Midlands colleague Sion Simon. Sion Simon was a Blairite almost before the term had been invented. You'd have thought he would be in the Downing Street bunker fighting to the last - a bit like Michael Portillo in 1990.A couple of years ago I published a book by political academic Philip Cowley, who now runs the Revolts website, which details parliamentary rebellions. In his book Revolts & Rebellions, Sion Simon spits venom at those who rebel. Cowley says Simon took great exception to the use of the word 'rebels', which he felt was a romantic phrase, conjuring up images of a romantic fight against an evil aggressor. No, he preferred the pejorative term 'deserters'.
Who's the deserter now then?
22 comments:
surely two chins as the wannabe wine critic can't see that he's making an elementary mistake.
ie.
24lb turkeys should vote for christmas slower than 12lb'ers
Sion Simon was parachuted into the Labour stronghold of Birmingham Erdington. The May 2006 council elections make interesting reading. The Tories won Erdington ward by a landslide (23 year old Bobby Alden becoming the youngest ever Birmingham councillor) and the BNP were initially declared to have won a seat in Kingstanding. Should Sion remain on the ballot and we pit him against an excellent local Tory candidate I predict this will be among the largest swings at the next election.
He LOOKS like an Erdington MP. I bet he has a second hand silver BMW 3 series, and lives in an "executive house" on an estate, with a patio heater next to the barbeque ............ (Yeah, I'm just jealous)
Sion Simon is an odious little runt, I'm sure TB isn't quaking in his boots
Sion Simon hasn't been on the radio much recently (thank goodness) He's always struck me as a bit uppity.
Sion Simon and 'Underpants Man', who would have thought it?
"The May 2006 council elections make interesting reading"
Labour didn't actually do that bad in Erdington wards. They're still way ahead of the tories in Tyburn and Stockland Green wards.
I'm not prepared to say that the Tories are ready to overturn a 9,000 majority in a low turnout seat like Erdington, but at least we now have some energetic local representation. Given his reputation as a Blairite stooge I can't see Sion rousing the local Labour troops to rally to his cause. An ambitious young Tory should be proving their mettle in a campaign in this type of seat rather than looking for a safe Tory seat.
Try this scenario out for size. Sion Simon, formerly the Blairites' ambassador to the Tory press, and Chris Bryant, the Blairites' gay vicar, are both elected in 2001 and quickly make reputations as people who will always defend Tony Blair. They get themselves in the gossip columns with snidey references, and Bryant gets his gaydar profile shown to everyone. Meanwhile, reshuffles come and go and neither gets a sniff of office.
Come the silly season of 2006 and they realise there will be no more Blair reshuffles. The new leader will, however, have kept a careful note of who was on side.
What better way of trying to get in his good books than waiting until Blair looks vulnerable, then leaking to the press that you've just asked him to resign?
He used to be a Primrose Hill living Drinks firm lobbiest - with a fine table and wine cellar which I appreciated. But then he started slimming, changing wives and becoming a Blairite hack - I never crashed on his futon after that.
See my comment on the previous posting about my former flatmate and very good, but rather stupid, friend Tom Watson.
Sion Simon in desperately hoping that Dan Hannon gets a Westminster seat at the next election, and therefore finds he is too busy to write for the Telegraph. Then Sion can go cap in hand and ask for his old job back - because after the next election, he may well be needing it - which is the real reason why this Blair loyalist has become the worm that turned.
But then again, isn't he simply showing true Blairite tendencies - putting your own interests above 'principles'?
Electoral calculus has sion's majority almost halving already and that doesnt take into account the fact for the first time in 15 years the tories have some people around there and the 2006 local elections. Judging from the local rags they also active, I've even seen the kingstanding conservative future branch in the papers!
Maybe Sion is worried he'll need a P45 come 2010???
I'm glad you've nailed that slimey little f****r Simon. When the Telegraph hired him as a columnist, I decided enough was enough and moved on to The Times.
Simon didn't last, but Heffer was still there, so The Times it is.
The Erdington council seat was an oddity in the constituency. Elsewhere, the Labour vote held up and the BNP declaration was entirely mistaken, as praguetory well knows.
Young Mr Alden was helped in his campaign by being the son of two other Birmingham councillors (one a former Lord Mayor and the other the permanently unsuccessful Tory PPC for Edgbaston). There were local issues at play in the defeat of the sitting Labour councillor and the result wasn't replicated across the constituency.
Not that I'm a fan of Simon, by any means.
To find out how far up Blair's arse Sion Simon managed to burrow, read some of his items in Daily Telegraph of about three years ago. Smug and hubris spring to mind. Me , I prefer Dolly Draper another icon of NuLab vacuity.
Dale for Erdington!
His Telegraph column really was appalling, the one that particularly sticks in my mind was when he described the fuel protesters as 'terrorists' which should be a reminder to anyone who needs it how New Labour will abuse any counter-terrorist legislation that it passes.
I read with interest your comments, political hack, however prehaps you should go and look up the records before writing;
The Edgbaston Tory Councillor won her Council seat in 1999 (by 100) and in five years increased the majority to 1300 (approx). At the 1st!!! and only time so far of standing for parliament she halved the Labour majority! Hardly permanently unsuccessful!
As for whether there were local issuses in Erdington - there clearly was a tory who actually knew how to fight an election campaign, if that spreads in the rest of the region I'd be afraid to be in the Labour camp.
The comment politicalhack makes is entirely wrong! If he actually paid attention to what was going on during the election then he would of found that a good campaigne was fought by robert alden, one that was hard fought for a long time.
One i can predict will see off next years candidate and Cllr Jilly Bermingham.
As for no other repitition of this in the constituency, keep an eye out!!!!
It appears to me that Tories cannot stand the fact that the Labour Party has had the cheek to win three General Elections.
This is why they like to score cheap points against MP's like Sion Simon, who happens to be a very good local representative.
Let's hope the electorate see through David Cameron, trying to be all things to all people and stick with Labour nationally and in Erdington.
What a sad little Labour M.P you are after your youtunes video.
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