Friday, August 17, 2007

Andy Burnham & Foot in Mouth

Good to see Andy Burnham admitting what the rest of us have known for some time. He sent out a press release responding to John Redwood's proposals this afternoon, saying the following...
"What's more the recklessness of these cuts would leave a black hole in the
public finances. The Tories are increasingly opportunistic and are threatening
Britain's economic instability."

There should probably be a (sic) at the end of that quote. We know how he feels.

19 comments:

Tony said...

You have got to admire his honesty...

Dave Cole said...

It could have been a gerund...

chatterbox said...

"What's more the recklessness of these cuts would leave a black hole in the public finances."

Don't we already have one of those which is why there is instability in the British economy?
Maybe the Tories should ask Gordon how he manages to creatively cover up his financial black holes.

Vindico said...

Maybe this is Brown's more open and transparent government. They head of oppossition attacks by leaking the news first. Maybe Darling will be next to tell us how the Tory tax cuts will damage our uncompetitiveness!

Anonymous said...

The recklessness of this Govt's spending has left a black hole for now and the future.

More strength to John Redwood's elbow!

BOF2BS said...

Hope our friends at the BBfreebees report this accurately along the lines of ...... " A senior Conservative spokesperson today agreed with a statement by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury etc etc

Tapestry said...

'increasingly opportunistic' - not all bad then.

Maybe an opportune moment for Gordon to call for a General Election, before the aforementioned instability terminates the Bounce.

Hughes Views said...

But now we learn from the 'marginally more reliable than most blogs' snowmail that the boy Osborne "is being more explicit about something [] that he won't be doing - namely, that the Tories will not go into the next election [] with any promises to lower the overall tax burden."

And what do the frothing keyboard commenters who inhabit these parts make of that?

A BBC / C4 media pinko stitch up perchance...

Anonymous said...

Of course, the past week has not happened. Mr Brown said we had seen the end of boom and bust !

Oscar Miller said...

On Darling's economic instability here's a pre-emtive quote from the man rubbishing Stephen Byers proposal to scrap inheritance tax only a year ago. What's the betting nulab will be doing one of their smash and grab raids on Conservative policy on this in the near future?
Darling told BBC News that Byers' proposal “may make for a headline, but it doesn't make for a prudent and sensible tax-and-spend policy". He added: "I don't think this proposal has much support across the political spectrum. The Tories and the Liberals have looked at it and they have backed off it." The Treasury was quoted as saying inheritance tax was a "fair and necessary" way of raising money for public services which affected only 6 per cent of estates.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:27:

Brown spoke truly enough. We have seen the end of the boom. Maybe in a few years, and with a different government, we shall see the end of the bust.

Roger Thornhill said...

The whole criticism from AB and BBC is based upon the fallacy that all healthcare, educational and other funding MUST come from tax revenue and that the sweet-spot of revenue is being raised right now. Both are absurd notions.

Osborne looked like a vague, vacillating, media-pandering lightweight, frankly. C4's question (IHT used before, Tories failed to win, so therefore this means you will lose again) was a non-sequitur and GO should have just slapped it down for what it was. No, he dug C4 out of their own hole while burying himself in the spoil. Bad show.

Redwood stuck to his line and appeared more consistent from what I saw. Ozzie has just lost some serious weight IMHO.

chatterbox said...

Make that two feet, I have just seen him looking silly and opportunistic on Newsnight.
The whole Labour spin on Redwood's proposals unravelled before your eyes.

Anonymous said...

It was eerie listening to Alistair Darling on the Today Programme this morning. Wheeled on to rubbish the Redwood proposals, he departed from his usual calm (make that boring) manner.
Given just a minute or two for the demolition job, he gabbled at great speed, as he desperately tried to remember everything Gordon had told him to say.
"Wicked Tories...tax cuts...cuts in Health and Education..and on a day like today, when the world is reeling from a stock market meltdown".
I wish the exchange had been televised. Darling sounded seriously stressed. Osbourne will have noted this performance and will be looking forward to future encounters.

Chris Paul said...

Threatening Britain WITH instability.

Makes sense.

Chris Paul said...

PS

More strength to John Redwood's elbow indeed.

The winker.

His knees probably have turned to water, his dong probably is getting shorter, and he no doubt thinks he's going blind.

Tosser.

Reckon Nigel Evans MP is probably waiting in wings to (a) sing Welsh National Anthem with gusto; and (b) be the new Redwood thereafter.

Anonymous said...

Tyupical Labour. The Redwood paper is actually a very good read and it looks as though it has been put together by a very knowledgeable team. Instead of spouting garbage about the lines fed to them by the press on inheritance tax, they should be reading the detail of the report. Some of the thinking from Redwood's team is so good it is worthy of Freakonomics. (http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/).

I particularly liked the idea to put rubber wheels on commuter trains and the need to decentralise electricity supply, lessons learned from France and Germany respectively. At last somebody is talking sense.

Oscar Miller said...

This morning's Talking Politics on R4 hosted by Dennis Sewell was unusually forthright in it's description of the BBCs handling of the Redwood report - outlining how it had been "ambushed" by Labour spin doctors (tho' not going so far as to admit that this involved BBC complicity). Sewell also clearly stated that Helen Boarden had admitted using the Welsh anthem footage 'was a mistake'. Finally in a nice bit of discreetly worded revenge, John Redwood(who was given a decent interview after the intro) managed to draw attention to the tape of Gordo picking his nose in the House. Overall I'd say the crudity of the 'lurch to the right' Labour attack and hamfisted BBC spin against Redwood has made them look desperate and lacking substance. Meanwhile the message has been sent that the Conservatives are talking about serious policy matters that genuinely concern most people.

Anonymous said...

You can't help yourself can you Chris Paul?
Everytime you post you only make yourself look like a twerp of the first water!
Do you work for Ken(class war) Livingstone? or the Smith (fake charity)institute?
Your snide and unfunny comments are typical of a Brown nosing elitist ZanuLab gravytrainer! Am I wrong?