I've always thought GMTV's Fiona Phillips to be a bit of an airhead. No wonder then that Gordon Brown wanted to appoint her public health minister. Mind you, I suppose she would have been an improvement on Red Dawn Primarolo. In today's Daily M****r she tells us that she turned down the job out of concern for her two children. That concern obviously doesn't extend to being there for them when they wake up each morning. Anyway, I digress. Ms P shares with us her Top Ten Ways to Make us Great. I feel they are worth quoting in full.
1 EXTRADITE Jose Mourinho from Portugal and force him to manage the England
team, while boarding at my house (rent free).
2 BAN all titles, including Baroness and Duchess, and scrap the Honours system.
3 SHUT all private schools. What's good enough for the rest of us is good enough for those who think they're better than us. It'll improve education for all.
4 BRING back lost childhood by raising school entry to age seven. Yes I know this'll cause havoc for working mums and dads but, er... let me come back to you on that one.
5 BAN selection in schools - no creaming off the brightest pupils. Local schools for local people.
6 BRING back the right to be a mother by upgrading the status of stay-at-home mums. The majority of mums want to care for their pre-school children but can't afford not to work. Maybe instead of tax allowances for childcare, cash incentives for staying at home? Er... I'll come back to you on that one, too.
7 BAN all private medical work in NHS hospitals.
8 GET rid of contract cleaners and make Matron and nurses responsible for hospital hygiene.
9 RENATIONALISE Britain's rail network. It's never been the same since John Major privatised British Rail, splitting it into over 100 separate companies which resulted in profits over safety and efficiency.
10 PROPER local authority care in the home for the elderly. Reinstate full home-he lp and meals-on-wheels services.
P.S. And, I know it's supposed to be a 10-point plan, but none of us can rest safely in our beds until we...Take George Bush to Iraq and shoot him. Readers, I commend this to your house. Now I need to go away and prepare for office.
So one of Britain's highest paid TV presenters suggests that the President of the USA should be shot. I didn't detect any hint of irony or humour in this comment. It's about time GMTV did the same to Fiona Phillips' career. Picture credit Daily Mail
I will be calling GMTV to make a complaint.
ReplyDeleteWhat a hideous woman. I had a rant about her earlier in the week, but this is beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteDawn Primarolo was the monister responsible for the Inland Revenue for the last ten years. She got moved just in time for Darling to get the blame.
ReplyDeleteWill you be getting her for 18DS.2 - to give some balance you understand and provide a non-partisan approach ?
ReplyDeleteI have just telephoned GMTV - they are not open again until Monday but I have left a message on their website and I encourage others to do so as well. I shall be telephoning them again on Monday and again encourage others to do so. All her remarks are inappropriate for a tv presenter who is supposed to be neutral in public but to talk blithely about assasination of a US President? It is surely a sacking offence. She should be sacked because then she and her useless stay at home ex- GMTV presenter husband can high-tail it back to Scotland and try their luck in the land of his birth.
ReplyDeletei thought her husband was the editor at gmtv ( fill in your own blanks)- should we also ban phone-in scams and pay back all the money fiona?
ReplyDeleteSounds perfectly reasonable to me. Also, are the intellectuals here honestly suggesting this woman should lose her job because she wrote down what most of the UK thinks? The Tories haven't been in power for god knows how long because face it: nobody like the Tories!
ReplyDeleteRaising the school entry age to seven is pure poetry and the best political comment I've heard this Century.
ReplyDeleteGary
Gordon knows how to pick them. Who's next Jade Goody?
ReplyDeleteWith the flow of funds fromn Northern Rock to Nulab and its cronies under threat, was the offer of a job based on GMTV running one of their scrupulously fair phone-ins to make up the shortfall?
ReplyDeleteHave Mylords Ant and Dec also been offered positions?
Isn't that a clear case of incitement to hatred and violence? A complaint to the police would be more in order.
ReplyDelete"In today's Daily M****r she tells us that she turned down the job out of concern for her two children. That concern obviously doesn't extend to being there for them when they wake up each morning."
ReplyDeleteMmm, how dare she get up early and go to work and leave her kids behind, eh Iain?
A tad 1950s, no?
The Grande Dame herself, Maggie Thatcher got up rather early each morning for her role as Education Minister - didn't affect her kids, well not much anyway.
Carl, a fair point. And I wasn't saying that women shouldn't do it. I was merely pointing to fake reason she gave for turning down Gordon Brown (oooh, I feel a song coming on!).
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if you had seen this story about Headley Court in the Daily Mail.
ReplyDeleteA typical "everyman/woman" list and some of the points could equally have been printed in the Daily Mail but I think Fiona needs to "re-visit" them as she seems a little "off message" with some of the points as they run contra to some of Gordon's (un) stated policies
ReplyDeleteP.S And she was no good in "Strictly Come Dancing !"
Barry Day - should have figured that some lefty slug would crawl out of the woods to be so vile. So, most of the UK thinks that President Bush should be shot do they? And you know this how?
ReplyDeleteI know the type - you think Ken Livingtone is a great statesman with his nose up the arse of fundamentalist Muslim bigots and you probably still have a poster of Che Guevara on your wall.
Isn't inciting to kill the US President a Federal offence? Forget calling GMTV - Ring the FBI and get her arrested!
ReplyDeleteDawn Primarolo's previous job was running HMRC. which she did for almost a decade. She is responsible for the mess they're are now in; why is she still a Minister? It is absolutely inexplicable and downright weird (and I didn't even mention her success administering Tax Credits)
ReplyDeletei'm stunned that she actually believes in these things!
ReplyDelete1. EXTRADITE Jose Mourinho from Portugal and force him to manage the England
team, while boarding at my house (rent free).
hmm she doesn't believe in people's right to choose what they do
2. BAN all titles, including Baroness and Duchess, and scrap the Honours system.
doesn't she want ordinary people to be recognised for working hard with charities or serving their community?
3. SHUT all private schools. What's good enough for the rest of us is good enough for those who think they're better than us. It'll improve education for all.
she doesn't believe in people's right to choose how their children are educated. and she doesn't say exactly how it will 'improve education for all'
4. BRING back lost childhood by raising school entry to age seven. Yes I know this'll cause havoc for working mums and dads but, er... let me come back to you on that one.
i cannot believe she is actually serious on this point. how would this 'bring back lost childhood'? what about the years of basic learning skills they'd lose out on?
5. BAN selection in schools - no creaming off the brightest pupils. Local schools for local people.
so we learn here that she doesn't want bright pupils to do well.
6. BRING back the right to be a mother by upgrading the status of stay-at-home mums. The majority of mums want to care for their pre-school children but can't afford not to work. Maybe instead of tax allowances for childcare, cash incentives for staying at home? Er... I'll come back to you on that one, too.
she clearly hasn't thought this one through at all. this is real hard-left stuff, paying people not to work!
7. BAN all private medical work in NHS hospitals.
why? they'll be paying the NHS for it. so you stop them working in the hospitals and the NHS then doesn't have as much money.
8. GET rid of contract cleaners and make Matron and nurses responsible for hospital hygiene.
only sensible thing she's said so far...
9. RENATIONALISE Britain's rail network. It's never been the same since John Major privatised British Rail, splitting it into over 100 separate companies which resulted in profits over safety and efficiency.
as far as i am aware, the safety record is no worse now, and people actually now want to travel on the trains. what's more the companies actually want people to travel on them too! and anyway, British Rail was a complete joke.
10. PROPER local authority care in the home for the elderly. Reinstate full home-help and meals-on-wheels services.
so you won't mind us taking the cost of it out of your salary then Fiona?
P.S. And, I know it's supposed to be a 10-point plan, but none of us can rest safely in our beds until we...Take George Bush to Iraq and shoot him.
ok, so she's actually advocating shooting people if we don't like them. does this mean i can shoot her? she's a complete loony.
11. Stop paying obscene salaries to TV presenters, football players and Z list celebs...
ReplyDeleteFitaloon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing us to this story. I've just posted it. I don't think that I have ever been so angry. These women are despicable.
Good heavens Iain - surely you're playing the man and not the ball with your "airhead" comment.
ReplyDeleteWhat a hypocrite.
Fiona Phillips is just so 1997.
ReplyDeleteShe is a legend in her own mind. There is nothing 'left' about Fiona Phillips.
She didn't want to join Gordon's 'Big Circus' because she didn't want to give up her nice little earner as Middle Englands tabloid television queen.
Perhaps she also realised that she would be jumping aboard a sinking ship?
Fiona Phillips is a legend in her own mind. Also, she probably secretly loves David Cameron.
Nothing to do with the fact that she'd be taking a mahoosive pay cut.
ReplyDeleteFor the children's sake, of course.
I'm no fan of George Bush - and I can't wait for him to leave the White House - but - for a GMTV presenter to incite violence seems not only irresponsible but perhaps illegal?
ReplyDeleteDo you think Fiona Phillips children will be proud of her?
She is such a hypocrite.
Let me say for a THIRD time!
ReplyDeleteFiona Phillips is a legend in her own mind.
:)
She reads like a natural blonde but surely The Public Have A Right To Know.
ReplyDelete7. Yeh right, bet the bitch wouldn't hesitate to use private medical facilities herself.
ReplyDeleteDuring 1987 I visited Communist Czechoslovakia several times and experienced first hand, the communist ideology in all its splendor. People without ambition, academics frightened of their own shadow and management in the hands of the thickos. Much of what this idiotic woman proposes would drive us backwards into this "utopia" that never was - silly bitch!
ReplyDeleteDon't comment on celebs. It only encourages them.
ReplyDeleteLady Finchley said...
ReplyDelete"She should be sacked because then she and her useless stay at home ex- GMTV presenter husband can high-tail it back to Scotland"
You are unlikely to get anywhere with your complaint. Her husband (Martin Frizzell)is GMTV's Editor.
Complaints to:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=678
I think her manifesto makes entire sense.
ReplyDeleteWhat she should have added as an addendum to the Hosipital cleaning bit about banning contract cleaners is:
And employ empty airhead GMTV presenters to clean the toilets and wards and bed pans at no salary - and in antisocial hours for 6 months so they (the presenters) can see what the rela worl is like.
I also disagree with shooting Goerge Bush. That is against the laws of war. However, the US has found a new way of torture which is not defined as torture according to US Gov't lawyers so I suggest subjecting her and GWB both to it in order to improve the human gene pool.
Mad bint. Wasn't Bush one of the few Presidents elected by the majority of the popular vote?
ReplyDeleteThere is a word for people who earn 700k a year and don't send their children the public schools - cheap.
I've been over to the PMs petition site and the inevitable poll to censer her isn't there yet.
Iain, where is your sense of humour. Go back to bed and try getting up on the other side. (hee, hee, hee). Perhaps you can get Newmania to give you a hug... I'm certain he would just love it.
ReplyDeleteBarry Day - "this woman should lose her job because she wrote down what most of the UK thinks?"
ReplyDeleteCould you quote your source, darling? A Mori poll, was it? And tell us the age groups surveyed. And how many people took part.
And,Barry, Lady Finchley thinks you probably have a poster of Ché on your wall. Do you? Do share!
Anonalon - Yes, it is a Federal offence in the UNITED STATES. I understand she had her logohorrea in England, where it gets you a post in the People's Socialist New Dawn government.
I loved her point number 3, by the way: "SHUT all private schools. What's good enough for the rest of us is good enough for those who think they're better than us. It'll improve education for all."
So believes that having middle class children infused into normal state schooling will raise the standard. Interesting.
At first I thought this was a joke post until I read the other posters.
Anonymous 4:02 - He may be the Editor but he ain't the boss - I won't stop until I get an apologyat the very least - though I'd rather the bitch get the sack.
ReplyDeleteMore from Phillips, although many similar themes. Jose Mourinho, honours system, her kids
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/24/politicsandthemedia.itv
Good to see she can do high-brow for the quality papers. Such a pro.
I've just sent my email of complaint (thanks for the link, anonymous). If enough people complain, this is a chance to remove one of the more nauseatingly lefty government puff-merchants from the media. The excellent Rod Liddle was sacked from Today for a lot less than this ghastly woman.
ReplyDeleteIs this Fiona Phillips some sort of intellectual? Does she really have very much to contribute to the debates?
ReplyDeleteI thought she was some sort of TV presenter. Is that not so?
Didn't know she was a lefty until recently. I did know that she is a moron. I made the mistake of watching Fiona Phillips the morning Princess Diana died. She was beyond stupid, beyond tasteless. Simply hideous, hideous woman.
ReplyDeleteMy God, I thought in your blog entry you were paraphrasing her comments in best Private Eye "number 94. Er... that's it" fashion but no. And Gordon wanted to make her a minister?!?!
ReplyDeleteWho else? Gloria Hunniford? Jeremy Beadle? Sooty? (Oh, I forgot, he's the puppet in the Treasury isn't he?)
MY OWN TOP 10 THINGS THAT WOULD MAKE BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN:
ReplyDelete1) Renegotiate our membership of the EU back to the point where our relationship with it is simply as a free trade area and we return to making our own laws and governing ourselves.
2) Completely dismantle the bogus "Diversity Industry" by immediately repealing all of NuLabs nonsense equality legislation and sacking the army of public servants earning a living off the back of it.
3) Initiate a wholesale reform of both teacher training and our education system to return discipline, self responsibility and streaming by ability to both. All the current insane lefty nonsense that is destroying actual learning to be jettisoned immediately.
4) Arrest and charge all 2000 supposed Islamic extremist who are, apparently according to MI5, plotting terrorism in the UK. Any who are not UK citizens are to be immediately deported.
5) Halt the current open door immigration policy and bring back intelligent controlled immigration. As a part of policy No 1) remove the automatic right of any EU citizen to settle here.
6) Introduce genuine mixed provision to the NHS since having the Government as a monopoly provider is absolutely not working. A new system based largely on the sucessful German and Dutch health care systems to be introduced and the vast numbers of unneeded managers and NHS box tickers to be sacked.
7) Return the Police to being enforcers of law and order and not of political correctness. Totally remove the ridiculous burden of paperwork and equal opportunities monitoring from them.Give them back their powers to make their own judgments and sack all of the civilian lefties currently ruining policing from within. (Read PC David Copperfield's book "Wasting Police Time" for the full story on this)as well as senior officers such as the execrable Iain Blair who are only in their position because of their politics and not their ability or competence.
8) A complete review of sentencing policy and the decisions reached by our courts in order to halt the nonsense of useless community sentences for burglars but imprisonment for driving too fast. All thought crimes to be abolished immediately and a complete and utter return to free speech allowed.All murderers to serve a genuine life sentence, not just 14 years.
9) Conduct a thorough root and branch zero based budget review of our entire massively bloated public service. Sack all those, both in national and local government, who do not directly contribute to the provision of a genuinely needed public service. That should halve the civil service for a start and reduce Council Tax by around 70%.Then reform public sector pension schemes so that they are equivalent to what everyone else has in terms of retirement age, contributions and payouts. Spend the proceeds of this on fully funding, and perhaps even expanding, our armed forces and on building sufficient new prisons.
10) Break up and sell off the wildly politically biased BBC so that the reforms above can be carried out without the sniping and wholesale criticism from the left, paid for by all of us willing or not, that have come to epitomise the BBC. This will also serve to mark a line in the sand regarding political bias in any publically funded organisation.
11) (My assassinate the President moment) Bomb Iran's nuclear facilities back into the stone age right now. Do the same to any other dangerous or fanatical regimes that are in danger of acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Make it very clear to the Islamic world that their caliphate is not wanted here.
[9:48] - 1. Yes, renegotiate terms with the EU. If they don't want to revert to a free trade agreement with us, which they won't, get down on our bended knees to join NAFTA. (Apart from the bracing air of liberty on the N American continent, all three member countries, Canada, the US and Mexico, have oil. Lots.) And the name could be changed to North Atlantic Free Trade Association without having to change the stationery. See? Already, savings all round!
ReplyDelete2. The "diversity" industry - I agree, except that this is really the "Re-Education" industry, whereby the beliefs/pretended beliefs of government are infused into the heads of supposed miscreants under special programmes and under threat. Admittedly, most "re-education" in Britain only takes a few days or a couple of weeks, whereas in China it used to take several years, but I see it as a growth industry that has to be chopped off at the knees.
3. Of course.
4. This bring up a wider point. You write, re terrorists - "Any who are not UK citizens are to be immediately deported."
See, I don't like this sloppy attitude to the honour of citizenship of our country. Children born to foreign parents - even one foreign parent - in Singapore do not get automatic citizenship of Singapore.
They get to make the decision - I think it is when they are 16 - or perhaps 18. They can choose a parent's nationality, or Singapore nationality, which carries a commitment of duty and that includes a period of national service every year until they are 40.
Britain should do the same. There is no reason that someone born to parents with a Dark Ages belief system should get automatic citizenship of our advanced country just because that's where their mother was when she gave birth.
They should have to qualify, then sign a legal agreement at age 18 that, if they do not act as loyal citizens of Britain with no other fealty, they agree to be deported.
5. See above. No one is automatically British except the indigenes and immigrants who have lived in and contributed to our country for at least two generations. Jews to be given a free pass, given what they have contributed to our country in medicine, music, literature and science. All others, take a number and go to the back of the queue.
6. Prefer to dump the NHS. Even the French system, which is excellent, is failing for lack of money. There is a universal unalloyed hunger for health care. There should always be some provision for those citizens who cannot help themselves and this would have to be worked out. But private health care should be the norm. Health tourism, i.e., Nigerians managing to land in Britain because they need a heart transplant - uh, no.
7. Agree. Obviously.
8. Agree. Thought crimes out the window. Sentencing for real crimes against persons or property in three tiers. For non-capital crimes: first offence, around one year, to give them a taste of (a vastly disimproved) prison life. Second offence, five years. Third offence, whatever their age, no release until their 48th birthday. By which time their mates will have moved away, got married and their wife won't let them go out burgling any more, or have lost their brains to drugs. By 48, they will have little inclination for mild or violent crime and also will have no old mates.
Capital crime: death penalty. You don't like it? Don't murder anyone and it will never concern you. I would accord them, as in Texas, around 10 years of state-financed appeals. If it doesn't look just, the voters will vote against it next time.
9. The public sector and the welfare sector, aka "The Passenger Sector" to be disenfranchised. If they don't contribute, they don't get a vote in how the wealth creator sector money is spent. This would include MPs.
10. BBC. Don't agree. Don't break it up. Destroy it. It is vile and toxic down to its roots. It has to be destroyed. All its premises razed to the ground and given three years to detoxify.
11. I don't have an "assassinate the president" moment. I'm not squeamish, but I'm not sure Ahmadinejad is as bonkers as his bad suits would lead us to believe. Look what he did to HM Navy with that fat girl and the snivelling little lad who had his iPod confiscated.
12. With the age of the internet has inevitably come the age of the referendum. I don't say we should vote on every bill, but earth-shaking matters like immigration and medical care should be up to the owners of the country.
I thought the George Bush suggestion was one of the least offensive. Still, a grade A c*** nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteAnon & Verity: All good stuff, but neither of you mention whether all this is for the whole of the UK or just England. No mention of re-uniting the country properly? Or are you both happy to see the now disparate parts continue along their roads to independence? Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteGMTV won't do anything about this bubble-headed waste of oxygen. She's where she is and untochable as she is solely because of who she married. No talent other than shacking up with a powerful bloke!
ReplyDeleteQuestions from Granny - I want the United Kingdom to remain united.
ReplyDeleteDevolution to be dismantled. In fact, anything Tony Blair touched to be dismantled.
My rules above apply to every Briton and every immigrant lucky enough to gain permission to stay. There will be no such thing as illegal immigrants because 1) they wouldn't land on our properly guarded island. And 2)If they get in, repatriated at their own expense, after paying a large fine, and after having given a swab of their DNA and a retinal photograph as insurance.
PS - The Muslim Council to be binned and Bangladeshi fashion icon Muhammad Bari to be commanded by the Queen to get a new wig. She should add a PS to the Royal Edict: "One really means it."
ReplyDeleteEvery mosque with a terrorist- enabler preacher to be nailed shut and sold under compulsory order.
This from the woman who fronts the program that steals millions from poor sods daft enough to ring their scam phone lines - shame on her for wanting to execute President Bush - did someone say airhead?izxaym
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't make it up , could you ? If she's a scot , she really exemplifies the central belt socialist nutters. If she isn't she's just a nutter. Either way, can't see the regulator allowing her back on tv once the complaints start rolling in !
ReplyDeletePass her comments on to the US Embassy. Might make it a bit more difficult next time she wants to go shopping in New York.
ReplyDeleteI am quite pleased to find some surviving conservatives in Britain. I thought you were all dead or worse, given up the ghost and became liberals.
ReplyDeleteIt was very shocking to read of a prominent TV personality advocating the assassination of a leader of another country, mine! Isn’t that a crime over there? If not, why not?
I know we have some incredibly stupid liberal leaders here such as Nancy Pelosi, but even though the mental disorder we call liberalism controls her brain, http://politicaldishonesty.wordpress.com/2006/10/27/nancy-pelosi-on-letterman/ I’ve never heard her call for the killing of another country’s leader.
Again, love this blog and learning about your culture. It’s not all that different here except the names and places. We both have wacky socialist liberals trying to get us all killed.
Read an earlier post from April 30 about relaxing gun laws and blah, blah, blah. While guns do kill or destroy what they’re fired at, an armed society is a polite society and if the bad guys know the populous is armed, they think twice before breaking into your home or committing a crime against you.
Here in Florida we practice the Castle Doctrine, which means you don’t have to retreat from a deadly situation in your own home and are justified in using deadly force. Crime has decreased in most areas:
Murders down by 50%
Sexual Battery down by 18%
Robberies down by 13%
Aggravated Battery down by 24%
Vehicle Theft down by 13%
These statistics apply to the Daytona Beach area and the success is a direct result of a new Police Chief and numerous proactive operations, increased patrols and, most importantly, community involvement.
Cheers