Sunday, June 01, 2008

Jack Straw - A Modern Day R A Butler?

On Andrew Marr this morning, Jack Straw came out with this...
Gordon Brown is the best Prime Minister we could possibly have

It reminded me of the occasion when R A Butler was quizzed by a journalist about his view of Anthony Eden. He was asked: Is Eden the best Prime Minister we've got? Butler simply answered 'yes'. It said so little, yet so much.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

One disparity between Straw and RAB, Iain: a majority of RAB's constituents, who still remember him , say RAB was the best Prime Minister that Britain never had.

RAB was so loved by his Saffron Walden constituents that many hundreds of local people, many of them in tears, attended his funeral at Broxted Church. Overspill accomodation had to be laid on in the church hall and his Wake went on all day.

Anonymous said...

Straw is absolutely correct in his analysis - Brown is the best Prime Minister for Labour at the present time
Barring a miraculous recovery the perceived wisdom is that Labour will lose the next election(the only debate being the size of the Conservative Majority). In that scenario it would be lunacy for either Miliband;Purnell or Balls to want to take over the leadership this side of the election(It would make no difference to the result only perhaps the size of the defeat).

If the defeat removes some of the possible contenders or "awkward squad" that's a good result for any new incumbent and Brown would be forced to resign the leadership and slink off back to the mists of Fife.

Straw could then be be well placed to be an "elder statesman" of the party and no doubt have some influence as a result(people can argue whether he would warrant this position or not) and his public "avuncular" persona and media saavy would be useful to a new leader trying to rebuild the party.

Either way Jack is a master of the political stiletto between the shoulder blades when the right moment arrives. In the meantime Milburn & Co continue the frontal assault on Brown whilst "the Supreme Leader" continues on his pre-ordained tortured route to his own political demise

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown is the best Prime Minister we could possibly have - we being the Tories...

Anonymous said...

I'm reminded of clutching at straws.

Anonymous said...

He is correct,there is nobody to replace him with any credibility but he is also the worst PM now or ever(till the next one maybe) a very careful choice of words.

Anonymous said...

Vox Populii said:

Barring a miraculous recovery...it would be lunacy for either Miliband;Purnell or Balls to want to take over the leadership this side of the election(It would make no difference to the result only perhaps the size of the defeat).



Madness - or a reaffirmation of what we already know: that Milliblob, Purnell and Balls are all innate weeds and cowardly chips off the old Brown block.

Are cowardice and fear perhaps innate conditions of nulabbers? It would certainly help to explain why they are so bl**dy terrified of us people outside their privileged bubble and can consequently conceive of no other form of government but elitist dictatorship.

Anonymous said...

Jack Straw is not fit enough to be mentioned in the same breath as RAB.

RAB was most certainly the best Prime Minister this country never had. That he didn't was down to Macmillan and that was not his finest hour. A decision of pure spite.

Straw proved to be an ineffective Home Secretary. RAB was quite the opposite. Straw has also proved to go an and be an ineffective Foreign Secretary and now an ineffective Justice Secretary. Frankly a truly ineffective Minister.

To be ineffective once is bad enough but thrice shows a real lack of substance.

RAB was most certainly a man of principle and substance.

When you look back at the standard of politicians then - even in Maggies day- and now we, truly, are a Nation in crisis!

The question we should ask is:-

What previous Prime Minister from Maggie to Baldwin would have entertained Straw (OR Brown) in their cabinets?

Anonymous said...

Off topic, but a great way to blame everything on Gordon Broon: http://gordonbrown.isyournew.com/

Cool.

Anonymous said...

Rab's former home, a lovely old manor house next door to Broxted church, became the home of Beirut hostage, John McCarthy and his family after Rab's death. Though its now been been converted into a hotel.

Anonymous said...

It was probably the best thing for any cabinet minister to say, but those outside of the Scottish cabal are singing from a different hymn sheet.

Chris Paul said...

Jack's endorsement appears to go further than RAB's, but it doesn't really, so well spotted.

Chris Paul said...

PS Straw's comment needs to have his degree and practice in weaselish taken into account. Your readers don't seem to be doing that.

Brown is the ONLY possible Prime Minister at the time of speaking. Therefore by definition the BEST (and the WORST) possible.

Should there be a vacancy or a challenge that changes instantly.

Anonymous said...

jack straw also said on the a.m. program that "gordon brown has not changed he is the same man as he was eleven months ago" and he is correct. gordon it the same twit that was, not only eleven months ago ,but for the last ten years,when his tax and spend policy has helped to get us into the mess we are in today.BUT PLEASE GORDON ,DONT GO YET.

Anonymous said...

Complete the sentence competition:

"Gordon Brown is the best PM we could possibly have..."

"... for now, as he faces personal bankruptcy if the accountants refuse to formally approve the party's accounts, due to be completed later this month."

Anonymous said...

Ah well, Mr Straw knows all about hushing-up details of coup plots, doesn't he?

Long ago, he gave a talk on statistics, to the police I think. Unfortunately, however many times he said 'statistics', he never once managed to pronounce it correctly. Since then I've never quite taken him seriously (not that it makes any difference to him).

Chris P's unique perspicacity marks him out yet again.

Anonymous said...

Gordon Brown is the best Prime Minister we've got

Anonymous said...

well he is, by definition, the best Prime Minister we have.

Best PM we Could Have. Thats a different matter.

Anonymous said...

Rab Butler was a snide guy who mocked Macmillian for his wife having an affair. I do not think Straw could be PM but he is clearly a nicer guy than sneering Butler. The present PM has enough strenght to recover.

Anonymous said...

Why are there German ads on your blog?

Mulligan said...

For a second I thought this was some sort of blankety blank.

Jack Straw - A Modern Day R...


My first answer was Sole.

Richard Edwards said...

Both are appeasers of ugly and deeply unpleasant extremists. RAB toadied at Munich to Hitler and his gang of strutting homicidal goons. Whereas who can forget Straw's weasel words at the time of the Danish Cartoon controversy when thugs incited murder on the streets of London. They may have had good reason for saying what they did. The problem is that their equivocation looks bad and consequently they are never fully trusted. So yes you're right in a sense.

Anonymous said...

Speaking about the AM show, did anyone notice that Mrs Marr introduced Michael Gove as THE Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

Time travel rules, OK

:-)

Anonymous said...

Straw is unbelievably stupid to claim that underage drinking will be controlled by fining the parents of underage drinkers.

How little influence parents have in this respect was surely evidenced by Jack Straw's son.

Was Straw fined when his son, William, was caught drug dealing? I don't believe so.

Was Blair fined when his son was found drunk and disorderly on the street? I don't think so.

What hypocrites Straw and nulab are. During the past decade their recklessly inept and negligent government have condoned the sale of cheap drink, encouraged 24 hour binge drinking and have turned a blind eye to the huge drugs problem that they themselves have greatly exacerbated.

They've systematically undermined UK's social values, behavioural norms, parental authority and the force and authority of the law in respect of drugs, drink and the young.

Now Straw wants to blame us - parents - for the unmitigated disaster of his own government's policies!

Stupid man.

Anonymous said...

Butler did not deserve to be PM.

When Churchill was sloshing down brandy he sometimes did so in the company of Butler. Butler disposed of his brandy by pouring it into his shoe. He should have either drank it or refused it.

He did not have the character to be PM.

On the other hand, Straw is a twat, and Brown is far worse.

Anonymous said...

ed @ 9:07 pm

Yes, I did as well - Marr's Freudian slip?

Anonymous said...

Did anyone pick up the fact that Andrew Marr was obviously not happy with the way the interview went and criticised Straw for one of his off tangent answers?

Marr finished by saying "thankyou Mr Straw"..very telling I thought