But, you know, as Prime Minister you have got a power and you have got a responsibility. Your power is that you alone make a decision about Election. The responsibility, however, is to listen to people and to exercise that power with responsibility. So yes, I think I had a responsibility to consider it, to listen to what people were saying, to listen to what the opposition parties were saying, to listen to what people in my own party wanting an Election were saying, to listen to the public, I believe the public, the priority was not an Election but ...
So if he's listening to what people are saying, what conclusion do you think he ought to come to? That they don't want an election? I think not.
But according to Paul Waugh, he is not listening at all, and has made up his mind not to call an election.
Well F**k off then...
ReplyDeletei feel sick reading this.arrogant,bunkered, nutcase.i think it should be law for the pm to have a real job for at least 3 years so that a brown type character does not stain britain again.
ReplyDeleteHe waited so long for that position you're going to have to drag him out.
ReplyDelete"The Prime Minister admitted he was "appalled" by the scandal but insisted he was unaware of what had been happening."
ReplyDeleteMy bullshit meter shot of the end of the scale when I read that quote.
Iain, tush. Eighteen months passing since October, 2007 have made the words 'responsibility', 'consider','listen' no more relevant and meaningful now than they were then.
ReplyDeleteI'd like an election but the result will be clouded by the recent scandal. Real choices about Britain have to be made in the coming years and basing them on the basis of an expenses scandal is not the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI'd prefer an election this year but with enough time to let the fury calm a bit.
What he will say is something along the line of
ReplyDelete"What I think the people are really trying to say is that we the government need to be given more time to let my policies follow through so that we will be able to realise that in the long term my policies will be realised as the right policies for this situation that the rest of the world has got me in to, that is what they are trying to say and that is exactly what I said in 2007, I am listening and the people have spoken. So now I think it is time to draw a line under the situation as we have difficult decisions in difficult times that I have been put in by the state of the global economy and I believe that people will realise that I am the right man to put these things that are not my fault but a world problem and the fault of the Tories because in the long term it was all there fault and they want to take away hospitals and give the rich more money."
Iain
ReplyDeleteThe only point,the only thrust of any point that Cameron should make at this PMQ and at any other forum,is to demand a General Election.
He must not dilute this demand - keep demanding it from Brown,to his face and tell him that the British public,not the Conservative Party,demand a General Election.
Let us all march with one banner;
"We demand a General Election NOW"
Great spot.
ReplyDeleteGordon is really out of touch if he thinks he can bluff this one out.
Is Hazel resigning today? She's apparently on her way to Salford - just before PMQs?
Paul Waugh also says she is meant to be speaking at 1330 in the HOC??
Maybe it's a good thing from your point of view that the Prime Mentalist is deaf.
ReplyDeleteHis, and his colleagues, incompetence and venality is currently being overshadowed by the whole expenses thingy at the moment, and an early election will claim many Tory scalps as well as lots of New Labour troughers.
Perhaps another 6 months of incompetent, accident prone and disastrous socialism is what we need to re-focus the electorate on issues more pertinent to them like financial collapse, immigration, law and order etc.
There should be no rush to a general election until everyone "gets" what brought us to the sorry apologies we have for representative of the people in Parliament today, with the arrogance to call themselves; Right Honourable.
ReplyDeleteIt can be summed up in one word Elitism. We have a very small ruling class selected by another small ruling class who determine who gets to be a Party candidate today. The amount of shysters who have made it into the current Parliament is testimony to the fact that the current system stinks.
Evidence of it surfaces even as we are in the midst of the current crisis;
Damian McBride is to allowed to stay in the Labour Party.
Before all the evidence is in the Local Constituency Parties of Margaret Moran and Shahid Malik have announced their full confidence in them continuing as their MPs.
What planet are these people on? What arrogance from a bunch of elitists who represent about one tenth of 1% of the electorate in these constituences. It is the voice of the other 99.9% we want to here not these pompous zealots.
These elitists will contine to dominate the political stage and our lives until people start to vote for the individual and not a Party. At present any of the political parties could put up a "simpleton" with no more brains than the day he was born stick a party rosette on them and they are a "shoe-in" on a Party ticket.
Brown and Blair both came out with this "We will listen" claptrap. They won't and they have got form for not listening.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the lot of them are closing ranks along with the media in a cosy little cabal of "We've sorted it and must get on with business". Translation: "F*** you lot. We're carrying on shafting you for another year and there's nothing you can do about it.".
Brown will not call an election, he may listen but he will never hear,
ReplyDeleteHe may look but he will never see,
He will stumble from crisis to crisis,
but as he can not see, he will say everyone else will be walking out of his step.
Its all about staying in Power and keeping a strangle hold on the English cash cow, which he hopes to have fully signed over to his masters in the the EU by the time he gets booted out, which is why there was never any chance of an early election.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an interview this morning GB thinks that "the people" are more interested in losing jobs, losing homes etc......more important than an election right now.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way this man will ever do the right thing.
Actually, I don't think an election right now would be democratic. Only the Telegraph has had sight of the MPs expenses and all the accompanying correspondence.
ReplyDeleteIf David Cameron had made any embarrassing enquiries (like Kitty Ussher) - do you really think the DT would have published them? We have no idea which MPs have been let off the hook.
So until this huge file of information is publically available, any election would be entirely driven by DT propaganda. Let's get the entire terabyte of expenses related data into the public domain, discuss it like adults - and then have an election.
It is time for root and branch reform of Parliament.
ReplyDeleteWe must have any expense abuse MP de-selected.
The House of Lords should be reformed as an elected senate, with 100 members, selected from the four nations of the UK, alloted as per population (so England gets 55, Scotland 20, Wales 15 and N Ireland 10 or something along those lines). The Welsh and Irish assemblies should be given law making powers along the lines of Scotland, and a totally separate parliament for all England be set up outside London. No one can be an MSP, AM etc and an MP. There should be no two tier MPs, but separate English AMs. The Senate will be elected on PR.
All AMs/MSPs etc should be elected on PR.
All MPs in new House of Commons should be still elected on First Past the Post.
MPs salaries should be controlled by the National Audit Office, or a new Office of Political Servants (OffPol).
All MPs primary residence should be in there constituency, regardless of where they spend most of their time. A halls of residence should be purchased in London for them to use during Parliamentary business. If they chose to own a second London pied-a-terre, its at their own expense.
There must be greater use of referendums as in Switzerland. The results of which are legally binding.
Withdraw from the EU. Repeal all EU statutes. Renegotiate a free trade agreement with the Eurozone.
The Speaker to no longer be an MP, but a nominated official - but elected by the MPs.
I see that Brown has referred to the "expenses" scandal as being the fault of a "gentlemen's club". No doubt this is because he wants us to think that it was only Tories of the "gentlemen's club" kind who abused the system.
ReplyDeleteBrown also changed the word "expenses" to the word "allowances" no doubt to try and make the abuse seem of lesser importance.
Brown claims he has agreement by the other parties for referring the management of the payments to an "independent" body outside of Government. No doubt this is so that he can appoint placemen of his own to manage it in a body which will be outwith the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.
Read Simon Carr in the Indy today. He absolutely nails it. In Brown's world "consensus" is doing what you are told by him.
ReplyDeleteLet's see: the modern way to deal with failing institutions is to hand over the responsibility to and independent quango. So lets take away the Prime Minister's power to call a General Election and give it to an independent body too. Oh! We already have? The Queen. Perhaps she's listening.
ReplyDeleteFailing that, maybe Cameron would be brave enough to put fixed-term parliaments into the Tory manifesto? He'd steal yet another march on Brown, and I guarantee it would be a worth a few votes
ow many names signed the Downing St website petition?
ReplyDeleteAnd to top it all this takes some licking:
ReplyDeletehttp://nannyknowsbest.blogspot.com/2009/05/nanny-bans-ice-cream-vans.html
I wonder if Dave will listen to the people ? Last week's Independent on Sunday showed Conservative support at 31% of the total electorate, i.e. 69% of the electorate don't support the Conservatives. Yet with our first past the post voting system Dave can look forward to a sizable majority and I expect we'll be told of a landslide victory and a mandate from the people - when probably two thirds of the electorate will not have voted Conservative.
ReplyDeleteHopefully DC will have read the blog and will use it in PMQ's. Still waiting for the immortal words "drawing a line under the situation and move on". Who will say it first?
ReplyDeleteTory bear has the Chief Whip twittering the election date
ReplyDeleteBrown won't call an election. He doesn't do democracy. He moved heaven and earth not to have to submit himself to the Labour Party for election to Party Leader, and he certainly doesn't want to risk the voters' fury.
ReplyDeleteAs for all this rubbish he came out with yesterday about being "appalled" and "totally unacceptable" MPs' claims. What about his own claims?
I'm pretty appalled that the Prime Minister, living free at No.10 and Chequers, should be claiming my money to spend on his home in Scotland - his only home, since he put the flat in the wife's name. Why is he claiming my money to spend on his Sky TV subscription? He didn't apologise for his own claims, I notice, or promise to stop claiming.
Quote in Daily Mail from GB:
ReplyDelete'I am the only party leader in these last few weeks to have actually suspended and asked people to step down,' he said today.
Eh?
I want to be on his drugs! Because what ever world he is in must be fantastic!!
In 2004 YouGov got the result just about right when looking at the polling numbers for those certain to vote. Labour were 24% in their opinion polls, 23% actual vote. However, in the general polls they were at 26%.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, they are at between 19% and 21% in the general polls, so likely to poll less than 20% in the actual contest.
If Labour come third, and certainly if they come fourth in the overall vote share, Brown is toast. His MPs with 10,000majorities will start fearing for their seats and will move against him, choosing a new leader at their conference.
They will then either go immediately, or, if the economy is showing signs of improving, will confirm that they will go in spring 2010, which people might just about live with.
The odds on an October 09 election have shortened considerably.
Look at Tory Bear - Nick Brown seems to disagree with this!
ReplyDeleteIs anyone really surprised that Brown won't consider an election? Do people STILL think he is interested in anything but saving his own skin? Brown is utterly gutless - always was, always is, always will be.
ReplyDeleteNick "who has eaten all my pies" Brown.....on Twitter.....The speaker will need a couple of weeks to settle in before the election is called......
ReplyDeleteWhat is going on?
Roman Jones has got this completely wrong. A senate? 100? Voted? PR? Forget that idea - just another power base. We would end up with the same elected crap that we have now. Appoint the talented. There are many talented people (e.g. Winstone) who could end up excluded. This would be a very bad idea!
ReplyDeleteNow Gordons duty is to protect the people from the Conservatives
ReplyDeleteAt PMQs Brown clearly stated that he won't call an election until the Conservatives come up with some sensible policies that Brown himself approves of
Oh come on. Labour don't want an election because they'd lose. The Tories want an election because they'd win. Its as simple as that, and it always has been. Don't try and dress it up as an attack on Brown and praise for Cameron.
ReplyDelete