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Friday, June 12, 2009
The Contrite Chipmunk
Hazel Blears has never heard of the dictum "Never apologise, never explain". Her words of apology for the way she handled her resignation this morning are, I am sure, spoken from the heart, but the effect they will have is to ensure that she never again returns to frontline politics. It's a bit like Stauffenberg apologising for putting the briefcase under the Fuehrer's table in 1944. The bomb went off and he emerged damaged but able to carry on. Stauffenberg lost his life, Blears has lost her career.
Was it neccessary for her to do this?
ReplyDeleteSurely she doesn`t expect to be able to come back?
I found it excruciatingly embarrasing.
She has been got at by the Stalinistas, it reminds me of a show trial. This pathetic creature has been bullied into doing this, and this saya a lot about Browns methods of staying in power. It also shows you who runs Britain, all Dark Arts, spin, thuggery etc. Please Please give us back our democracy.
ReplyDeleteI share your sympathies with Hazel Iain and also regret her disappearance from politics - one of the few characters in the Labour Party whom you might sense is in politics for genuine conviction.
ReplyDeleteShe should concentrate on politics in Manchester/Salford now and await the age of localism to be ushered in by the Tories.
It seems to me that her change of heart is so 180 degrees and so grovelling that it makes me think something has happened.
ReplyDeleteDo the whips have some ammo against her. She must have been bullied into this cos she doesnt strike me as the sort of woman to be cowed like this.
i find this whole thing deeply perplexing. does she honestly expect anyone to believe her?
ReplyDeletemust show the 'rebellion' is over though or she'd be saying exactly the opposite, in the hope of getting in purnell's/johnson's/miliband's cabinet, no? http://fsnreportersblog.com/
Its the sudden realisation that the good people of Salford thought her a troughing, duplicitous, tax evading, scheming, disloyal cow.
ReplyDeleteVoters on the news were less than impressed. Now she has to try and win some back and keep her seat.
Not just her career but her credibility. She has been threatened and destroyed by the machine. Apologise or lose your seat. Remember Mandelson is in control now. Get in line, be on message and you can have your seat. Who will be next to apologise? I know you like her Iain but her true colours have now been shown. Fiddled expenses and now a loss of moral fibre...
ReplyDeleteOdd I had Purnell down as Stauffenberg.
ReplyDeleteStill the effect on both their careers will be the same.
And I suspect the future of the Labour botched coup conspirators will be the same, once the piano wire is found...
She should have stayed at home and done the cooking and cleaning.....
ReplyDeleteSurely Bill Quango is correct here. Having resigned to concentrate on getting re-elected (so we were told), she's realised that the local Labour voters are mightily irritated with her and this apology is designed to win some of them back.
ReplyDeleteSo many different and inconsistent stories have bene circulated about the WAGS and whether there was a conspiracy that it's impossible to fathom what really went through the minds of Blears, Flint and the rest. But one thing must be clear by now: each of them has the judgment of a pile of turnips and this sort of pathetic back-pedalling just emphasises the fact.
She's an experienced politician and a lawyer. An abject public apology is the last thing you'd expect.
ReplyDeleteThis has got Mandelson's fingerprints all over it. I wonder what the dirt they've got on her is?
She looks totally crestfallen without that fixed grin.
She was badly advised or under medication at the time. Wouldn't surprise me if Gordon's mob asked her to do it to make him look good.
ReplyDeleteAnything is possible with this shameless lot
She should have blamed it on obsessive-compulsive disorder and a liking for Irish crystal grapefruit bowls. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteHer apology has the air of one of those 1984-style self-denunciations.
ReplyDeleteWe are run by a bunch of 'kidults'.
ReplyDeleteOne thing my grandfather taught me. When you make a decision, stick by it whether it proves right or wrong.
What a pathetic loser this woman is. And far better she is out of being able to manage ANYTHING in my life.
She was right to apologise, if only for the simple reason that do what she did within forty eight hours of Polls being open for the County/Euros, was unhelpful for Labour candidates across the country. I appreciate that is exactly why some Tories and Lib Dems rejoiced in her actions but as a Labour Party member she should have at least shown consideration to grassroots support by being aware of the timing of her comments!
ReplyDeleteShe defined herself with this fatuous 'mea culpa'.
ReplyDeleteShe is nothing was never anything like most of NuLab wimmin.
Mandelson, the corrupt fixer, is just about the only competent person in NULab. A pity in a way that he is morally deficient.
She LOVES Big Brother after all
ReplyDeleteShe had no interest in the Labour grassroots. It is only now she is realising as she going back to the nitty gritty local politics that she needs those grassroot activists to support her. No special advisers, no civil servants appointed to her. Just her, her agent and alot of grovelling. I still have a question though? £13,000 just like that? How did she manage to get that kind of cash? She wasn't playing the system was she?
ReplyDeleteMandy to Hazel; "Here is the script. Read it out or go to jail."
ReplyDeleteI will soon post a picture of the wannabee king and his con(sort) Jimmy.
She is a lawyer and can build a career outside politics unlike many of her colleagues. She should have stood by what she said and if she is deselected, she should stick two fingers up to Gordo and Lord Sleaze, and leave politics alltogether to concentrate on Law practice. She must have had some idea of what other Blairites were up to and thought that Brown would go. But these Blairites had other ideas. Millipede, postman and the gang have no shame and they are double-crossing low lifers which she should have known.
ReplyDeleteFor Christ's sake woman, stick to your f***ing guns!
ReplyDeleteIt was utterly, unbelievably, undeniably the most embarrassingly grovelling apology in the history of human kind.
Whatever respect one might have had for her before has surely vanished.
"....... Blears has lost her career."
ReplyDeleteAnd that one word 'career' says it all. If our MPs are careerists it's only natural to put career before duty. That is why it is essential that they are encouraged to have their careers ring fenced from their Westminster duties - and I use the word duties very deliberately.
Remember guys, she is a politician. She will want to "draw a line under this issue soon and talk about what the people really want". Has she killed her career? All I can say to you is Mandelson.........
ReplyDeleteEr, like you think she had a choice ?
ReplyDeleteThe reason the camera was pointed out the window was that we wouldn't be able to see Mandy typing into the autocue, or peeling the onion that gave rise to her crocodile tears.
But this is just hors d'oeuvre - wait until Caroline Flint has to re-cant her resignation letter after the weekend. And until James Purnell has been re-educated.
Class traitor Blears has apologised to the workers for slandering the Great Leader.
ReplyDeleteSchool children have been encouraged to criticise her as an imperialist lickspittle and a running dog of capitalism.
She is up for reselection and faces the prospect of being dumped by her local branch. She was nasty, disloyal to the government, and most importantly, to the Labour Party. She failed to bring Broon down and is looking at the consequences. Of course she is sorry - sorry that she was found out.
ReplyDeleteSo she won't make it back to frontline politics. Good. Who cares. Had she not been avoiding her tax responsibilities she wouldn't be in this position. Good riddance to her.
ReplyDeleteJust not up to it, like all the intake of '97.
ReplyDeleteAuld Teuchter
Sadly for Ms Blears and her law degree, solicitors are shedding employees like autumn leaves, due to her Party's massacre of our economy.
ReplyDeleteWell, I say 'sad' ......
"From the heart"? Doubtful. Sorry about the consequences of her actions? Well yes. If you try to shoot someone but the gun backfires and blows your hand off, leaving you at the mercy of your enemy, you are probably sorry you pulled the trigger. Not really sorry your enemy might have been destroyed if things has gone better though.
ReplyDeleteBlears' actions did not discredit her, but her apology does so absolutely.
I feel confident that, if she hadn't grovelled, the Taxman would be calling.
ReplyDeleteLittle doubt in my mind that had Brown been ousted she'd be cheering and demanding a place in cabinet. If you lose, best to do so with dignity. She'd have been better off saying Brown's still a useless loser and the election results have proved it.
ReplyDeleteClearly never heard of the dictum "Shut the f*ck up woman"
ReplyDeleteAt least her brother still has his bus driving job.
ReplyDeleteLatest news on BBC - Blears to face vote of no confidence. Oh dear......
ReplyDeleteSomething changed in the music that trickled from the telescreen. A cracked and jeering note, a yellow note, came into it. And then -- perhaps it was not happening, perhaps it was only a memory taking on the semblance of sound -- a voice was singing:
ReplyDelete'Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me --'
The tears welled up in her eyes. A passing waiter noticed that her glass was empty and came back with the gin bottle.
.......
O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of her nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. She had won the victory over herself. She loved Big Brother.
Whenever I've had the misfortune of hearing her on the box she's always been reciting insanely optimistic all-is-for-the-best-in-this-best-of-all-possible-worlds gibberish with an idiotic fixed grin on her silly face.
ReplyDeleteThis peculiar public "apology" and recanting of her sins is, oddly enough, the only time she's ever sounded approximately normal.
Agree with others. She's got trouble at t'mill.
She might have to get a real job after all...I guess the peerage is out. Is her brother looking for a conductor? Part time of course. Takes time to re-enter the real world....
ReplyDeleteBlears to face no confidence motion
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8097955.stm
I'm sure the apology and this are completely unrelated. She's such a genuine person after all.
Are we watching events unfold or are we watching Patrick McGoohan's 'Prisoner' ?
ReplyDeleteOn the weekend we saw Gordon Brown cheered and lauded ecstatically by Labour activists - reminded me of the election episode, 'Free For All'. Now Hazel Blears baffling apology after 'aversion therapy' is straight from episode 'A change of mind'. She was probably chased by a weather balloon. Mandelson is definitely 'Number One'.
I always had Mandy and the rest of NuLab as complete bunch of number 2s myself
ReplyDeleteMandy rules supreme. But her apology will not stop her from being deselected by constant briefing.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I fear she will be thrown out by the Salford Labour Party.
ReplyDeleteIf I were her, I would seriously consider crossing the floor now. (It cannot get any worse for her)
The Tories might allow her to stand in her Salford seat as a tory. She could win it for them!!
Did she find a horse's head in her bed last night?
ReplyDeleteWhat a pathetic example of a pathetic crew of Blair's wimmin.
ReplyDeleteNow Gordon has got rid of the barrel and is busily scraping what was left underneath.
Going to hell in a handcart? We've arrived.
She didn't mean to cause any upset ... she thought that she'd be able to resign and no one would notice ... she wore the badge because of her family ...
ReplyDeleteShe's a liar. Plain and simple.
I thought the whole "apology" was a stage-managed sham. I would have had more respect for her if she had shown the courage to stick by what she originally said and did.
ReplyDeleteShe now looks utterly pathetic.
Blears is a pygmy, physically and politically. I remember Portillo making an accurate assessment of her intellect a while ago - and it wasn't very complimentary.
ReplyDeleteSo she shows a few crocodile tears on TV - big fucking deal. This is the same person who waved some crappy cheque around on TV - although "I've done nothing wrong".
How did this country ever get to the stage where such non-entities represented us?
She looks nothing more than a shallow hypocrite now.
and absolutely nothing to do with the vote of no confidence from her constituency?
ReplyDelete"Spoken from the heart"...
ReplyDeleteSpoken from the wallet, more like. She's facing possible
De-selection, hence the hasty outbreak of contrition.
She needs an integrity transfusion.
Hazel Blears,
ReplyDeleteShed crocodile tears,
For rocking the boat,
And trashing the vote,
She thinks “sincere,”
May save her career,
But Gordon will boast,
Och! Blears is toast!
What a shallow, shameless women.
Horrible little lawyer liar, now that the flame is under her ass she is contrite.Obviously facing the wilderness if her local party do the correct thing and boot her.
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened to the media campaign on expenses now that the witch hunt on Broon has failed.Read Telegraph online. Osborne has flipped his homes and Regwood charged the same £3000 twice for home decoration, and many many more. I think we should be told
Is she just milking the publicity during the final few days when people can still remember who she is?
ReplyDeleteIs Mandelson plotting some kind of a coup?
ReplyDeleteScroll through to the bit where her local party has been told to vote for her de-seletion...
Goodbye Hazel. Your government has done all it can to destroy the solicitors profession, by allowing non-lawyers to own law firms after 2011. There will be no future for you there. Perhaps you can turn to your old mate and benefactor, Anthony Bailey. Husband of Princess Marie Therese Von Hohenburg 'of Austria'. You could join his PR company and work for the Syrians amongst others.
ReplyDeleteNewsnight tonight had a lot on Chipmunk tonight, partly because they had Jan Ravens along plugging her show along with Isaby, Huq and Littlewood (4.08-16.32) You'll enjoy it Iain if it's still up when you're back.
ReplyDeleteI liked Littlewood's line about "if this is steadying the ship, God help us when it's holed under the waterline". And all Huq could say was "move along now, there's nothing to see here, this is all ancient history". You just wish some of the Labour talking heads would have the gonads to face reality, they'd have so much more credibility. I guess the only people still prepared to go on TV and defend Labour are the handful of true believers left in the bunker. It just makes them look worse, like the laughter at Hain on QT. In fact I wonder if that's the best route open to us, we just cackle loudly every time they try the "all under control, Gordon saved the world" line.
It's a bit like that focus group they had on Newsnight Thursday (from 29.15), people still prepared to admit to having voted for Labour on national TV. Scary really.
Incidentally, I didn't have Kirsty Wark down as being particularly catty, but her verdict on Milliband of "bit pathetic" at 3.52 tonight was withering, in reference to his dither about resigning on election day. Just one of those little moments that make you sit up.
ian,
ReplyDeletesomething we have missed here is clear to me.
they were convinced johnstone or another figure would stand against brown.
they bottled it.if it was johnstone,he has a problem,as he has collapsed the trust and loyalty he obviously had from a great number of rebles.
it will make it very difficult for him to do the same again,unless the post is vacant.that is up to mandy.
my money is still on brown brassing it to the end.
If you can keep Politicians out of administering justice she should also lose her job
ReplyDeleteDid anybody notice the bank on which that cheque was drawn that she was waving around in front of the camera?
ReplyDeleteIt looked to me like RBS. Maybe the cheque bounced!
Did anybody notice the bank on which that cheque was drawn that she was waving around in front of the camera?
ReplyDeleteIt was the Co-op Bank (obviously!).
Anyway, I will shed no tears for the money-grubbing, tax-evading troll.
Regardless of what her CLP decides, the voters of Salford will kick her out. They have seen her for what she really is.