Tag Archives: gordon brown

Someone doesn't like Gordon Brown

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Stomped around two parades of shops today in Alexandra ward (which runs east from the Fortis Green area through to the western edges of Wood Green).

Outside of parking – there was quite a tirade about the bureaucracy created for small businesses by our now Prime Minister G. Brown.

One chap said he hated him for what he had done. Using the example of his brother-in-law on £25k as a cab driver with a wife earning £5k as a school’s dinner lady – he went through the number of people now involved in the process of their tax return and claims (child tax credit etc). His argument was that there were now five people employed in one or other capacity by the Government to deal with the process. Before G. Brown – just one was required. Good point I thought!

Gordon Brown and our Tube

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PMQs – and Gordon didn’t have a good one – repetitive and unsure of facts or what to say. It’s not so easy being PM as he expected.

Vince Cable had a question on the order paper and used it to batter Gordon over his head with the failure of Metronet – whose slide into economic meltdown was inevitable. There’s no sliding away from this issue for Gordon because when he was Chancellor – the PPP for the tube was his baby. Ken L went to court to try and stop this dreadful contract which cost something like £500 million in consultants and lawyers alone.

I was shoulder to shoulder with Ken against the PPP – for the very reasons that are now coming to light.

Make no mistake – these are Gordon’s PPP chickens coming home to roost – and not so new Gordon is entirely to blame for this debacle.

The Party's Over!

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So – the party’s over. As Tony Blair left the stage – that shiny vision of new Britain’s new dawn is dead. I know, it’s a bit of a romantic,sort of through a looking-glass view of the Blair ascendancy – but that’s what it felt like when New Labour swept in to power and swept out the Nasty Party way back in ’97.

Of course – in the end – there was no new dawn and in fact, it was a rather old and destructive dawn where we entered an era of unparalleled spin. Trust in politics and politicians died. Ironic really – that Blair’s parting words were about the noble causes that politicians strive for and the respect he really, really had for the House of Commons! That respect was rather in short supply when he as PM had one of the lowest attendance, speaking or voting records in that very same House!

A great showman in the Commons Chamber – he played it to perfection to the end. ‘That is that. The End’ he said with a small hand gesture – and he was gone.

So now – there’s a cold wind blowing through the corridors of power as the dour Brown era is ushered in to the backdrop of terrorist attacks. Brown’s ‘change’ agenda – given his brooding, controlling, centralist track record – is questionable – just as are the sudden protestations about new Gordon, relaxed Gordon, decentralising Gordon, happy chappy Gordon all dressed up in talk of challenges – new challenges,challenging the challenges to bring new change so that change and challenges will change our challenging world.

However, events dear boy, events. In times of threat to our national safety, we want to believe that serious Gordon will see them off. We want to believe that serious Cabinet Government will replace informal and disorganised kitchen cabinet Government. We want to believe Gordon when he says he will come first to Parliament to make announcements. No longer will the media be the first to know and Parliament the last. We want to believe that the era of spin is no longer. We want to hear that we will fight to win the hearts and minds of all our communities so that there is no hiding place for anyone who wishes harm on our citizens. We want to believe Gordon when he says that he will not remove our civil liberties without great reason and caution – and not just to catch the next set of headlines in the next news cycle.

He is right to want to ‘change’ the atmosphere of governance. He isright to promise a new kind of politics. He is right to set himself up as an opposite to TB.And yet, and yet … he was there at the heart of New Labour all the time. Let us not forget that this is the same Brown who agreed with going to war in Iraq illegally and signed every cheque; wasted millions on consultants for PPP for the tube, wants to spend billions tagging innocent people with ID cards that won’t catch terrorists rather than using the money to put more police on our streets and more resource into intelligence and security and closed hospitals and health services.

Leopard and spots are the words that come to mind. Only time will truly tell.

Ming makes us laugh at Question Time

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So – Gordon’s first PMQs. Ming scored today – with a joke! Gordon was saying that his door was always open to Ming – and Ming said ‘Yes – a trap door’. It doesn’t quite come over in print – but it rocked the House with laughter – the right sort of laughter. As for Gordon – I thought he was much as you would expect – serious, slightly ill-informed on some issues (as he said – he had only been in the job for five days – but excuses don’t go down too well in the HoC) and he was trying to be conciliatory saying to most questioners – I will consider the points the Honourable Member has made. So – dullsville really!

Goodbye Tony, hello Gordon

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So the long goodbye is finally over. Tony has faced the final curtain. ‘Well – no – actually. Not final. Not me. You know me – I’m Tony. I’m going to do something more important than being Prime Minister – I’m going to be part of the quartet – well I guess that’s a quintet then!’ (Please read aloud using a Rory Bremner version of Tony Blair voice.)

‘That is that. The End.’

It was a good ending. You have to hand to TB. He is so much more appealing than GB! I thought his last Prime Minister’s Questions was quintessential Blair – witty, sharp, super-quick and well delivered. Sotto voce ending. And I was moved by the occasion – but then I cry at Coronation Street. It is, however, quite something to witness first hand the end of an extraordinary premiership – more extraordinary ‘cos most of us think he made an unforgivable error in Iraq, he trashed any trust the public might have had in politicians, he set a terrible example of standards in public life – but he delivered peace in Northern Ireland, was brave in regard to Sierra Leone and Kosovo – but could have been, so, so much more.

As for his new role as Peace Envoy for the Quartet in the Middle East – well – he isn’t the obvious choice in terms of all sides putting their faith in him – but on the other hand – he has clearly phenomenal skills in this arena. And it will take phenomenal skill to deliver peace. It’s funny really – I wrote to Tony not long after I was elected and berated him over Iraq, then suggested to him that if he wanted to make any sort of amends he should use his time more fruitfully in office – and better devote the rest of his time to sorting out the Middle East. Clearly persuaded by my missive – albeit after leaving office – that is what he is going to do!

It fits really. He must bear a weight of either such guilt over those who died because of his decisions (although he believes he was right) but whether guilt or not in his mind – his only redemption (and I use the word because of its meaning to TB not me) would be to succeed in delivering a viable state for Palestine and permanent security for Israel. So – whilst as I say – he isn’t an obvious unbiased player in this arena – sometimes it can take someone involved and passionate – whether for or against – to bring people together.

I wish him every success.

So Camelot dies with Blair. And now the dark and icy hand of Mordor is spreading through the land as the new Wizard’s deathly grip circles our lives. Not encouraged by GB’s first speech outside of No 10. Starched, formal, uncomfortable and termed with phrases to send chills throughout the public services. Change this. Change that. Yes – the country wants a change – a change from being lied to, cheated, manipulated and strategised. But Gordon isn’t change. He was there all the time – and if you didn’t argue for change then – we won’t believe you now. You did, after all, sign the cheques; support the war; flip-flop on tuition fees and privatise our tube spending millions on consultants rather than services.

More mundane, I know, but went straight from Parliament to Haringey Police Consultative Group meeting. That calmed me down!

Labour leadership election results

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Gordon is happy! And I don’t want to rain on his parade – at least for a day or two. However, from the look on his face, I kind of felt that the drama of Harriet’s startling victory (a drama helped both by its closeness – and also by Sky merrily reporting the wrong result in advance) was regarded as raining on his parade.

The image of a man / woman team is a good one for Labour. The only down side is that Gordon and Harriet are both a bit hard-going and substance based. Now – I think substance is good – but it is quite helpful if one of them had substance masked with charm. Clearly Gordon has recognised this and been working hard at his Charms lessons (not the same Charms as in Harry Potter)! So – off we go to new challenges, challenged challengingly by the challenge of challenging changes and challenging times!

Should I talk to the media off the record?

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Story of Ming and Gordon’s siren voice rumble on. I am called by Sky, BBC and Daily Politics to see if I will just have a chat – off the record if I like. Hmmmmmmm – never be fooled by journalists saying they want a chat off the record! And there’s nothing more to say – Gordon wants us. We don’t want him!

PS If you want to know what I think Gordon will be like as Prime Minister – read this.

Being propositioned by a Tory MP

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On the way up to the weekly Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party meeting – I found myself being propositioned in the lift by a Tory – politically propositioned of course. (And no – I am not going to name him). Very sweetly done, I thought and humourous and obviously off of the back of the Guardian’s story about Brown’s overtures to Ming. Personally, I expect a lot more shmoozing from both sides trying to woo us Lib Dems. Labour and Tory are after our voters and after us. And whilst I may enjoy the odd bit of flirting – I remain independent. My mum always said play hard to get!

Seriously, though, I don’t know how many times we Lib Dems have to repeat the mantra – a plague on both their houses and we’re going out there for maximum Lib Dem votes, maximum Lib Dem MPs and maximum Lib Dem policies! Labour are clearly terrified of what’s coming down the track. The Tories are desperate. And we’re concentrating on our work!

Gordon Brown as PM: good, bad or indifferent?

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This Gordon Brownweek’s Liberal Democrat News carries my latest column – and it’s about how Gordon Brown might turn out as Prime Minister:

When I was first elected to Parliament, I looked forward to meeting and seeing in action close up our major politicians, many of whom had previously only been a face on the TV to me.

But Gordon Brown has been strangely absent from my Parliamentary experience. Despite having a huge influence that strays well beyond the Treasury, he rarely debates, rarely answers questions and even in his own Treasury patch leaves most of the Parliamentary speaking to his junior ministers.

You can read the rest of the piece on my website.