As we grow older, we start to see patterns in the world around us. Politics is one such. When you’ve heard politicians say that they give someone their full backing, over time you realise that they have a knife just held behind their back, because the pattern is oft repeated. Yes Minister lampooned this trait when Jim Hacker “definitely wasn’t” going to run for the leadership. We see this happening in real life around us, re-enacted with each new generation.
On Andrew Marr’s programme yesterday, Gordon Brown insisted that he was staying and would not bow to pressure form the cabinet. A claim repeated today in the Guardian.
However, asked on BBC1’s Andrew Marr show today whether he would stand aside if cabinet members said it would help Labour’s chances at a general election, Brown replied: “No, because I am dealing with the issues at hand. I am dealing with the economy every day.”
Yes, well, you’d have to be completely delusional to think he was making a good job of that one. And, of course, all the front runners for the possible leadership, Harman, Straw, Johnson, Milliband, et al have all publicly stated that they are “not running” for the leadership, they are “supportive” of Brown. Ah, yes, haven’t we been here before? Following the EU and local elections, widely predicted to be a Labour wipe out, Brown’s days are numbered. Even someone as delusional as he must realise this deep down somewhere inside his twisted psyche. And it must hurt, having lusted after the top job for so long, having lurked and plotted in the background, sharpening his knife for use against those whom he perceived would thwart his ambitions, it must grieve him to see it slipping away after so brief a span, to die by the same sword he was willing to wield against others.
Couldn’t happen to a better bloke. Although, I must admit, I want him to stay. I want to watch as the electorate sweep him aside in the manner of John Major. I want him to feel the pain and humiliation of mass rejection, to pay dearly for the harm he has wrought on the country, but I suspect that a cabinet putsch will deprive us of that satisfaction.
“…I am dealing with the issues at hand. I am dealing with the economy every day.”
One of the issues at hand being Susan Boyle’s fate on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ at the weekend, according to Iain Dale’s site.
Nice of him to keep his finger on the pulse of all the important issues…
Yeah, you just know he’s in for a drubbing when he abandons his own party live on the Beeb in favour of his own massive ego. I imagine everyone in the PLP must have spat their coffee out at that point. You can bet they’ll have the knives out now.
Looks like I need to go buy more beer and popcorn and spool up the 24 hour rolling news feeds again.
Bwahahaa. It’s official, even labourlist are having a pop at him http://www.labourlist.org/gutless_gord_lewis_goodall
His own party smear machinery has turned on him.
That Marr interview was a disgrace.
That’s about as far as his competence stretches. Only in politics can a raving incompetent rise to such giddy heights and no one does anything about it.