Earlier this week, two Conservative MPs, John Bercow and Patrick Mercer, agreed to work for Gordon Brown. Now Brown has managed to persuade the former Conservative Party deputy Treasurer, Johan Eliasch, to advise him on environmental issues.
So perhaps it is true, then, that the Labour Party has run out of ideas? Well, it must have, if its leader has disregarded all the loyal MPs and supporters at his disposal, and turned his attention to supporters of other parties. Or maybe it’s just plain old socialist envy: looking greedily over the fence at what your neighbours have, and then trying to grab it for yourself.
Perhaps this is nothing more than gimmickry on the part of Gordon Brown, petty tactics to destabilise the opposition. That may be, but it also sends out the message that the Labour party is completely starved of bright men and women with progressive ideas. Therefore, rather than being put out by Brown poaching its supporters, the Conservative Party should take it as a compliment.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
“Perhaps this is nothing more than gimmickry on the part of Gordon Brown, petty tactics to destabilise the opposition.”
Absolutely spot on. A move to embarrass Dave… and Labour members and MPs know it and are chuckling up their sleeves. Its a better gimmick than Dave’s national service joke which has been roundly dismissed by virtually every youth the media have talked to about it.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Absolutely spot on. A move to embarrass Dave… and Labour members and MPs know it and are chuckling up their sleeves.
If so, then the only objects of ridicule would be the sorry folk (Eliasch etc) who have been seduced into thinking that their views actually matter to Gordon Brown. In my opinion, this doesn’t reflect badly on Dave at all, as the public will see this for the gimmick that it is. (If, as you say, all Labour members and MPs know this, then so, I’m sure, does the public.)
Still, it’s politics. And such tactics are to be expected. One would have expected these new Tory appointees to know that, and not be so willing to be used in this way by Gordon Brown.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Bob, so you agree that Gordon Brown, a self-styled serious politician, is not above resorting to cheap political gimmicks. Say it aint so!
Instead of gimmicks, why doesn’t this self-styled conviction politician call a general election? If he really wants to upset the Tory applecart, one would assume that calling and winning a general election would be the easiest way to do so. Or maybe he lacks the confidence, or the courage. He has never been one for striking the killer blow, has he? Rather than strike with a general election, he contents himself with petty pilfering from the Tory house. The coward.
September 8th, 2007 at 11:25 am
playing blairs advocate for a moment, one could look at it the other way, that the best conservative GB could find to join his colalition, was a FORMER conservative, what does that say for those still in the fore front conservative party supporting the abolition of grammer schools?
I was rather more surprised that GB wasnt critized for joining a programe to provide national health care in poorer countries, the point could so easily have been made that we as a nation are hardly the experts on the subject…
September 8th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Dave, of course I don’t think he is above resorting to political gimmicks. Neither is Cameron with his loony tunes national service rubbish. It isn’t petty pilfering, you nerd, he has persuaded some Tories into embarrassing their Party, and Cameron would do the same if he could… get real. Frankly, I couldn’t care whether he calls an election next month, next year or 2009. 10 years and the tories are still trailing in the opinion polls, they are dead meat.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Nah, it’s just desperation - Brown is trying to do what he can to win back some of the support he initially gained by the Brown Bounce. Now that his bounce is deflating, he is desperate to try to embarrass Cameron. But this dirty trick is just pathetic!