Now that the Conservative Party has enjoyed somewhat favourable headlines for two days running, one wonders what publicity-grabbing stunt Gordon Brown will want to pull, in order to attract attention to himself.
If he manages to sit through David Cameron’s speech (or even this whole week), without succumbing to the temptation to pull such a stunt, I’ll eat my hat.
Never before have I seen a politician so insecure.
UPDATE (2 October 2007). Gordon Brown arrived in Iraq this morning, amid talk of a ’significant reduction in troops’. I thought that under this new ‘no-spin’ era, such announcements were supposed to be made first to Parliament. Let’s wait and see.
Is Gordon Brown about to exploit our longsuffering troops, just to make himself look good?
FURTHER UPDATE. My question in the previous paragraph has just been answered with a resounding ‘Yes’. He has announced a cut in the troops by 1,000. Good that more troops are coming home soon (I’ll believe it when I see it), but sad that this is only being done today for the sake of one man’s vainglory.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:16 am
I do wonder if thats a good idea anyway. the constituency that did not want us there are not the same as those who want us to cut and run. I `m somewhat cobflicted myself although I supported the war. To get involved and then decide its a bit rough and dirty and leave them to sort the mess out ious surely the worst possible thing to do .
Loving your blog Bel…nice to see you a bit more on message .
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:31 am
poor guy cannot win can he
if he does his job bad he gets critisised
if he does something good people say its just to get the press
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
apparently, by convention, other political parties try not to grab headlines when a party is having their conference. Witness the silence last week from the Conservatives and LibDems, when the Labour Party was having its smug love-in, complete with irrational class hatred.
Say what you like about Tony Blair (and I do), he had a certain amount of courtesy completely lacking in his successor.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:07 pm
what gets me is there is no apparant rationale for the move in a military sense. In the absence of the same, I am obliged to conclude it is a cheap stunt.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Just read today’s Daily Mash story to get the truth…
“Leadership means being ready and willing to recognise that war, suffering and death can always be turned around and put to devastating political use.”
“Later today Brown will tell British troops that he will bring them home when it is in the best interests of the Labour Party.”
“He added: “These poor Iraqi people, being blown up every time they go to the shops, are an example to us all.”
“They understand the importance of British democracy and my obsessive desire to destroy it.”
So funny and so fucking true. What a fucking Scumbucket our current dear leader is….
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Newmania, you say:
Loving your blog Bel…nice to see you a bit more on message.
On message? I have always been on-message - the conservative message, that is. It is the Conservative Party that has not, until recently, been on-message.
Glad to see they are realising this, and taking the right steps.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:13 pm
So - About the hat. Would you like fries with that?
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Many of us on the left think that you have a major typo in the title of this post.
The letters “servative ” should be inserted between the “n” and “m” of “conman“.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Phil, based on what has happened (ie Gordon could not resist the temptation to pull a stunt), I think I don’t have to eat my hat, after all.
I was only supposed to eat my hat if he had refrained from spin all week.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
“on-message” ain’t going to win the election.
Listening to people just might do it. With Gordon the moron and daily nu-lab fiascos, it’s in David Cameron’s hands. Let’s just hope he picks up the ball and runs with it- because we haven’t seen that yet.