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If Labour lose at Glasgow next week I think Gordon Brown will just have to get his head down and do some real government work, non of this public relations stuff.
He could do with a reshuffle and get some new ministers in there.
Who else have they got as a reasonable prospective leader? is Tony Blaire waiting in the wings after his break?
I have failed to take the Liberal Democrats serious since they booted out Charles Kennedy, this new leader has failed to make an impression with me. Their tax policies mean nothing as they wont come into power.
As it is, I think the Conservatives will soon be back in power, unless they commit political suicide.

Where are JadedJean's and my Posts?

I think the Ombudsman's report into the Equitable Life scandal is perhaps worth
mentioning? Just in case anyone forgets
that Labour's decade in power has also
seriously damaged pensions .....

As for Glasgow East, where is the Labour
leadership? Stuff this nonsense about the
convention that Prime Minister's do not do
by-elections - Tony Blair broke that 'rule' in
special circumstances and surely Gordon B
should put in an appearance .... or are his
security people advising him that he would
be in serious danger of meeting a 'Weegie'
if he took the walk along Shettleston Road?

Probably Tony Blair would have been safer
in Gaza I guess ....... but perhaps now his
Gaza trip is off he could risk Shettleston??
After all Sarko is on top of the Middle East
crisis and making progress while Britain is
shunted to one side by the other players.

The collapse of Brown's influence on foreign affairs after his encounters with Medvedev and his offer of nuclear power cooperation to the Arabs is perhaps worth analysis too.

And on fuel price increases Whitehall is it seems starting to panic as Alex Salmond
predicted at the start of this by-election?

The way things are going Labour will lose Glasgow East and Brown will lose his seat when the General Election comes.

It is how people feel whether Brown is to Blame or not, and much, to be fair, is out of his control. If he had lost the Election he did not have last October, the Tories would have "copped" for this lot. Does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that Cameron could sort it?
As I keep "blogging" irrespective of politics, promises, the country wants "a change" as Obama is riding on.
For what and how, voters are not interested. They just want to give this Government a "good kicking" out of office. So the SNP will do well next week. It may be different at a General Election time, that is if Brown has not been ditched by Labour. It could happen by their Conference.

The old adage of a week (2 years) being a long time in politics keeps coming to mind.

You appear to have disinvented my post on Blair's unsuitability for his Mid East job, on your inaccurate piece on a Somali muderer fleeing Britain in a bourka, and asking whether it's against your own House-Rules to hold a post up(querying the integrity of the Litvinenko story) for a week.
Where is it?

A LITTLE OF WHAT I FANCY ('What else do you fancy?')

I fancy the most important issue, today, is that of MP mentality and motivation. When the next election comes, this country would be well served by a move to 'vote out the incumbent' (as I believe was campaigned across America not so long ago?) If this were compounded with 'vote in an independent' and this ethos contrived to flush out voters currently inhibited by too much understanding, we might get a half-able bunch of 'consensus politicians' who will see off this disastrous Age of the Party. Currently, almost all incumbents have been chosen by one or other party for exhibiting the disgraceful attributes required to pass the entrance exam. Small wonder they behave so badly and perform so poorly. Let's clean out the Westminster pit - the smell will clear eventually.

PARTIES SPORT MONEY (Newsnight's three concerns)

PARTIES die without obscene funding and will pull any stunt for money.

SPORT is now 'trade' as in 'freedom to ply' and is heavily sponsored; money again.

MONEY is about itself such that even an absence of it can be sold for profit.

NEWSNIGHT, you have defined the lie inside which the cancerous western world now lives. Through the agency of peculiar politicians and their cockeyed constructs, we are infecting the entire world. If you need a marker for our time, look no further than Tony Blair. I need not elaborate.

Labour are battling apathy in Glasgow East:
the result may turn on turnout ..... and they
hadn't even bothered to canvass before the
byelection was called quickly to wrong-foot
their opponents. Ironically it is then Labour
that stumble ...... struggling to even find a
candidate! Margaret Curran is drafted in -
but only after the Leader of Glasgow City
Council has refused to be press-ganged
into standing. He is a young man with a
future. Curran's Holyrood seat was due
to be amalgamated at the next election
and it was not clear that she would have
been first choice for that either. This tells
people a lot about Brown's Labour Party
as she is indeed a doughty fighter for the
East End of Glasgow - even though she is
caught out early on claiming to live there:
she lives in the (prosperous) South Side!!

Up until three weeks ago, she was also a
strong candidate to replace the Brownite
Wendy Alexander as Labour's Holyrood
Leader. That will not now happen. It is
also symptomatic of Labour's Scottish
crisis that Brown cared more it seems
about finding an additional vote for 42
days detention down at Westminster
than leaving them a credible leadership
candidate at Holyrood! Or indeed a good
Leader of Glasgow City Council in Steve
Purcell who gets on OK with Mr Salmond
and who was in Sri Lanka last year with
Salmond as First Minister when the SNP
Leader was canvassing support across
The Commonwealth to bring The Games
to Glasgow East even before anyone had
any idea that there was to be a byelection.

GORDON NEE CHARLES

Underneath, poor Gordon is still the James he felt he had to leave behind. What was he running from? What drove him to step outside his calculating comfort zone, and wrench from Tony the top job? My guess is that, like so many before him, he had the inappropriate urgings, of elders and betters, ringing in his head; urgings to achieve. Children will often strive to please, contrary to their inner angst, and parents can be blind to muted suffering. School brilliance is not social competence - Tony showed us that! Poor James, he was not cut out for all this. He has beaten his Moral Compass into a cuckoo clock but still hardly knows what time it is. In fact it is time for Sarah to lead him gently away to green pastures, and to anoint his troubled soul.

Glad to see the Glasgow East coverage.

I would vote Lib Dem but I think Clegg is being rash if he is promising tax cuts. The economic climate looks as though it is going to be severe so I would be pretty cautious.

On green taxes I like what he says but neither he nor any other leader seems to be really identifying the imminent and urgent need for flight from carbon. If oil prices are going to keep rising and the projected carbon shortfall would seem likely to exacerbate that then to function we are going to need improved public transport and green private transport.

Electric cars powered from renewable energy sources or similar. Tax/price incentives for electric cars etc.

How about getting an interview with Gerry Gable at the anti-fascist and anti-racist Searchlight magazine? He would be interesting and MAY have perspectives beyond the far right in Britain and Europe of value, such as knife crime.

Contrary to previous posts I am very happy with you moderators indeed. Very very happy.

Blissfully happy.

Re #11. Teacher's Pet.
Happy for you that you're so blissfully happy in favouring censorship over democracy.
This failed policy is seen in the BNP's success in breaking out from the censorship imposed by the establishment for so many years, winning through to take its first GLA seat, and seeing its policies routinely embraced by the old parties. Another brilliant success for your side.
Must be sad to be terrified of having a decent argument.

I love you moderators oh yes I do I love you moderators, OH moderators I love you!

Please imagine a cyber-apple on your virtual desk.


I love you moderators I love you moderators. I love you moderators, OH moderators I love you!. I love you moderators, OH moderators I love you!

Re #1. Oldunelm.
There must be a real chance that the SNP win Glasgow East. Can't recall the name of the Constituency (I think it was adjacent to Brown's own, and is where he has his home) which Labour lost after Brown had lent (ahem) 'full support' and visited several times during the campaign. When it was lost, Brown and co. fled back to their cars in the most craven possible style, to avoid questions.
It was a sight which I imagine many Scottish voters remember well, and has proved to be a key indicator as to the type of PM he would go on to be. It's not hard to imagine that some Labour die-hards will opt for ridding themselves of Brown by abstaining or voting SNP, as a palatable alternative to the unthinkable of voting Tory, unless the Labour candidate is exceptional.

Gerry Gable! Gerry Gable! Woh oh oh Gerry Gable!

Re #9 barriesingleton
"GORDON NEE CHARLES"

I do realise that you're referring to The Rt Hon James Gordon Brown MP, but don't quite understand the "NEE CHARLES" bit.

Could you be referring to that Victorian icon, General Charles Gordon (1833 - 1885) popularly known as 'Chinese Gordon'?

If so, I think the electorate have a less noble fate in mind for him than being cut down at the head of his last few remaining supporters?

Hmmn ...... maybe you have a point there after all.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Great that we can expect more from Glasgow East tonight, but can it be a little more "immediate", please?

Now that both the Scotsman and the Herald have published the Curran website story from yesterday with the feeblest and most implausible of apologies from Labour, why doesn't Michael try to get Curran on camera?

He could ask her:
1. Why was the picture of her and Mr McGuiness taken the same morning the "mistake" was made?
2. What was that picture intended for if not for that article?

Michael could also ask any or all of her opponents whether they are satisfied with the Scotsman and the Herald versions of the events.

#18 Brownedov

Well said on Glasgow East.

I don't know what you think but I just can't see that Brown will be any more than a dead man walking after Glasgow East.

Probably make the conference I suppose. I just cannot believe he will last longer than that.

NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT AND CENSORSHIP

Negative reinforcement increases the rate (frequency/intensity) of behaviour as a consequence of aversive stimulation being reduced. So consider this. Ask where one's notions of what's right or wrong come from. A priori ideology, or pragmatic empirical experience, i.e. observed outcomes? If we censor what we find unpalatable even though it's true and reward what we like even though it's false (or has harmful consequences, albeit poorly perceived because of the delay incurred) what's the inevitable outcome?

This is the corrosive nature of Political Correctness/Cultural Marxism in a nutshell. How many of its willing footsoldiers ever understand its modus operandi and dire consequences?

On the Searchlight magazine website you can read all kinds of things.

Theres
"...we explain why the BNP are the same old nazis they always were. We broadcast a video, shot only four years ago, which shows leading BNP officials singing racist songs and giving a Nazi salute. We reveal the nazi and terrorist links of the BNP leadership and we explain, in the "Us and Them" section, just why the BNP does not stand in the great British tradition of tolerance, equality and compassion.

In a new section, we also reveal the nazi links of BNP leader Nick Griffin.

The BNP is dedicated to imposing apartheid-style rule in Britain. It wants to create a system that is based on the nonsense that white people are superior to all others. Black and Asian people would become second-class citizens under the law. ".

I like Searchlight.

On the Glasgow East front, it would be interesting to ask Mr Michie on camera whether his appearance for Ms Curran was a paid one. If your sporrans are empty, you could save some cash by replaying Mr Michie's appearance from your own "This Week".

Anyone reading this post may be interested to watch the snippet at

Re #19 thegangofone

Thanks. You certainly have to admire the man's resilience and persistence even if, like me, you disagree with almost every word he says.

The way they're going, Brown would be gone this week-end if they had anyone more convincing with whom to replace him.

#23 Brownedov

I don't doubt what you are saying for a second.

I just can't get my head around what the strategy is in keeping him there. Maybe its actually a smart play.

The tide of opinion and events (economy, possible UK break up etc) is going to slaughter a new leader. So maybe they have decided to try and brass it out with a view that if they fail once in opposition they give the new leader a viable chance.

On balance I think thats unlikely as on most things at the moment Labour are in ostrich mode with their heads very firmly in the sand.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

thegangofone "On balance I think thats unlikely as on most things at the moment Labour are in ostrich mode with their heads very firmly in the sand."

Just remember - when beating your drum for anti-fascism/nazism, both Mussolini's and Hitler's parties were in fact left-wing socialist, just as Stalin's was. What they all opposed was Trotskyite Bolshevism which they saw as ab internationalist scourge (as they did anarcho-capitalism). What the Germans and Italians pursued was pretty much what Roosevelt did in the New Deal and Old Labour did here in the days before New Labour embraced Neo-Conservatism. Much that's vilified as far-right extremism has long been very good pro-free-market propaganda (see Hayek and Von Mises) with a lot of help from footsoldiers.

As before

".....why the BNP are the same old nazis they always were...."

Labour could come unstuck in Glasgow east because all the signs were there before Crewe and Nantwich, a hasty retreat over the 10p tax fiasco still didn't do it and a climbdown over the proposed 2p tax increase on fuel won't do it either. The irony is that Cameron or the Lib Dems wouldn't do either but just snipe from the sidelines, such is the glory of opposition.....no responsibility. Clegg lacks the gravitas of Cable or Kennedy and is close to Cameron. Harmon could be the salvation of Labour but only after a nightmare in Glasgow east as a Brown clone will not suffice.

re #21

Of course we should all read 'Searchlight' and the views of the 'demonized' party to which gangophone refers, so as to get a complete and balanced picture of what the general public think and feel, not just what the politicians would have us believe.

Many people feel that the (so-called) 'great British tradition of tolerance, equality and compassion' has been overplayed and may share some of the responsibility for the present state of our society (notably strife, crime, and overcrowding).

(ps. my career was spent on development projects in the third world, and I'm happily married to an Asian).

re #14 grumpy-jon
I agree with you and think the SNP are in with a great chance.
I think the recent history of events with the Labour party, coupled with voter apathy will result in a very low turn out of Labour voters.
This combined with the enthusiasm and feeling of independence gives the SNP a strong hand in the Glasgow by-election I think.

Oldunelm (#29) Which will suit New Labour (and the Socialist International) fine. Scotland's on track to becoming an EU statelet like the English Regional Assemblies, NI, Wales, Eire, Finland, and other NUTS in this cunning Lisbon plan. No British Nasty Parties here thank you - and to make sure they'll keep folk like gangofone vilifying other nasties like Zimbabwe, N Korea, Iran (like Iraq), Uzbekistan, China, Russia.

Soon well all live in a New Left (SI) cosmopolitan/anarcho-capitalism/globalism dystopia.

As Barrie said 'All the World's a Supermarket'. Sainsbury's, Tesco, M and S...

MEA CULPA BROWNDOV (#16)

It was a senior moment that did not get cleaned up. Scots - James - Charles - easy to do when your brain is grey goo. Apologies for wasting your reasoning power.

#28 hillsideboy

Yes I suppose your wife would appreciate
their views.

You know I am not sure I believe you.

SUPERMARKET SHAME

Actually, JJ (#30) I was responding to Oldunelm's posting: 'I notice that whenever a system is running smoothly "the management" usually have to re-arrange things to improve it and prove their worth.
It rarely does improve things.'
Mind you, in retrospect, if one imagines a supermarket on the Titanic, with a deckchair section that they keep rearranging . . . What a nightmare.

PS Balls was just on the telly saying the exam cockup has been at the same (passable) rate for years. He also said they will learn lessons and it won't happen again. Has he ever studied logic, I wonder, and did EDS pass him?

Re #31 barriesingleton

Apology accepted - I have my senior moments too, as it would seem do a few other posters here who chall remain nameless.

I do think there could be a parallel with 'Chinese Gordon' albeit hopefully not in quite the same way that gallant but ill-advised gentleman met his fate. I think one Spencer Perceval is plenty!

Barrie (#33) It was just a bit of opportunistic licence on my part to further emphasise my point of paradoxial intention with respect to how we're being systematically denationalised as the UK by our incumbent anarchists promoting regional 'nationalism'. HOW it's done by the 'SI' is clearly less important than THAT it's done as far as these Machavellian cosmopolitans are concerned.

It's the USA's ETS by the way, not EDS, although that's a forgivable mistake given that EDS has indeed often won the very big IT (aka white elephant) contracts under New Labour and most people might wonder why ETS (Europe) would ever get the contract.

What we do here with Every Child Matters, the USA does under No Child Left Behind - which is equally daft given the evidence that we can't help but leave some children behind (even though they all matter) given the normal distribution of ability (see Charles Murray's trilogy on this madness in The Wall Street Journal a while back.

One might (if naive) wonder why neocon politicians ignore data driven advisors, including those working for ETS.

DOUBLE OOPS (JJ #35)

Hurrah for opportunistic license. May yours be extended to infinity.

It is bad enough that 'they' regard schooling as a given good for all, when it is clearly an institutionalising experience that dominates a vast percentage of formative years.
I am probably repeating myself (but it is a valid credential) that I fell on the cusp of those elevated by school and those brought down. I was in 3B at Grammar (after a year in Sec. Mod. then 1A 2B) and boy was I among some wild men! (I could tell you stuff that would not get past a sleeping moderator!) I know a nutter when I see one. Ed Balls is, of course, the dream (nightmare) topping. Who says Gordon has no sense of humour?

'These Machiavelian cospmopolitans', eh JadedJean? Whatever could you mean?

"why the BNP..." indeed, gangofone.

Once again, at 5 to 11, Gavin Esler has repeated his delusion that George W Bush is in the small government tradition. He is not. He has massively expanded Medicare, the Military and the intelligence agencies.

Federal government has expanded faster under Bush than any president since Roosevelt. Why does Mr Esler keep repeating the fiction of his being a small government politician on air?

KUGELSCHREIBER

Gordon - won't heed the 'Marbles call'
Darling - might, though his stock would fall
Jacqui - is just a lackey
And as for Ed Balls - he's no balls at all.