Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
What’s the real fight to be had?
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Post
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14 January 2010
Now that things have calmed a bit after the frenzy of Tuesday, normal political service resumed here, with a reminder that there are only two parties in this country capable of forming a government, so that the big choice on the agenda is whether we want Labour or the Tories in power, Gordon Brown or David Cameron in charge.
Lots of comments yesterday that the blog was unusually long, so I thought I'd make today's unusually short and give you a few thoughts I recorded in the back garden the other day when I was taking a break from preparations.
Meanwhile I may be back later developing on the theme of last night's tweet about Paul Dacre allegedly being in love with me and possessed of homoerotic fantasies, as many right wing extremists appear to be.
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Good to have some balance to the frenzy of the 24hrs news cycle. I watched the live broadcast from the inquiry and was amazed at quite how worked up even channel 4 got about matters that I thought had been out there for ages!
The real problem of course is the preponderance of news space and the need for hacks (and in the press that means out own neo-cons) to fill.
You are quite right.
Vote Multimillionaire Chameleon Tory Get (mostly tax exile Billionaire) Ashcroft, Dacre, Murdoch, Laidlaw, Barclay bros.
These people care very little about policies apart from those which impede their acquisition of wealth and power, their avoidance of tax, their control of our country.
If they wanted shot of Chameleon and Osborne or Boris Johnson in his place they would engineer that, most likely via a media campaign alleging variously: Crisis, Leadership coup in prospect, corruption, increased crime (especially violence & sexual crimes) and anti HMG polls etc.
This election is important. One should never say do or die, but I fear we head for a very black period in our history if Labour does not win.
Sounds like an idea for a book to me there AC.
At it again re Iraq?
Obfuscation,qualified statements,half-truths and a perfect example of the’admit nothing’ school of political skulduggery.
Wonder are you getting away with it?
Tabloid hackery was your milieu – unfortunately you ended up where you did and many people suffered the consequences.
Chilcott should have had Tom McGuirk and George Hook on his team – that would have been interesting to watch.And furthermore – stay away from Lions Tours in future!
As James Purnell put it in the Guardian, Gordon Brown deserves credit for preventing this recession becoming depression. David Cameron would have failed that test. If British public were to understand this, there would be no doubt about the winner on polling day.
As a Christian I was happy to hear that people sent you passages from the Bible. I guess this happened because you are doing so much good work. I myself watched the whole day the internet and BBC World.
I am happy with the appointment of Brian Laws. He is the best man for the job. I am sure the fans will warm to him. We tend to do well when a former player is in charge.
I listened to you on Talksport yesterday and was a bit surprised to hear that you played such a role in our search for a new manager. But I was, of course, happy about it as you seem to possess a remarkable capacity for analytical thinking.
Looking forward to Maya!
I do agree with Quietzapple. The key problem with the Conservatives is that because David Cameron is a vacuous PR man and not really a leader at all it means that the forces behind him will effectively be put in power if the Conservatives get elected.
This means that Ashcroft, Dacre, Murdoch, Laidlaw, Barclay bros. will be running the country. The previous opposition leaders, William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith were pretty awful, but at least they were actually leading the Conservative Party so they could moderate the influence of the dark figures that fund the Party and support it in the press.
On a second issue:
The Independent reported Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems as having excellent policies for LGBT issues. I am a gay man living in the Hove and Portslade constituency which is very marginal. In fact the three constituencies of Brighton and Hove are marginal and the same story applies to each.
There are three viable winners at these constituencies, Labour, Conservatives and the Greens. The LGBT vote is very important in these constituencies and the Greens are excellent on these issues.
I feel that if Labour equal the policies of Nick Clegg identified in that Independent article they will have done the right thing and it might help them to hold on to these three MPs in the general election.
‘As James Purnell put it in the Guardian, Gordon Brown deserves credit for preventing this recession becoming depression. David Cameron would have failed that test. If British public were to understand this, there would be no doubt about the winner on polling day.’
Rubbish, we were the last major economy to emerge from the recession (still not officially) and now have horrendous debt problems, again far greater than other G20 nations, which is why come polling day there will be no doubt about the winner – and it will not be Brown and his joke of a government !
It’s good to think about the Tories’ policies – especially when they seem too sensible to be true.
Let’s look at their notions about reducing problems caused by alcohol consumption by putting a note on a bottle of booze saying something like “the average man or woman drinks xxxxx of alcohol per day/week/month” together with some wholesome advice about not drinking excessively.
Using an average like this leaves the drinks industry free to advertise “responsibly” as hard as it pleases to those who drink rather less than the average.
Then, over time, with increasing sales to those drinking below the safe average – surprise surprise – the average will rise. And because the Tories advice on safe drinking levels is based on the average up goes the average printed on the bottle. Thus the more alcohol we drink the bigger becomes the figure that the Tories’ say is safe to drink.
!
The Tories cannot be trusted to tackle issues where there is a conflict of interest between the nation’s health and the profits of big business.
I’m just catching up with the comments about your evidence on Tuesday. Can I suggest to Peter that he has a look at the Hutton Inquiry website (1/9/03 paras.93/96) which shows I believe Dr. Kelly’s true feelings about the invasion.
He is also quoted when asked for his opinion of the dossier by Dr Brian Jones as saying that it was ‘good’. Quite the opposite from what Peter suggests.
My congratulations to you on your evidence when for me your integrity shone thro’
How deluded are you guys? You talk as if from the Labour party of the 1970s. Have you forgotten your support for big business? Have you forgotten you were quite relaxed about people getting filthy rich? Have you forgotten Gordon’s praise of the City?
The gap between rich and poor has got wider on Labour’s watch. The PM says he is going to invest and not make any cuts against the biggest deficit in our history! Remember his 0% rise.
Oh forget it – collapse to your own doom if you want to but try to be honest about your record. Calling the tories the party of the rich just doesn’t wash after the last 13 years!!
Confused, why would a thoroughly discredited document still have your full and uncompromising support. Do you not acknowledge that the evidence contained in this dossier was fabricated to justify a position, and in the end found to be a complete and utter travesty of truth ? Iraq did not have WMD, and this was an excercise in regime change. Why do you lot treat the average punter like an idiot ?
Yes this is the real fight.
The issue of highlighting ‘toffs’ has been denigrated widely recently.
A classisc example of ‘toffery’ is the Tories idea of bringing back fox hunting.
This perfectly encapsulates their idea of what is important in these difficult times.
Let’s bring back the barbaric practices of the past – enjoyed by a few elite.
What may be next?
As a keen walker/rambler I have to ask the question, will reforming the Countryside Right of Way Act (CROW) be their next target – so that our right to walk is curtailed to protect a few landowners from us citizens enjoying a healthy walk?
God help us!
Deep-down, they are still the ‘nasty party’ they have always been.