Prezza v Bloggers Michael White Gives Round One To Prezza on Points
46
comments:
Anonymous
said...
Further proof (not that it was needed), that Sir Michael is so far up the backside of Number 10 that he can only see the world through Blair's eyes...
I just love the way that this has now become a "Them and Us" tirade... especially as he "writes" (I of course use that in the loosest terms, he can rarely be arsed to actually file any copy) for one paper who have actually pioneered an interactive community through their Comment is Free pages....
Methinks tis time Sir Michael of the Brown Ahslikahs was put out of his misery, as they do to any lame, old or failed Race Horse who cannot produce any emission of decent quality...
And, Sir Mikey, if you are reading this, I know for a fact it isn't just the faceless proletariat, I mean Bloggers and online commentariat who hate your feeble writing attempts that are the shadow of your former columns, much as your innate snobbery would like to believe it is just "little people" who are jealous and loathe you
No... I know for a fact that you are loathed in the former SpAD community and also amongst your colleagues in the Dead Tree Press too, who all think you are a pompous and self-aggrandising deluded fool
July 22, 2006 at 2:56 AM
Anonymous
said...
What a cheeky little cunt that Mr White is!
July 22, 2006 at 3:57 AM
Anonymous
said...
Guido, I have the full Western outfit (being a Westerner) if you want to borrow it for the Showdown at the Westminster Corral.
July 22, 2006 at 5:25 AM
Anonymous
said...
Don't worry, I'll put him right next time I see him lurking in Chiswick.
July 22, 2006 at 5:30 AM
Anonymous
said...
Corporatist Media Organisations are sp Pravda nowadays.............Ministry of Truth like they spout Newspeak to induce Doublethink........................who would have thought it would come to this ?
July 22, 2006 at 6:42 AM
Anonymous
said...
Excellent article by Michael White.Just what he needs as he slips into his dotage, people taking an interest in what he writes.What would have happened if he had written that Prescott is a lying cheating crooked bastard? Everyone would have shruuged and moved on to the crossword page. This way he can at least bolster his fading self esteem by thinking that people are interested enough to comment. Very interesting tactic by the old hack.And loads of potential follow ups: 'Blair really is straight','NuLab is purer than pure'etc. etc. Enough material to last until he gets his peerage.
July 22, 2006 at 6:52 AM
Anonymous
said...
Ah yes round2....isn't that the one where Prezza is PM whilst Blair if off on some freebee holiday staying in the villa of some dodgy billionaire whilst....(it is rumourd) at least 2 bimbos erupt in the Screws with further stories on the adventures of John's chipolata, perhaps whilst JP was wearing his stetson. I for one can't wait, it will be the biggest political laugh in a very long time and why should the press spoil it now when they only have to wait a couple of weeks?
July 22, 2006 at 8:26 AM
Anonymous
said...
Maybe Prezza has got away with winning round one on points. I still predict that somewhere in the later rounds, Prezza will be lying face down on the canvas with his legs twitching and when he needs help to revive, all his seconds will have deserted his corner.
White is always good for a laugh. I think it's the attitude which tickles me. He's not all that clever, he is self-opinionated and remarkably political.
He may not be able to research or write a proper article, but he does know how to write a splash headline.
So, well done Michael, you've had your splash, now sod off and let the rather more able others do the real work.
July 22, 2006 at 9:15 AM
Anonymous
said...
Who?
None other than the laughably brown-nosing, odius Michael White.
July 22, 2006 at 9:28 AM
Anonymous
said...
'who in their right mind will want to be associated with this pathetic individual. It won't exactly look good on the cv being in the same room as a man who clearly has a serious difficulty distinguishing business and pleasure.' So that's why Prodi isn't in the official G8 summit photo as well, just a big space (and I know Prodi isn't slender but it looked as if the next bloke had edged away a bit further too) where he should have been standing next to Blair, ringed in red with lots of surprise expressed in the Italian press that their premier was said to have been 'called to the phone' just at photo time.
July 22, 2006 at 9:35 AM
Anonymous
said...
"Arise Sir Michael". This quid pro quo for your wretched syco-babble scribblings is not a sure fire thing. Blair's resignation list may yet disappoint. Prescott represents all that is corrupt in Blair's administration. The whole bleeding country knows his appointment is a Labour Party job which taxpayers fund. Add to that the cost of his incompetence. This moron is a blott on the landscape. And you Sir Michael know this yet collude in keeping him in a job. Shame on you.
July 22, 2006 at 9:41 AM
Anonymous
said...
That's the man who lost the fight with the ugly bat, Theo...Sir Mike. The now self-appointed judge of who-wins-what it seems, stuff the public interest angle, he's trying to justify the paycheck and keeping in with NuLab.
July 22, 2006 at 9:43 AM
Anonymous
said...
you've really got under his skin, keep it up. a vastly pompous man with a twerpish moustache.
July 22, 2006 at 9:53 AM
Anonymous
said...
AnyonebutBlair said..
Ah yes round2....isn't that the one where Prezza is PM whilst Blair if off on some freebee holiday staying in the villa of some dodgy billionaire whilst....(it is rumourd) at least 2 bimbos erupt in the Screws with further stories on the adventures of John's chipolata, perhaps whilst JP was wearing his stetson. I for one can't wait, it will be the biggest political laugh in a very long time and why should the press spoil it now when they only have to wait a couple of weeks?
You have to wonder if that is the case.....let JP take 'control of the country', then the papers break the scandal (even though its been around here for a while now). Maximum impact, maximum damage...
Ouch.
July 22, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Anonymous
said...
hey, maybe Mr White knows more than you give him credit for -- didn't he famously indulge in fisticuffs himself, with one Al Campbell (not sure whether the match was won on points, though)
July 22, 2006 at 10:04 AM
Anonymous
said...
hang on, he can't be all bad, can he? Didn't Michael White once score a pugilistic points win against Alastair Campbell?
July 22, 2006 at 10:08 AM
Anonymous
said...
Aww, bless the poor old bugger. He really should consider wearing that tinfoil hat a bit more when he goes out into the sun, I'm sure this heatwave has hastened on sun stroke. It's either that or he was just taking down a dictation from his good mate Blunkett who as we all know can't see anything wrong with his party.
July 22, 2006 at 10:29 AM
Anonymous
said...
The lobby is a dying dinosaur
Full of champagne socialists and sycophants
Blogs are the future
Michael White can see the role of hacks like him disappearing - about time he was pensioned off
Have a look in today's Times and the Haldane cartoon "It IS a mild rebuke John. We're using blanks" - and Prezza blindfolded and tied to a firing squad post.
Sums things up quite nicely.
July 22, 2006 at 10:37 AM
Anonymous
said...
in Prezza's own words (DPMQs in Commons, last Wednesday) - he has been an MP for no less than 35 years. So therefore he should know the rules on propriety backwards
The trouble is that he doen't seem to know these rules forwards but since that's the version in English, one can see why that would be.
July 22, 2006 at 10:47 AM
Anonymous
said...
As lambethlad points out that Prezza has been an MP for 35years. Can anyone name any achievement (other than the ugandan ones) that Prezza has achieved in that long period? What has he done to deserve his fat salary and fully paid up pension, worth I would guess far more than the 1.4 mill total fund that lesser mortals are now allowed (execpt of course if you are a minister or judge)
July 22, 2006 at 10:57 AM
Anonymous
said...
Has anyone else noticed Sir Michaels' remarkable resemblance to the former Kaiser ? Understand the deal is, labour get £747,648 's worth of advertising and Sir Michel 'looses' the invoice.
July 22, 2006 at 11:00 AM
Anonymous
said...
FergusMac; yep, same here. I suspect it will be a growing phenomenon.
July 22, 2006 at 11:17 AM
Anonymous
said...
flavious 10.29..'Blunkett can't see anything wrong with his party'..Sorry old chap but that was in poor taste....leave the below the belt cracks for Wild Bill Littlecock.
July 22, 2006 at 11:24 AM
Anonymous
said...
A strong case doesn't need to rely on distortion. So why does Sir Michael White distort his case and fall back on spin - with his absurd claim it all comes down to a £97 stetson which is now locked away in a ministry cupboard.?
Because its his lot, nulab, who are on the ropes, not Guido, the bloggers and the public.
Nulab apologetics and spin like this - from Toynbee as well as White - are what made me, a former lifelong Guardian reader, stop buying the Guardian.
I read three newspapers a day to get a more balanced picture - and the Guardian's not one of them any longer.
July 22, 2006 at 11:45 AM
Anonymous
said...
"Can anyone name any achievement (other than the ugandan ones) that Prezza has achieved in that long period?"
Didn't he achieve the building of a toll road he had promised would not be built?
July 22, 2006 at 12:51 PM
Anonymous
said...
Dear Guido
... to do justly & to love mercy .....
Senor Fawkes shall not lose heart. Judgment Day is not yet arrived for these honourable men (and in such enlightened times, women)
This is not about winning or losing ... nor is it the fatuous suggestion that el Prezzo has had to overcome snobbocracy to achieve all (if anything) that he has achieved
.... Honesty ... it is about Truth & Truthfulness which seems so absent with the current Trough-tramplers
It is would be interesting to know what an independent Valuation of the Stetson would come up - would it be Mr White's suggested £97 ?
And why has Mr Blair failed to shew his commitment to openness & transparency by insisting on such an Independent Valuation
An Eagle has no knowledge to value such things (his experience focuses more on mice & other small deer), but perhaps la Verity (who seems to know about these things American) can help us
Your obedient servant etc
G Eagle
July 22, 2006 at 1:43 PM
Anonymous
said...
Then again, if the "former SPaD community", a bunch of people who used to get paid for lying for a living, and now get paid by cashing in on their time being paid to lie for a living, hate Sir Michael White, can he be all bad?
July 22, 2006 at 3:21 PM
Anonymous
said...
I'm not sure about White looking like the Kaiser (backwoodsman). If you look at the glittering eyes, the military 'tache, the cruel sardonic smile and imagine him looking through prison bars, you've got Fulton Mackay as the immortal Mr Mackay in Porridge. Fletchah! Fletchah!
July 22, 2006 at 5:05 PM
Anonymous
said...
If this was really boxing, the referee would have stopped the contest to save Pre$$a from further punishment some time ago
July 22, 2006 at 5:06 PM
Anonymous
said...
Take a look at what Michael White had to say on Sky News's press review Friday night, if you can get hold of a tape. Bumbling idiot doesn't even begin to describe it. He made Kate Hoey sound like Tony Benn!
July 22, 2006 at 7:36 PM
Anonymous
said...
I keep having this image of Fat-Jags, a stetson perched atop his sweating pate, riding his latest conquest while calling out "Yee haaa, ey-up, I'm a-runnin' the country, lass" and jabbing at her wobbling buttocks with his spurs.
I am currently undergoing therapy for this nightmarish vision.
July 22, 2006 at 11:18 PM
Anonymous
said...
FYI, I'm not American, I'm Canadian, but I have gone cowboy hat shopping and can tell you that Stetsons can be expensive and £97 is not out of line. It's also not their best.
July 23, 2006 at 2:08 AM
Anonymous
said...
Is Blair effectively subverting the rule of law and the requirements of democracy here?
Blair's office has said this matter's at an end. Despite the Standards Committee, Standards Commissioner, opposition and public calling for a full independent Inquiry, Blair - who alone has the power to set one up -refuses to do so.
The manner in which Prescott has breached the Ministerial Code raises the issue of whether Prescott has broken the law on Corruption. In blocking any examination of this issue, Blair is putting Prescott above the law. He's saying Prescott is not accountable, even if he may have broken the law.
July 23, 2006 at 2:40 AM
Anonymous
said...
Guido,
Today the Sunday Telegraph reports that Prescott personally wrote a letter concerning casinos.
He's quoted as writing In the letter, dated October 20 2005: "We have not ruled out the possibility of asking Parliament to approve an increase in the number of regional casinos at some future point. We will consider any evidence that is safe and prudent in regulatory terms to increase the number of regional casinos to anything up to eight. In that context I will certainly note your suggestion that there should be four regional casinos."
If (when?) this matter gets to court, the task for defence counsel will be easy...
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how can any of us be expected to believe that my client wrote this fine example of proper English prose? We all know that he has no ability whatsoever with the language of Shakespeare. To suggest that an illiterate and incoherent oaf such as the present Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom wrote this letter is clearly preposterous and an insult to our common sense. According this charge against him should be dismissed out of hand."
July 23, 2006 at 8:30 AM
Anonymous
said...
Raincoaster is quite right to draw the distinction between Americans and Canadians - for all sorts of reasons.
Maybe, though, he would care to hazard a guess at the value of the rest of JP's cowboy outfit. (Sorry, I meant clothes not office).
You can bet that the civil servants would have been frantically checking Ebay for prices when the whole charade blew up.... Mind you, maybe that's how they spend their days in the ODPM anyway.
July 23, 2006 at 1:06 PM
Anonymous
said...
I can only do the guessing in Canadian dollars, but spurs can be anywhere from fifty up; I'd bet these were fancy, so say $200 minimum.
What else did he get? Please tell me he got buttless chaps. The image is so perfect. Perfectly horrible.
July 23, 2006 at 2:11 PM
Anonymous
said...
Chuck
Perhaps off-topic (& menaced witha blog-author veto) but are we right to hypothesize that the incisive & informative Raincoaster is a she, not a he ?!!?
July 23, 2006 at 6:19 PM
Anonymous
said...
My font is gender-neutral, but I am not. I am indeed a she. And thank you for the flattering description. I'm always up for being outed if there's flattery in it for me.
July 24, 2006 at 12:02 AM
Anonymous
said...
Umm, I seem to recall that it was reported that Precott originally claimed that the ranch visit was a purely private matter - nothing to do with business.
That doesn't tally with what actually happened.
Isn't that a provable deviation from the truth?
July 24, 2006 at 1:30 AM
Anonymous
said...
The latest line of defense is, "I needed the cowboy outfit because it was a working visit on the ranch". Shame fatboy never showed the same urge to kit himself up in a Barbour and green wellies and see how defra are managing to destroy British farming.
July 24, 2006 at 9:59 AM
Anonymous
said...
Prezza claimed in his interview that there was no UNDUE influence on him. Can we now have Prezza's definition of 'undue'?
Given nulab's, self serving, Orwellian Newspeak corruption of the English language - and Prezza's own unique corruption of even this - he should have been asked to clearly define what would amount to undue influence.
The principles guiding Ministerial Conduct have clearly been corrupted beyond all recognition. In nulab terms, ethics is no longer even a county near Middx, its whatever suits the grubby Party within a Party in nulab this week.
July 24, 2006 at 12:35 PM
Anonymous
said...
Dear Raincoaster
I hope I have not offended but (like Senor Guido) I only blog as I see it (w9ith or without the blog autho's veto) ... do you live anywhere near Mount Allison or Highway Allison
46 comments:
Further proof (not that it was needed), that Sir Michael is so far up the backside of Number 10 that he can only see the world through Blair's eyes...
I just love the way that this has now become a "Them and Us" tirade... especially as he "writes" (I of course use that in the loosest terms, he can rarely be arsed to actually file any copy) for one paper who have actually pioneered an interactive community through their Comment is Free pages....
Methinks tis time Sir Michael of the Brown Ahslikahs was put out of his misery, as they do to any lame, old or failed Race Horse who cannot produce any emission of decent quality...
And, Sir Mikey, if you are reading this, I know for a fact it isn't just the faceless proletariat, I mean Bloggers and online commentariat who hate your feeble writing attempts that are the shadow of your former columns, much as your innate snobbery would like to believe it is just "little people" who are jealous and loathe you
No... I know for a fact that you are loathed in the former SpAD community and also amongst your colleagues in the Dead Tree Press too, who all think you are a pompous and self-aggrandising deluded fool
What a cheeky little cunt that Mr White is!
Guido, I have the full Western outfit (being a Westerner) if you want to borrow it for the Showdown at the Westminster Corral.
Don't worry, I'll put him right next time I see him lurking in Chiswick.
Corporatist Media Organisations are sp Pravda nowadays.............Ministry of Truth like they spout Newspeak to induce Doublethink........................who would have thought it would come to this ?
Excellent article by Michael White.Just what he needs as he slips into his dotage, people taking an interest in what he writes.What would have happened if he had written that Prescott is a lying cheating crooked bastard? Everyone would have shruuged and moved on to the crossword page. This way he can at least bolster his fading self esteem by thinking that people are interested enough to comment. Very interesting tactic by the old hack.And loads of potential follow ups: 'Blair really is straight','NuLab is purer than pure'etc. etc. Enough material to last until he gets his peerage.
Ah yes round2....isn't that the one where Prezza is PM whilst Blair if off on some freebee holiday staying in the villa of some dodgy billionaire whilst....(it is rumourd) at least 2 bimbos erupt in the Screws with further stories on the adventures of John's chipolata, perhaps whilst JP was wearing his stetson. I for one can't wait, it will be the biggest political laugh in a very long time and why should the press spoil it now when they only have to wait a couple of weeks?
Maybe Prezza has got away with winning round one on points. I still predict that somewhere in the later rounds, Prezza will be lying face down on the canvas with his legs twitching and when he needs help to revive, all his seconds will have deserted his corner.
Who is the rat faced fink in the photo?
White is always good for a laugh. I think it's the attitude which tickles me. He's not all that clever, he is self-opinionated and remarkably political.
He may not be able to research or write a proper article, but he does know how to write a splash headline.
So, well done Michael, you've had your splash, now sod off and let the rather more able others do the real work.
Who?
None other than the laughably brown-nosing, odius Michael White.
'who in their right mind will want to be associated with this pathetic individual. It won't exactly look good on the cv being in the same room as a man who clearly has a serious difficulty distinguishing business and pleasure.' So that's why Prodi isn't in the official G8 summit photo as well, just a big space (and I know Prodi isn't slender but it looked as if the next bloke had edged away a bit further too) where he should have been standing next to Blair, ringed in red with lots of surprise expressed in the Italian press that their premier was said to have been 'called to the phone' just at photo time.
"Arise Sir Michael". This quid pro quo for your wretched syco-babble scribblings is not a sure fire thing. Blair's resignation list may yet disappoint. Prescott represents all that is corrupt in Blair's administration. The whole bleeding country knows his appointment is a Labour Party job which taxpayers fund. Add to that the cost of his incompetence. This moron is a blott on the landscape. And you Sir Michael know this yet collude in keeping him in a job. Shame on you.
That's the man who lost the fight with the ugly bat, Theo...Sir Mike.
The now self-appointed judge of who-wins-what it seems, stuff the public interest angle, he's trying to justify the paycheck and keeping in with NuLab.
you've really got under his skin, keep it up. a vastly pompous man with a twerpish moustache.
AnyonebutBlair said..
Ah yes round2....isn't that the one where Prezza is PM whilst Blair if off on some freebee holiday staying in the villa of some dodgy billionaire whilst....(it is rumourd) at least 2 bimbos erupt in the Screws with further stories on the adventures of John's chipolata, perhaps whilst JP was wearing his stetson. I for one can't wait, it will be the biggest political laugh in a very long time and why should the press spoil it now when they only have to wait a couple of weeks?
You have to wonder if that is the case.....let JP take 'control of the country', then the papers break the scandal (even though its been around here for a while now). Maximum impact, maximum damage...
Ouch.
hey, maybe Mr White knows more than you give him credit for -- didn't he famously indulge in fisticuffs himself, with one Al Campbell (not sure whether the match was won on points, though)
hang on, he can't be all bad, can he? Didn't Michael White once score a pugilistic points win against Alastair Campbell?
Aww, bless the poor old bugger. He really should consider wearing that tinfoil hat a bit more when he goes out into the sun, I'm sure this heatwave has hastened on sun stroke. It's either that or he was just taking down a dictation from his good mate Blunkett who as we all know can't see anything wrong with his party.
The lobby is a dying dinosaur
Full of champagne socialists and sycophants
Blogs are the future
Michael White can see the role of hacks like him disappearing - about time he was pensioned off
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5204614.stm
Looks like it isn't over yet. Even the BBC have a better grip on reality than White.
Ho Ho Ho! - the poor old duffer!
Have a look in today's Times and the Haldane cartoon "It IS a mild rebuke John. We're using blanks" - and Prezza blindfolded and tied to a firing squad post.
Sums things up quite nicely.
in Prezza's own words (DPMQs in Commons, last Wednesday) - he has been an MP for no less than 35 years. So therefore he should know the rules on propriety backwards
The trouble is that he doen't seem to know these rules forwards but since that's the version in English, one can see why that would be.
As lambethlad points out that Prezza has been an MP for 35years. Can anyone name any achievement (other than the ugandan ones) that Prezza has achieved in that long period? What has he done to deserve his fat salary and fully paid up pension, worth I would guess far more than the 1.4 mill total fund that lesser mortals are now allowed (execpt of course if you are a minister or judge)
Has anyone else noticed Sir Michaels' remarkable resemblance to the former Kaiser ?
Understand the deal is, labour get £747,648 's worth of advertising and Sir Michel 'looses' the invoice.
FergusMac; yep, same here. I suspect it will be a growing phenomenon.
flavious 10.29..'Blunkett can't see anything wrong with his party'..Sorry old chap but that was in poor taste....leave the below the belt cracks for Wild Bill Littlecock.
A strong case doesn't need to rely on distortion. So why does Sir Michael White distort his case and fall back on spin - with his absurd claim it all comes down to a £97 stetson which is now locked away in a ministry cupboard.?
Because its his lot, nulab, who are on the ropes, not Guido, the bloggers and the public.
Nulab apologetics and spin like this - from Toynbee as well as White - are what made me, a former lifelong Guardian reader, stop buying the Guardian.
I read three newspapers a day to get a more balanced picture - and the Guardian's not one of them any longer.
"Can anyone name any achievement (other than the ugandan ones) that Prezza has achieved in that long period?"
Didn't he achieve the building of a toll road he had promised would not be built?
Dear Guido
... to do justly & to love mercy .....
Senor Fawkes shall not lose heart. Judgment Day is not yet arrived for these honourable men (and in such enlightened times, women)
This is not about winning or losing ... nor is it the fatuous suggestion that el Prezzo has had to overcome snobbocracy to achieve all (if anything) that he has achieved
.... Honesty ... it is about Truth & Truthfulness which seems so absent with the current Trough-tramplers
It is would be interesting to know what an independent Valuation of the Stetson would come up - would it be Mr White's suggested £97 ?
And why has Mr Blair failed to shew his commitment to openness & transparency by insisting on such an Independent Valuation
An Eagle has no knowledge to value such things (his experience focuses more on mice & other small deer), but perhaps la Verity (who seems to know about these things American) can help us
Your obedient servant etc
G Eagle
Then again, if the "former SPaD community", a bunch of people who used to get paid for lying for a living, and now get paid by cashing in on their time being paid to lie for a living, hate Sir Michael White, can he be all bad?
I'm not sure about White looking like the Kaiser (backwoodsman).
If you look at the glittering eyes, the military 'tache, the cruel sardonic smile and imagine him looking through prison bars, you've got Fulton Mackay as the immortal Mr Mackay in Porridge.
Fletchah! Fletchah!
If this was really boxing, the referee would have stopped the contest to save Pre$$a from further punishment some time ago
Take a look at what Michael White had to say on Sky News's press review Friday night, if you can get hold of a tape. Bumbling idiot doesn't even begin to describe it. He made Kate Hoey sound like Tony Benn!
I keep having this image of Fat-Jags, a stetson perched atop his sweating pate, riding his latest conquest while calling out "Yee haaa, ey-up, I'm a-runnin' the country, lass" and jabbing at her wobbling buttocks with his spurs.
I am currently undergoing therapy for this nightmarish vision.
FYI, I'm not American, I'm Canadian, but I have gone cowboy hat shopping and can tell you that Stetsons can be expensive and £97 is not out of line. It's also not their best.
Is Blair effectively subverting the rule of law and the requirements of democracy here?
Blair's office has said this matter's at an end. Despite the Standards Committee, Standards Commissioner, opposition and public calling for a full independent Inquiry, Blair - who alone has the power to set one up -refuses to do so.
The manner in which Prescott has breached the Ministerial Code raises the issue of whether Prescott has broken the law on Corruption. In blocking any examination of this issue, Blair is putting Prescott above the law. He's saying Prescott is not accountable, even if he may have broken the law.
Guido,
Today the Sunday Telegraph reports that Prescott personally wrote a letter concerning casinos.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/23/npresc23.xml
He's quoted as writing In the letter, dated October 20 2005: "We have not ruled out the possibility of asking Parliament to approve an increase in the number of regional casinos at some future point. We will consider any evidence that is safe and prudent in regulatory terms to increase the number of regional casinos to anything up to eight. In that context I will certainly note your suggestion that there should be four regional casinos."
If (when?) this matter gets to court, the task for defence counsel will be easy...
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how can any of us be expected to believe that my client wrote this fine example of proper English prose? We all know that he has no ability whatsoever with the language of Shakespeare. To suggest that an illiterate and incoherent oaf such as the present Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom wrote this letter is clearly preposterous and an insult to our common sense. According this charge against him should be dismissed out of hand."
Raincoaster is quite right to draw the distinction between Americans and Canadians - for all sorts of reasons.
Maybe, though, he would care to hazard a guess at the value of the rest of JP's cowboy outfit. (Sorry, I meant clothes not office).
You can bet that the civil servants would have been frantically checking Ebay for prices when the whole charade blew up.... Mind you, maybe that's how they spend their days in the ODPM anyway.
I can only do the guessing in Canadian dollars, but spurs can be anywhere from fifty up; I'd bet these were fancy, so say $200 minimum.
What else did he get? Please tell me he got buttless chaps. The image is so perfect. Perfectly horrible.
Chuck
Perhaps off-topic (& menaced witha blog-author veto) but are we right to hypothesize that the incisive & informative Raincoaster is a she, not a he ?!!?
My font is gender-neutral, but I am not. I am indeed a she. And thank you for the flattering description. I'm always up for being outed if there's flattery in it for me.
Umm, I seem to recall that it was reported that Precott originally claimed that the ranch visit was a purely private matter - nothing to do with business.
That doesn't tally with what actually happened.
Isn't that a provable deviation from the truth?
The latest line of defense is, "I needed the cowboy outfit because it was a working visit on the ranch". Shame fatboy never showed the same urge to kit himself up in a Barbour and green wellies and see how defra are managing to destroy British farming.
Prezza claimed in his interview that there was no UNDUE influence on him. Can we now have Prezza's definition of 'undue'?
Given nulab's, self serving, Orwellian Newspeak corruption of the English language - and Prezza's own unique corruption of even this - he should have been asked to clearly define what would amount to undue influence.
The principles guiding Ministerial Conduct have clearly been corrupted beyond all recognition. In nulab terms, ethics is no longer even a county near Middx, its whatever suits the grubby Party within a Party in nulab this week.
Dear Raincoaster
I hope I have not offended but (like Senor Guido) I only blog as I see it (w9ith or without the blog autho's veto) ... do you live anywhere near Mount Allison or Highway Allison
Yours ever
Anon 6:19pm