lOOKS ABOUT SPOT ON GREAT DITHERING BULLYING SCOTTISH NO HOPER THAT CAN'T COPE WITH CONFRONTATION UNLESS HE IS SO MUCH FURTHER UP THE FOODCHAIN THAN HIS VICTIM. A GENERAL ALL ROUND TWAT OF THE FIRST WATER
April 19, 2008 at 9:28 AM
Anonymous
said...
Since becoming prime minister, Brown has failed to come up with a convincing mission statement, but everything I saw inside Whitehall suggests he does have strongly held values. One old hand in the civil service I knew advised me that the key to getting a policy cleared by the chancellor was sticking a graph on the top showing how the poorest stood to gain most. When Blair came up with a reactionary gimmick docking child benefit for truants, for example Brown would be on the phone to our department to get it stopped, booming: "What kind of party are we becoming?"
The same kind of party as Bliar ran. Bliar's was funded by Michael Levy for the benefit of Levy and his chums; Brown's is funded by Ronald Cohen for the benefit of Cohen and his chums.
Worrying questions over Brown's private banker
The Blair Government has long given every appearance of being ready to carry out favours in return for political donations or other kinds of help. For example, the Prime Minister allowed Government policy on tobacco advertising to be changed after the Labour Party received £1 million from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, and was in negotiation for another donation.
He helped the Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal in his bid for a Romanian steel firm for no other reason, so far as one can tell, than a £125,000 party donation. Ministers also provided assistance to the controversial Hinduja brothers over an application for a British passport around the time they promised a donation to the Millennium Dome. The list of such deals is long and shameful.
There is strong circumstantial evidence that a similar exchange of favours has been taking place with the private equity business, where Sir Ronald is the doyen.
Sir Ronald (who has personally given some £1.5 million to Labour since 2001 alone) is one of a group of private equity moguls who have made very substantial donations to the Labour Party. Meanwhile, ministers have proved extremely susceptible to lobbying by the industry's body, the British Venture Capital Association. For example, in 2003 Gordon Brown dropped plans for a change in the way the venture capital funds were taxed.
The following year, ministers axed proposals to toughen up their responsibilities for employee pension rights. A favourite tactic in private equity take-overs - to the distress of employees - is to slough off any responsibility for pensions.
ABOVE all, Gordon Brown opened the way for private equity entrepreneurs to make massive fortunes when he slashed the rate of capital gains tax soon after becoming Chancellor.
Throughout its time in government, New Labour has given its unreserved public help to the private equity 'industry'. It should be noted that this support has come at the expense of Labour's traditional backers in the trade union movement and among ordinary Labour activists.
Brown even managed to make Dubya look good ... Whatever next an invite from Mugabe ?
April 19, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Anonymous
said...
One old hand in the civil service I knew advised me that the key to getting a policy cleared by the chancellor was sticking a graph on the top showing how the poorest stood to gain most....
As soon as I read that I saw that it was a puff piece and designed to get him points in the run up to May 1st. I skipped over the rest.
This bloke really is a Brown acolyte who is trying to portray him as everything we think he is, but completely misunderstood...well here's the rub Tom me old china...he isn't misunderstood, he is a typical Labour cunt of the first order.
April 19, 2008 at 9:38 AM
Anonymous
said...
So,if every Labour man and his dog knew that Brown was not PM material, why did they make him PM?
When Cable stood before the crowd and pointed out that Brown had no clothes, the crowd laughed. The crowd laughed at Brown. The crowd openly admitted to what they all knew was the truth about their leader and PM.
Most amusing to see that Brown is demonstrating how in touch he is with everyone by being "furious" that the 10p tax issue has overshawdowed the great leaders visit to the USA. What a complete fuckwit.
Its also amusing to see al Beeb spinning the visit as important event. In 2006 at the height of the Lebanon war stuff, I was in the USA. In the UK press Blair was pictured everywhere "leading" the response to Israel etc. In the Us media, he didn't exist.
So Brown's chances of any kudos in the US is complete bollox, regardless of how al Beeb spin it for him
April 19, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Anonymous
said...
Tom Clark clearly has a soft spot for Brown. That's fine and, for sure, he seems to have been sufficiently close to some of the action to make his comments at least relevant. Unfortunately for the country the most cursory examination of the article shows that to almost every Brown 'positive' is attached a fatal 'but'. The article serves as just one more reminder us of the Peter Principle; that in an hierarchically structured administration people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence. I don't pretend this is new thought in relation to Brown but its likely truth in his case really does mean that he, and, therefore, us are well and truly stuffed.
April 19, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Anonymous
said...
Interesting story in the Daily Brownograph this morning, suggesting that Alistair Sock-Puppet is preparing a 'concession' on the 10p tax rate, possibly by sending affected people (low paid workers without children) a cheque for the extra tax they have paid.
Sounds nice. But look at the mechanics. The Revenue won't be able to calculate the amount owed to each individual until the end of the tax year. Employer returns will be due in by 19th May 2009, and most of them are filed electronically. So if the tax people get cracking, they should be able to get cheques out by the end of May. Just in time to give several million low-paid workers a cash bung about one week before a June election.
I'm starting to think the Snotgobbler-Sock-Puppet combination is far more politically devious than we have given them credit for. CGT changes are another example. Ever since they were announced, accountants have been telling wealthy individuals to sell their assets right at the end of the 2007-8 tax year so they benefit from the old, lower CGT rate and indexation allowance, then buy the assets back at the start of the new tax year. Minor pain in the arse for the rich, major bonus for the Treasury which is going to get a decent size CGT windfall next January when tax returns come in. If enough rich people have taken their accountants' advice, that should allow for some headline-grabbing giveaways to potential Labour voters in the 2009 budget.
I can only think of two taxes where the timing of payment is normally outside the Government's control - CGT (where you only pay the tax when you sell the assets) and inheritance tax. The Govt has engineered a policy which strongly encourages people to sell assets at a particular time and pay tax on the sale. It wouldn't surprise me if Sock-Puppet is trying to work out how he can make some rich people die between now and the next budget.
Incidentally, all the above may be bollocks. I used to be an accountant but I was crap at it and got fired.
April 19, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Anonymous
said...
If someone didn't let me choose how much milk I put in my coffee I wouldn't think they were saving time - I'd think they were a control freak who wouldn't allow people to make decisions for themselves. It's a perfect little metaphor for Brown's approach to politics. This is obviously written by a decent guy who's trying to put the best gloss on Brown's motives. A more detached reading shows Brown up as a neurotic, furtive, obsessive mess - a man entirely unfit to lead the country.
April 19, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Anonymous
said...
The 'author' of various books on courage operates in a 'fog of fear'. Tom Clark.
'Money lost, something lost; honour lost, much lost; courage lost, all lost.' Goethe
April 19, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Anonymous
said...
Spin spin spin spin.
Bean is a fuckwit - full stop.
April 19, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Anonymous
said...
And bless, GB used to buy 2nd class rail tickets - whilst living free in Downing St and claiming 2nd home expenses from Westminster.
St Francis of Assisi he ain't.
April 19, 2008 at 10:32 AM
Anonymous
said...
What about those that don't take milk?
April 19, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Anonymous
said...
Jonah Bean - Labour's Anthony Eden.
April 19, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Anonymous
said...
another piece of pacifying propaganda from the brown camp. the reality is that gordon brown is a total fucking spastic. he has, by doubling the tax liabilty of the poor, torpedoed new labour's claim of being the party of social justice. what a dopey cunt. new labour would be well advised to ditch this cretin.
April 19, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Anonymous
said...
Can we please stop these attacks on Brown? If he has a nervous breakdown and resigns the Labour Party might actually survive.
Actually sod it, the man's a retard and it's good fun!
"So why did they make him PM?" Truly a mystery. You can enlarge the question: "So why did they elect them (for the THIRD time)?" Because they are idiots, perhaps?
April 19, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Anonymous
said...
Broon was incapable of accepting the blame for the various problems thrown up by his complex working family tax credit schemes, his merger of Revenue and Customs for example. What did he do, let some poor junior minister face the flak in Parliament.
Consider how loyally he stood by Blair over Iraq, how often did he speak out on this issue? How often did he offer clear public support for Blair's foreign policy? Then consider how was holding the purse strings, time and again, coroners' inquests have ended with criticism of the MOD's failings over equipment. OK, some of these are organisational, but others are a direct result of Broon's failure to fund defence equipment to fight a war with a wartime budget.
Broon stayed silent, few interviews on tv or radio, what did he really stand for - spinners would say Comrade Napoleon says this, Comrade Napoleon says that, but Comrade Napoleon doesn't do interviews where he has to be scrutinised.
There has been a hint or two that as PM Blair has had some family problem which made him wobble over his tenure of 10 Downing Street. Hints in the Telegraph one early summer before the last election? As Blair may have been going through a diffiucult patch, one might have expected to not read briefings by Gordon and the Broonites against the PM. I'm not sure that Broon understands the word loyalty. If the hints about Blair's wobble are true and Broon was briefing against him, McBroon really is a contemptable piece of steaming bovine waste.
When you have several former Chiefs of The Defence Staff hinting that Broon hasn't shown any interest in attending MOD briefings etc, etc, one wonders if his man really is up to the job.
Broon chose to vanish when times were hard, and it is extraordinary that such an unknown quality has become PM. It is not to Labour's credit that he has been elected unopposed or without sufficent scrutiny.
April 19, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Anonymous
said...
what a crock ..... Firstly mad thatch left office in autumn 1990.Thats nearly 18 years ago !!!!!can't any neu lab pawns think of ANYTHING original?
Take a tip from eckhart tolle and live in the NOW!
Secondly re the 10p tax rate abolition ' Brown took care to limit the losses faced by the poor, and the real impact will be small.'
Really? Let's see.......the postman on question time earning £13,000 p.a. is paying £7 a week more tax... i wonder how much murdoch pays? and we all know how much sainsbury just avoided..
How can these tossers be so deluded?
April 19, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Anonymous
said...
What a total fool Brown has become. He actually stood up at the Kennedy speech and told an *American* audience a long winded useless joke - about "Irony"
Don't you think he behaves like one of those severely Autistic or badly brain damaged children in C4 documentaries.
They are deeply loved by their parents who recognise their special qualities and also have to account for their own struggles to get the necessary care and support for the child.
You feel for them until the kid goes off and kicks a duck or screams piercingly at the TV for 30 hours, can't make eye contact with a postman or whatever it is. At that point you think 'that looks like an awful lot of work. How lucky I am not to have to deal with that. Thank God . Is Spooks on yet?
Tom Clark I feel for your troubles that you have had raising your 'special' Prime Minister. Yes when you do manage to get him to smile he is lovely. But, and i know I shouldn't say this, but , you know.. he hasn't got long left.... Why not take him to EuroDisney now while he can still enjoy it..
Brown is unquestionably unsuitable to be PM, but I don't see anyone else on the Labour benches capable enough of steering the country through the economic minefield he has laid either. Unlike the Tory and Lib Dem front benches, not one of them could run so much as a lemonade stall.
The government is tired, and has nowhere left to turn. It has become apparent that Blair had all their vision, their drive, their ambition; under ten years of his inspired leadership their biggest mistake was to fail to find a suitable successor. Brown, architect of many of the UK's financial woes, is all they have to show. That is a poor show indeed.
Labour's ship is presently rudderless and drifting around in the fog, and the crew have no clear idea of where it is they want to go, let alone where the captain is taking them. Labour are fast becoming an unelectable rabble in much the same way the Tories were at the end of their long period in office, and probably need at least one term in opposition to get their act together, to have the debates they need to have and to determine what their purpose is in British and world politics.
They also need a new leader and a whole new front bench team, but don't have a good track record in this respect. Since Wilson, Labour have only had one leader who was electable, and just to prove the point, he won three in a row. The comparison with some of Labour's other recent leaders could hardly be more stark. Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot were not natural vote winners, and Gordon Brown is on a par with both of them.
April 19, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Anonymous
said...
over the decades brown only gave back what thatcher had given to the rich!!
what a git , i seem to remeber a lot of wokers being far better off , affording own home , putting money away into pensions and savings she even heralded personal share ownership.not to mention preparing the ecnomy for the global era
what planet did tom watts come from . when thatcher came to power we were stuffed as a nation , couldnt compete with the emerging economies .
its as though the little difficulties of the callaghan era would dissappear in the next cycle !! my arse , we were stuffed with an ecnomic/political lead weight tied around our feet pulling us down all the time .
so gordon has professed a belief in thatchers cure , but what he has actually done is put his "mr fabulous" spend onto personal debt via an over inflated houseing boom and deliberately loose credit controls.
he has sold middle incomes down the swanny , as infaltion rises he will have to tax them to death .
fuck me BOE have just given 50bn to help banks thats ontop of at least 30bn just for northern rock .
never mind the rumours of furniture smashing and chucking mobiles at the wall , this man as chancellor has presided over developing the worst finacial situation you could be in.
just how will it work out , why isnt he telling anyone ??
if it turns out that "common purpose" is somthing to do with our ecnomic disease and hes creating communist purpose , he can fuck off , election manisfesto pledges are not a cover piece to bring about the student union childish politic of marxism .
i think he has decieved the electorate on a massive scale, failed on his promises and hes lied about the true nature of whats going off god help him .
if all this british council and GLA office as well as quango land was some sort of basic structure for a marxist gov , to be on the back of an ecnomic collapse ,he can get lost .
common purpose , common market , lisbon treaty , wheres the voter??
the emperor may have no clothes but even worse hes not been honest with the electorate , nor have the ultras marr and carter.
to put it mildly when you hear someone on a low income say there pissed off with labour because petrol and food have gone up , just who exactly are things getting better for .
since gordon came to be pm the tax payer has an increase of at least £2500 (due to banks and the rock) there are rumours that PFI nice new buildings over expense have fixed national debt for decades to come , just what are the uks off balance sheet liabilities ??
how much was concealed from blair or was he in on it ?? have the ultras just used blair as the fluffy toy to herald in national socialism (although it looks nearer to me like communism) .
orwell was warning not a manual and it appears enoch wasnt too far off either.
its almost beyond belief 100bn loss to recover , how exactly if the economy slows??
were fucked , he should have put it on labours manefesto "nu labour commited to ruin the nation"
April 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Anonymous
said...
As F Forsyth said on 'Any Questions': Brown is like porridge, thick and comes from Scotland.
April 19, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Anonymous
said...
Tom Clark claims that "Over the decade, what Brown gave to the poor compares with what Thatcher directly gave to the rich"
Selling off council houses at a discount gave more to the working class than anything Gordon Brown has ever done.
April 19, 2008 at 2:25 PM
Anonymous
said...
So control-freak Bean cannot actually control a toy boat on a boating pool - he'd scream at the ducks for getting in the way. But as others have said in this comment column "who's going to replace him?".
No, the Labour MPs misread the electoral tea leaves when they believed Broon's spin machine that the removal of Tone would do the trick for Labour.
What they have discovered was that Tone's removal was "necessary but not sufficent". They needed a man with leadership skills to replace him, not just somebody with naked ambition.
They are definitely "Hoisted by their own petard".
They will have to move swiftly to dethrone Brown after the May election debacle if they are to have any chance of recovering.
They have the example that the Tories recovered sufficently in the 2 years after the removal of Thatcher to win the next election.
April 19, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Anonymous
said...
Gordon snotgobbler brown is no intellect he is Adrian Mole desperate to be clever, reads loads takes forever to answer a question,and finds it easy to be a critic but clever ha! like fuck. ask him for an original idea and you see the empty space where blair used to be.
its time to leave the closet deary your rumbled now fuck off!!
April 19, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Anonymous
said...
A sympathetic piece in the Mail also, by Peter Oborne. It makes me consider that the economic meltdown may be happening too early for the purpose of ousting Brown.
There are over 2 years of leeway, and even a small indication of an upturn may be enough to reverse the damage.
Two years is an eternity in politics, and a reality check is no bad thing for those of us who want to see the demise of this government.
April 19, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Anonymous
said...
Did any one else notice that in the video clips of the US trip, he was always shooting out of the car to 'glad hand' the waiting host, leaving poor Sarah trailing yards behind? Not once did they appear as a couple, thought often it was a couple greeting them.
It seemed to be more of a 'Me Me Me Sir' hogging the Lime-Light thing, rather than just not being a 'Scottish Gentleman'
April 19, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Anonymous
said...
A fairly dull piece of windbaggery I'm afraid and as for 'The Polish thinker Leszek Kolakowski', pretentious windbaggery.
April 19, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Anonymous
said...
As John Reid would say, Gordon Brown is not fit for purpose.
So Brown has made progress in the health service and education has he? Bollox. That piece by Tom Clark is just more pro-Brown propaganda but from a different angle this time. You can't polish a turd, and Brown is an even bigger turd than Blair.
Many thought that Gordon would be Labour's John Major - replacing an unpopular leader to lead the party to a fourth election victory a couple of years later.
He is actually Labour's Ian Duncan Smith - a terrible mistake who will be knifed and replaced before the party coasts all the way to terrible and certain electoral defeat.
April 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM
Anonymous
said...
Anonymous @ 12h49 "There has been a hint or two that as PM Blair has had some family problem..."
The overseas press covered Tony Blair's daughter Kathryn Blair (16 in 2004) suicide bid.
Reports are freely available on the internet the first being;
Listening to Angela Eagle on Any Questions - then again to Yvette Cooper on Sky News - the general NuLab tone seems to be.....
The poor are going to get poorer because of our tax changes - SO WHAT?
April 19, 2008 at 6:16 PM
Anonymous
said...
" he was always shooting out of the car to 'glad hand' the waiting host, leaving poor Sarah trailing "
yes ... poor Sarah. God! what must it be like?
April 19, 2008 at 6:56 PM
Anonymous
said...
You couldn't make this shit up!
A Labour prime minister doubles income tax on those earning under £18,000 per annum as well as, over the previous 10 years, reducing, in real terms, the point at which they start paying tax.
A Labour government reduces capital gains tax on 'sharks' (those who want to make a quick buck) from 40% to 18% but for those who want to build something worthwhile over a period of time the rate rises from 10% to 18% and you get no inflation linking either.
Truly, an absolute fucking disgrace for a Tory party let alone a fucking Labour one!
And don't get me started on this latest bail out of insolvent banks - you'd never stop me!!
April 19, 2008 at 7:03 PM
Anonymous
said...
Listening to Angela Eagle on Any Questions
Was not a pleasureable experience and I had to turn it off after ten minutes. Does anyone else think she sounded like a badly retarded robot? Evidently Friday afternoon at the replicant factory when she fell off the production line.
April 19, 2008 at 7:22 PM
Anonymous
said...
New Labour tax the poor to favour the larger middle England vote.
SO WHAT?
April 19, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Anonymous
said...
Not a day goes by without I wish him dead. Harsh, I know, but probably the best in the long run for the UK.
Well, now, here's an odd thing. Poor Tom Clark gave the game away in the first 18 words of his article. The rest of it was superfluous.
"When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added..."
Tom thought this was because Gordon was eager to press on.
Perhaps the truth is that Gordon did not care if any of the participants in the meeting either did not like white coffee, or were allergic to cows milk.
"You'll have your coffee bloody-well white, or you'll go without!"
If a manager holds a meeting and does not care to find out how his staff like their coffee (a small point, but please stick with me on this) how in the hell will he react to dealing with real problems, with major issues?
If Gordon Brown doesn't care how the way he serves coffee impacts on people, how can he be expected to care about lack of equipment for armed forces personnel in Afghanistan or Iraq, on how his free bus pass policy actually stopped many genuinely disabled people and their carers getting the free local travel that helped get them out of the house. Or how his brainless tax hike for the poorest will impact on the very poorest working families he claims to want to help?
Brown really does seem to have lost the plot. Somewhere between wanting to become prime minister and actually getting the job came a "Jings! NOW what do I do?" moment.
As yet he hasn't found an answer to his own question. He still doesn't know what to do.
April 20, 2008 at 12:08 AM
Anonymous
said...
politically speaking, gordon brown is a joke.
April 20, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Anonymous
said...
General Beano sung by Tom Clark. The more that is identified the more the harm is done. It would be patently obvious to a Martian Landing on Earth reading the episttle that the subject of the 'puff piece' is a total and utter wanker; tarnished, damaged goods; unfit for any useful or collective purpose. The line of snot has not changed since his student years. He's always been an immature disruptive, 'aint I clever' marxist twat. Anyway, one good thing: The Martians would leave Earth PDQ understanding that if this is the amongst the best that Earth can muster ...then there is nothing worth having in this strange planet.
Bye, bye, baby, please go to sleep Gordo.
April 20, 2008 at 4:24 PM
Anonymous
said...
This business of Brown reading a lot doesn't impress me. How on earth can he find the time?
Books about economics and such are usually just a few simple ideas padded out to look impressive. Spending time reading all that waffle is just a self-indulgent waste of time for someone in GB's position.
April 20, 2008 at 8:28 PM
Anonymous
said...
Anon (8.28)
Quite so - much used to be made of his endless studiousness, which merely highlighted how little mastery he had after all the years & years in govt & opposition of swotting, seminars, Cape Cod libraries, piles of books delivered to his Fie house, and how ever-recedingly nebulous (and probably bollocks) his fields of study were.
April 21, 2008 at 9:19 PM
Anonymous
said...
thick as thieves said... politically speaking, gordon brown is a joke.
TAT shat's well on the ball, I hadn't noticed and I dont think anyone else had either. Very well done. Nurse, I think its past thick shit thieves bed time.
47 comments:
lOOKS ABOUT SPOT ON GREAT DITHERING BULLYING SCOTTISH NO HOPER THAT CAN'T COPE WITH CONFRONTATION UNLESS HE IS SO MUCH FURTHER UP THE FOODCHAIN THAN HIS VICTIM. A GENERAL ALL ROUND TWAT OF THE FIRST WATER
Since becoming prime minister, Brown has failed to come up with a convincing mission statement, but everything I saw inside Whitehall suggests he does have strongly held values. One old hand in the civil service I knew advised me that the key to getting a policy cleared by the chancellor was sticking a graph on the top showing how the poorest stood to gain most. When Blair came up with a reactionary gimmick docking child benefit for truants, for example Brown would be on the phone to our department to get it stopped, booming: "What kind of party are we becoming?"
The same kind of party as Bliar ran. Bliar's was funded by Michael Levy for the benefit of Levy and his chums; Brown's is funded by Ronald Cohen for the benefit of Cohen and his chums.
Worrying questions over Brown's private banker
The Blair Government has long given every appearance of being ready to carry out favours in return for political donations or other kinds of help. For example, the Prime Minister allowed Government policy on tobacco advertising to be changed after the Labour Party received £1 million from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, and was in negotiation for another donation.
He helped the Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal in his bid for a Romanian steel firm for no other reason, so far as one can tell, than a £125,000 party donation. Ministers also provided assistance to the controversial Hinduja brothers over an application for a British passport around the time they promised a donation to the Millennium Dome. The list of such deals is long and shameful.
There is strong circumstantial evidence that a similar exchange of favours has been taking place with the private equity business, where Sir Ronald is the doyen.
Sir Ronald (who has personally given some £1.5 million to Labour since 2001 alone) is one of a group of private equity moguls who have made very substantial donations to the Labour Party. Meanwhile, ministers have proved extremely susceptible to lobbying by the industry's body, the British Venture Capital Association. For example, in 2003 Gordon Brown dropped plans for a change in the way the venture capital funds were taxed.
The following year, ministers axed proposals to toughen up their responsibilities for employee pension rights. A favourite tactic in private equity take-overs - to the distress of employees - is to slough off any responsibility for pensions.
ABOVE all, Gordon Brown opened the way for private equity entrepreneurs to make massive fortunes when he slashed the rate of capital gains tax soon after becoming Chancellor.
Throughout its time in government, New Labour has given its unreserved public help to the private equity 'industry'. It should be noted that this support has come at the expense of Labour's traditional backers in the trade union movement and among ordinary Labour activists.
Peter Oborne, The Daily Mail
Brown even managed to make Dubya look good ... Whatever next an invite from Mugabe ?
One old hand in the civil service I knew advised me that the key to getting a policy cleared by the chancellor was sticking a graph on the top showing how the poorest stood to gain most....
As soon as I read that I saw that it was a puff piece and designed to get him points in the run up to May 1st. I skipped over the rest.
This bloke really is a Brown acolyte who is trying to portray him as everything we think he is, but completely misunderstood...well here's the rub Tom me old china...he isn't misunderstood, he is a typical Labour cunt of the first order.
So,if every Labour man and his dog knew that Brown was not PM material, why did they make him PM?
When Cable stood before the crowd and pointed out that Brown had no clothes, the crowd laughed. The crowd laughed at Brown. The crowd openly admitted to what they all knew was the truth about their leader and PM.
So why did they make him PM?
Most amusing to see that Brown is demonstrating how in touch he is with everyone by being "furious" that the 10p tax issue has overshawdowed the great leaders visit to the USA. What a complete fuckwit.
Its also amusing to see al Beeb spinning the visit as important event. In 2006 at the height of the Lebanon war stuff, I was in the USA. In the UK press Blair was pictured everywhere "leading" the response to Israel etc. In the Us media, he didn't exist.
So Brown's chances of any kudos in the US is complete bollox, regardless of how al Beeb spin it for him
Tom Clark clearly has a soft spot for Brown. That's fine and, for sure, he seems to have been sufficiently close to some of the action to make his comments at least relevant. Unfortunately for the country the most cursory examination of the article shows that to almost every Brown 'positive' is attached a fatal 'but'. The article serves as just one more reminder us of the Peter Principle; that in an hierarchically structured administration people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence. I don't pretend this is new thought in relation to Brown but its likely truth in his case really does mean that he, and, therefore, us are well and truly stuffed.
Interesting story in the Daily Brownograph this morning, suggesting that Alistair Sock-Puppet is preparing a 'concession' on the 10p tax rate, possibly by sending affected people (low paid workers without children) a cheque for the extra tax they have paid.
Sounds nice. But look at the mechanics. The Revenue won't be able to calculate the amount owed to each individual until the end of the tax year. Employer returns will be due in by 19th May 2009, and most of them are filed electronically. So if the tax people get cracking, they should be able to get cheques out by the end of May. Just in time to give several million low-paid workers a cash bung about one week before a June election.
I'm starting to think the Snotgobbler-Sock-Puppet combination is far more politically devious than we have given them credit for. CGT changes are another example. Ever since they were announced, accountants have been telling wealthy individuals to sell their assets right at the end of the 2007-8 tax year so they benefit from the old, lower CGT rate and indexation allowance, then buy the assets back at the start of the new tax year. Minor pain in the arse for the rich, major bonus for the Treasury which is going to get a decent size CGT windfall next January when tax returns come in. If enough rich people have taken their accountants' advice, that should allow for some headline-grabbing giveaways to potential Labour voters in the 2009 budget.
I can only think of two taxes where the timing of payment is normally outside the Government's control - CGT (where you only pay the tax when you sell the assets) and inheritance tax. The Govt has engineered a policy which strongly encourages people to sell assets at a particular time and pay tax on the sale. It wouldn't surprise me if Sock-Puppet is trying to work out how he can make some rich people die between now and the next budget.
Incidentally, all the above may be bollocks. I used to be an accountant but I was crap at it and got fired.
If someone didn't let me choose how much milk I put in my coffee I wouldn't think they were saving time - I'd think they were a control freak who wouldn't allow people to make decisions for themselves. It's a perfect little metaphor for Brown's approach to politics. This is obviously written by a decent guy who's trying to put the best gloss on Brown's motives. A more detached reading shows Brown up as a neurotic, furtive, obsessive mess - a man entirely unfit to lead the country.
The 'author' of various books on courage operates in a 'fog of fear'. Tom Clark.
'Money lost, something lost; honour lost, much lost; courage lost, all lost.' Goethe
Spin spin spin spin.
Bean is a fuckwit - full stop.
And bless, GB used to buy 2nd class rail tickets - whilst living free in Downing St and claiming 2nd home expenses from Westminster.
St Francis of Assisi he ain't.
What about those that don't take milk?
Jonah Bean - Labour's Anthony Eden.
another piece of pacifying propaganda from the brown camp. the reality is that gordon brown is a total fucking spastic.
he has, by doubling the tax liabilty of the poor, torpedoed new labour's claim of being the party of social justice.
what a dopey cunt.
new labour would be well advised to ditch this cretin.
Can we please stop these attacks on Brown? If he has a nervous breakdown and resigns the Labour Party might actually survive.
Actually sod it, the man's a retard and it's good fun!
Ii could have saved all that in with one sentance...
I secretly want to suck that big brooding closet marxists cock
TOM WATSON
"So why did they make him PM?"
Truly a mystery. You can enlarge the question: "So why did they elect them (for the THIRD time)?"
Because they are idiots, perhaps?
Broon was incapable of accepting the blame for the various problems thrown up by his complex working family tax credit schemes, his merger of Revenue and Customs for example. What did he do, let some poor junior minister face the flak in Parliament.
Consider how loyally he stood by Blair over Iraq, how often did he speak out on this issue? How often did he offer clear public support for Blair's foreign policy? Then consider how was holding the purse strings, time and again, coroners' inquests have ended with criticism of the MOD's failings over equipment. OK, some of these are organisational, but others are a direct result of Broon's failure to fund defence equipment to fight a war with a wartime budget.
Broon stayed silent, few interviews on tv or radio, what did he really stand for - spinners would say Comrade Napoleon says this, Comrade Napoleon says that, but Comrade Napoleon doesn't do interviews where he has to be scrutinised.
There has been a hint or two that as PM Blair has had some family problem which made him wobble over his tenure of 10 Downing Street. Hints in the Telegraph one early summer before the last election? As Blair may have been going through a diffiucult patch, one might have expected to not read briefings by Gordon and the Broonites against the PM. I'm not sure that Broon understands the word loyalty. If the hints about Blair's wobble are true and Broon was briefing against him, McBroon really is a contemptable piece of steaming bovine waste.
When you have several former Chiefs of The Defence Staff hinting that Broon hasn't shown any interest in attending MOD briefings etc, etc, one wonders if his man really is up to the job.
Broon chose to vanish when times were hard, and it is extraordinary that such an unknown quality has become PM. It is not to Labour's credit that he has been elected unopposed or without sufficent scrutiny.
what a crock .....
Firstly mad thatch left office in autumn 1990.Thats nearly 18 years ago !!!!!can't any neu lab pawns think of ANYTHING original?
Take a tip from eckhart tolle and live in the NOW!
Secondly re the 10p tax rate abolition ' Brown took care to limit the losses faced by the poor, and the real impact will be small.'
Really? Let's see.......the postman on question time earning £13,000 p.a. is paying £7 a week more tax... i wonder how much murdoch pays? and we all know how much sainsbury just avoided..
How can these tossers be so deluded?
What a total fool Brown has become. He actually stood up at the Kennedy speech and told an *American* audience a long winded useless joke - about "Irony"
Bring him home for goodness sake.
Don't you think he behaves like one of those severely Autistic or badly brain damaged children in C4 documentaries.
They are deeply loved by their parents who recognise their special qualities and also have to account for their own struggles to get the necessary care and support for the child.
You feel for them until the kid goes off and kicks a duck or screams piercingly at the TV for 30 hours, can't make eye contact with a postman or whatever it is. At that point you think 'that looks like an awful lot of work. How lucky I am not to have to deal with that. Thank God . Is Spooks on yet?
Tom Clark I feel for your troubles that you have had raising your 'special' Prime Minister. Yes when you do manage to get him to smile he is lovely. But, and i know I shouldn't say this, but , you know.. he hasn't got long left.... Why not take him to EuroDisney now while he can still enjoy it..
Brown is unquestionably unsuitable to be PM, but I don't see anyone else on the Labour benches capable enough of steering the country through the economic minefield he has laid either. Unlike the Tory and Lib Dem front benches, not one of them could run so much as a lemonade stall.
The government is tired, and has nowhere left to turn. It has become apparent that Blair had all their vision, their drive, their ambition; under ten years of his inspired leadership their biggest mistake was to fail to find a suitable successor. Brown, architect of many of the UK's financial woes, is all they have to show. That is a poor show indeed.
Labour's ship is presently rudderless and drifting around in the fog, and the crew have no clear idea of where it is they want to go, let alone where the captain is taking them. Labour are fast becoming an unelectable rabble in much the same way the Tories were at the end of their long period in office, and probably need at least one term in opposition to get their act together, to have the debates they need to have and to determine what their purpose is in British and world politics.
They also need a new leader and a whole new front bench team, but don't have a good track record in this respect. Since Wilson, Labour have only had one leader who was electable, and just to prove the point, he won three in a row. The comparison with some of Labour's other recent leaders could hardly be more stark. Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot were not natural vote winners, and Gordon Brown is on a par with both of them.
over the decades brown only gave back what thatcher had given to the rich!!
what a git , i seem to remeber a lot of wokers being far better off , affording own home , putting money away into pensions and savings she even heralded personal share ownership.not to mention preparing the ecnomy for the global era
what planet did tom watts come from . when thatcher came to power we were stuffed as a nation , couldnt compete with the emerging economies .
its as though the little difficulties of the callaghan era would dissappear in the next cycle !! my arse , we were stuffed with an ecnomic/political lead weight tied around our feet pulling us down all the time .
so gordon has professed a belief in thatchers cure , but what he has actually done is put his "mr fabulous" spend onto personal debt via an over inflated houseing boom and deliberately loose credit controls.
he has sold middle incomes down the swanny , as infaltion rises he will have to tax them to death .
fuck me BOE have just given 50bn to help banks thats ontop of at least 30bn just for northern rock .
never mind the rumours of furniture smashing and chucking mobiles at the wall , this man as chancellor has presided over developing the worst finacial situation you could be in.
just how will it work out , why isnt he telling anyone ??
if it turns out that "common purpose" is somthing to do with our ecnomic disease and hes creating communist purpose , he can fuck off , election manisfesto pledges are not a cover piece to bring about the student union childish politic of marxism .
i think he has decieved the electorate on a massive scale, failed on his promises and hes lied about the true nature of whats going off god help him .
if all this british council and GLA office as well as quango land was some sort of basic structure for a marxist gov , to be on the back of an ecnomic collapse ,he can get lost .
common purpose , common market , lisbon treaty , wheres the voter??
the emperor may have no clothes but even worse hes not been honest with the electorate , nor have the ultras marr and carter.
to put it mildly when you hear someone on a low income say there pissed off with labour because petrol and food have gone up , just who exactly are things getting better for .
since gordon came to be pm the tax payer has an increase of at least £2500 (due to banks and the rock) there are rumours that PFI nice new buildings over expense have fixed national debt for decades to come , just what are the uks off balance sheet liabilities ??
how much was concealed from blair or was he in on it ?? have the ultras just used blair as the fluffy toy to herald in national socialism (although it looks nearer to me like communism) .
orwell was warning not a manual and it appears enoch wasnt too far off either.
its almost beyond belief 100bn loss to recover , how exactly if the economy slows??
were fucked , he should have put it on labours manefesto "nu labour commited to ruin the nation"
As F Forsyth said on 'Any Questions':
Brown is like porridge, thick and comes from Scotland.
Tom Clark claims that "Over the decade, what Brown gave to the poor compares with what Thatcher directly gave to the rich"
Selling off council houses at a discount gave more to the working class than anything Gordon Brown has ever done.
So control-freak Bean cannot actually control a toy boat on a boating pool - he'd scream at the ducks for getting in the way. But as others have said in this comment column "who's going to replace him?".
No, the Labour MPs misread the electoral tea leaves when they believed Broon's spin machine that the removal of Tone would do the trick for Labour.
What they have discovered was that Tone's removal was "necessary but not sufficent". They needed a man with leadership skills to replace him, not just somebody with naked ambition.
They are definitely "Hoisted by their own petard".
They will have to move swiftly to dethrone Brown after the May election debacle if they are to have any chance of recovering.
They have the example that the Tories recovered sufficently in the 2 years after the removal of Thatcher to win the next election.
Gordon snotgobbler brown is no intellect he is Adrian Mole desperate to be clever, reads loads takes forever to answer a question,and finds it easy to be a critic but clever ha! like fuck. ask him for an original idea and you see the empty space where blair used to be.
its time to leave the closet deary your rumbled now fuck off!!
A sympathetic piece in the Mail also, by Peter Oborne. It makes me consider that the economic meltdown may be happening too early for the purpose of ousting Brown.
There are over 2 years of leeway, and even a small indication of an upturn may be enough to reverse the damage.
Two years is an eternity in politics, and a reality check is no bad thing for those of us who want to see the demise of this government.
Did any one else notice that in the video clips of the US trip, he was always shooting out of the car to 'glad hand' the waiting host, leaving poor Sarah trailing yards behind? Not once did they appear as a couple, thought often it was a couple greeting them.
It seemed to be more of a 'Me Me Me Sir' hogging the Lime-Light thing, rather than just not being a 'Scottish Gentleman'
A fairly dull piece of windbaggery I'm afraid and as for 'The Polish thinker Leszek Kolakowski', pretentious windbaggery.
As John Reid would say, Gordon Brown is not fit for purpose.
Who is going to be the brave doc that gets him sectioned?
So Brown has made progress in the health service and education has he? Bollox. That piece by Tom Clark is just more pro-Brown propaganda but from a different angle this time. You can't polish a turd, and Brown is an even bigger turd than Blair.
Many thought that Gordon would be Labour's John Major - replacing an unpopular leader to lead the party to a fourth election victory a couple of years later.
He is actually Labour's Ian Duncan Smith - a terrible mistake who will be knifed and replaced before the party coasts all the way to terrible and certain electoral defeat.
Anonymous @ 12h49
"There has been a hint or two that as PM Blair has had some family problem..."
The overseas press covered Tony Blair's daughter Kathryn Blair (16 in 2004) suicide bid.
Reports are freely available on the
internet the first being;
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/articles/july2004/070204suicidebid.htm
British Press adhered to a news blackout.
Listening to Angela Eagle on Any Questions - then again to Yvette Cooper on Sky News - the general NuLab tone seems to be.....
The poor are going to get poorer because of our tax changes - SO WHAT?
" he was always shooting out of the car to 'glad hand' the waiting host, leaving poor Sarah trailing "
yes ... poor Sarah. God! what must it be like?
You couldn't make this shit up!
A Labour prime minister doubles income tax on those earning under £18,000 per annum as well as, over the previous 10 years, reducing, in real terms, the point at which they start paying tax.
A Labour government reduces capital gains tax on 'sharks' (those who want to make a quick buck) from 40% to 18% but for those who want to build something worthwhile over a period of time the rate rises from 10% to 18% and you get no inflation linking either.
Truly, an absolute fucking disgrace for a Tory party let alone a fucking Labour one!
And don't get me started on this latest bail out of insolvent banks - you'd never stop me!!
Listening to Angela Eagle on Any Questions
Was not a pleasureable experience and I had to turn it off after ten minutes. Does anyone else think she sounded like a badly retarded robot? Evidently Friday afternoon at the replicant factory when she fell off the production line.
New Labour tax the poor to favour the larger middle England vote.
SO WHAT?
Not a day goes by without I wish him dead. Harsh, I know, but probably the best in the long run for the UK.
Well, now, here's an odd thing. Poor Tom Clark gave the game away in the first 18 words of his article. The rest of it was superfluous.
"When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added..."
Tom thought this was because Gordon was eager to press on.
Perhaps the truth is that Gordon did not care if any of the participants in the meeting either did not like white coffee, or were allergic to cows milk.
"You'll have your coffee bloody-well white, or you'll go without!"
If a manager holds a meeting and does not care to find out how his staff like their coffee (a small point, but please stick with me on this) how in the hell will he react to dealing with real problems, with major issues?
If Gordon Brown doesn't care how the way he serves coffee impacts on people, how can he be expected to care about lack of equipment for armed forces personnel in Afghanistan or Iraq, on how his free bus pass policy actually stopped many genuinely disabled people and their carers getting the free local travel that helped get them out of the house. Or how his brainless tax hike for the poorest will impact on the very poorest working families he claims to want to help?
Brown really does seem to have lost the plot. Somewhere between wanting to become prime minister and actually getting the job came a "Jings! NOW what do I do?" moment.
As yet he hasn't found an answer to his own question. He still doesn't know what to do.
politically speaking, gordon brown is a joke.
General Beano sung by Tom Clark. The more that is identified the more the harm is done.
It would be patently obvious to a Martian Landing on Earth reading the episttle that the subject of the 'puff piece' is a total and utter wanker; tarnished, damaged goods; unfit for any useful or collective purpose.
The line of snot has not changed since his student years. He's always been an immature disruptive, 'aint I clever' marxist twat.
Anyway, one good thing: The Martians would leave Earth PDQ understanding that if this is the amongst the best that Earth can muster ...then there is nothing worth having in this strange planet.
Bye, bye, baby, please go to sleep Gordo.
This business of Brown reading a lot doesn't impress me. How on earth can he find the time?
Books about economics and such are usually just a few simple ideas padded out to look impressive. Spending time reading all that waffle is just a self-indulgent waste of time for someone in GB's position.
Anon (8.28)
Quite so - much used to be made of his endless studiousness, which merely highlighted how little mastery he had after all the years & years in govt & opposition of swotting, seminars, Cape Cod libraries, piles of books delivered to his Fie house, and how ever-recedingly nebulous (and probably bollocks) his fields of study were.
thick as thieves said...
politically speaking, gordon brown is a joke.
TAT shat's well on the ball, I hadn't noticed and I dont think anyone else had either. Very well done. Nurse, I think its past thick shit thieves bed time.