Word reaches me that Gordon Brown whipped Labour MPs on the basis he was ready to resign over the 42 days vote - in fact rumour has it that he had already penned a resignation letter and that this was the basis (along with cajolery, deals and God knows what else) that he persuaded MPs to toe a line I suspect many did not agree with. Because such a move would have had to engender a General Election. Whatever. We now have the David Davis by-election and I understand a Labour PPC who is OPPOSED to 42 days. What a travesty and farce. Coupled with the Irish vote on the Lisbon treaty this is truly an illustration of the fact that "when troubles come, they come not in single spies but in battalions." And let's just say that I believe all this nonsense and skulduggery will return to haunt GB.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
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8 comments:
surely Brown threatening to resign would have ensured more Labour MPs would have voted with the opposition?
Why? An immediate GE would guarantee dozens would lose their seats.......
Because the jobs which might be lost Cruddas and Trickett might well have lost seats. Think of it on the dole or earning £60,000 a year. Brown knew if he pulled this stunt he would get the backing of enough, of course he did not he had to run to the DUB.
But yes this will come back to haunt Labour sorry New Labour thank god.
On not unrelated note, are you awar that the advertising space beneath this post at 12:49pm was displaying a plug for the 'Don't Vote Labour' campaign, with the slogan 'stealing your freedom and your money'?
I heard this too but I wonder if it is all rather too convenient for some MPs to make this claim, thinking that we are idiots enough to believe that Brown would cut his own political throat - and that of lots of other 'Blair-Brownites' on this one issue. There is no earthly rational basis for an election now rather than much later. It sounds like something 'spun' between Whips and MPs to distract us from the fact that many MPs just did not want to get black marks with the Whip, needed an 'apocalyptic threat' to deal with grassroots dissent and did not want to lose negotiating brownie points with the Government in the future. Many can't see what the fuss is about anyway since they are not the ones who are going to be picked up by the rozzers - well, not for a while yet anyway :-)
Well it's either spin by MPs after the event or it was spin by Brown at the time.
He probably talked to Blair about it. He threatened to resign on all of them: Iraq, foundation hospitals... all of them. He even threatened to resign over Clause IV!
If Labour backbenchers can still be fooled by this sort of brinksmanship, there's no hope for them.
You'd think Brown would have wised up by now.Police pay, 10p tax rate,inheritance tax, 42 days...the more to the right he has shifted the more his, and the party's, ratings fall.He's trying to be tough on the wrong things and is moving against his own instincts to try and curry electoral favour ,the public have rumbled him . He may as well start doing things he actually believes in rather than trying to please the Daily Mail, he may still be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of disaster...
My fear - anonymous - is that he actually believes this crap!
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