AS I observed a couple of days ago the Scottish actor David Tennant, who made his last appearance as Doctor Who over Christmas, is a long-time Labour supporter. In the latest edition of Doctor Who magazine, he reveals why he is backing Gordon Brown.
Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, the man who bottled out of challenging Tony Lloyd as PLP Chair ( he knew he would lose) is banging on about why Gordon Brown should stand down. I think it's time Sheerman shut up and did us all a favour. How dare he and the rest of these dreadful Blairites ( who are scared to death of a non New Labour leader after the General Election) lecture us on "loyalty." They are a disgrace. As were the "briefings" about the supposed Gang Of Five plotting to replace Brown with David Miliband. Don't the words "flogging " and "dead horse" mean anything to the control freaks in the Cabinet. If any Miliband is more likely to be a future Labour leader, the chances are it will not be the Foreign Secretary.
I'm waiting for the plumber. I face the grisly prospect of Christmas without hot water - thanks to the Arctic weather we have had in Hebden Bridge. What joy.
Snow is great on the Christmas cards. Not so great when you are at the mercy of the elements and hoping against hope for an overnight thaw.
Trivial stuff, really, compared to the perils of being elderly and vulnerable in this kind of weather. Which at least are currently being assuaged by the severe weather payments which will now go out automatically to people like my dad who has not been able to leave home for a week. Payments which, under the Tories, are likely to stop.
But it's seemingly way too much for Peter Mandelson, that little inch of clear red water which still separates Labour from the Tories.
Apparently, he is letting his displeasure known to the press that Gordon Brown refused to be nice enough to the bankers and still wants to fight an election on the differences, not the common ground, between us and the Tories. The differences let's face it which keep many of us in the Labour Party despite everything.
No coincidence, surely, amid this talk of renewed plots against Brown that uber-Blairite John Hutton should finally own up to being the Minister ( which we all knew anyway) who said Brown would be a "f***ing disaster" as Prime Minister.
Once again Miliband, it's rumoured, is preparing to position himself for a leadership contest in the New Year.
I've always found it amusing ( in a wry kind of way) that what's left of the left gets accused of undermining Labour's chances when members of the Government feel free to brief the lobby they are not happy with the PM.
But they are living on another planet if they think a cynical pre-election coup will do Labour any favours whatsoever.
Is it the threat , not of election disaster, but of a hung Parliament, which has suddenly resuscitated the anti-Brown camp? It could well be they would prefer Brown to go down in flames rather than hang on - with a majority dependant on a de-New Laboured Party shorn of many of its most right-wing MPs , including people like Hutton who is standing down. We shall see but one thing is sure - Mandelson is up to his old tricks and Brown should also start positioning himself - around Labour's core values .
The news that Tony Blair is being endorsed as President of Europe should come as no surprise to anyone who realises where the real power of this Government now resides. Peter Mandelson, plotter-in-chief and one of the most effective politicians of his generation, now effectively holds the strings which are keeping Brown in power. It's only thanks to Mandelson that Brown survived the serious coup attempt of a couple of months ago and, obviously, there was a price to pay.
Posts
All Comments
