At some point Gordon Brown is going to have to say something. Anything. His silence today has been telling. I'm told he was holed up for much of the afternoon with key lieutenants. He knows his Portillo moment is approaching. If he fails to seize the day he may well regret it for the rest of his life. Portillo certainly regrets not challenging Major in 1995, for he would have surely won. But Brown will also be wary of the maxim 'he who wields the sword shall never inherit the crown'.
PS Am I the only one to be astonished that the BBC devoted only eight minutes of the Ten O'Clock News to the Blair story?
47 comments:
Iain, it never surprises me how the BBC prioritise their news articles. They're too busy standing around looking trendy, and giving each other ridiculously long professional titles like "Middle Eastern Technology and Fruit Shortage Correspondent"...
The BBC are so scared of accusations that they're attacking the Government (still) that they're paralysed. Depressing really - more and more like a catatonic patient each day...
I should think he is wondering what is going on. I think the whole thing is a Blair/Campbell special to thwart Brown. Think laterally people
Newsnight is doing a bit better Iain - it is grat fun watching Blears try and make it sound like a normal day in Downing Street.
Classic post! Hilarious! Nice one Iain.
Silence is all you'll get from Gordon. Like The Spaniard, he hasn't got the cojones to strike the fatal blow.
The website is also slightly underwhelming. IT is a good job the blogosphere is on the spot.
P.s. without wishing to sound like a parrot - I did predict yesterday that GB would say something ambiguous today or tomorrow.
There is no way he can avoid the press two days running - so it must be tomorrow.
This is really it - Blair is finished. If you think about it in a detached way - how on earth can he pretend he is in complete control after this.
He is but a resignation away from crisis every day of the week until he formally resigns. Thus every minion will have the whip hand over him - which is an untenable position.
Ergo - he is finished. Either he realises this or it will be pointed out to him.
I am a v. happy man.
Blair is superficial and only got the top job becuase he was one of a few MP'S around in the mid eighties that weren't over the hill or too left wing. The labour leader of 1994 was chosen from a minuscule talent base - on the basis that they had to choose someone who had been in parliament for at least a decade and who was not unelectable - as the 1983 elections were so disastrous - that meant anyone who was elected first time then had a great chance of becomming PM.
That is why he is such a bad prime minister - becuase he is constantly scared of being found out.
Rant over - I hope.
But I really don't like him and his type.
Isn't a Portillo moment sometime in the early morning when you are ousted from your seat causing mass celebration?
I think we are all being a bit harsh on the BBC they did carry a story on their website titled -
'NEARLY UNTREATABLE TB FOUND'
- Sums it up really.
It just shows how pro labour the BBC is. I also noticed how little time they gave to more NHS privatisation with DHL. If it had been the Tories it would have been headlines for days.
I now watch sky news, at least the presenters make an effort with their appearance
To be fair Iain, the BBC had footage filmed by a soldier on his mobile phone with the message that he wanted people to know what his regiment was doing so they were not forgotten!
Journalists are not allowed near the frontline apparently so thank god the BBC showed the footage. Another 3 soldiers died today, thats nearly 20 in the last couple of weeks.
The sooner this rotten government is gone the better for everyone.
Anonymous 11.25 Agree - its fun watching Labour crash n burn but we have a largely forgotten Army facing death daily. Perhaps its because the TV cameras aren't there but three more families suffered heartwrenching loss today while Gordon & Tony argued.
Three quotes sum it all it nicely...Danny Finkelstein, Khalid Mahmood, Kirk from Corrie.
http://fairdealphil.blogspot.com/2006/09/always-get-three-quotes.html#links
Why only eight minutes?
Auntie knows the truth: Whether we like it or not, normal people are bored and don't care whether its next month or next year...it's only sad gits like us that hang on every word and nuance...
Andy - and for sure that "nearly untreatable" TB will be carried by Third World "asylum seekers" and should therefore have millions poured into its treatment - as opposed to pouring the immigrant onto a plane back where s/he came from.
Otherwise, the BBC wouldn't have bothered mentioning it.
andrew woodman - i think if you watch newsnight back, you'll find that she didn't say that. She said the only ones to benefit from [labour party] division and infighting would be the tories. NOT that the Tories were infighting.
Verity - it was a pun on Tony Blair being in fatal position.
The comment above refering to the BBC's subsequent coverage of mew pictures about the reality of fighting on the front against the Taleban could have gone on to ask how much time the Prime Minister has spent considering the horrendous battles facing our troops in Afghanistan (not to mention Iraq).
Let's hope neither Tony, Gordon nor Des Browne reached for the remote control before they absorbed Alastair Leithead's report about our underfunded, underequiped, and under-considered by Labour's own warring factions.
I don't much care who leads, as long as they get on with it and get their priorities straight.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Find that CD, the one you've hidden,
think of that song the one you tried to forget
D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better
and play it so fucking loud the neighbours call the SAS.
Go out in the garden, and take a deep long gulp of air,
phone up your friends, tell them the news;
today is a magnificent day to be a alive
politics is back, debate re-lighted, the curse is lifted, issues - not feelings can again be discussed.
i thought the 10 o'clock news treatment was about right...and as trev ivory pointed out newsnight covered it in depth too.
lets face it we won't exactly be wanting for coverage on this story over the coming days and weeks!
Trevor Ivory - I wish that chipmunk would joke on a nut - TB's
Anon - A pun doesn't work for the humorless. I mean llok at Bliar. Do you see him laughing right now?
Iain,
Do you think my song yesterday was prophetic? Maybe he will' go on Friday'?
PS - I have just been told by a lobby journo that the breifings are now that Blair will announce tomorrow that he will be making an annoucnement about (another announcement?) at conference, and the line is that this is a matter forst and foremost for the Labour Party, and that conference, as the central policy making body of the Labour Party, should be the first to hear it!
Since when has Blair EVER listened to conference?
But, it's an interesting angle if true and could buy him some time.
Presscott as a successor - well remember it was either Presscott or Beckett that would have been prime minister if Blair had not won the Labour leadership election.
That kind of illustrates the dearth of potential leaders.
I think people forget how unbelievably easy was Blair's path to power.
4th verse - i cant sleep I'm too...
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Find that CD, the one you've hidden,
think of that song the one you tried to forget;
D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better
and play it so fucking loud the neighbours call the SAS.
Go out in the garden, and take a deep long gulp of air,
phone up your friends, tell them the news;
today is a magnificent day to be a alive
politics is back, debate re-lighted, the curse is lifted, issues - not "feelings" can again be discussed.
The Stars are not wanted now: they were ALL know-nothings,
Pack up the Murdoch combine, dismantle The Sun's bollocks,
pour away that "concerned face" and chuck out the dead wood,
For everything today just seems do good.
Phil you said always get three quotes, try these.
The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real.
Tony Blair
I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear.
Tony Blair
You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife.
Tony Blair
Im sat here waving a white flag. It just feels like ground hog day.
Day in day out we have a hopes raised and then dashed.
I'm to scared to get truly happy about this for fear of dissapointment.
Vera Duckworth for prime minister. Could she really be any worse?
balshy broadcasting 24 even less, secound news item
It's time to bring our troops home. If we can't equip them, they cannot be there. I really don't know what the answer is, but the Americans support their troops with the best and most high-tech equipment and the British Labour government doesn't so support our men and women serving, although it wants the glory of their bravery.
I don't want young bravery to be chalked up as a victory for cheap little Tony Blair. He's a midget.
They should be brought home stat.
You mean there was a BBC News bulletin which wasn't obsessed with Blair and the Labour Party ?!!!!!
Wow ! Some relief for the long-suffering public then !
Yes - but Gordon's relaxed smile says it all. Tony's feeling pain. Yes!!! see pic on
http://www.ft.com/home/uk
Just bear in mind, Iain, that BBC1 is now consideredto be the BBC's 'basic' channel, so there is a policy of not covering anything in any great depth.
Eight minutes is a fair old time when you sit and watch the second hand, but it isn't sufficient for the beginning of the end of Blair.
Aunti is just another public sector agency full of policy suits (Paul Smith suits probably) wondering what the future holds.
Britain under Brown? It's enough to move country. Glad I did...
Permanentexpat "MOD+GB=uneccessary causalties". Spot on. GB has blood on his hands. He hates the military and always has. For 9 years he has dictated MOD budget and that gutless PM Blair has been an accessory to this whilst commiting our forces to major operations. That utter tosser Hoon was a fellow traveller. In all this the politicised Defence chiefs stood silently at attention valuing their visits to NO 10 above the safety of their troops. I would line the lot of them against No 10 door and shoot them.
Another 3 deaths in Afghanistan yday whilst Blair/Brown play out their personal vendetta.
I'm really not sure that Portillo would have beaten Major in 1995. He was a "bastard" at that time after all, wasn't he? He was the nice middle of the road Tory he became after 1997.
Agree BBC coverage lazy, complacent and weak. Normally a Beeb champion I had to watch Sky News.
Time for us Tories to Support Gordon.
http://rightlinks.co.uk/linked/modules/xfsection/article.php?articleid=16
This new film coming out next week about the Queen and Blair should bring to mind how different things were back then for him.
Personally I'm appalled at Newsnight last night.
They let people like Hazel Blears claim the public don't support the removal of Blair.
They didn't ask the public (to my knowledge) to pass comment. They didn't refer to the polls that all indicate the Labour party is deeply unpopular.
They didn't pass comment that Blair has previously said he didn't want to hang on when it was time to go - yet that is exactly what he is doing.
If he thinks that coming out and repeating what the Sun have already revealed will quash this then he's really lost the plot.
Its time Brown came out and said publicly what he said to Blair yesterday.
Wouldn't we have liked to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation?
For them to call this a coup rather than an exercise in democracy is insane.
I just wish Journalists such as Nick Robinson & Adam Boulton would give this guy a hard time rather than asking him simple questions he can ignore.
Carl
If GB had had any balls he would have been reading TB's resignation letter front the front door of number 10.
That he had to sneak out the "tradesman's" entrance yesterday says a lot to me.
Brown out before Christmas?
I’m not one to defend the BBC, but aren’t you being a bit unrealistic here Iain? Eight minutes in what is effectively a 25 min slot seems a reasonable time—it’s a third of a news programme which also covers sport (and with the England, Northern Ireland and Scotland results last night, there was no little sport to cover).
I actually thought last night’s programme was unusually strong. You may not like it, but the Bush admission that the CIA is running all sorts of mini-Guantanamo Bays around the world is a strong story. (And let’s not forget, much of the pressure exerted on Blair from within the Labour Party stems from his tacit support for this kind of US tactic). Also strong on last night’s 10 O’clock News was the Austrian kidnap girl story. Yes the Blair story is big, but devoting a third of the programme seems proportionate.
Political junkies like us always have Newsnight and,… er Iain Dale’s Diary.
Iain - it's after 11 o'clock. Where are you? I'm getting information starvation.
A thought:
When Mrs T was deposed, it was essentially a struggle of ideologies. The Europhiles wanted Mrs T out of the way, and they didn't even have an agreed and settled 'replacment'.
However, with Labour, it isn't about ideologies (what actually will Brown change significantly? Will he re-nationalise anything, what 60% tax rates on top earners, bring the troops home?).
It's about personalities. Two ego maniacs fighting it out for their own self interest, and using the Labour Party as pawns! Blair is an egotist obsessed with his legacy and won't tell go until his greasy hands are prized of the door-knob of No.10, and Brown is an egotist who has been wetting himself with excitment over becomeing PM for over 25 years!
I think there is something fundamentally disgsuting about people who are motivated by such self-serving ends!
It also worries me about the standard of government we can expect under the premiership of a man whose prime motivation is his own empowerment!
Seems more like "Silence is Iain" today! What are you up to?
The arrogance of the self centered egotistical aresehole.
Despite all the clear as crystal, we don't want you, leave now, follow the example of Elvis and leave the building, and just plain f**k offs, he still thinks going next year is acceptable.
It goes to show that this guy has never listened to opinions that do not suit him
Was looking for an Alistair Campbell blog to see if he could tell us what is going on he sems to know everything else the smart arse. All I could find was this
http://alastair-campbell.blogspot.com/
not exactly up to date
so , whats the betting on what Blair's going to say?
Sky have had non-stop coverage for almost an hour now.
wil it be just a damp squib "i'm going next year" announcement?
Please excuse my langauge (to those this might offend) but this arrogant twat has just said precisely fuck all.
If this is the way he wants it, lets hope the Labour party have the courage to drag him kicking an screaming from Downing Street NOW.
The Labour party just scraped in last May - not because of Blair, in spite of him.
Thankfully, my MP (Doug Henderson - and far be it from me to support someone i voted against) has came out and said what I think.
Lets hope this minister who is considering their position work out that their hand should be dealt right now.
Is there now sufficient momentum for this to be the end of Blair's regime? I truly hope so.
He's going exactly the same as Maggie - hanging on when his time is long since passed (for me that was May 2nd 1997).
Carl
permex - I supported the war in Iraq, but I have come round completely to your stance: if we're not going to prosecute it properly, meaning arming and protecting our service personnel, then let's go home. This is sickening.
This is something else to hate and loathe Tony Blair for. He's a cheap, preachy little ex-CNDer. Like the fishwife he's married to.
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