Gordon Brown hacked off with hackers

Gordon Brown may not have been the best prime minister, but he did get to be in that office. Whatever one may think of the leadership of the country, it is no excuse to try to listen in on phone conversations. I have no clue what the News of the World got up to when trying to get stories. We do know someone went to jail for phonehacking. We do know that many famous people are rightly concerned that their phones may have been hacked into. We do know that Andy Coulson has resigned because he can't give 110% to the job. What we don't know and should is if there has been anything going on greater than that already prosecuted. The Metropolitan Police seem to have put this matter on a back burner.

Newspapers should investigate wrongdoing, report on all manner of issues and allow the publication of comment and opinion. It's called a free press. What they can't do is listen into private conversations in order to inflame passions in others. Do I want to know what goes on in a famous person's bedroom? I do not! However, should I know whether a policeman on duty is cavorting with a politician's wife whilst ostensibly protecting that polician from harm? Yes, because it tells me whether a lack of integrity exists where integrity should exist.

Why Scotland Yard is so cavalier about all this I do not know. But they should start turning over a few stones to see what crawls out from under. Something is going on and if it is not all sorted out soon, it will fester causing unnecessary trouble all round.

The only show in town

Gordon Brown thinks he has done a fine thing. Admit defeat of a sort but suggest that all parties are losers. Tell the nation he will quit as Labour leader but say he will stay on as prime minister until the progressive coalition has had a chance to "secure the economy". Then give some kind of rousing speech at the Labour conference, wish his successor well and depart for a cushy job like top bottlewasher at the IMF. That's the game plan. It's eagerly being taken up by the likes of Peter Hain, always the opportunist.

Thankfully such minds as David Blunkett's are coming out against it. So is John Reid. Labour could join up with the LibDems and form a minority government, with the Nats acting as whipping boys in order to secure votes in the House. Perfectly possible, but exceedingly unstable and likely to anger the electorate.

Far better for the Tories and LibDems to form a stable coalition and knuckle down to deal with the deficit. And I hope we won't all carp and criticise when they take difficult decisions. We don't want to end up like Greece or worse. So the only show in town is the Cameron and Clegg coalition. Anything else is a non-viable non-starter.

Gordon Brown resigns - a bit!

Gordon Brown has just resigned as Labour leader, so as to let a new leader get on better with Nick Clegg in some grand "Progressive Coaltion". However, he's still prime minister and will head this motley crew, if it ever came about, for about four months.

David Cameron should be pro-active in getting a deal with the Lib Dems. They'd be a damn sight better than Brown's collective coalition. Oh, and the PM has bitten the bullet and tried to call his opponents by their real name - Liberal Democratic Party is getting close. He's been on autopilot by always saying "Liberal Party".

Gordon Brown gets a Monday morning visit!

He must have thought his week was starting well. Visit the kirk, chat to friends, fly back to Downing Street for business as usual. Then he gets a visit from his best friends. Lord Mandelson, who has more capricious relationships than any person, led the charge. Ed Balls is in there now (a trusted friend?) and that wily Alastair Campbell, who seems to have been on high dose antacid tablets recently. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. Gordon Brown's minister said he prayed for all even if he disagreed with them. He better do something different today. Get down on his knees (not very Presbyterian!) and pray like mad that Mandelson is not up to some vile trickery!

Labour not total losers!

I spotted this on the BBC ticker. Somebody called Mitin says, "Has everybody missed the council election results? Labour has 420 extra councillors and 15 extra councils. Both the Tories and Lib Dems have lost councillors and seats. This puts a different complexion on the general election results doesn't it?". Have to say I missed it. And yes, it is some comfort to the prime minister, I suppose.

Pity for Gordon Brown he can't just swap the results around and claim the ballot papers were all in the wrong boxes!

Brown telephone call to Clegg was amicable

Can't believe everything I see or hear! Apparently it was not a diatribe....."More about that phone call between Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. A Lib Dem source has told BBC chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg that it was a perfectly amicable conversation, and not an angry exchange." So all's well in the stable again!

Gordon Brown to go into showbiz on Friday!

He and David Miliband will try their hands at anything. They need a good gagwriter, though. The present script's definitely no good!

Gordon Brown's Last Stand

Gordon Brown is beginning to resemble all those characters from history that made a last valiant stand but it all came to nought. Tonight he has been in Manchester sounding forth on Labour's achievements. One side of A4 would do it. I'm not convinced by his rhetoric. But his self-deluding economic giant status that he ascribes to himself is one thing that we can either take or dismiss. It's when he becomes some kind of maverick preacher that I rush for the smelling salts.

Charles II once said that Presbyterianism was not a suitable religion for a gentleman. Listening to Gordon Brown just now I tend to sympathise with the late king's comment. Well, Gordon's version of it. His moral compass seems to be in its very own electrical field currently. He judges the Conservatives in a very nasty way. He says, with extra shoulder heaving, that they "pass by on the other side". The suggestion that the Labour Party under Gordon Brown is some kind of jamboree for good samaritans is laughable. What he said tonight kind of drives a coach and horses through the New Testament. For one thing, he is leaving political debate behind and getting dangerously close to judging souls. "Thou shalt not bear false witness"? Was this ever raised in the manse? Maybe its OK these days in the Labour Party.

Gordon Brown sneers at the concerns of committed Christians who hold to a traditional understanding of the Faith. He may have jettisoned doctrine he finds incompatible with melding a secular society into shape, but others haven't. Democracy is all about hearing the opposing view with respect and dignity. I get the distinct impression that many in the Labour Party are just political bullies. Pity!

Oh, and speaking of respect, I hear George Galloway is taking Labour to the cleaners for alleged postal ballot frauds. It would be far better if Gordon took time to dig out the motes in Labour's eyes before trying to suggest others had beams in theirs.

Heckler thrown out of Brown meeting

The Labour Party said Gordon Brown was going to meet ordinary folk. It's been a total disaster. No ordinary voters have come near the man. When he gets a heckler, Labour goons chuck the concerned citizen out.

Let's hope by this time next week we've all had the good sense to chuck Brown out.

Mutt and Jeff and Gordon Brown

So Gordon Brown says he "misunderstood" what the good lady said. If that's the case, he's quick to fly off the handle over something he's not sure about. Bit like the cabinet ministers who had the rough edge of his tongue. Misunderstood, indeed!

He said this in an interview with Jeremy Paxman. Plus this - "Please believe me, I have never been soft on bankers and I am not soft on bankers now and I have been very, very clear about what the banks have got to do in the future." So clear that the banks cannot muster any backbone for self-control. Sir Philip Hampton, the boss of RBS, is so weak that he has to cave in to his ultra-greedy employees (those who get the massive bonuses). "If we don't pay our top people (appropriately), they leave very quickly," he said. So these top people have no loyalty to the bank, no loyalty to the customers and no loyalty to the country (who bailed the buggers out). All they have is a craven desire to get filthy rich by making "profits" out of illusionary money. Most of it doesn't exist. It's all in some follow-my-leader account-hopping merry-go-round. They can make nothing into something. Must make an alchemist sick!

Gordon Brown hasn't done what he should do. Instead of bawling out Mrs. Duffy, why doesn't he get those bank chiefs in and tell them that it's straight jackets not flash jackets from now on. No funny money stuff. No hedging, no betting, no ducking, no diving, no derivatives, additives, sedatives, or laxatives. Just plain honest banking.

Any chance these modern day moneychangers might be able to clean up their financial temples?

Cameron won on points and poise

David Cameron won the debate last night. Not by a mile, but he did OK. A school report would say "much improved this term!". Nick Clegg came second and Gordon Brown limped in a reasonable third. To be fair to the PM, I think he did better than some said he did.

All three seemed to get through OK. However, all clammed up on questions they didn't want to answer. Transparency has some way to go it would appear. Linked to truthfulness, of course.

Cameron was much more relaxed. Nick Clegg had moments when he looked like he was piggy in the middle. And what on earth happened to Gordon Brown's make-up. I thought Phyllis Diller may have had a hand in it.

It's still a three-horse race with several loose horses cantering along beside.

Gordon Brown caught on camera - and mike!

Here's how the internet works!

It's hard being Gordon Brown in Rochdale

Gordon Brown won't be heading back to Rochdale in hurry, I'll wager. It's hard being a cowboy in Rochdale, but it's a hell of a lot harder being Gordon Brown in Rochdale!

Bigoted Gordon Brown rounds on Rochdale granny!

Well, well, the truth is coming out. Gordon Brown is getting grumpier, he can't stand being questioning by "ordinary folk" and he blames others (Sue Nye his loyal aide) for it all. Fancy calling someone a "bigoted woman" just because she asked a couple of civilised questions.

Who exactly is the bigot here? I'd say it was Brown. He's bigoted against the electorate. So why on earth are there any people out there still wanting to vote for him. According to Amanda Platell, he looks washed out. Blimey, I get grumpy when tired. He must be like a volcano right now. One week its an Icelandic eruption, the next its a Scottish one. Well, limited to one Scottish person, that is.

The woman in question, Gillian Duffy, simply asked him about the deficit, pensions and Eastern European immigration. So is everyone who talks about immigration a bigot? That makes Brown a very big bigot. He's talked quite a bit about it recently.

His body language on the Jeremy Vine show (Radio 2) said it all. Heaving and shifting like a dozy seal that's just been given a kick to get back in the water. And he told Vine "If I said it". IF?

IF I SAID IT?

What a creep! How can he possibly say that? He knows damn well he said it. It just shows him up for what he truly believes and thinks. That the great British public in their voting habits are some kind of unwashed, thoughtless morons.

We all say things in unguarded moments. But, hey, this was no unguarded moment. He was miked up, ready to go. Has he learnt nothing about broadcasting techniques?

I suggest every potential Labour voter does as Mrs Duffy is going to do. Not vote Labour!

Two comics - One talent!

Gordon Brown has taken to telling jokes recently. I think he's got ideas from that show pony who is kicking up a fuss currently. Fancy telling Harriet Harman to "shut up!". Mandelson was never very pleasant when moody. I'm surprised the Labour Party keeps him on.

Gordon Brown without a tie looks decidedly wrong and out of place. If he's going to take up joke telling as a profession, then he should do it properly. Dressing up, that is. Take a tip from the master. Harry Hill's got the dress sense to make a mark on the memory.

A few good catchprases ("I'm with Nick" is no good), a more comedic hairdo and a glitzy suit as starters and Gordon may have a chance.

But what I've seen so far, well, it's very disappointing. Gordon needs a new manager, a different stage, and a totally new set of gag writers. From May 7th he'll have all the time in the world to perfect the perfect act. Why not bring Prudence back? Oh, and a small glove puppet called Taw-Nee. I can't wait!

Leaders' Debate - Who won it? Seems it was Nick Clegg!

Just dragged myself away from interminable political opinion making on ITV1. The last speaker being Lord Pearson who has been given a slot for his views. Much of all this has been hyped up and the people most excited about it all are the TV companies and the pollsters. I think the level of excitement offered by the three leaders was less energised.

When this was first mooted (a leaders' debate) everyone thought David Cameron had most to lose as he was the more telegenic and that Gordon Brown had most to gain. In the event both were deemed to have been outshone by Nick Clegg. I think Clegg did well and his natural approach is obviously appealing. David Cameron's political content was mostly sound but his body language seemed at times to give away his nervousness. Gordon Brown got it one fairly good strike about the Conservative posters of himself smiling and Cameron's controlled smirk seemed to suggest he was ill at ease over Brown's newfound Cheshire cat routine. But I think the most telling thing for me was at the very end when they all shook hands. Brown was keen to leave the other two and go to the audience as friendly host thanking his guests. Cameron and Clegg spent few moments in exchanging words. They seemed relaxed in each other's company. Whilst only a fleeting period and one can't read too much into it, it would tend to give a little bit of support to the suggestion that the two could work well in any coalition arrangement.

The pollsters are now crunching the numbers, but they all seem to agree that Nick Clegg was the outright winner. Which will mean that, as William Hague rightly points out, the LibDems will come under greater scrutiny. I hope it will be by proper debate than by a kind of musical chairs game.

Banks, bonuses and botch-ups

When the Queen asked "Didn't anyone see it coming?" she may not have been looking directly at the prime minister at the time. Maybe she should have prodded him with a stick or got a corgi or two to nip him. Only now is it possible for Gordon Brown to admit that he was duped by the banks.

Brown says now, "In the 1990s, the banks, they all came to us and said, 'Look, we don't want to be regulated, we want to be free of regulation'. All the complaints I was getting from people was, 'Look you're regulating them too much'. And actually the truth is that globally and nationally we should have been regulating them more. So I've learnt from that. So you don't listen to the industry when they say, 'This is good for us'. You've got to talk about the whole public interest." Well, Well. You don't say!!!

It's taken him all this time to recognise that the banks don't just take people's money in and invest it by lending it to others. No, that's far too tame. Far better to have "vehicles" and mix dodgy loans up with the good and flog them off to others who know less about it. Banks are now operating in some kind of Las Vegas style. How many times have we seen that the directors of these banks hadn't a clue what was going on. Northern Rock was a prime example, or would sub-prime be a better expression.

What I find reprehensible is that the leading politicians find it so difficult to trust the public. They feel it better to prevaricate or lie. It is so sad to think that only 4% of the electorate thinks they are trustworthy. To what depths have we sunk? I suppose we can be pleased Gordon Brown has at last begun to see reason. One wonders if he should have taken his moral compass to the repairers moons ago. But at least it's flickering in the right direction. Won't make me vote Labour though. Somehow it's ingrained in me that there's something strangely foreign about the Labour Party. Yes, we've got New Labour and its precious precociousness but I still remember Red Flags and raw socialism as if it were a communist-lite offering.

So we've got a ray of truthfulness creeping in. Great! But let's not forget that the electorate has to be truthful too. Can't have only one side being good, can we?

General Election 2010 - May 6th

So Gordon Brown has uncorked his bottle at last. I can't wait. Today is 6th April. One month to go - 6th May - and the former beau of Prudence (the politically incorrect keeper of the prime ministerial moral compass) will be kicked out without ceremony or sentiment.

As I say, I can't wait!!

Gordon Brown? Can he hang on?

All of a sudden the talk is not so much of us having a hung parliament but whether Gordon Brown can actually hang on. Hang on to what, exactly. The New Labour greasy pole? That's a tall order. No, it seems he may be able to do a kind of John Major 1992. This is all deemed possible by the British public settling for the devil they know, rather than plump for someone else, namely David Cameron.

There's a saying in Yorkshire, or at least there was. It's "There's nowt so queer as folk". This queer just means odd or peculiar and not the more recent usage. In fact, I haven't heard the word queer for ages, so perhaps nobody in Yorkshire says this anymore. Perhaps they should. We should all sit up and wonder if we are not all going a bit peculiar. How can a man who Richard Littlejohn describes as being sociopath have any chance? In fact, Littlejohn says in the Daily Mail, "For the entire time that New Labour has been misleading, bullying and cheating the British public, Gordon Brown has been at its dark heart, first as chancellor, then as prime minister. Brown's Britain is a failed state, led by an unelected Scottish sociopath and a gruesome gang of crooks, liars, political pygmies and smearmerchants. He has bankrupted the country, smashed our once gold-standard private pensions system, sold out our sovereignty to Europe and destroyed the special relationship with the U.S. over the release of the Lockerbie bomber for the sake of a squalid, sectarian squabble with the Scottish Nationalists. We have a ruinous welfare culture which rewards the feckless and a taxation system which punishes enterprise and the traditional family. Economically, he peddled us a false prospectus and has succeeded in beggaring the country for generations to come."

So, who could possibly think of voting Labour? Apparently quite a few. What on earth could they possibly get out of it? Well, I suppose plane-grounding strikers, a train-stopping union, bonus-grabbing bankers, climate change zealots, gravy train europhiles, equalities quango merchants and grumpy health service know-it-alls could make up a coalition of the politically corrupt and try to hallucinate the nation.

On, and there's talk of Blair going on the election campaign trail. The cherry on the cheesecake?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1261026/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-The-pygmies-sleazebags-whove-wrecked-Britain-I-nearly-Labour-MP.html#ixzz0jYld2fTY

Gordon Brown digs his heels into Heathrow tarmac!

He's a stubborn old mule, that's for sure! On the court decision, Gordon Brown mumbles on about the third runway being "vital not just to our national economy, but enables millions of citizens to keep in touch with their friends and families". So they can't now? What runways can't they fly from currently? The mind boggles at the man's diminishing sense of reasoning.

If anything we have far too much seat capacity on planes. Unless the "millions of citizens" are going to be forced to fly once a week on a trip to somewhere, the third runway vision is only a grandiose scheme to give the construction industry a boost. Surely that industry would be better placed giving us high speed rail, or better roads, or better houses.

The older I get the more I think those in charge have "being a moron" as the top skill on their CVs.