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Thursday, 4th September 2008

"The outstanding politician of this era"?

Peter Hoskin 7:50pm

Amid all the Labour backbiting and leadership speculation, there remain some – almost comically enthusiastic – voices of support for Gordon Brown.  Here’s Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, speaking to the BBC earlier:

“The truth is most Labour MPs, the overwhelming majority, want Gordon Brown to be the one who delivers the policies, makes sure that they are implemented .... Anybody  who would have taken Gordon Brown on [in last year's Labour leadership contest] would have been crushed ... he continues to be the outstanding politician of this era."
Of course, it's part of the PLP chairman's role to both promote and create the impression of unity.  But, on that front, few will have ever done as much firefighting as Lloyd has this year.  Look through newspaper articles written in the aftermath of David Miliband's Guardian op-ed - or in the aftermaths of the attacks on Brown made by, say, Lord Desai, Gordon Prentice and John McDonnell - and Lloyd crops up in many of them, often peddling the same "the majority is behind Gordon" message.  In fact, he's had to say it so many times, it's starting to indicate the exact opposite.

Hat-tip: Politics Home

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Bruce. UK

September 4th, 2008 8:15pm Report this comment

Nurse! The screens!

mitch

September 4th, 2008 8:23pm Report this comment

that is just beyond satire.

Seasurfer1

September 4th, 2008 8:24pm Report this comment

Lloyd is right! Brown is an OUT STANDING disaster!!

Oscar

September 4th, 2008 9:20pm Report this comment

I like the way Lloyd links crushing opponents with being an outstanding politician. By this measure Brown has been pretty outstanding.

Travis Bickle

September 4th, 2008 9:40pm Report this comment

Well no doubting he's unique in many respects.

However I'm sure you could find a way to fit the word "outstanding" into a sentence describing the economic genius that has masterminded the UK likely being the only G7 country to go into recession in this supposed global crisis.

Bernard from Horsham

September 4th, 2008 9:47pm Report this comment

Delusional nonsense. Brown "outstanding". More like "out to lunch"!

Nicholas

September 4th, 2008 9:56pm Report this comment

In my humble opinion the Labour Party and its covert communist backers have been the single most significant factor in the decline of Britain and the destruction of the British way of life since 1945. Many of them would no doubt be proud of that "achievement" as they take such issue with what had gone before. I view them all as the worst kind of traitors.

The Blair/Brown hegemony have completed the final work of ripping the heart out of the nation and presiding over its ultimate Orwellianisation.

Delusion and lunacy have always been central to Labour. The great lie.

mac

September 4th, 2008 11:18pm Report this comment

". . . almost comically enthusiastic". 'Almost'? How very restrained of you! With even cheerleaders like Toynbee and Ashley having throttled back on the adulation, such nonsense by Lloyd is beyond satire, as Mitch says.

Fiona, London

September 4th, 2008 11:46pm Report this comment

"Outstanding politician of this era". Pass me a bucket! Gordon Brown has raided pension funds and managed to destroy savings; he's robbed everyone through stealth-taxes and he's encouraged people to max their credit cards.

He's promoted the chav culture by giving away our hard-earned cash to lots of lardy layabouts who can’t stop reproducing and dropping their drawers in supermarket car parks. A few months later another burger-eating thug is born in an overfilled grubby NHS hospital, while some poor taxpaying pensioner lies unattended on a trolley to make room for them.

There is virtually no manufacturing in this country. Car plants have closed down and many companies have moved abroad because they simply can’t prosper and keep up with having to shell out for thongs and pies. All the government cares about is taxing these companies out of existence so that the nation’s couch potatoes can afford to be kept in the manner they have become accustomed to. Layabouts lie on their sofas watching makeovers on how to combat having the arse of a bulldog in tights, and if they get bored they can always spend the day abusing taxpayers on buses. Locating the nearest McDonald’s is regarded as a geography lesson for many kids today.

Under this government the personal data of the country's citizens is going missing on a regular basis, and we are now facing petty fines on anything they can squeeze from already dried up wallets. Daylight robbery!

Gordon Brown is an outstanding swindler and a chav fetishist in a tie. Hazel Blears might well fix him with the smile of a ventriloquist’s dummy, but I have no doubt that if she sported a lurid coloured tracksuit and demanded burgers all day, he’d weaken at the knees and offer her a night out in a Chicken McNugget factory.

I think Gordon should McOff and he must now make way for the Tories. Bring on the salad days!

I would therefore not label him an “outstanding politician”.

Hysteria

September 5th, 2008 1:42am Report this comment

some kind of wind up right?

EUSSR GO HOME

September 5th, 2008 5:07am Report this comment

REFERENDUM AND GENERAL ELECTION NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Austin Barry

September 5th, 2008 8:03am Report this comment

Doublespeak:

"Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that white is black, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.”
—Orwell, 1984

Gerry

September 5th, 2008 11:32am Report this comment

Gordon Brown. A man who is taciturn to the point of secretive and then secretive to the point of untrustworthy. These are more like the virtues of a Mafia hit-man than the leader of an intelligent civilized nation. How does one take out a Mafia hit-man? Either the hard way,with another hit-man, or the easy way. The easy way is to tell him his mother doesn't love him any more.

Liz Brown

September 5th, 2008 12:09pm Report this comment

Gordo is and always has been an outstanding BULLY

Polly's mum

September 5th, 2008 2:28pm Report this comment

Brown has been outstanding in his desire to hang on to power for power's sake.
He has stuffed this country, but as long as he can cling to power that is all that matters to him.
He is a traitor, and should be removed.

Marian C

September 5th, 2008 8:47pm Report this comment

Fiona London - Well said, I agree with every line. However, I think you missed out are the economic migrants who are also bleeding this country dry and are of no use to man nor beast.

Hysteria

September 5th, 2008 9:24pm Report this comment

Fiona - I enjoy a rant with the best of them - but your exercise in hyperbole takes some beating !!!!

Keep taking the pills - things can only get better - can't they?

Frank Pulley

September 6th, 2008 4:58pm Report this comment

"The outstanding politician of the era?"

I was thinking more "The Outstanding Spare Prick at a Wedding."

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