How John Prescott got the better of me
Fraser Nelson 5:15pm
I’ve had the pleasure of doing a column for the News of the World for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I’ve had the newspaper’s title on my conference pass. I wish I’d done it earlier. It seems to drive Labour people quite mad. The ushers here recoil when they check my pass, some tut, others hiss. “Is that newspaper still going?” one of them asked me on the way in. Um yes, it’s the largest selling newspaper in the English-speaking world and its readers are the type who tend to decide British elections. The sort of people whom Labour seems to have given up on, as it indulges itself in the kind of pre-Kinnock policies which proved rather less than popular in the 1980s. Tax the rich, spend spend spend, etc. Listening to the debates here, I can see why the Blairites are so nervous. It’s possible that what remains of New Labour will be buried in any future leadership battle.
Anyway, back to The News of the World. I’ve just done a BBC1 Politics Show where they introduced me as being from both The Spectator and The News of the World. As a result of this I was savaged by the Labour-supporting audience. Perhaps vengeance for my being rude to John Prescott in the middle bit, which was off-air . I have to say Prescott came out of the exchange better than I did. We had a set-to about debt figures, jobs and immigration. “How many of those 3m new jobs you were talking about are immigrants?” I asked. “I have no idea” “Two-thirds.” “Funny how these Tories are fixated with immigrants – I’m pleased Poles are getting new jobs.” I tried shouting out at him “five million on benefits” but he had the camera and the microphone and didn’t flinch. Had it been on air, it would have no doubt left me looking like a refugee from Speaker’s Corner. For all his many faults, Prescott is pugnacious and unflappable and is doing a brilliant job for Gordon Brown right now.
I’m playing the pantomime villain again tonight, on a panel with Ed Balls and Jon Cruddas at the Fabian Society. When I took the job of political editor of The Spectator, Peter Oborne warned me about this. “When you sit on a panel, have a look around. If you can’t see who the bad guy is, it’s probably you.”
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Comments
CS
September 21st, 2008 5:21pmSo you're sitting on a panel with Ed Balls and you can't see who the bad guy is?
mckenzie
September 21st, 2008 5:29pmYou're not doing a bad job there yourself Frazer. The only major flaw I hold against you is your lack of Holy Spirit, there again, who knows: God moves in mysterious ways.
(I can hear the fingers typing already)
Slim Jim
September 21st, 2008 5:42pm“When you sit on a panel, have a look around. If you can’t see who the bad guy is, it’s probably you.”
Well, you shouldn't have much trouble tonight Fraser...
Max Kaye
September 21st, 2008 5:42pmPrescott is a (still) fat oaf who like to throw his weight around (and sometimes just throw up). I would tell him so to his face - even at the risk of being punched. (I'd put on a Michael Caine voice and say: "You're a big man, but you're out of shape... Now behave yourself").
Sitting on a panel with Balls and Cruddas: you have a stronger stomach than mine.
Matthew Blott
September 21st, 2008 5:56pmlol @ the last comment.
Probably you should have been a little wiser to such tactics though Fraser. Dennis Healey used to V-sign his questioner when the camera was off him and fixed on the his inquisitor.
CS
September 21st, 2008 5:56pmP.S. You should be ashamed that you couldn't best the bloated class traitor.
jaymason
September 21st, 2008 6:05pmIt's on the web site it just looks to me like Prescott can't answer the question and hopes people won't realise Gordon Brown is a liar
Tiberius
September 21st, 2008 6:36pmGood luck for this evening, Fraser, and remember that being on the wrong side of the argument doesn't necessarily mean you're in the wrong.
As for Prescott, entertaining and loud he may be, but he's still just the pantomime horse.
E. Marcia
September 21st, 2008 6:50pmA link to the "debate". The incident referred to it at 30/31 minutes.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/7627998.stm
I would not worry about it Fraser. It may appear that John Prescott got the better of you at the time as you were in a room full of lefties. However in normal circumstance you would have had the applause. The debate also remaindered me of how much of a moronic pathetic excuse of human live John Prescott is and how glad I am that he is (mostly) out of the picture now.
BCS
September 21st, 2008 6:52pmFraser, you are far too virulent for your own good. Some of your allegations are simply not credible. Too accuse Labour of 'pre-Kinnock policies' is absurd. Unilateral nuclear disarmament? Abolition of trade union laws? Mass nationalisation of industry (except banks admittedly, but that is an exception)? Punitive taxes of over 90% on the wealthy very wealthy? Withdrawal from the European Union? I haven't noticed the present Government espousing any of these genuinely 'pre-Kinnock' policies. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of Brown that can be made without resorting to hysterical claptrap.
E. Marcia
September 21st, 2008 7:03pmApologies for the double post (the first one has live instead of life) which indeed makes me look like a moron. Oh dear my first foray into posting comments has not gone well.
Fraser Nelson
September 21st, 2008 7:08pmCS, I am! The actual link should be up soon - so you can see it for yourself.
Anna
September 21st, 2008 7:13pmOdd - when I watched the Politics Show on the BBC website this morning, I saw the exchange with Prescott. I'm not sure why you think he came out of it better, he's just a more accomplished steamroller.
Witan
September 21st, 2008 8:01pmFraser you did well to raise the lie about the level of debt. Neither Prescott nor Harman earlier today could escape the silly spin about this.
Sadly you gave Prezza a chance to go into a rant about racist Tories. Bollocks, of course, but its the standard pre-2006 line that the loyal Labour audience lapped up.
That aside you showed clearly how they were all except for Clarke and a couple of others, living in dreamland.
bill
September 21st, 2008 8:52pmFraser
You are a good man. If only more Tory MPs/candidates were of your calibre.
CS
September 22nd, 2008 3:10amFraser, sorry but I refuse to watch. The sight of the **** isn't conducive to a pleasant weekend.
I've always found it curious how, whenever Prescott mangles the English language, he gets away with the basic excuse: "I'm only thick because I went to a secondary modern".
You'd have thought that the millions who went to a secondary modern and ended up perfectly lucid and intelligible would be insulted.