Jon Cruddas's conference diary: part 5

William Norton

I think curry deficiency is getting to Jon. He should U-turn on the feeding policy and return to his comfort zone.

mac

You still here?

Best wishes for a safe extraction from your own posterior - "the conference response was significant; indeed profound. The space for the coup plotters has been closed down".

Keith

I think what you actually mean is GB's speech crucified him!!!

marbury

The Taliban, in case anyone needed reminding, are a group of violent, murderous extremists who advocate the stoning of women and capital punishment for homosexuals. They are, as we write, killing people in the name of their cause. Yet Jon Cruddas thinks it amusing to label his rivals in the Labour Party with their name. Maybe he's the one who needs to go back to the playpen.

Alex

Political differences aside, perhaps I saw a different speech?

Austin Barry

I thought this Cruddas character was meant to be an intellectual big hitter. Instead he writes like a giddy, alco-popped teenage girl with a GCSE in texting and inappropriate feelings towards the brute McBroon. I hope you're not paying for this puerile nonsense.

Mike, Brighton

Jon
"we all agreed to set up a Royal Commission on wealth and inequality"
I think that says it all after 12 years of Labour in office.
Don't you think you have perhaps had enough time to address inequality in our society? And the NHS? And crime? And awful public services? And getting my bins collected weekly? And so on....with the majorities you achieved and the goodwill you held, you could have done anything you wanted. Blair/Brown wasted a generational opportunity. You must be ashamed?
PS. Brown is about as emotionally literate as my son's goldfish.
PPS. Here's a prediction, the polls barely move and in a weeks time we are back to discussing if/when Brown will go, and No.10 is back to the "Not yet, lets wait until the (by-election/Christmas/New Year/Council Elections/Euro Elections/Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter...delete as appropriate) strategy

LSS

Well done for going on the lash Jon. Your attempts to appear at one with the common man and act like a 'normal bloke' are fantastic. I wonder though, do you change your register when talking to conference delegates the way you do when talking to constituents? I think for a man born in Devon and who then spent a large amount of time in Portsmouth you have a fantastic fake east london accent. I'm a little let down that the spectator has given this guy another mouth piece to get into the spotlight, not a week goes by without reading another ideological rant about how new labour is dead and how Jon Cruddas has the right idea's. Actions speak louder than words Jon and your voting record speaks for itself.

jules

If it is true about the middle class tax cut, then chances are Brown is about to deploy it before Cameron or Osborne's speech. Or after Cameron's speech, to deflate the poll bounce.

This entirely in keeping with Brown's character - his world view of politics is narrow; it is all about crushing your opponents. Nothing more.

Remember, he tried this at the last Tory conference when he tried to overshadow them by going to Iraq; fortunately, Liam Fox and the press tore him to ribbons.

Cameron and Osborne need to have the ripostes ready if he tries this, and there are obvious ones.

Remember when he tried to "lower income tax" before he became PM. Look what he achieved - the 10p tax debacle.

Hit him hard on excessive borrowing, debt, and his political strategizing to the point that he does not know who he hurts in the process.

TrevorsDen

"I think we all agreed to set up a Royal Commission on wealth and inequality." ... the purpose being to create poverty and equality I presume.

There was me thinking the middle class had already had their tax cut as part of the sticking plaster over the botched 10p fiasco.

Given that Brown has given up worrying about where the money is going to come from I am expecting working class middle class and upper class tax cuts.

DM

Brown's speech 'nailed it'....you say. Nailed what??

David

I was on a 13-hour flight recently. With nothing to do, I read the copy of Sugar (a magazine for 13-17-year-old girls) that had been stuffed into the nearby seat pocket. It was better written, more engaging and more substantial than anything Mr. Cruddas has provided over his five diary entries. In fact, its articles about 'cute boys' were far more restrained and thoughtful than this latest gush for the Dear Leader.

Polly's mum

Cripes! reading this it suddenly occured to me that people might think I am Polly Toynbee's mum!!!
Perish the thought. I assure you that I am not.
Infact, to tell the whole truth, I am Polly and Alice's mum - and I think P Toynbee is the worst sort of champage socialist hypocrite. So there.

SJH

I've enjoyed Jon Cruddas's conference diary. It was inspired of the Speccie to invite him. He wrote with witty brio and robust self-deprecation. He may well be the Left's Boris.

He certainly has an engaging liberalness of manner which po-faced Polly lacks, certain as she is in her edicts and condemnations. More, please.

Max Kaye

And I thought this Jon Cruddas diary was a spoof....

dalesman

OMG! You have to be joking Mr Cruddas, or did I listen to a different speech?

The part about the NHS "saving 240,000 cancer patients lives", and the bit you liked about the man who got to go to his grand daughters wedding were so sugary they made my teeth ache!

It was a list, not a speech, and it was awful.

mac

SJH. Mwaah! You're Jon Cruddas and I claim my fiver.

George Ear

@SJH: Cruddarse writes with tremendous biro.

No apologies to Jonathon Coe.

TGF UKIP

What a 100%, Grade A, 22 carat pillock! And to think any of us have within the last few months taken seriously a Cruddas candidacy for Labour Leader and PM.

What these posts of the past few days comprehensively demonstrate that even if we did, he didn't.

My God, it takes a lot to make Prescott look good.

SJH

Steady on chaps (and chapettes).

I'd never vote for Cruddas. I don't agree with much or possibly any of his politics. But he's not part of the Islington Taleban, and his manner is infinitely more welcome than that of the belligerent witch-burners who usually populate the loudmouth Left.