Gordon Brown has lost all moral authority

Mazza1230

GENERAL ELECTION NOW PLEASE!

Tim Calvert

If GB, as he claims, is unable to control his own office, how can he claim to be competent to run the UK?

Verity

I have great respect for Guido, and he has caused a lot of bloggers to be very interested/feel uneasy, but he hasn't brought down this government.

If Brown loses the next election - and I hope he doesn't, because I want to see new Conservative leadership in place that will finish the socialists, the party of the early 1900s, off for good - it will be nothing to do with twiddly bloggers' vengeances. This is a specialised interest.

James

Sorry, I was out at the pub. When did I miss Gordon Brown having any moral authority? Elected by a few thousand Fifers, I wasn't aware he had any authority on anything.

He's a conniving, duplicitous shit who's only achievement (if you can call it that) is to scheme and plot to replace a three-election-winning political mastermind and replace him with a venal and vengeful weirdo.

John Findlater

Brown and Zabulabour wouldn,t know Morality if it slapped them in the face.
Yesterdays revelations, and more today leave me with one word that sums them, Brown, McBride, Watson, Draper, Whelan etc all up ,,,,,,,by looks and deeds ,,,,,,THUGS.
For the past 12 years Britain has been ruled by gangsters, however thanks to the likes of Guido, Ian Dale, TB, etc the truth, so conveniently hidden by the collusion between Zanulabour and the Press, has been exposed.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday got all its facts wrong,,the BBC as usual promoted its pro Zabulabour lines.
Well done to Guido, Ian Dale etc,, you are the true upholders of free unbiased journalism and the truth.

TomTom

How can Tom Bower do what the Conservative Opposition has failed to do since 1983 ?

Moraymint

Good blog Peter. Let's not forget either that (presumably?) McBride was (still is?) funded by the punch-drunk taxpayer. What splendid use of our hard-earned, rapidly diminishing incomes, eh Mr Brown?

So, having discovered that we pay for one Cabinet minister's husband's proclivity for self-abuse, we now discover that we pay for a Brown acolyte to abuse other politicians.

Forgive me, but aren't we staring an economic depression in the face? Is this the best our Government can do, under the circumstances?

I hope at least one or two Government politicians read these blogs and realise the extent to which people's traditional dismay and disdain for politicians at large, has recently shifted to unadulterated rage.

Without wishing to stoke up the sentiment, it's hard to see how all this nonsense in Government won't eventually lead to people taking direct action in various forms.

Since Brown's Government treats with contempt all of the usual mechanisms of democracy and honest political process, why should the British people not follow Brown's lead and treat British 'democracy' with contempt?

As the economic downturn bites hard this year and citizens keep getting told that Brown and his bandits are the best thing for saving this country and the world, watch out for more and more direct action; it'll come.

Unless, of course, Brown has the guts to call an election now and put his moral compass and world-saving economic genius to the test of the British people.

Odds on that anyone?

Oscar

I wouldn't rule out Brown being ousted before the next election. There are a lot of scores to be settled within the Labour party. As Fraser points out Brown has built his career largely smearing members of his own party. The success of G20 wasn't enough to turn the polls. If that did't work - what would? There are powerful elements inside Labour who will want shot of Brown for strategic and personal reasons. If the media gets on board, this could well be the end game for Brown.

Mitch

Brown is a nasty piece of work who lies about everything.His family were quite well off he got a good education and has never had a real job in his life while rich people have bankrolled him for favours.

Nicholas

It's interesting that the government reaction to this has been yet more spin. Carefully crafted statements and all on message repeating the same key phrases. It was "right" for McBride and Draper not to publish, etc. Byrne got quite a hard time this morning on News24 where McBride's proximity to Brown was being emphasised and Byrne's attempts to distance them robustly challenged, but again no Tory spokesmen to be seen and only it seems Grayling being quoted. The "invisible men" of HM Opposition really are invisible today.

Is it just me, or do other Coffee Swillers think that the Conservative response for Brown to apologise is weak? They don't seem to have caught the mood of the country. Shouldn't they be launching an all out attack on Labour spin and sleaze now that the hard work has been done for them by an unaligned blogger?

Rhoda Klapp

This from Ilya Ehrenberg, 1938, re the purges.

[Pasternak] waved his arms as he stood among the snowdrifts: 'If only someone would tell Stalin everything.'

And from Labourhome, yesterday..

Whatever Gordon may be, he is not sleazy, corrupt, or disgusting. I think and hope he will have them fired.

Labourhome generally had a pretty decent response, most of them know it's bad. However they seem to think the boss didn't know. Hmmmmm.

Stop Common Purpose

Compared with the acts of corruption, deceit, fraud and treachery that are associated with Common Purpose, McBride's few emails are of trivial importance.

Moraymint

Apologies for the error in my earlier post: "honest political process" is an oxymoron.

Perseus

John Findlater -

"Well done to Guido, Ian Dale etc,, you are the true upholders of free unbiased journalism and the truth."

I'm not sure that even Guido, Iain etc. would make that claim.

If you/they really believe that then we are in for even greater problems when Cameron etc are elected.

It's Guido's self-righteous hypocrisy (when he is a peddlar of half-truths and lies against Labour) that is the second most sickening aspect of this affair.

Just because you agree with his point of view that does not make it correct.

I despair...

Oscar

Nicholas - I agree. I think the Conservative response has been weak. Sometimes they are right to pull back, but not in this case when public sympathy is so completely with them. In particular they must counteract the widespread falsehood put out by Labour that the Conservative party run equivalent blogsites to Red Rag. The impression is being given that they fund and run Guido Fawkes and other sites and it is not being slapped down loudly and clearly as it should. Damian McBride's resignation statement is a poisonous piece of lies and nonsense. He's being allowed to get away with smearing Guido and implicate the Conservative party. Lance Price on R4s BH did the same thing. The response just has to be more robust than asking for an 'apology'.

RW

On Brownian morality, this comment from the Mail caught my eye. I hadn't thought about him in this way before:

"While the Prime Minister tries to portray himself as a man of principle, his actions are those of a Scottish clan chief, demanding of his followers nothing more than blind loyalty and an appetite for bloodshed. "

David Ossitt

Gordon Brown has lost all moral authority.

I truly believe that he never ever had any; nor morals, nor an honest bone in his body.

I am sure that he will be remembered in the years to come as the worst most corrupt PM that we have ever had.

Verity wants the conservatives to lose the next G.E. so as to bring forward a better leader than D.C., I too would prefer a different leader but I can not bear the thought of a labour victory.

I am asking everyone I meet to vote B.N.P. (a loathsome party) at the European elections; in the hope that if they do and the B.N.P. do well D.C. might wake up to the true mood of his support base.

jon dee

Throughout his political career Brown's insecurities have compelled him to surround himself with an "inner circle of bruisers opportunists and freaks".

One of the joys of reading Tom Bower's brilliant biographies, has been placing these unsavoury characters in their appropriate slots.

Whether Brown has lost all moral authority is a moot point.

Some say, he never had it.

Worried Tory

Oscar, Nicholas, yes it is a weak response. Verity, that is one of the reasons that I, sadly, agree with some of your points. I do worry that this Tory leadership is not strong enough to make the seismic changes that the country need and the public increasingly want.

Diswiss

A putrid response from the
giggling-Kinnock-look-alike (on Daily Politics the other week, was a prime example).

He stated it was just scribbled
notes from one mate to another
and there was never any intention to implement/publish
them.

Yeah! Right!

What an absolute prat.

JONNY

'If Brown loses the next election - and I hope he doesn't, because I want to see new Conservative leadership in place that will finish the socialists'
And if the Cameroons are still leading the Tories in 2015, I take it you'll be cheering on Brown, Verity, for a Historic 5th Term.

Denis Cooper

I'm not expecting that this will bring forward the general election. The Prime Minister decides, exercising the Royal Prerogative, and as long as he can command a majority in the Commons he's under no compulsion to call an election before the statutory deadline. He could, conceivably, seek to extend the life of the present Parliament, and the Labour MPs might well vote for that; but he'd have to get the Bill through the Lords, and he couldn't use the Parliament Acts. He could also, conceivably, invoke emergency provisions in the Civil Contingencies Act to shut down Parliament altogether, but that seems very unlikely.

It's a major weakness in our constitution are that we, the people, have absolutely no say in this; as a nation we can't force a general election through a national petition, and as constituents we have no legal mechanism to compel the resignation of our own MP and force a by-election. None of the main political parties intends to rectify either of those constitutional defects, for obvious reasons.

Nor am I expecting Brown to stand down, because there's no obvious replacement who could do anything much to restore the popularity of the Labour party. He'll just brazen this out, as he brazens everything else out. Even if he was replaced, there would still be no election before the Irish have voted again on the Lisbon Treaty in October, which most likely means that the election will be next spring.

However while it's entirely futile for the Tories to demand an early general election, which is a matter controlled by the Prime Minister, it would not be so futile for them to demand a police investigation with a view to criminal prosecution, which is a matter controlled by the CPS.

The common law offence of "misconduct in public office" is discussed on the CPS website here:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/misconduct_in_public_office/index.html

and also here, in a Standard Note quite recently prepared by the House of Commons Library:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04909.pdf

If McBride was being paid out of public purse, which seems to be the case, then he should be required to explain his actions to a jury.

But I'll be pleasantly surprised if the Tories do demand criminal proceedings, as it would set a precedent which could inconvenience them once they were in office.

The Huntsman

This incident rather trashes the smug notion purveyed by quite a few journalists (esp those of the soi-disant 'lobby' that they believed Gordon McBackStabber to be en entirely decent and moral man, whatever the character of some of those in his Camarilla might be.

He is not and never has been. He is (and always has been) a dishonourable, mendacious, bullying, tribalist incompetent who was wished on us by the 313 numpties of the Labour Parliamentary Party without so much as an election amongst themselves, let alone us.

Now we have the evidence staring us in the face, perhaps the smug ones might offer us an apology for trying to mislead us.

JONNY

'I do worry that this Tory leadership is not strong enough to make the seismic changes that the country need and the public increasingly want.'

Seen no evidence at all
Worried Tory for a growing public appetite for Ultra Right Wingers. Or their Clear Blue Water Politics.
Not one whit. Not one shred.
And it t does seem to me rather infantile to assume that just because you may want something, 'the vast majority of people' will agree.
Because I can reliably inform you, they don't.
In fact, on the contrary, we are entering the era of tighter state supervision whoever may be in power.

TGF UKIP

Peter, the only reason Brown has got away with his "son of the manse" guff for so long is due entirely to the activities of your fellow journos including those now in charge of your senior publication the Daily Browngraph. Indeed, yesterday it was noteworthy how they were, while featuring the story, very careful to pump out the Brown line while attempting to smear Guido.

So far as the politcal impact of this story goes I wouldn't be quite so bullish. This will pass over most peoples' heads as just more village bickering -remember just how little political traction the Blunkett sleaze episodes had.

Of course, as Nicholas points out, it would have considerably more political impact if the Tories would do unto Labour what Labour would undoubtely have done to them pre 97, if the situations had been reversed.

There are, however, two reasons why there is zero chance of this. Firstly, this big girl's blouse of an opposition is completely incapable of really getting stuck into Labour and even if it were the Mekon, very stupidly and mistakenly, wouldn't let them in case it might jeopardized the Woman's Own vote. Secondly, these Tories know that when it comes to sleaze, real or alleged, they are bound to be on shaky ground. Their tactic is, therefore, probably a very sensible one - lying low and hoping nothing rebounds.

Gordon

Oscar at 9.05 said:
"I wouldn't rule out Brown being ousted before the next election. There are a lot of scores to be settled within the Labour party"

I agree - Harman is desperate to become Prime Minister and knows she doesn't have a hope for the next 8-10 years if she doesn't get in before the election.

drakes drum

stop common purpose.

BROWN is OUR common purpose, to GET HIM OUT!

Now, Is this the reason Brown refused to hold a referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty?

Subject: Death penalty re-instated - eg if we riot against the EU?! On 20th Feb 2008 a caucus meeting was held at the German Parliament, in Munich, to discuss the Lisbon Treaty. [the European Union reform treaty, (a.k.a. the Lisbon Treaty rejected by the voters of Ireland and before that rejected by the voters of France and Netherlands as the EU Constitution]

At that meeting a previously unmentioned paragraph was brought to light by Professor Schachtschneider, of the Humanities Faculty - University of Nuremberg.

Professor Schachtschneider, explained that the undisclosed paragraph means on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that the DEATH PENALTY will be reintroduced to Europe. The Death Penalty will be applicable for the crimes of RIOTING, CIVIL UPHEAVAL and DURING WAR.

Professor Schachtschneider made the point that this clause is particularly outrageous as it had been cleverly hidden in a footnote to a footnote and would not have been detected by anyone other than an exceptional expert reader.

It is not in the treaty itself, but in a footnote, because with the European Union reform treaty, we accept also the European Union Charter, which says that there is no death penalty, and then it also has a footnote, which says, “except in the case of war, riots, upheaval” !!

When we are not at war, who will define riot and upheaval?

Will a riot against membership of the EU now result in execution?

Even if you favour the death penalty the voters of the UK should be given a referendum on this treaty / constitution.

Did BROWN mention this ? ...No... because he, like his Minister for Europe Caroline Flint, claim to have never read the Treaty... what fools.

BUT, what bigger fools are we all, allowing ourselves to be placed under a totalitarian regime without a whimper!

kick labour out of the eu

johnny come lately

This is the biggest story to hit the fan for weeks. The greatest opportunity for the Conservative Party leader to seriously wound Gordon Brown!

Two days of complete silence!

Is he a man or mouse?

Certainly no leader!

Nicholas

Come on Denis, where's your imagination? Not all the momentous events in British history were predicated on the rulebook. What we need now is the Nelson touch. Someone needs to steer their ship alongside that of the enemy and get to grips.

Susan Hill

johnny come lately.. agreed agreed agreed.. where the hell are they ? They leave everything to Vince Cable.

Herbert Thornton

We all need to consider very carefully what 'upheaval' is intended to cover.

It is reasonably clear that voting either UKIP or the BNP into power would be at least a first step to 'upheaval', because if either of them actually declared Britain to be no longer part of the European system of government it most certainly would constitute 'upheaval'.

To put it bluntly, the aim is to prohibit secession from Europe and to make actually attempting it a crime punishable by death.

Consider too the possibility of UKIP or BNP members being elected as members of the European Parliament. It seems to me that this provision about upheaval could also be used to prevent them from sitting as members.

AndyLeeds

Maybe Brown didn't know about these libellous Emails, but that is hardly the point. McPoison and Dolly are his creatures, he created them and they reflect his wont of morality and manners. He is just as guilty as they are, if not more so.

hysteria

we have to assume the tory high command are aware. We also assume they are not stupid.

SO there must be a reason for the silence......

Madasafish

Why are th Conservatives quiet?

Obvious to anyone with any nous.

They need do nothing. Charles Clark, Tom Harris and decent Labour supporters (yes there are : ) will do it all.

If the Conservatives attacked , Brown would then appeal to tribal loyalties.

He cannot when he is being attacked by his own people.

Minnie Ovens

The success of G20 wasn't enough to turn the polls.
Oh dear oh dear Oscar, the "success" of the G20 was a perception not a fact.
Let's look at it when all the promised additilonal money has come in.
And I mean additional, not spin money.
I was in New York when it took place and whilst the US media reported on it, it was quickly forgotten amongst all the other political gung hoing concerning getting the US economy going.
To twist an old axiomatic saying,America's business is just that.
Not the world's.

biggestaspidistra

It brings to mind Nixon's obsession for recording all his telephone conversations. Here again a government bent on recording every email exchange is exposed by its own scary policies.

Paul Round

I think Brown knew about these emails and approved them.I append my name so he can sue me

Mark Solomon

Why are the Conservatives quiet? Because this is a NON STORY, a storm in a teacup now the man has resigned, something of interest to the politically aware but nothing of importance to the vast majority of people struggling with the consequences of Brown's recession. Concentrating on this would look petty ('They're only taking action because they've been personally insulted') and worse, would give the green light to Labour examination of what CCO dirty tricks department might be up to - and I sincerely hope they are up to something!

It's the economy, stupid!

Hysteria

"Even though Brown almost certainly didn't know about the McBride emails" - you might be a bit quick to jump to this position?

Ronnie

I agree with Madasafish (!).

When your enemies are in chaos and stabbing each other in the back, its a good idea to let them get on with it for a few days.

We should wait to see what happens on Wednesday at 12 pm before we pass judgement on the Tory response.

Tom Norton

God help us!

dave

what a horrible loathsome piece of work he is,a grubby slimy man.