How the Brownites operate

Paul L

Is the Sun turning? The last sentence is particularly telling:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/columnists/fergus_shanahan/article2375497.ece

Don

Please let them elect Balls as leader, then they will be cast into the outer darkness for a very, very long time.

Verity

Mark my words, chaps and chapesses. I have been saying for months that Alan Johnson is our most dangerous enemy. And now he is coming to the fore, stepping over corpses.

If he gets any real power, the vapid and Euro-esque David Cameron will not be able to battle him. Johnson is attractive to women - he's a bloke. David Davis, William Hague and others are also blokes and could knock his block off.

Pinko Euroluvvie social democrat Cameron cannot.

Control freak (like Jimmy Carter who personally made out schedules for use of the White House swimming pool) Cameron is the wrong man for this position.

Fergus Pickering

Then we must all hope that they do elect him. And, afterall, they elected Michael Foot and the they elected Kinnock, so the auguries are good. Actualy, if they knew what was good for them, they would elect Harriet Harman, but I know all you mcps, on the blogs and amonmg the journos, won't agree with that. However, they won't, because Labour are like that, and because they think women aren't REALLY up to it when theer are titans like the Postman about (and he's the best of them, by God).

Mitch

Balls as the "brains" of the operation...they may as well use a tub of lard.

Old Hack

I doubt we've seen the last of McBride & Co.

They'll surface again somewhere else, perhaps in Labour HQ or some political outfit where Gordon can outsource their dark arts.

Liz Brown

Verity I think you should go and lie down in a darkened room - Alan Johnson attractive to women? Really - not this one he ain't............he might(?) be charming but he is weak - witness his caving into union demands.......

Nick

Brilliant though it would be for the Tories if Balls did get chosen as the next leader of the Labour Party I am afraid that that just isn't going to happen.

As has been pointed out time and time again on this site the only people who rate Balls seem to be the Browns & McBrides of this world and certain Spectator columnists who are always mentioning his supposed intelligence.

Balls is extremely unpopular within the Labour Party (both Commons and grassroots), he is an appalling TV performer, and his supposed support within the Union movement seems somewhat shallow when the NUT has just voted unanimously to take him on over SATS. This latter development seems to have been overlooked in the melee of Smeargate.

Ken

Anyone else think the weasel wording of McRuin's "apology" disturbing?

A commenter on another blog noted that the letter says:
"I have also written personally to all those who were subject to these unsubstantiated claims."

An unsubstantiated claim is not the same as an untrue claim. It is one where there is not sufficient evidence available either way to prove the claim true or false. By referring to McPoison's lies and complete fabrications in these equivocal terms, The Great Ruiner compounds the offence.
...Brown (should) make it clear that these were not "unsubstantiated claims", but outright lies totally without foundation.
(End quote)

All we are getting at the moment is more wriggle. The mendacious Prime Minister needs to be firmly nailed for the vile slurs and disgusting sewage sent out from and in the name of his office on taxpayer time and equipment and paid for by our money.
"They work for us!"

Westmorlander

Your commentary is, as always, Verity, a joy to behold. Your brand of Conservative politics would have us lose the next election - like it's lost us the last three. Or perhaps you belong to the "one last push" brigade. Your kind seem far more suited to opposition. Maybe you should join UKIP?

Forlornehope

A long time ago I was a member of the Labour party. At the time there were lots of people with views just like Verity, but one hundred and eighty degrees away. They did the country a great service by ensuring that Margaret Thatcher had the space to turn round the UK economy. The loony left destroyed Labour for a generation. One of the essential tasks for a modern Conservative party is to put the loony right in a box and keep it there.

Dame Hermione Grope-Worthy (Miss)

You can ignore this "I'm a Son of the Manse" bullshit.

Brown is evil.

David Ossitt

Rumours have been spread that James Purnell is gay - something that is totally untrue.

Why add totally; something is either true or false, honest or dishonest there are no degrees to truth.

However if you take everything that this Prime Minister says and then turn this to the very opposite meaning, then you will have the truth most of the time.

David Bouvier

Why is Brown not being pushed on the difference between knowing about "emails" and knowing about "plans to smear the opposition". The letter leaves room for Olympic carriage driving teams to pass unmolested.

Chris lancashire

I think it's "time for reflection" on the state of British politics and, in particular, where Brown and Blair before him have brought us to.
I, for one, hope that this dishonest Labour leadership is replaced by a more decent minded, principled set of politicians.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Verity

Your personal animus towards Cameron is repeatedly manifested here. But why? How relevant are your comments to this particular post? This is a post by James Forsyth about how the Brownites operate.

When you refer to 'our most dangerous enemy', on behalf of whom are you speaking?

As to the subject itself I'd make two points:

Balls has shown himself more than capable of operating in this underhand manner.

The Labour Party has, for decades, operated by fear and intimidation. Indeed its history and association with the Trade Union movement was entirely based on the naked abuse of powers. No one who has studied the Trades Unions of the 1950s and 60s could doubt that. Even today, the power and influence of Unions direct affects the operations of this Government.

johnny come lately

verity could be right. Johnson could also take over and immediately call a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, saying a promise is a promise!

That would immediately place him in a win win situation. It would split the Tories with ken Clarke and Cameron on the side of the Lisbon Treaty and the Labour Party deciding to oppose it!!

Following the rejection of the Treaty, Johnson could call a General Election and win a landslide!

Nicholas

Purnell may or may not be gay but he is undoubtedly an absolute bounder for using taxpayers money to pay for his groceries.

Nick

Can I just second the views of a couple of posters above who are becoming increasingly irritated by the persistent anti-Cameron comments made by Verity on this site.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however wrong it may be, but the constant litany of "pinko, Euroluvvie, control freak, vapid etc" comments on every post is just tiresome and unenlightening.

Hawkeye

Johnny come lately said: "Johnson could also take over and immediately call a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, saying a promise is a promise!"

Which is why Johnson will not get the job.

Too many europhiles in Labour. They see the EU as the golden utopia where dumped politicians can retire to a chamber of opportunity and even more generous expense troughing.

John Lea

But isn't the fact that Cameron is a 'Euroluvvie', who appears weak on crime, who has embraced Labour's destruction of the grammar schools, and who has, generally, surrendered every traditional Tory principle to the current climate of political correctness (a climate created by NL), central to this whole debate? The Conservative party - in its present incarnation - is not an opposition to New Labour, but a continuation of it.

Ivy Eileen

Nick @ 9.50 a.m.

Agree absolutely. Another day, another rant.

Nick

1) Evidence please that Cameron is "weak" on crime.

2) Claims that Cameron is a Euroluvvie sit uncomfortably with the fact that the Tories have taken themselves out of the grouping of other European centre right parties because they are too federalist. Plus a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is current Tory policy.

3) Grammar schools were wonderful for the 20% of children who got into them. Less wonderful for the 80% who didn't. And a lot of the parents of those 80% are people the Tories need to vote for them. Also more grammar schools closed under Tory administrations than under Labour.

wonderfulforhisage

More power to Verity's elbow say I. And the more she digs it into the self styled 'heir to Blair's' ribs the more I'll cheer her on.

Westmorlander

@John Lea. Cameron is not weak on crime; the grammar school policy was inherited and, lets be honest, he hasn't "surrendered every Tory principle". You undermine what little argument you have by your exaggeration.

Westmorlander

@John Lea. Cameron is not weak on crime; the grammar school policy was inherited and, lets be honest, he hasn't "surrendered every Tory principle". You undermine what little argument you have by your exaggeration.

Kevyn Bodman

James Purnell is not gay.
Neither am I.
Why is this in the least bit important?

To readers here it shouldn't be important; what does it say about NuLab's slimeball smearmongers that they should try to run with this one?

Kevyn Bodman

The suggestion in a comment above this one that Alan Johnson could bring forward a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is one that should worry opponents of Labour.
In my opinion it would be a huge vote-winner.
And I think there'd be a significant 'No' vote.
But Cameron could spike Labour's guns and replace his half-hearted 'refrerndum if the Treaty hasn't yet been implemented' policy with a robust 'Referendum whatever the circumstances' policy.

John Lea

Nick:

1) Remember 'hug a hoodie'? Cameron's embarrassing plea that we should 'love and understand' young thugs who spit on the justice system? That plea could only have been uttered by someone who has lived a life of privelege, far removed from the realities of life on many of Britain's sink estates.

2. The Tories - like New Labour - have, over the years, been happy to sacrafice our sovereignty to Brussels. Remember, Thatcher's downfall was a direct result of her opposition to greater EU integration (her famous 'No, No, No!' speech). Cameron is as weak on Europe as the Lady was strong. And why else would he bring back that old Europhile Ken Clark?

3. Grammar schools were an opportunity for children from less priveleged backgrounds to gain a good education. They were aimed at increasing social mobility, and succeeded very well. Where do intelligent children from poorer backgrounds find that opportunity now? In their local bog-standard comprehensive? However, I take your point that the Tories put the wheels in motion. It was a shameful policy. And Cameron's unwillingness to re-establish grammar schools tells you everything you need to know about his pathetic surrender to the liberal elite's hatred of educational excellence. He's frightened of appearing 'elitist'.

Kevyn Bodman

I always enjoy Verity's robust comments, I agree with most of them, and I think she is right to point out Cameron's ineffectiveness and continued disappointing performance.Against this government he should have a HUGE poll lead.

I am old enough to remember Keith Joseph's principled speeches when in Opposition in 1974/1975.
I know he wasn't the Leader so the analogy isn't exact, but where is Cameron's forthright opposition?
And if he doesn't want to do it himself why does he not send his team out, one on Europe this week, one on Civil Liberties next week, one on sleaze the week after, then one on Education etc.?

My real worry is that Cameron doesn't think there is much wrong with recent policy.
The outstanding soundbite on these pages in recent weeks has been that Cameron is a 'Blair tribute act.'
And Cameron fails to show that description is unfair.

John Lea

Westmorlander: in response to your earlier response to Verity. You strike me as one of those New Tory Cameroons who would happily sacrafice the integrity of the party in order to win office. Is winning the next election truly the only thing that matters? Doesn't the fact that all of those champagne socialists who voted for Phony Tony are now talking in the same messaniac tones about David Cameron? Ah well, at least those Scandanavian huskies will be happy when he gets in.

greyspender

Verity
I have finally rumbled you. For a long time I just thought that
you were a witless female with
an unreasoned anti-Etonian bias
( and I have never seen your
proposal for an alternative Tory
leader ). Now it is clear that
you are Derek Draper writing under a pseudonym.

Simon Denis

Grammar schools are good for everyone precisely because they offer the country a home grown competent elite. They also allow secondary mods to focus on another, particular tranche of the academic spectrum, which then excels in its own way. As Brady forced the govt to admit, every pupil does better under the grammar/secondary mod split. When that vile, bug eyed monstrosity, Balls, tried to rubbish the secondary mods of Kent - always the way with anti-grammar louts - Ofsted presented evidence that in fact they did an excellent job.

As to Cameron, we the grammarians are biding our time. We dislike his giving way to the comprehensive conspiracy but I imagine that most of us hate and loathe the Labour party, which is constantly creeping and feeling its way around the last grammars with a view to strangulating them. Witness that latest - crazy - Ofsted attack on an excellent grammar just because it lacked a few volumes of cant and piffle about "race".

As to Verity, she's no tactician, that's for sure.

Tiberius

Guys and gals: Verity is none other than the political arm of TGF UKIP.