Polly Toynbee: Brown has failed totally and utterly, Labour must turn to Johnson

Sally Chatterjee

How about an election instead? I don't want Labour members or worse, the Cabinet, deciding who leads the government. It would be better if someone actually asked us, the people.

Obnoxio The Clown

She's just frustrated by his failure to launch.

David Ossitt

"Labour made the rich richer and the poor poorer: growth for the few, not the many"

They always have; and they always will.

Socialism does not work; ever.

Thatcher-right

Wow!

Steve

She thinks Johnson should become PM unopposed - rather like Brown succeeded Blair unopposed. Isn't this a disgrace to democracry? Toynbee was a Brown cheerleader, when he failed she backed D Miliband with no 'Ooops i was wrong.' When Miliband made a fool of himself she switched back to Brown and now to Johnson. How could she possibly have so much venom for the Tories if this is her opinion of her own side.

Carrie

With 'friends' like Polly who needs enemies?

TGF UKIP

"Johnson should be appointed unopposed" Clearly democratic legitimacy is an alien concept to the Grauniad Left.

Chuck Unsworth

Similarly La Toynbee has lost all credibility. She's a complete weathercock.

Fearless Frank

"She argues that Johnson should be appointed unopposed..."

Is poor mad Poll suggesting a second unelected PM?

The country will love that!

robert

As a former Brown-cheerleader Toynbee wants to look in the mirror before levelling accusations. And who is SHE to attempt to foist yet another unelected leader on to the electorate? All those, like Toynbee, living in the Westminster bubble should be aware that a long period of silence is in order before telling us plebs what to endure next

TrevorsDen

Toynbee wants to foist another robot socialist trade union lefty dummy.

Gee thanks ... and all behind closed doors in a non smoke filled room.

Sod democracy then, both in the labour party and in the country.
Whats important is Toynbee's idea of what makes a good little socialist party leader.

Has Johnson got a back pocket with a spare 200 billion in it? No? Then whats the point?
Would he if leader, if PM, have sacked Gordon Brown 5 years ago? No? Then whats the point?
Did he sign Browns nomination papers? Yes? Then whats the point?

Straight Talk

Please go away Polly.

WhatDoIKnow

Why are so many Tories willing to gloat about the current situation ? Of course it is not over for Labour. The big losers will be Gordon Brown, of course, and the Conservative Party. The big winners will be the left, the old combination of Labour and the Liberals. When the true scale of Tory sleaze is absorbed by the electorate we will soon see Tory poll ratings plummet. A hung parliament following the next general election is now almost certain, with a new Labour leader kept in power by the Liberals. Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph. One must be sensible.

mac

Ah, the Grauniad's "star" columnist.

Her articles - and the frequent positional flipflops they contain - are comic turns in the 'Dear Bill' class.

CiF proudly repeats CP Scott's maxim that 'Facts are sacred'. Except, they should add, for Polly's contributions.

Fred G. Smith

The relative gap between rich and poor has always widened under Labour governments since the Warm, so why is our Tuscan Pol so surprised. It is what they do. Related to this, is the factoid that consultancies usually have a far more prosperous time of it under Labour. I imagine they are hired to give the poor ministers some support when faced with senior civil servants.

Gil

God help us if Brown goes now. Johnson might be 2009's Heseltine but Harman may yet pull off a Major. I do not want to see Harman in No. 10!

Andrew

@ Chuck Unsworth; To be fair, a weathercock is actually (if only momentarily) accurate and fit for its very limited purpose.

Polly, now...

George Laird

Dear James

“Polly Toynbee, once a great Brown cheerleader, pulls no punches in her column calling for Labour to get rid of the Prime Minister”.

Perhaps Ms Toynbee wants to be a kingmaker now the sands have shifted under Brown!

As I have previously wrote regarding corrupt Britain, what price loyalty?

Is Johnson in her opinion supposed to represent the ‘hope’ candidate?

Is he the candidate of fairness and social justice?

Please!!!!

“It's all over for Brown and Labour. The abyss awaits. As long as he remains leader, there is nothing that wretched Labour candidates can plausibly say on the doorstep at next month's European elections”.

As I understand the New Labour mythology, it mostly hinges on telling lies, ignorance and false promises.

Business as usual then!

“They are struck dumb. Why should people vote for them?”

Labour; it is all about aspiring to the politics of envy, control and greed.

“The horse manure bought on expenses is garnish for a decomposing government”.

It is the individual MPs’ who abused the system for personal gain who need to be rooted out.

Also, less we forget those in the Fees Office who kept their mouths shut and heads down at the top.

“The heart of the matter is the economy, and Brown's responsibility for the bubble years. He personally is to blame for Labour's failure to ensure that ordinary people on median incomes and poor people at the bottom received a bigger share in national growth: it turns out that they fell back and only the wealthy prospered”.

In that respect Brown and Co are no different than the Tories.

“Labour made the rich richer and the poor poorer: growth for the few, not the many”.

When Cameron gets in, don’t expect a shift to right those wrongs.

“That is a failure so fundamental to Labour's purpose that the party can't go into the next election led by the man responsible. His other failings as leader pale beside this one monumental fact. While he is there, Labour cannot claim "fairness" or "social justice".

The purpose of New Labour is to create by policy and legislation barriers to divide society and keep society divided by unaccountable NGOs’ staffed by their friends, their families and their cronies.

These people run the denial industry.

“so what is left to say?”

Goodbye and good riddance.

“What is Labour's offer?”

They don’t have an offer, they don’t have a vision, they have a desire to keep the status quo at any cost.

“Gordon Brown has been tested and found in want of almost every attribute a leader needs.”

A lesson on how the British Culture of institutional fear can keep people in line from speaking out.

“Toynbee concludes that the Cabinet should force Brown to go straight after the June elections. She argues that Johnson should be appointed unopposed with the task of limiting the damage”.

It isn’t a new face to front “caring” Labour that they need; they need a cull of those MPs’ who destroyed the party for personal gain and advancement.

“It’ll be interesting to see how much follows this gets, whether it is lost in the expenses story or further weakens Brown’s already weak position”.

This story has no traction because Toynbee hasn’t proposed a new direction just a change of face.

The gullible have woken up and they are angry.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Cjamesk

Goodness me the pennies finally dropped for the grand cheerleader!!

As for another un-elected PM I feel given the current mood of the country it would be like throwing a deodrant can into a bonfire.

paracelsus

These people really do need to learn their place, and the true intended role of the media and politicians in a functioning state.

It's hacks like this that have caused many of the problems. Raising egos to sky high level in the good times is not a way to run a democracy. We should challenge our politicians, and not merely accept copy because of political affiliations. Maybe Guido is right with the point of nihilism towards politics in general. They should be challenged all the time for the sake of democracy.

They should all learn some humility and remember that a leader should be for the country and the people, and not for the advancement of a political party. She is still living in a pre-expense scandal bubble. Things have moved on since then.

Tankus

bit of a political slapper ....

wherever the wind is blowing guess who is always downwind

tolkein

I doubt if Christian members of the party will vote for Johnson, an out atheist and responsible for the closure of Catholic adoption agencies. I certainly won't and many Christians I know at church won't either. He's just a smiling Bolshevik.

chris

Polly, the answer my friend is blowing in the wind...only the wind changes so often and it is so hard to catch up

Anya Conway

If Labour tries to anoint another unelected leader, we must ALL get out on the streets to save democracy.

brian kelly

Polly Toynbee has ever been a blind socialist hack - completely blinkered.

Nicholas

This is not meant to be a "cheeky" question but why do so many of the Coffee House articles quote or link to left wing writers? Are there not any conservative writers worth quoting or linking to?

If it was a choice between reading Toynbee or the telephone directory the telephone directory would win every time.

Tiberius

It's really very Polly. No call for a GE, but instead the appointment of the next in line from the New Labour Politburo.

Alf Tupper

Good old Pol, bless her, has finally twigged that Brown is toxic waste.

But she persists in her belief that this poison is going to be excised with the demise of just this one man.

Oh how thick the mist must cling around Islington- on- Wye.

TomTom

Polly should ask for her pay to be cut below £150,000 then she can ask Brown to stay on.

Don

Reading her stuff I've never been quite sure if her articles are real or some sort of satire.

Marian C

"She argues that Johnson should be appointed unopposed with the task of limiting the damage".

Trust Poll, the made old trout to come out with total nonsense as per usual; she's as barking as Brown.

I seem to remember, (correct me if I'm wrong), that old Poll spoke very highly of our Glorious Leader in very glowing terms.

Now she realises what a mess old Gordo his cohorts have made to the country, she now advocates that a bl**dy postman “should be appointed unopposed…” to run the country!!!!!. Who knows, maybe Postman Pats Cabinet will be made up of a Butcher, a Baker and the Candle Stick maker. You couldn’t make it up!

Dirty Euro

Toynbee said this a year ago. What is the point? Is she a spy? The tories get in trouble for once, and she comes out again with the shock revelation again.
If we do change I would rather go for someone more left wing.

Dirty Euro

She said this a year ago. Why is she reported a a major story. Also labour did bring in the mini wage, and tax credits so it is rubbish that the poor have got poorer. Plus we brought in the 50p tax rate just now! She seems a like a tory spy.
If we do change I would rather go real left winger that a Blairite nobody.

Fergus Pickering

You're all mad. Postman Pat? Harriet Harman? The left will sweep the country? What are you ON? Cameron will win big. Of course he will. As for sleaze let me tell you that to the great British Public it comes as no surprise. Only to you lot. Don't you remember Guns for Iraq? Don't you remember Lady Forkbender? Don't you remember Christine Keeler? Oh my God, there was this Golden Time when they were all Honourable Members.

Tom Pride

Just seen the Tuscany-bee with Paxo wielding the knife. If she was so wrong about Gordon how come she is right now? Two jags + two lavs + two shags + two gags. Did I leave anything out? Can you factorise it as 2(jag+lav+shag+gag) or do you have to keep the plurals?

Am I the only one upset by Malcolm Rifkind? If I apply for a job in Newcastle when I live in London then I would expect to move to Newcastle or commute at my own expense. There is no good reason why the taxpayer should be expected to pay his Edinburgh to London commute when his constituency, at his choice, and Parliament are in London. It is just wrong.

Moraymint

I'm reeling. Economic armageddon looms (Brown's baby). MPs are corrupt (so much for Labour leading radical political reform). The Speaker loses the plot (and has been useless and contemptuous of Parliamentary tradition all along).

Isn't this a constitutional crisis?

Moraymint

I'm reeling. Economic armageddon looms (Brown's baby). MPs are corrupt (so much for Labour leading radical political reform). The Speaker loses the plot (and has been useless and contemptuous of Parliamentary tradition all along).

Isn't this a constitutional crisis?

Ian C

She's right - the forst time I have ever agreed with PT.

I have been saying here for over a year that Labour must dump Brown if they have any hope of survival of the downfall he has brought on them. She has put it terms they may now understand.

It may even be too late to survive but it is their only hope. I think that is what they will do. Xmas is coming and they are the turkeys.

Mike

Yes, very indignant, everybody. But what are you going to DO about it?