Things the Tories shouldn't do

jeff

This man has no judgement at all. God only knows why he is put forward as a Tory spokesman on the expenses scandal after his own problems with this and, in fact, a history of having to resign for unethical behaviour.

Private Schultz

Quite agree - Alan Duncan does seem to have an unfortunate habit of mis-pitching his comments. Another prime example was his appearance on HIGNFY a few weeks ago. His ill-timed, smug frivolity about expenses and the number of houses he has did niether him nor his party any favours. And someone should tell him to stop wheeling out his pathetic Blair 'impersonation' forthwith.

Hope Tim Montgomerie's right!

Johnathan Pearce

I have met Duncan a few times and I was not overly impressed but that applies to most of them. But at least he understands economics, which is more than most MPs.

DM

He comes across as a rather self satisfied, arrogant man. He would be no loss to the Tory front bench.

JohnAnt

But there are simple ways of preserving someone else's furniture when using a pen, and those brought up to understand the distinction between 'meum' and 'teum' learn to adopt them without fuss.
PS. Being more than half blind is not a recommendation for high office, un-PC as it may be to say so. Brown is also morally tone-deaf, financially irresponsible, irremediably solipsistic and only semi-articulate, and an ingrained liar to boot. Are we not supposed to mention those defects either?

Dan

Yes, Duncan has appalling 'judgement', as illustrated by his disastrous recent gaffe on Have I Got News for You. He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a future Tory cabinet!

KJ

The BBC article says Duncan critices Brown for "striking" the despatch box with the pen, not for using it.

Lord Boyders

Thunderbird 3 is ready for you Alan.

cuffleyburgers

What an idiot.

It is hardly as though there were nothing else to complain about Brown eg. vandalising the public finances, vandalising the private pension system, vandalising the consitution, vandalising the sovereignty of the nation I could go on...

Pillock.

Roger

His future is in show biz.

Well I never

Goodness me: James Forsyth retails bile against the shadow cabinet colleague Michael Gove dislikes most. How extraordinary!

TGF UKIP

But he's gay and not just gay but almost Kenneth Williams camp, so he's got to have a seat in the Mekon's Cabinet of all the genders, all the colours and all the cultures.

julianlzb87

Duncan should have been "sacked"
after his drunken appearance on
Have I Got News For You.
He was pitifully unfunny.

patently

It is indeed inappropriate to criticise Brown for his use of that type of pen in order to take notes. Whatever we think of him and his policies, on that issue he deserves sympathy.

However, the fact that he uses the pen to take notes does not of itself imply that he must cause damage to the despatch box. The two boxes are unique, and to fail to show them the respect necessary to preserve them for future generations would be tantamount to, oh, I don't know, selling off the country's gold reserves at the bottom of the market, wasting the golden economic interitance of 1997, and passing on to his successor a crippled economy mired in an unsustainable debt.

Surely he wouldn't do that. Would he?

Swiss Bob

Duncan proved very entertaining on HIGNFY, the YouTube video I posted of him has had over 4,000 hits. I'm not sure that's a good qualification for a serious politician but then look at Boris.

Honesty has beem the big topic recently so I YouTubed Brown's 'honesty' interview on Ch 4 News tonight: Relaunch No 23 – Brown on his honesty, or lack thereof.

Anyone convinced?

Just passing by

Accepted about the eye probs.

But Gordron as 'vandaliser' ?

I think so.

Is any worthwhile English value untouched by this coterie of fools?

Moraymint

Agreed.

Much as I despise Gordon Brown's philosophy, politics and behaviour, it is wrong to attack Brown (or anyone else) on the basis of his health (or any other uncontrolled and irrelevant personal attribute).

Shame on you Duncan.

Suki

Duncan! There are still too many liabilities on the Tory front bench.

You could run a whole issue on the subject Cam's biggest problem is the lack of talent on his front bench.

There will be days when he despairs he hasn't got a Widders in there just to be a reliable pair of hands.

They must vet the new blood properly.

Short the UK

It has been obvious for months that Duncan is a twit. A charming guy but a twit still the same.

Chris

Seems like Duncan is short sighted to me. Having heard him on five live earlier in the year acting like a school boy this should be over and out.

Andy in France

Duncan is a liability and should be dropped. I will never forget his performance on Have I got news for you a couple of months back, it was one of the most toe curling performances by a politician that I have ever seen.
As for Labour accusing the Tories of being bullies, surely this cannot be a strategy that is being seriously considered, if so they've really lost the plot.

Jeremy

You make a fair point, James. And I admire you for doing so.

I am not a fan of Alan Duncan's, but in mitigation I have to say that I do not recall the Left having any such qualms as your own about the language they used in relation to Baroness Thatcher during the eighties. She was called every name under the sun, I can assure you. And she never complained about it or resorted to playing the "victim" card - a favourite tactic of bullies, incidentally, once their bullying has been found out. The electorate admired her for her stoicism in the face of this barrage of highly personalised abuse and name-calling from the Left. In short, they admired her courage - what Hemingway would have called her "grace under pressure". And that is one of the reasons why they continued to re-elect her.

Perhaps it is a sign of Brown's weakness of character that as Prime Minister he has to complain of being "bullied" by remarks that are neither as intense nor as frequently repeated as those that were levelled against Baroness Thatcher.

terence patrick hewett

Never trust any male with coiffed hair.

Paul

The Labour cabinet are a bunch of posh bullies. This is already in the national conversation. The more Brown spoils our lives, the less sensitive we are about his feelings being hurt.

jo joe jim jim III

Hardly insult of the century. OK so it's a bit mean, but lets not take our eye of the ball. He should be thankful a bit of school yard level insults is the worst he has to deal with. A few hundred years ago he would have been tried for treason and hung by now. Only in this nanny state day of political corectness and care for others 'feelings', is treating subjects with such contempt allowable.

adge

I watched Duncan today BBC Parliament Business Questions and have to add he always makes a joke after he has finished his statements, I think on this one you are trying to find something that had no reference to what he said.

Gary

Brown does not need to mark the despatch box with his pen. It is not a new allegation either.

http://tinyurl.com/lszhbf

"Standing in front of the government despatch box, I noticed black ink marks all over it. These marks were, I was reliably informed, made by Gordon Brown when, in his nervousness, he thumps the despatch box while holding a black felt-tip pen. In doing so he marks the despatch boxes, made as they are from very rare New Zealand wood."

hysteria

just saw the YouTube clip of Duncan on HIGNFY - the man is a disgrace and should be sacked.

The next lot need to aspire to , and articulate, a significantly higher standard in public life

Verity

Well I Never - "James Forsyth retails bile against the shadow cabinet colleague Michael Gove dislikes most. How extraordinary".

James Forsythe's in the Shadow Cabinet? Who knew?

Verity

TGI UKIP - You put the thought in my head of Kenneth Williams in the Cabinet and I immediately knew that it would have been wonderful! How would Brown have coped?

In fact, he would have been a fabulous Speaker! Half the house would have related to him immediately. Plus most of the gals. (Except the Oest European communists and they're so badly dressed and coiffed he'd never have called on them anyway.)

Fergus Pickering

If the Beeb article said what it said then Alan Duncan's remark was not in poor taste at all. Comments about his gayness are rather, don't you think? Or is it OK to be blind but not OK to be gay?

Vulture

Duncan should be sacked, of course. Over his expenses, if nothing else. But then so should Maude, Gove, Letwin, Osborne, and possibly the wisteria kid, Dave himself. So it won't happen.

Sasquatch

No-one is getting at Broon for using a felt-tip pen to make notes. They are concerned at his total lack of respect for other people's property and the permanent damage he may be causing to two unique and irreplaceable objects, not to mention the front benches.

It has nothing to do with his blindness, he would cause the same (if not worse) damage, if he used an ordinary pen (God help the chamber if he ever tried a fountain pen).

mac

Good point from Jeremy about the lefties virulent abuse of Margaret Thatcher; listening to Brown express disappointment over contemporary 'abuse' (the message being 'poor, saintly, moral compass-driven me') - vide his Gary Gibbon interview - and the obnoxious Balls complaining about Cameron in particular really does require a handily placed sick bag.

Incompetent Brown's government assuredly is, but it deserves to be remembered more in posterity for breaking new ground for cant and shamelessness.

Swiss Bob

If anyone else is interested in seeing Duncan's 'YouTube' moment follow the link I posted above and use the menu bar to go to the YouTube channel, or use the search box in the righthand sidebar and type 'Alan Duncan'. It's the first result.

I've also posted most of Question Time from last night. I seem to be developing a love - hate relationship with Harman, you just have to admire her chutzpah. The first clip of her struggling with Laws over the budget red book is almost surreal.

Paul B

I agree with James, Duncan displaying his lack of judgement again. The man is cretin.

The thought of Kenneth Willams as Speaker tickles my fancy as well, with Charles Hawtrey as a rather naughty MP.Brings a complete different meaning to the term "backbencher". Oh matron.

bigmacsub

This is going to be a very dirty election campaign.

Each side will claim the other is being dirtiest whilst sending out as many 'a little bit less than lily white' briefings themselves.

Anything that is remotely crass or bullying, and traceable, will be seized on as evidence of such gutter politics.

It has already started with PoD's line on Osbourne and GB's copycat BBC line today about "personal attacks"

The dishonesty line was effective but has now been neutralised. Move on.

It is within the capacity of this Tory cabinet to blow themselves out of the water.

Then where the hell will we be?

dorothy wilson

terence patrick hewett:

And never trust a man with dyed hair. There are a good few of them on the Labour benches.

Big Alec

They can't drop Duncan, he's the only token gay they have.

Julianlzb87

Re: Coiffed and dyed hair.

From St. Matthew of Parris Times...

"Iffy upper lip

And I confess to having found it hard to put a face to the name of Bob Ainsworth, apparently the new Defence Secretary. On seeing it, one thing did strike me. The moustache. A toothbrush-style thing. Apart from appalling injuries to the upper lip there can never be an excuse for wearing a moustache. A beard may be defended as a disinclination to shave, but a moustache is a deliberate attempt to decorate your face with hair, and as such falls into the category of hanging tassels from the ears or attaching bells to one's shoes.

Who was the last Cabinet Minister to sport a moustache? Harold Macmillan? Peter Mandelson had to shave his off before he was allowed into politics.

It won't do. Either Mr Ainsworth or the bristles must go. Can there be a more graphic illustration of the desperation of Mr Brown's predicament, than that he has been reduced to promoting men with moustaches?"

That goes for you too,
Sir Michael "Widow Twankey" White.

Mr Green

I would agree with your point, James, but I think it is inaccurate. Wasn't the vandalism accusation related to Brown's banging of the despatch box with the pen, rather then simply causing the french polishers to use additional elbow grease when trying to remove the black ink smudges?

Edward

As the ultimate gig by the river approaches, DC should lay off the prescription drugs deluding himself he can still sing, dance and moonwalk. If he ever could, that is.
His bizarre behaviour of wearing a mask when apologizing in public, and occasionally dangling the promise of an EU referendum from a hotel balcony should be warning signs that all is not perhaps as it should be.
Incoherent speech is causing concern, but loyal fans still queue up, prepared to buy any old line.

The same loyal fans await the performance of a lifetime, hoping the King of Popular politics will find his voice and his twinkle toes while clearing the spectacular debt amassed while he and his hangers-on have sat around in Neverland for the last 12 years doing nothing of any value in Opposition.

Can he do it ?
We've all got tickets.
Just sit back and enjoy the show.

"Things the Tories shouldn't do" ?
They shouldn't rely too heavily on a back catalogue of the work of other - some might say - more accomplished acts, to get them out of the trouble they will inherit.

logdon

I think the thing boils down to respect.

Say if Brown had to pay for all the Nokias or printers, and not on exes, would he be hurling them around?

Same goes for the HoC furniture. That stuff is priceless, produced in an age when British craftsmanship was envied and exported the world over.

And our leader treats it just like anything else, (including our country), expendible.

Come to think of it has McSnotty ever had to pay for anything?

Oscar, as usual, nailed it about knowing the price but never the value.

Brown can reel off his tractor statistics but does he have any idea that the point of those stats is that thing called a country and it's people?

All minor stuff of course but aren't these the details which create the whole? And an insight into his complete disregard of the heritage which actually were the ancient stepping stones allowing him to have the job in the first place?

Jim

I remember once on a Kilroy Silks chat show Alan Duncan who was with Bernard Jenkins at the time was called a "most despicable piece of humanity" the person had ever come across.
Not good is it?