Hutton on the Brown tragedy

Paul

I see Brown's talents very clearly - lie, smear opponents, and spend like a loon

Sack Labour

Can we just have an election now and put this Government out of its misery. Maybe we need a military coup!

Boudicca

On the contrary - the tragedy is that the Labour Party foisted Gordon on the country despite his many, many weaknesses and psychological flaws.

His premiership has been an unmitigated disaster for the country. The only good thing is the light at the end of the tunnel next June - and the hope that Labour will be out of Office for at least a generation (or, if we're really lucky, gone forever).

Vulture

I think the country sees Bruin's 'many, many talents' only too well: lying, cheating, bullying, stumbling incompetence, social inadequacy, selfishness, malice,
ignorance, stubborness, and all round nastiness.

Dewi

I don't suppose that he'd like to enumerate those many, many talents and skills? No? Thought not.

J R Hartley

Hutton is a lightweight - his resignation was in keeping with the rest of his political career.

He was likely to lose his seat anyway as his constituency is likely to become a single-issue protest seat, due to an unpopular and bumbling attempt to inflict an Academy.

A man of few convictions he couldn't find a stance on a school issue!

Parliment is better off without these PPE carpet-baggers hoisted on working class constituencies they offer nothing other than loyalty to their own careers...

strapworld

The country has spotted, well enough, Brown's talent for lying.

Chris Rose

“I have got to appreciate his many, many talents and skills; I think, though, that the tragedy is that the country doesn’t see that.”

What a wonderfully preposterous statement! Why is it that people even now try and tell us that Brown is brilliant man, he has a first class brain, he's loaded with talent, and so on?

The Country has seen through him now; and the Country is right: he's a brainless political thug without principles.

strapworld

At least Mr Hutton, and his wife, stood to honour a dead serviceman in Wootten Bassett! I also believe that he tried to get the PM to support 2000 more troops.

I saw his interview (grilling) with Andrew Neil and I was so impressed by his loyalty to Cabinet responsibility.

We are losing a decent man here I believe!

Andy

“I have got to appreciate his many, many talents and skills; I think, though, that the tragedy is that the country doesn’t see that.” That's because the country, at long last, has realised that the Emperor has no clothes.

James

I liked Hutton but he left our troops in the lurch when they needed him most. He could have put a nail in Browns coffin but didn't. Typical NuLab, timeserving and selfserving. Good riddance to the lot of them. 10 months and counting.

Jonathan Cook

Brown's talents are extremely well hidden.

Chuck Unsworth

But Hutton fails to give even a single example of Brown's 'many, many talents and skills'.

Can it be that Hutton is the only person in the whole world to see them?

lady A

"that is where the country are"...???

what was he minister for, pray?

David Ossitt

“I have got to appreciate his many, many talents and skills; I think, though, that the tragedy is that the country doesn’t see that.”

Oh yes we do; his talent for lying, his talent for evasion, his talent as a bully coward and cheat, his lack of humour, lack of honour, lack of grace.

His overriding hatred for all things English.

The country sees all that and much much more.

David Ossitt

Just one more thing; we see that he is an incompetent joyless man.

mitch

"his many many talents and skills" like his vision just never appeared.

next!!

r101

Brown is the worst prime minister that this country has ever had. I thank that is a talent the public do recognise

Alan Douglas

Here is a real Brown achievement :

The Scots accent was extensively used in commercials, and Scotland was a favourite place to set up call centres, because there was a perception that it showed more honesty and integrity.

No longer. Thanks, Mr Brown, Blair, Reid etc etc.

Here a Scot now, and you KNOW you are being lied to.

Alan Douglas

Jhill

Why did this man resign from his 'dream job'? Perhaps this so-called military historian should have stayed in his job - I read that he was viewed by the army as the best of a bad Labour lot of defence secretaries - and defend and protect the troops on his watch from the economies of Mr Brown. Otherwise his tenure just seems like an ego trip which he tired of. Another soldier killed today in Aghanistan. Good on you John.

Andy Leeds

With any luck Gordon the Moron Brown will have finally destroyed the Labour Party. And thanks be to God if this is what eventually happens.

Jim

I am still trying to understand how Brown can announce millions of spending on green job creation on the same day that Britain's only wind turbine manufacturer is alleged to have gone broke following Brown's government's rejection of its request for financial help, with the loss of 600 jobs.

Obviously not connected to the purely coincidental fact that this might help secure more business for EDF, the French energy company which employs Gordon Brown's brother.

Is this something Fraser might get his investigative fingers into......?

TrevorsDen

The 'telling line' merely shows how bereft labour MPs are. If they think Brown has any 'talents and skills' they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

I can only presume that Hutton could not continue to live the lie at Defence but still wishes to do nothing to harm labour.
The fact is he ran away when the army needed him most. He refused to argue for what he knew was needed. He put party before country.

Why should we pay attention to his self serving guff now?

JohnAnt

I have no local knowledge, but
Hutton's majority is barely 6,000, in a constituency (Barrow-i-F) suffering from high unemployment, a traditional provider of naval hardware, weapons etc. As Defence Sec., managing defence spending decline, Hutton would simply be exposed as a helpless non-provider for his area. Possibly the new role of the Lord of Darkness as Minister-for-Fingers-in-All-Pies may have finally decided Hutton to resign?
He obviously sees that there must be spending cuts. He could scarcely comment on that as Defence Minister. Maybe he wants to build up some local voter support by telling the truth, and thus taking the wind out of his opponent's sails?

Frank P

"is this something Fraser might get his investigative fingers into......?"

Sounds more like a job for Paul Stephenson to me: but then, that would be a little like asking the Geheime Staatspolizei to investigate Adolph Hitler.

Stewart

I am beginning to believe that Brown has lost all sense of reality. He can't rationally believe that continuing to spend hand over fist on departments that have failed to make good use of their record budgets over the last decade is the way to get out of this mess.
He looks as though he has had enough. He can't think of any other way out of the situation but this and to lie about it working.

john miller

That last line is a red rag to this particular bull.

It's like saying a burglar has got a good eye for antiques, or that a mugger is a dab hand with a flick knife.

Brown indeed does have some talents and skills. You just wish he had never been put in a position to use them.

David Parker

If by "many talents and skills" he means an abnormally overdeveloped ego, he is wrong in saying that the country has not recognised this.

Rob C

Brown's biggest failing is 'tunnel vision' - and that is not in any way a reference to his misfortunate physical disability with which I entirely sympathise.

Whilst he has many admirable aims like child poverty etc, his obsession with outdated socialist ideals and policies are serving to undermine these 'qualities' by achieving the absolute inverse effect to that which he may desire. He never looks at the bigger picture or properly considers the effects/consequences of his policies. Many of our children will spend much of their lives in abject poverty due to both poor policy he has implemented and a lack of listening/consultation on his part. It's easy to say that he wasn't responsible for the credit crunch and global financial meltdown, but HIS policies and decisions have certainly contributed hugely to the scale of the problem and history will attribute much of this to him and his team.

As a self-employed father with a son of 5, we are not rich and struggle to make ends meet on a joint net income under £16,000. This is due in part to decisions we make to put time and effort ourselves into the education of our son and part to historical family circumstances from which we are recovering. Despite our low income we pay to educate him because of successive governments failure to provide a quality education system. We will continue to do so at whatever cost to us until he reaches 11 and can go on to Grammar school. The admirable Child Trust Fund plus that which we have saved for him is however absolutely dwarfed by the debt that Brown has saddle him with for probably 20+ years of his working life! Council tax amounts to 10% of our income and fuel/energy costs are massive in relation to earnings. The latter is due to a lack of action in Labours first terms and an anti-motorist policy throughout all terms. The hideous council tax levels are a combination of legislative imposition by central government and the EU and waste. The government invents schemes like free bus passes for the elderly (admirable policy) but then heaps the cost onto local council tax with a slight of hand that only this devious government could pull off! All their policies and incentives totally miss the point and most are yet a further waste of our cash in adding yet more 'redistribution bureaucracy'. We had to scrap a car this year but like many, our total budget was £500 - so how does a car scrappage scheme for a NEW one help? Brown plays politics for his ego not for the improvement/benefit of society or any other 'moral' aim. If he genuinely had 'morals' he would be less keen to deceive via his familiar play on words & numbers and actually tell the truth.

Honesty is the one ingredient the political class in general lack - with morality a very close second. Brown has absolutely none of either and THAT is the tragedy!

The only decision that Brown could make to in anyway redeem himself in history is to admit he got is wrong and call an election. People can usually forgive mistakes but because he will neither admit them nor move aside, he is destined to go down in history as the most destructive chancellor/PM in UK history!

Verity

Has anyone else noticed that the Tories are photographing Cameron in very harsh lighting, in an attempt to give his bland face definition and strength?

Chuck Unsworth

@ Verity

And your point in regard to this topic (Hutton) is what, exactly?