Brown's press conference: live blog
Peter Hoskin 11:50amStay tuned for live coverage of Brown's monthly presser from 1200.
1157: The Downing Street website tells us to expect an update on "the progress that has been made since the launch of the Building Britain’s Future programme" (groan), but expect Afghanistan to dominate the questioning. On that front, Brown's life may have been made slightly easier by Malloch Brown's odd "clarification" to his comments in the Telegraph this morning.
1202: And here's the Dear Leader now. He begins by paying his condolences to the families of three servicemen killed in Afghanistan recently, adding that "we continue to make progress" in Helmand. He also assures us the the government is "doing everything it can" to deal with swine flu.
1204: Right, here's the stuff on Building Britain's Future. Brown says that his government will be judged "on its policies for the recession." And he drops his new favourite Brownie: that if the government hadn't introduced "Real. Help. Now," then "at least" 500,000 more people would unemployed. Hm. Where's the proof to back that one up Gordon? Some research from Oxford Economic Forecasting - commissioned by the Spectator - discovered that his measures wouild actually reduce jobs in the medium term. I'll dig out the link later.
1207: Guess what. Yep, he's listing all the measures he's introduced: from the scrappage scheme to the "Bill to clean up politics".
1208: Brown previews some new "investment" in transport and young people. "These are the right decisions to make us stronger..."
1209: Questions now, and Nick Robinson begins by asking Brown when he'll spell out the "tough spending cuts" that the public are expecting. Brown responds with the usual stuff: efficiency savings, rise in upper rate etc. Problem is, they won't quite deal with the £1 trillion+ hole in the public finances...
1211: Brown says that Labour will protect frontline services.
1212: Robinson pushes the specific question again, asking whether the public are wrong to want exapnsive spending cuts. Brown again says that the public will want Labour to "protect frontline services." He's straying close to an "investment vs cuts" line here.
1214: Sky's Glen Oglaza brings up helicopters in Afghanistan, and asks Brown whether he thinks General Dannatt et al are wrong in not toeing the government line. Brown says that the current operation has everything it needs, and says - disgracefully - that the three soldiers killed recently wouldn't have been helped by helicopters, and adding that "you can't wage a war from a helicopter". Brown finishes by saying that he's quoting what people are saying "on the ground". Hm.
1217: More on Afghanistan. Brown says that "of course we're putting more helicopters in," but repeats that the operation is sufficiently equipped.
1220: Brown on the summer recess: "The idea that MPs are having 82 days holiday is wrong ... they are getting on with the job ... spending time with their constituents."
1222: A journalist from an African publication rounds on Brown for not living up to his pledges on aid 'n' trade to the country. Brown basically denies this.
1223: A bit of humour is injected into proceedings, as Brown says, "Everything I do is informed by integrity and honesty..."
1225: Incidentally, the Brown quote at 1223 was prompted by a question on Cameron's claim a few weeks back that there's a "thread of dishonesty" running through the government. Brown turned it into one of his favourite attack, replying that he "doesn't comment on personal attacks". It's all part of trying to make Cameron look like a bully, even though he was attacking Brown's government and not, specifically, Brown.
1228: Brown says that he hopes voters in Norwich and Glasgow by-elections will recognise which party has the best policies for the recession.
1230: Brown says he's concerned about terrorism in Somalia and Pakistan, and that action is being taken - but that terrorists still need to be tackled in Afghanistan.
1231: Brown: "It has been a difficult year, but we've made the tough decisions..."
1234: Asked about the British contribution to Afghanistan, Brown says that we're sharing the burden - with the second biggest contribution in terms of "troops and equipment". He adds that the Afghan army and police have to "play their part" too.
1236: Brown says that the government has increased the number of British troops in Afghanistan from roughly 8,000 to roughly 9,000. What he doesn't add is that the extra 1,000 is, at the moment, temporary - and will fall back to 8,000 after the Afghan elections in August.
1238: And there's the question on how Brown will spend his downtime this summer. He responds that he' s looking forward to spending some time with his children, and will "watch a lot of sport". Cue an awkward list of the "great" British sporting successes of the past few months.
1240: Brown bats away a question about Gary McKinnon, saying that the case "raises serious questions".
1241: That's a new one. Brown says that the lack of questions on the economy reflects the success of government policy.
1243: It took him 40 minutes, but he got there in the end: Brown deploys the usual "do nothing" line about the Tories.
1245: Brown: "We've got to make it unacceptable for young people to carry knives."
1247: Now on to banking regulation, and takes a pot-shot at the Tory idea to scrap the FSA: "What you need is a tri-partite system ... it's only when you work in this system and look into it, that you realise that you can't scrap the FSA."
1249: A French journalist asks Brown whether he got the Parliamentary reform bill he wanted. Surprise, surprise: Brown says that all the "essential elements of the legislation are intact." By contrast, I point you to a great feature on p.8 of today's Times on how Brown's reform bill has crumbled.
1252: Brown deploys the same line on public spending that he used in PMQs three weeks back: that the Government are "bringing spending forward." This enables him to continue a version of the "investment vs cuts" attack, and also to spin future cuts as "spending brought forward."
1255: More on how the government are providing "Real. Help. Now" for unemployed people. Brown says that he doesn't want to "make predictions on unemployment". But, again, we hear the made-up figure that "half a million" jobs have been saved.
1259: Ah, yet another holiday question. The Scotsman's Gerri Peev asks why Brown isn't holidaying abroad - is he worried about what Alan Johnson might get up to? Brown declines to answer that, and talks about swine flu and Afghanistan.
1301: Brown tries to justify Alan Sugar's embarrassing ennoblement, saying that the Apprenctice host is working to "help save businesses".
1304: Notts County fans will be relieved. Asked about Sven Goran Eriksson's appointment as the team's director of football, Jonah Brown doesn't offer a message of good luck. They escaped doom by inches...
1307: Brown's asked how he can call himself a "conviction politician" when he's made so many U-turns. The response? A list of the "Real. Help. Now" that he's instigated.
1309: And that's it. Summer is here.
Previous
The Bellman
July 22nd, 2009 12:05pm Report this commentCan someone ask him how he calculated the '500,000 jobs' that he claims he's saved?
Pete-s
July 22nd, 2009 12:08pm Report this commentTractor production stats as usual!
JohnAnt
July 22nd, 2009 12:10pm Report this commentMalloch Brown suffers from the terminal idiocy of one who's spent time at the UN. It's unkind to mock the afflicted.
Haven't we been here before? Lord West, anyone?
With what condign punishment was Malloch Brown threatened, that forced him to contradict himself?
Publius
July 22nd, 2009 12:17pm Report this comment"Clarification"? Dear God! Do any of these politicians have any honour at all?
Pete-s
July 22nd, 2009 12:19pm Report this commentAlways adds 'the last few days'
paracelsus
July 22nd, 2009 12:26pm Report this commentHas somebody forgotten to change the record, or is it merely broken again?
Brown seems incapable of uttering a real answer to a simple question. Why can't he just answer the bloody question for once?
Henry Rogers
July 22nd, 2009 12:27pm Report this commentWhat a waste of time. Not a question properly addressed, just woffle and mini-speeches.
Malcolm
July 22nd, 2009 12:33pm Report this commentI have no problem with 'front line services' - it's all the other money-squandering organisations that really get up my nose.
Otherwise it sounds like more of the same old claptrap from this busted flush of a government. No one is taken in by all this guff, so why bother? McBust is both incompetent and delusional, and that's a very dangerous combination for a PM.
obangobang
July 22nd, 2009 12:36pm Report this comment"1228: Brown says that he thinks voters in Norwich and Glasgow by-elections will recognise which party has the best policies for the recession."
What Glasgow by-election?
wilson
July 22nd, 2009 12:40pm Report this commentpls no, dear god, don't endorse the english test side
Ed
July 22nd, 2009 12:40pm Report this comment"1228: Brown says that he thinks voters in Norwich and Glasgow by-elections will recognise which party has the best policies for the recession."
Oh, I DO hope so.
David
July 22nd, 2009 12:40pm Report this comment"Brown says that he thinks voters in Norwich and Glasgow by-elections will recognise which party has the best policies for the recession."
Hostage to fortune. His spin doctors probably threw their Nokias at that.
Quick question - if the Afgahnistan operation is sufficiently equppied, why is he sending out more equipment?
strapworld
July 22nd, 2009 12:40pm Report this commentRobinson and co are within the circle and will nevr ask questions to get to the heart of the matter.
His two questions on government cuts is just typical and he will give a positive message in his 'observation' later (Totally unbiased of course!)
But it is the rest of these shallow journalists. Is there not one there willing, as Mr Nelson was a few weeks ago, to have a real go at this discredited and useless man?
Pete-s
July 22nd, 2009 12:42pm Report this commentBrown just LIED to the press. The reason for not having the Glasgow election is because Labour voted it down. There is other reason why it can not happen. McDoom LYING AGAIN!
Matt Black
July 22nd, 2009 12:55pm Report this commentBrown: "We've got to make it unacceptable for young people to carry knives."
I couldn't care less if they carry knives - it's stabbing people with them I object to.
Jonah Watch
July 22nd, 2009 12:57pm Report this commentoh no he did it he had better not go to Birmingham, Headingly etc... remember the RWC
colin
July 22nd, 2009 12:57pm Report this commentProbably just as well that "Lord" Shallow-Clown is going.
What kind of man would allow his integrity and dignity to be compromised in this way and to this extent?
He was right first time, he should have stuck to his original line. At least we might have some shred of respect for him, even if he did willingly become part of the regime...
figurewizard
July 22nd, 2009 1:17pm Report this commentOn Afghanistan I have just watched Brown telling the press that there are enough helicopters and that they should instead be reporting what 'people on the ground' are saying.
Is it possible to remove him from office by having him sectioned?
The Bellman
July 22nd, 2009 1:24pm Report this commentMore sophistry. McSnotty was very careful to say that the UK forces had adequate helicopter support for the current operation. This might well be true, to the extent that PANCHAI PALANG, the current operation, would have been planned and executed on the basis of available lift. It is manifestly not true of the campaign. If it were, why would McSnotty be rushing to get more kit into theatre?
I also thought it interesting that McSnotty was quick to bully Malloch Brown into a 'clarification', but not to suggest that the odious, smug and utterly worthless creature Foulkes had any need to 'clarify' what he meant by saying that CDS and CGS are 'giving succour to the enemy'. I hope that Foulkes' disgraceful comments are given repeated airing in the coming weeks.
c.e.w.
July 22nd, 2009 1:32pm Report this commentCan anyone point me to a site hosting the full-length video of today's conference?
Mark M
July 22nd, 2009 1:44pm Report this commentWell, you have to hand it to him. After months and months of lying about the economy the press have finally got bored of asking and he proclaims the lack of questions as a success. If only Fraser wasn't on holiday, he got him last time on the cuts and was much more IMF ammunition now.
Of course it goes without saying that he lied about everything he was asked about. For instance how can we simultaneously have enough resources in Afghanistan and be increasing them? Either we have enough, in which case extra troops are a waste, or we don't have enough. The 500,000 jobs is completely made up (I'd like to see the research that shows successful policies when 3 month unemployment rose at record levels). I wonder whether he could regret the "voters of Norwich and Glasgow will know who's got the best policies" line. A crushing defeat in either of those and we could brign the general election forward a few months.
Hereford
July 22nd, 2009 1:52pm Report this commentAnother lamentable example of a supine media failing to challenge lies and probe inaccurate statistics and statements.
This was a press briefing not a press conference. Why do you all give his lies oxygen by turning up?
Shame on all of you.
Kalvis Jansons
July 22nd, 2009 1:57pm Report this commentHere is the best page on his website:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/
Lady Amelia
July 22nd, 2009 2:14pm Report this commentBrown says that the current operation has everything it needs, and says - disgracefully - that the three soldiers killed recently wouldn't have been helped by helicopters, and adding that "you can't wage a war from a helicopter". Brown finishes by saying that he's quoting what people are saying "on the ground".
Of course the people who're saying that are on the ground - where else would they be, there's no bleedin' helicopters?!!
Peter from Maidstone
July 22nd, 2009 2:27pm Report this commentI think that it is the journalists who should be ashamed of themselves. In my own company when there are weasel words offered in a company meeting by a senior manager someone will always ask more and more questions to get the truth, and doesn't mind being awkward. But all of you journalists just let Gordon Brown lie and lie and lie and you say nothing. Shame on you all. The state of affairs is as much your fault as Brown's.
Alfred T Mahan
July 22nd, 2009 2:41pm Report this commentI can't think why any of you bothered to watch it, unless of course you're paid to. We all know it's just a game, Brown lies his head off throughout, and nobody much cares any more. The only person Brown is fooling is himself, and we all know it.
2trueblue
July 22nd, 2009 2:54pm Report this commentTough decisions, policies, all talk and spin. This government will be remembered for destroying the country totally and the media have been mostly gutless and let them get away with it.
There is no point in watching the briefings, there are no real people there to ask any questions of quality or challenge Brown and his mates. We need more journalists who understand that they are there to challenge our masters and get some real facts.
JONNY
July 22nd, 2009 3:02pm Report this commentDoesn't matter what he says.
No one's listening.
Nicholas
July 22nd, 2009 3:03pm Report this commentI find myself unable to watch this lying, arrogant, boring, evasive misfit any more. It makes me feel physically sick.
Looking forward to that day of liberation when he is finally kicked out of No.10.
TrevorsDen
July 22nd, 2009 4:31pm Report this commentIndeed 'bellman' - a former commander points that out.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5887092/British-military-in-Afghanistan-insufficiently-resourced-says-former-commander.html
"rig Butler said that, while the Panther's Claw offensive may have the equipment and helicopters needed, the wider campaign was suffering. " "the wider campaign in Afghanistan, and this has been the case from the early days, has been insufficiently resourced to undertake a proper counter-insurgency. "
Andy Carpark
July 22nd, 2009 5:25pm Report this comment1238: And there's the question on how Brown will spend his downtime this summer. He responds that he ... will "watch a lot of sport".
_______
Is about the sum of it. In the entirety of Tom Bower's biography there is only one refrence to Brown doing anything recreational: sharing a sofa with Charlie Whelan and Ed Balls and shouting at televised football.
Nuff said.
TomTom
July 22nd, 2009 5:30pm Report this commentOf course the British have enough helicopters - they are not called The Borrowers for nothing - Uncle Sam will kit out the poor boys from Third World island tax haven for Russian billionaires.
Kev S
July 22nd, 2009 5:31pm Report this comment"I find myself unable to watch this lying, arrogant, boring, evasive misfit any more. It makes me feel physically sick"
Nicholas 3.03pm - I totally agree - I just turn over when he comes on screen now, I don't want to hear his rubbishspeak any more.
Tankus
July 22nd, 2009 6:20pm Report this commentfutile
Swiss Bob
July 22nd, 2009 6:39pm Report this commentI've posted quite a bit of the conference and from reading above no one seems to have noticed that Borwn admitted his policy had cost lives:
Prime Minister's (Aka Lootenant Colonel McMental) Monthly Press Conference.
Pat Morgan
July 22nd, 2009 7:41pm Report this commentI agree Kev but perhaps you'll grow to love him.
I think Mandelson has files on all you journalists hence no exposing his lies.
David C
July 22nd, 2009 8:16pm Report this comment"I find myself unable to watch this lying, arrogant, boring, evasive misfit any more. It makes me feel physically sick"
"Nicholas 3.03pm - I totally agree - I just turn over when he comes on screen now, I don't want to hear his rubbishspeak any more."
Ditto ... Perhaps for the next press conference, all the journo's could sit with their backs to him with placards saying "We're not listening". But I still don't think he'd get it.
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