What does the Cabinet silence mean?
Fraser Nelson 2:46pm
It's only been two hours, so how much can we read in to the silence from most of the Cabinet over the Hoon-Hewitt rallying cry? I didn't think Brown was in that much trouble, until I heard Margaret Beckett come on Five Live to defend him. Is that the best his defence operation can do? Beckett, Andy Burnham, John Mann, Tony Lloyd?
In fairness, I wouldn't break my lunch to say something nice about Brown either - but his team at No.10 exists to defend him against his many Labour enemies. You can bet that, right now, there are scores of furious messages on Darling's and Mandelson's mobiles. Darling is, of course, close to Hoon, and Mandelson has been annoyed for weeks. Might he be about to explode? I hear he is due on television later. He knows how to kill a story and has conspicuously not done it so far. He may be the one who gives the imperial thumbs up or thumbs down. Stay tuned.
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john miller
January 6th, 2010 3:05pm Report this commentI think time and again the media fail to comprehend how incredibly incompetent this current crop of politicians are. Hoon and Hewitt. It wouldn't even make a good name for a firm of undertakers.
Who would launch a coup in the middle of a blizzard, when Labour are creeping up in the polls and this close to an election?
Hoon and Hewitt.
It could become a phrase used to illustrate naive, fumbling stupidity. "Oh they've done a Hoon and Hewitt" "He's double aitched again".
Still, it may give Dave his 948th open goal, although I'm not saying his chance to score is any better...
By the right, quick ....
January 6th, 2010 3:19pm Report this commentAssuming Brown is driven out of office, if the word democracy is to have any meaning on this island a General Election should called and held as quickly as is practicable. That election should be called immediately, regardless of the wishes of the present government(?).
PAUL GILBOY
January 6th, 2010 3:19pm Report this commentThis plot is a disgrace gordon brown is the labour leader and to show such rank disloyalty shows what swine they are.
In2minds
January 6th, 2010 3:23pm Report this commentHe's not in the Cabinet but BBC R4 did speak to the near incoherent Kahled Mahmood MP at 1.00pm today, you would have thought they would aim higher than that. Mahmood is useless, you could hear the votes sliding away in the background!
Dennis Sewell
January 6th, 2010 3:27pm Report this commentAccording to Sky News (and Iain Dale), Henry Winkler - AKA The Fonz - went into Downing Street a short time ago.
So I guess, with this Hoon & Hewitt stuff, the question is: Did Labour just jump the shark?
reiner
January 6th, 2010 3:28pm Report this commentGreat Info. Thanks
http://www.greetsiel-feriendomizil.de
Mills
January 6th, 2010 3:38pm Report this commentIsn't it possible that Hewitt and Hoon don't want to force Brown out, still less, as they sanctimoniously claim, to help him, but rather just hope to screw his electoral chances as an act of revenge. These are after all people who have never shown much integrity when the interests of their country were at stake, so why should one think their attitude to their party would be any nobler?
Vulture
January 6th, 2010 3:44pm Report this commentThe second positive part of this plot, from the Tories PoV -(apart from showing Liebour up [ again] for the dysfunctional shower they are, is that it had distracted attn. from yet another dismal performance from Dave at PMQs: the fourth or fifth on the trot. What on earth is the matter with the man?
The Bellman
January 6th, 2010 3:53pm Report this commentI've lost count of the number of lick-spittle sack-ferrets like Khan and Balls saying that 'the public are smart enough to know this, that and the other.' Sickening in itself, but it reminds me of the scene in Knowing Me, Knowing Yule' where Alan Partridge says 'If the British public were asked whether they would like an Alan Partridge Christmas special or 14 kidney dialysis machines, the response would be pretty unanimous.'
anne allan
January 6th, 2010 3:55pm Report this commentWhy the silence? It's all about British jobs for British workers aka Labour MPs. Would you risk losing another 4 months on the gravy train?
Rainer Unsinn
January 6th, 2010 4:12pm Report this commentVulture
........yet another dismal performance from Dave at PMQs: the fourth or fifth on the trot. What on earth is the matter with the man?"
He may be treading water until it is certain who will be leading ZaNu Labour into the election.
I'm sure that the rumour mill in the HoP has had wind of this for a while. DC would not want Broon to be kicked out and give Labour a new leader bounce so close to the election. The Tories WANT Broon as Labour leader.
TomTom
January 6th, 2010 4:30pm Report this commentIs it normal for Labour Party business to be conducted on House of Commons stationery or has Party and State been fused completely as in other Communist regimes ?
Fergus Pickering
January 6th, 2010 4:59pm Report this commentBut Paul Gilboy of course they're swine. They were in the Labour Government for bloody years. What FUN this is!
Daniel1979
January 6th, 2010 6:06pm Report this commentThe Labour Party are as adept to removing incompetent leaders as they are to governing. Another dire plot attempt; can they do anything well?
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