Running scared
Peter Hoskin 11:29am
As Fraser said yesterday – and as Peter Riddell writes in today’s Times – we may be entering a phase in which Labour rebellion and dissent become commonplace. “After all” – Labour MPs might be thinking – “we turned Brown over the 10p tax issue, so let’s use the same tactics again-and-again until we get exactly what we want.”
It’s a set-up which could fatally undermine Brown’s premiership – and he knows it. As Jon Craig points out over at Boulton & Co, the vote over controversial detention plans has – as of yesterday – been put back from May to June. A hefty rebellion’s expected. Is the Government just trying to delay the bad news? Or does it need some time to – once again – reassess its position, and buy off the rebels?
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Comments
John
April 24th, 2008 11:48amYes, and no. The rebels folded without achieving any of their aims. Sure, they were bought off with anodyne and meaningless promises to 'look at it', but that is just flim-flam. Field turned out to be a pathetic coward.
Thomas Cussans
April 24th, 2008 11:54amIt is bizarre, to put it mildly, that the master strategist should have made promises over his tax climb-down that on inspection turn out to be almost nothing of the kind. As, gradually, the Labour tax rebels realise they have been had yet again, the likelihood of their voting against the government can surely only increase.
Yet at the same time the Clunking Clod issues dire threats that he won't be climbing down over the 42-day detention period, in effect as good as inviting a further rebellion.
These are the actions of a seriously disturbed man. For everyone's sake, including his own, it would be no more than kindness to have him put down – and not necessarily painlessly.
Anon
April 24th, 2008 12:43pmLabour rebellion and dissent have been commonplace since 1997. Read Philip Cowley.
Tiberius
April 24th, 2008 12:59pmThe 42 day term is being rigourously revised to ensure common purpose with the US from next January, where nothing less than 44 will do.
Fergus Pickering
April 24th, 2008 5:00pmI don't think Frank Field is a coward. I think his mistake is in believing anything the rat Broon told him.
salieri
April 24th, 2008 7:42pmI'm afraid it may also be wishful thinking, Peter. The photograph is rather suggestive, is it not? "Where are these so-called other runners, then? I'm ready for them. There's only going to be one winner. And I've moved the starting-blocks anyway."