Britishness revisited

Verity

Yes, but he would feel more comfortable in Edinburgh. I don't say this meanly, but he's among his own folk, who he understands. I think he doesn't understand the English.

Brook Whelan

Gordon Brown is doomed because all of his plans when he took over as PM last year are torn to pieces by events.

He is now forced by these events into 'on the hoof' strategies, re-launches and visions.

This is not a man in charge of his destiny.

dearieme

Though I shall be delighted to see the back of Brown's government, I've no doubt that he's a better man than little Blair.

Alex

Verity

You say that as if there was one cohesive unit, known as 'The English'. That, along with the idea that 'The Scots' can be similarly defined is risible. He hasn't shown much understanding of anyone in particular in the past year, full stop.

Gordon The Leper

So Gordon the Leper tries another bit of mendacious word play does he?

It is not our personal or collective spirit that has been broken it is our society, our democracy and our economy that is broken and to a greater extent it is this Labour Government that is to blame.

Such a tawdry and disreputable rabble as Labour could never break the spirit of the British people. To even contemplate it as Brown does puts his self-indulgent arrogance to the fore.

To prove our collective spirit all we need is one action from Brown. Call a General Election and he will see how strong the British resolve is to rid itself of his foul government!

Once this act of dismissal has occured then we will work together to change things for the better!

As for compassion, that should be reserved for those who deserve it. Unfortunately, that doesn't include the detritus that is Gordon Brown and his Labour Party.

mitch

If that's a vision then you are easily pleased.In a whole year he has a "not bad" day and you think he is fighting back, pathetic!

David

So, in other words, Brown is going to try to paint the Conservatives as un-patriotic for even suggesting that not all is well with Britain? And just when I thought this man couldn't get any lower...

TrevorH

Cameron has talked of a 'broken society'. Brown twists this by saying the British people have never been broken.

Thats not the same thing. The British people are baring up under the confines of their broken society but they, we hope, will demonstrate that they as a people refuse to be broken by it by voting Brown out of office at the earliest opportunity.

If he thinks that British society has not been and is not continuing to be broken by his governments (and his personal) interfering, social engineering, efforts over the last 11 years then he is mn ore delusional then anyone has previously suggested.

On the same day as he was busy painting his layers of whitewash there was a memorial service for the Warrington man knifed to death for remonstrating with youths on his doorstep.

And your telling me Brown lives in the real world?

Pete Hoskin

mitch: I did put quotation marks around the vision bit...

Oscar

As others have commented - this is not a vision, it's a bit of reactive wordplay. No-one has argued that the British people are broken. And it's nonsense to claim anything of the sort. If o nthe other hand Brown thinks our society doesn't need fixing (as in - if it's broke - fix it) then he's delusional, and clearly shouldn't be in the job.

Pete, Scotland

As one of the chief architects of Devolution for Scotland and mass uncontrolled immigration I think he has done more to destroy Brittishness than anybody I can think of.

Nicholas

When Brown talks about wanting to see things change for the better be afraid, be very afraid. The whole New Labour experiment has been built on the idea of "change" and "progress", much of it ill conceived and artificially constructed, with the mostly dire consequences spun into something else.

The challenge back is that having had 11 years to improve things talk now of change for the better is just an admission of failure. He just doesn't get it and his spin-doctor cronies don't get it.

John H Miller

I drafted a comment only to see that mitch had already posted one that was virtually identical.

So if two of us thought of exactly the same response that means that 2 million people in Britain would say "yah boo sucks" to the (ho ho) "vision".

Dare I say that in the country of the blind the one eyed man is still a prat?

Or is that too nasty. No, its Brown after all, I should be ok.

Ann S

This is yet another tactical error by Brown, even if you accept that people are too dim to see his mendacious misinterpretation of Cameron's arguments on the broken society.
I live in a rural area in England where you can see exactly the type of decency Brown describes. I regularly visit the remote parts of Scotland where it is just as clearly in evidence. People support each other do community work and organise lots of activities for children and teenagers.
In our part of rural England pigs will fly before people vote Labour. However, where this idea of decency is not apparent is in Labour heartlands of inner cities and old industrial areas.
There you do see feral youths abusing old age pensioners. Sadly I see it myself when I have to visit these areas, as so my fellow rural residents.
So Brown describes an ideal that exists in the more remote parts of Britain where people largely vote for opposition parties; and refuses to recognise the reality that many millions of Labour voters face every day.
It simply shows how totally out of touch he is.

John

Verity is quite right. Let him stay in Scotland, his own country. He has no business in mine.

"and it could seem like he's being dismissive of people's worries" - what language is that, pray? It may be Valley Girl, but it certainly isn't British English.

John

Exactly right, Gordon.

Dearieme, McOneEye is a liar and a thief. In what way exactly does it make him better than Blair?

albert son of a gypsy

what is British?

I am English. He is Scottish. I live amongst the welsh in Wales! My son has an Irish girlfriend. We all live in the British Isles but we each have our national identity.

Brown can never mention ENGLAND. To him and his socialist friends who have sold us out to the EU. England is no more. We English may be a bastard race. We have the blood of all fighting races running through our veins. We cannot nor will forget the treachery of Brown...the man who tried to lose England.

Finally, Mr Hoskin, please stop looking at this man through the eyes of a Westminster Watcher. Look at him through the eyes of 'normal people' He is an incompetent prime minister with no vision and no plan. He, like the parrot, is dead. No more and hopefully soon to be forgotten. A truly useless prime minister.

David Parker

I think that Blair quite deliberately set out to destroy
"Britishness" in terms of our history, traditions, culture and temperament. This was probably one of the few areas in which he and Brown were in agreement. I am sorry, but I can not subscribe to the theory that Brown is basically a decent honest man out of his depth. His chancellorship, so far from being honest, was conducted subtly, craftily and by deceit. Finally, his pathetic pretence( and that of the Labour party in general) that his refusal to allow a referendum over the Lisbon Con/treaty was not a flagrant breach of a binding undertaking was nothing short of an insult to the British people.

However, not content with that, Brown is determined to create the maximum damage to the country, (including surrendering our sovereignty to the EU if he can)in a spiteful and petty minded attempt to make life as difficult as possible for his successor, of whatever party, including his own.

Pete, Scotland

Ann S,

I live and work in Scotland, but spend a lot of time in the South East of England, and I think that you are spot on.

I agree, the really horrible areas to be in, always seem to be run by Labour.

Is that a symptom of voting Labour?

Something else that English voters probably don't quite appreciate is that :

"SCOTLAND DOES NOT WANT A LABOUR GOVERNMENT"

We kicked them out!

All we need now are for English voters to catch up on the fact that, basically, Labour need to be replaced as a competent Government.

Pete, Scotland

Something from my Grandfather, to be considered British you had to swear an oath to the Queen, above all else.

How many in our country today would be willing to do that?

Verity

Alex, I stand corrected.

Gordon The Leper: "As for compassion, that should be reserved for those who deserve it. Unfortunately, that doesn't include the detritus that is Gordon Brown and his Labour Party."

You forgot to add, and the lazy society of leeches spawned to be a monetary and social drag on society - as on "benefits" for life, and privileged above the productive citizenry.

Pete, Scotland - Aye, but he has to destroy "Britishness" to get our country split up into European "regions" in order to get his feet under the top table along with Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson (and Chris Patten and Neil Kinnock and Ted Heath as was).

Ann S notes: "It simply shows how totally out of touch he is." No, it doesn't. It shows how steely and manipulative he is. Brown knows the score.

John, it makes him the equal in ambition and mendacity of Tony Blair - and that is one hell of a target to equal. Brown does it. He's as foul and vile as Blair. I can't say fairer than that.

I joined this thread late, so it's a group reply, but I am happy to close with Son of A Gypsy's castigation: He is an incompetent prime minister with no vision and no plan. He, like the parrot, is dead. No more and hopefully soon to be forgotten. A truly useless prime minister.

I can drink to that. In fact, I think I will. Cheers, all! They haven't got us yet, and I suspect Peter Mandelson could regrow his wee moustache and it wouldn't make a hair's breadth of difference. We're not going along with the programme.

Frank Pulley

Trevor H

"The British people are baring up under the confines of their broken society"

Yes, I noticed that in Tescos today; I wish the women of Norfolk would cover their obese, tattooed bellies and not display quite so much of their their silicone valleys. It's anough to put you off your pork chops.

As for Gordon, well ... if he's good at book critiques, Kirsty Squawk can always give him a few gigs on Newsnight Review when he gets the heave-ho in 2010; particularly poignant if Michael Gove were to a co-panellist/Minister for Education-education-education.

Ray

"Crisis? What Crisis?" as another Labour prime minister was once misquoted as saying.

John

He wasn't 'misquoted'. He didn't say it quite so glibly and elegantly, but that's exactly what he did say.

mitch

to quote the great Freddy Mercury

I had a dream
When I was young
A dream of sweet illusion
A glimpse of hope and unity
And visions of one sweet union
But a cold wind blows
And a dark rain falls
And in my heart it shows
Look what they've done to my dreeeeaaam.

thanks gordon you utter fool!

Isabelle.

I think he is far better than Cameron would be as a leader judging by some of Cameron's MPs who he obviously does not keep a check on. Nadine Dorries as example. Dorries who has an ego as big as the QM2