C’mon Cherie: even Goering stuck up a bit for Hitler

17 May 2008

Rod Liddle says it is no surprise that Gordon Brown has ended up as surly and suspicious as he has: the memoirs of John Prescott, Lord Levy and Cherie Blair are appalling acts of treachery and avarice

The books churned out by these departed monkeys on the make — Levy, Prescott, Cherie, Alastair — have all, in their own individual ways, been good for a laugh, though, if nothing else. The high camp, drama-queen ramblings of loathing and depression which infested every page of Campbell’s diaries, for example, were edited by the author himself, supposedly, to avoid doing any damage to Gordon Brown’s government. In other words he gave us all this bile and then let it be known, by insinuation, that there was much much more where this came from — but he would save it for later, for propriety’s sake. This was either disingenuous of Campbell or maybe he really thought that the hilarious, petty, schoolyard bickering, occasionally spilling over into fist fights, wasn’t damaging to the Labour party, that we’d all shrug our shoulders and think none the worse of them for it. But still, at least Campbell made a vague, if self-serving, pretence of loyalty to those he had worked alongside. The awful Lord Levy made no such claims and stuck the knife in not just to those who were rightly suspicious of him — pretty much the entire Labour party beyond 10 Downing Street, although particularly Gordon Brown — but those who misguidedly invested their faith in him, too, such as Tony Blair. Levy was, we learn from his book, betrayed by Blair, hung out to dry — as if we cared one jot for the sensibilities or career of this preening, self-obsessed half-wit, the man who delivered to the world Alvin bloody Stardust and claimed to have educated the then Prime Minister in the ways of the business world (or at least his sort of business world).

Prescott spills the beans on the Blair-Brown feud with what seems to me untrammelled glee — with himself presented, of course, as a sensible, calming, influence, anxious always for peace between these two perpetually warring factions: John Prescott — the third position. I daresay the sight of a much larger cheque provoked his heartfelt confession about being a bulimic. ‘We were going to give you a cheque for £100,000, John — but we don’t want to give you that! Tell us how often you puked in the toilets and we’ll double it. And give us the lowdown on that bird you shagged, too.’ Honest John, he of the National Union of Seamen and the conscience of Old Labour carried into high office, succumbed. They all succumbed — happily, vindictively.

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Kevyn Bodman

May 15th, 2008 4:35pm Report this comment

Lord Levy, John Prescott, Cherie Blair, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson do not appear on that list of people I'd like to sit next to on a trans-Pacific flight.
But, as I said on a CoffeeHouse thread, let the market operate.
I won't be buying their books,and I won't be buying newspapers that serialise their books.
And I won't mind if publishers lose money on them and change their policies on publishing these self-serving political memoirs.
But it's a market, and loads of people don't think the way I do on this. That's a matter for them, and I'll have to put up with that.

John H Miller

May 15th, 2008 5:00pm Report this comment

Well, there is some consolation - I read the witches book was being marked down at half price from the moment it goes on sale.
I imagine, in the case of Levy and Prescott, that their first editions are already on the ship to Poland for land fill. I'm not sure of the consequences of this, whether the shit will make the site a new Eden, or whether the poison will mean it will be barren for the next millenium.

Peter Gompertz

May 16th, 2008 11:48am Report this comment

Well done Rod - on the button again; and the comments so far are almost as good. I can't compete so I'll carry on laughing at the vanity of these self servng morons.

Andrew Forbes

May 16th, 2008 1:32pm Report this comment

There used to be such a thing as dignity of office.

I don't blame Levy much, though: when they all got a bit twitchy over the Cash-for-Honours thing, Blair et al made it quite clear who they expected to be the fall guy. So Levy knew then what his friendship and loyalty was worth.

David Short

May 17th, 2008 1:24am Report this comment

I think Mr Liddle is absolutely right to say Gordon Brown has been damaged by his experience with these creatures, the Blairs, the Campbell and the Mandelson.

I think of Mr Brown as a fine, principled and intelligent man. We should be proud that he is our Prime Minister, but I fear that instead we shall soon have a rich kid Old Etonian PR man in his place. Sad, sad, sad.

Karl Kraut

May 17th, 2008 12:28pm Report this comment

Two excellent articles: one on cult leader Jim Jones, and one on Gordon Brown, a culled leader.
Still, I can't believe anybody wanting to buy these books, as I'm feeling itchy all over already just reading this article about them. What a worthless bunch of tasteless exhibitionists, who have nothing of interest to share or intelligence to impart—not even amusement: just plain greed, (self)degradation and backbiting.

Ray

May 17th, 2008 12:46pm Report this comment

Unlike David Short, I wouldn't go as far as to call Gordon Brown 'principled' - although I do believe he sincerely believes in his self-appointed mission to "lift people out of poverty".
The real tragedy of Brown is that he appears to have copied across the most contemptible aspects of Blairism - such as the cynical attempt to manage the media and govern by soundbite - whilst lacking the bottomless chutzpah of his predecessor that might have enabled him to pull it off.
Therefore, nobody is fooled by the constant stream of half-truths and untruths (or 'Brownies', as the Spectator has dubbed them) that he utters.
And even worst for New Labour, Brown himself simply cannot comprehend that the voters are no longer fooled, and so keeps churning them out like a washed-up comedian who has failed to grasp that his audience are busily vacating their seats and leaving him to chuckle at his unfunny jokes all by himself.

David Short

May 17th, 2008 6:00pm Report this comment

I take Herr Kraut's point, but I don't see Brown as a master of the 'soundbite'. If he were, he'd be more successful at the moment. I see him as old-fashioned Labour, which means by definition he is out of fashion.

More's the pity. I think the Labour Party, despite the change in leadership is just one wing of the same party, and the Tories are the other wing. That's Gore Vidal's point, first made about the two main US parties and why New Labour were scared sh-tless when he turned up at their party conference. They knew he would make that point. And it made them rather scared. But of course their heavies couldn't bundle out such a distinguished figure; they couldn't treat him with the same disdain as they did an old man called Wolfgang.

David Short

May 17th, 2008 6:02pm Report this comment

PS. I wrongly referred to Herr Kraut when I should have referred to Ray.

EyeSee

May 18th, 2008 4:51pm Report this comment

All this article shows Rod dear boy, is that whilst you are aware of what normal people see when they look at New Labour (Blair, Mandleson etc) you remain completely blind to what you consider good Old Labour. Brown isn't it. Sure, he is as absolutely incompetent as any Labour MP needs to be to become part of the club, but otherwise he is wholly part of the current problem. Who do you think spent the last 11 years wrecking the country's robust economy? The delirious, power drunk Brown. He is Blair by another name. If anything, he has identified Blair as being basically juct a smiling moron and Brown has, from the outset decided to be even more stupid (his idea of success). And he can't even smile. Dounbt me? Who forced Brown to bottle the election? Who thought the 10p tax wouldn't hurt anyone? Who is clinging to power, at a rising cost to the taxpayer like the addict he is? Run the country? Not a chance. Tell people what to do? Now that is what he was born for. They all must go. And superb writer though you are, it seems the scales have yet to fall from your eyes.