Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Labour’s behaviour reminds me of the blind football at the Paralympics

The party’s MPs are fatally conflicted over Gordon Brown’s leadership, says Rod Liddle. Their craven conduct reflects the awkward fact that they overwhelminglychose him in the first place

The party’s MPs are fatally conflicted over Gordon Brown’s leadership, says Rod Liddle. Their craven conduct reflects the awkward fact that they overwhelminglychose him in the first place

There was an interesting story in the newspapers this week about an American dog which rang 911, the emergency services, when his owner had a seizure. The details were a little hazy; we know that the dog was a German shepherd, but we do not know his or her name. Nor was it clear whether the animal used a landline to summon assistance, or if it had its own mobile phone. According to the emergency services, the dog, having successfully contacted 911, then rather let the side down by merely whimpering into the receiver, rather than providing the ambulance crew with a clear and concise description of what afflicted its owner, time at which the illness presented, pulse rate of victim, medication the dog might or might not have already provided to its master, etc. Whimpering is not really good enough in such a situation and one hopes that this important message will be conveyed to the creature, allied to some form of punishment, perhaps via a cane. A little harsh, I hear you say — but remember: a dog, a woman, a walnut tree, the more you beat ’em, the better they be — as the old West Country saying goes.

The Labour party has been behaving, of late, rather like a dog which has had the wherewithal to dial up the emergency services but, once connected, can do little more than whimper into the receiver. In fact, there have been plenty of news stories this week which, through only the mildest leap of the imagination, call to mind the predicament and behaviour of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

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