I’ve been catching up with some old friends here in Edinburgh and in between speculation about what will happen next – the Glasgow East by election would be miles worse than Crewe to lose – I have assembled the rather hilarious story of Wee Wendy and her call for a referendum on independence.
You may remember Brown claiming at PMQs, implausibly, that she hadn’t said it. As I said at the time, this was no surprise to Brown. She had been discussing this lunatic idea with him for ages and got frustrated with his indecision. They had a conference call on the Friday before this all kicked off, when he was as inconclusive as ever. But Wendy didn’t, as I wrongly suggested last time, think ‘to hell with this ditherer’ and go ahead anyway.
Word of her discussions with Brown leaked to the Sunday press in Scotland. (The name Charlie Whelan is mentioned, but no one is sure). Needless to say, it was written up hard in the press as a firm plan. Wendy reads this, and reckons the leak came from no10 and this is Brown’s weird way of giving her the go-ahead.
So when asked about this on television on sunday, she says “of course, that’s the plan”. only then, when Brown reads the press, does he decide against it. And then walks into one of his famous muddles. What a pantomime.
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