Not a firewall

Brilliant. No real change; exactly what we all needed. NEXT!

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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Having the re-shuffle now is acting as a strange backdrop for the election results pouring in.

The criticism of Brown and Labour collapsing into introspection is a fair one - but the real danger of the far right sneaking in whilst all of this is happening is passing unnoticed.

Labour is loosing heavily today, but I am interested in how the expenses wild card seems to be having a muting effect on the other two main parties.

The wild card for monday may very well be expenses, but I believe that the seemingly unrelated Sri Lankan crisis may also have a heavy impact in EU election results for Labour.

If the EU election results are bad on Monday, with a reshuffle out of the way already it will be doubly hard to shift media focus (which is all important, as we are learning) back to domestic issues.

It may be that Brown is gambling on the poor showing in 2004 muting the doubly poor showing this weekend.

I feel this is a long shot.

I don't know why there is such confusion as to why the likes of Johnson and Milliband haven't put the knife in. They've made a perfectly reasonable calculation that Labour is finished at the next election and neither wants to go down as the leader that lost to Cameron. Much better to get kudos for "loyalty" now, and then stand for the leadership when Gordon Brown resigns. That's why GB will easily survive this crisis, even if his authority has been desperately weakened - there's no-one credible in the Labour party who wants his job at the moment.

If I were Milliband and Cruddas though, I'd make a pact with "Not up to the job" Johnson to offer himself as a caretaker leader to get through the election and minimise the massacre that would occur if Brown were to stay. Then Johnson stands down and the Labour Party have a proper leadership election where they can debate where they want to be policy-wise. If both Cruddas and Milliband were to support a Johnson caretakership then Brown would have to go....

The only reason Brown is still in power is if they (Labour) got rid of him they would have to call a general election immediately (in which many of them would lose their seats).

By keeping Gordon all the Labour MP's get another 12 months of high wages, expenses and pension contributions before they get ousted.

Someone else noted John Hutton's high blink rate. Peter Mandelson hardly blinks at all! Nick, you were up close and personal, does he have a nictitating membrane or something?

Does this government actually do any governing

Havent seen a policy idea for months.



mmmmm............Perhaps thats just as well.

This whole affair forms a perplexing case-study.

It draws out worrying distinctions between authority and power, and suggests a lack of control that is likely constant, but so rampant at present that the whole saga becomes a farcical representation of what government should be.

People, systems, gossip, innuendo, rumour, ambition, shame, and shamelessness meld with a thousand other things and the result hardly speaks to an organisation that is even close to having a leader.

Given the free for all with Cabinet positions does anyone know what is going on, even Brown?

Lord M was smarmy. patronising and disingenuous. As Nick says, nothing has changed.

By the way, if Alan Sugar is the answer, what the hell was the question!!

Nick,

I was wondering if the elections have in fact come at just the right time to deflect from the continuing expenses row. Haven't heard a peep about that today.

On that front, why is it you journalists seem unable to challenge MPs on so many of their expenses? They were supposed to have been incurred wholly, exclusively and necessarily (WE&N) to enable them to perform their duties as MPs. having worked for the Inland Revenue (as was) and outside practice, I know how tough a test that is. Cost of a suit to wear at work? Sorry, no. Might be E&N but not W (as you have to wear something). Cost of childcare? No, sorry, might be W&E but not N (as if you had no children you wouldn't need it)....and so on. There are even tax cases where cars that were more expensive than really actually needed have led to reduced allowances.

So we have a pile of oak beams, silk cushions, £750 TVs, £1,000 beds and god only knows what else. Many of these claims would be demolished in seconds by HM Revenue & Customs were any of my clients be so foolish as to submit them. Why aren't these points being raised?

And the standard defence of MPs? It was cleared by the fees office. Sorry but if HMRC allowed a claim I knew to be wrong, it wouldn't make it right. It would mean I had got away with it and I would know it.

I heard your conversation with Lord Mandellson during the lunchtime news. He really does not come across well. I'm quite sure that he believes that he is superior to us all and has a right to speak down to us as if we are all imbeciles.He makes my blood boil, and epitomises what is wrong with the labour party. I firmly believe that we need a general election, but would not like to see Cammeron get in on the back of the expenses row.

Nick, it's a shame Mr Mandelson has been wasting his time discussing the non-shuffle with you, when he should be getting on with the job he is handsomely paid to do. I see that LDV is now likely to go to the wall:

"Managers and workers at Birmingham van maker LDV have been forced to cancel a lobby of parliament because of the cabinet reshuffle.

The group was told there would be no ministers to meet them because of events at Westminster.

Some 850 jobs are under threat at the Washwood Heath plant, after a deal with Malaysian firm Weststar collapsed at the last minute.

LDV's owners are expected to put the firm into administration on Monday.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8084696.stm

Nick is usually bang on the button.

His insights remind me of the Buddhist expression "See all, know all, be all".

People call me a know all. They know.

I think losing Gordon Brown right now would be bad for this country.
We are going through terrible economic times,the Koreas are ready to go to war at any moment and a Flu pandemic is on the way.
We all need to be sensible, let the government get on with the job for all our sakes and we will have an oppotunity for change next year when everybody will have a clear head.

I've explained the issue of leadership and party in the past.

While Brown may have his flaws the backbench clowns have just undermined him. This has given Cameron a free morale boost and encouraged the media to cheer the leader. You're confused and upset, and this just sends you down the plughole like panicky shareholders crashing their stock.

Let go. It's only a dream. Dream a better dream.

Not a firewall, but perhaps a sugarwall that will be exposed to the first drop of rain to hit the public purse (remember that 80 billion to 100 billion pounds structural budget deficit per annum that will be there even after some sort of recovery).

For those researchers into the low UK productivity puzzle: Mandleson, Vadera and Sugar as 3 lords doing the same thing more or less explain it (in addition to light bulb changing at the beeb and turnstile guards in tube and train stations).

Ps Mr Robinson: what does the bbc charter say about employing government members? And what should a proper democracy do about a government member presenting on the tax-funded broadcaster?

Nothing has changed except Gordon Brown has become more beligerent towards the electorate. What has suprised me is the number of the younger career politicians who have wedded themselves to Brown when everyone knows, one way or the other, that the Labour party are going to ditch Brown big time and place the entire blame on his shoulders for the parties misforetunes - from losing in the County Council and European Elections and becoming the opposition after the next General Election, whenever that maybe.

Anyone who has thrown their lot in with Brown today will be tainted by association. This won`t be an issue for Straw, Mandleson, Beckett and the like who are at the end of their political careers; but will the new leader really want his/her team to be tainted by Brown`s toadies?

I think in hindsight Purnell made a very astute career move.

The story is moving so fast no one can predict where we will be on Monday. The telegraph has been very quiet over the past couple of days - what if they come up with the goods on some of the people who have remained in Brown`s bunker?

Moreover, what do Labour MPs do now who have seen their few remaining Labour County Councillors voted out of office. Not to the Liberals or the minor in the main; but to the Tories.

Interesting times to say the very least.

Maybe "Lord" Sugar was due to be Business secretary but the Foreign Sec chair wasn't vacant for "Lord" Mandy once David Miliband told Gordon Brown he would resign and bring him down if he were moved. So we get another appointed Lord with an invented Tsar role from a Govt which said they wanted to abolish the Lords, or at least make it elected (mistakenly in my view). Gordon had already offered Sugar a place in the team but then couldn't deliver in what is now a very selfish reshuffle.

Interesting that the Guardian has revealed the Downing Street spinning briefing notes for ministers trying to fool some of the people some of the time. I do hope your views won't be chiming with those.

As you correctly pointed out earlier, this is not the reshuffle Team Brown wanted or planned for. But I would suggest Nick you are misreading the signs. The piper is no longer calling the tune. 

Leadership challenges and election slaughters may be playing second fiddle at the moment but the stuffing has been knocked out of his waning authority.

He's a dead duck left in limbo land with a collapsing cabinet. Something has got to give and the only question is when?

https://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/frantic-friday-in-browns-big-brother.html

I don't know what purpose a general election would serve. It wouldn't get the country out of its economic plight. I wouldn't trust the opposition by which I mean George Osborne to be much good. And I not-so-secretly nurture a desire to see Gordon Brown forced to see the recovery through before he goes (since he did a fair bit to get us in trouble).

This "reshuffle" is just that - MPs shuffling around as most MPs do. Has anyone asked what can change as a result of the couple of new people so far announced? I'm sure they have and come to the same answer: nothing.

Meanwhile Labour are getting a drubbing at the polls. All the bitter infighting or not infighting is like a smokescreen so that they can bluff through, keep Gordoh on the throne and pretend it wasn't that bad.

I think TwinCam is right - we need an election NOW!

While England is Turing blue with some quite fetching Gold Trim.

Do you think Gordon is taking any of this in or, is he doing that thing when Daniel Hannon was ripping into him and mimicking an 8 year old kid doing exams, and pretending it's not all happening?

Remarkable really.

Extract from the Sarah Brown Diaries, Thursday stayed in..Gordon cried.

(Mock the Week Frankie Boyle)

What was the point of all this other than to give Brown a bit more time to mess up? Why did Johnson have to move from Health? Home Secretary is more of a demotion. The constant changes of SoS's ensures they are really acciountable for anything and I do not believe they can master a brief in just a few weeks. As one commentator said about Brown as Chancellor he master the subject vocabulary but did not have a deep understanding of economics hence the many returning chickens on 10p tax and pensions not to mention uninhibited expansion of credit.

So, 2 comments
Gordon Brown .. No one elected him, and he is scared of losing his place which is why he will not call a G/E

So I have a small problem about these mp's and the expenses - Not the actual thing about the MP's playing the system - although to be honest I thought at the front of the 'book' there is a line about it being for reasonable expenses - A duck pond - ? MP's were just very very stupid about the claims ( not sure I want people like that running my country) -
No , My comment is - why are the people that have actually scrutinised these expenses and signed them off not under fire? I accept that the 'Allowances' were a way to remediate the underpay of salary, but.. really !Someone should be investigating the authorisers also to find out the reasons these were authorised and the pressures they were under.
And - by the way - MP's should be prosecuted if the expenses claimed were not in line with the guidelines - Not just say 'Sorry, I was wrong'. If I did that in my business I'd be fired and arrested in 30 seconds... and I know of someone who was !

Not at all strange that the 3 characters Nick lists as NOT bringing down Gordon Brown did not stick in the knife. I don't remember an Emporer Brutus, or Cassius, but the man who came to praise Caesar rather than bury him did almost make it to be Roman Emporer No 2. I

Nick this is re arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Have you seen the local election results?

Forget Europe with the fringe parties being involved.

The local elections is where the big change is happening. When it comes down to local councils in a 3 way fight between Labour, Conservative & Liberal Democrats then Labour are being totally decimated.

The West Midlands is now a sea of blue and if Lancashire goes Conservative as well there will be lots of MP's scared witless.

Labour currently holds 36 of 56 MP seats in the West Midlands yet won't hold a single council after today.

What exactly does Alan Sugar bring to the table? How can he possibly make any significant impact in the twelve remaining months before a GE? Setting up a small business takes months of graft and planning. Setting up an enterprise culture (I presume that is why he has been appointed) will take years if not decades.

Oh, and Nick could you find out if multi-millionaire Sugar will be joining the expenses/allowances gravy train or not?

Seems that Plod has decided that there will be no charges (one or two still under review) because MPs generally submitted claims which were accepted by the fees office and didn't seek to mislead (I need a smiley face here). So thats a fantastic bit of investigation (or were they told everything was ok by MPs???) by Plod ... how very convenient, all Plods stay in jobs.

Bet Plod hasn't bothered to explore whether the fees office were TOLD by very Senior politician(s) to wave through all but the most ridiculous claims.

I'm surprised we haven't had a 'Lord' Prescott today - he could be the sorting out the backbenchers tsar.

Anyway, 'Lord' Sugar, yes, yes, very nice, but isn't this just a cheap gimmick? Plus, he used to be a Thatcher supporter so that presumably makes him a Blairite which won't be good for Brown - surely it won't be long until he's resigning with knives.

Oh for pete's sake this is all getting silly. Can't we just be allowed to concentrate on the results?

So Gordon has re-arranged the deck chairs but still failed to spot the iceberg. When is he going to accept the he IS the problem?
Friends of mine who have been staunch Labour supporters till now, have been almost screaming at canvassers in recent weeks that they will not back Labour again while Gordon is in the chair.
When oh when will the toadies and syncophants shoring him up and singing his praises finally realise the he is not The Messiah and listen to what the public are really saying and stop giving us their version of what they think the public should be saying.
The only reason now that Labour will continue to hang on till the last possible moment to call an election, is the extra year of undeserved pay and expenses; now made even more likely by Scotland Yard's statement that no prosecutions are likely. I can picture the snouts already heading back towards the trough!!

Well surprise, surprise, yet another Secretary of State for Culture - the fourth in two years!
Ironically it was James Purnell, with his previous department experience, who actually seemed to be the right person for the job in 2007. Six months later he was out the door in the reshuffle forced by Peter Hain's resignation.
So farewell sports enthusiast Andy Burnham and welcome friend of the BBC Ben Bradshaw!

We can now go forward with a united group,
leaving those more lily livered wimps bemoaning there decision to go when some traitorous underling said jump now for the greatest effect and get your name in lights like you wanted. It failed miserably

a very obscure constituional question for you -- if there is a general election, and both Labour and the Lib Dems get the same number of seats, who becomes the official opposition? Deciding who the government is in case of a tie is straightforward -- ultimately the queen invites someone to have a go at forming a government. But the opposition? Who would decide that? It's never been an issue before, but looking at the results today...

Hoon's gone. Time for another Cabinet reshuffle.

Hoon's gone now!

At least we have lost some of the incompetant cabinet.
Those that are still around still choose to treat the voters with utter
contempt. They all spin out "Gordies the best man for the job"
They ignore the voters who clearly dont think so. Their arrogance is
beyond belief.

They will carry on ignoring the voters opinion until they are all out of
office and back in some non job from where they came.

Had enough of Labour NOT LISTENING

#18 Econoce

You're missing Lord Davies and Lord Carter (making it 5 unelected ministers) - this department is nothing more than a lobbying group for business within government with a budget of £1.4bn, one of the few departments to have it's budget increased.

Given that we live in a free market economy ie - the markets are free from government interference and business runs independently from government, it's very strange.

Nick,

Yet again you have over cooked it! If I believed you and your press colleagues, Brown was toast and Alan Johnson was the PM. Humble pie for breakfast ? Yet again you have under-estimated the tenacity of the PM.

No7 Poprishchin:

Snakes cannot blink.

cheers

Post 19 I think you are being optimistic. If todays results are anythng to go by Nick Clegg will be the leader of the opposition to the Tories after the next election.

But at the top, this government still looks remarkably similar to the one we were talking about a day or so ago

One presumes this alludes to competence; not composition?

Otherwise I am watching news reports from a clearly different planet.

'We'... indeed.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Labour are opting for 1 final year with their snouts in the trough.

Parnell has shown back bone and honour. Labour don't deserve him.

27
Julius Caesar was never really a Roman emperor although he was made dictator for life, Augustus (Octavian) was the first emperor in Rome!

I'll get me coat!

Nick wrote:

'Even if the backbenchers decide to force a contest, Gordon Brown can still fight it - and he could still win it.'

-------------------------------

Nick...now I know you are more deluded than our Supreme Leader!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Hoon gone, Beckett as yet without a job and Ian Gibson forcing a by-election in Norwich, the day could yet fail apart for Brown...

Oh and #31, yes 'Lord [you've been fired] Sugar of Old East London Town' is just a gimmick and the public - left, right and centre - will see straight through it!

The real problem here is that if this unbelievable farce rolls on for another year then, when the UK economy does eventually collapse (for collapse is its trajectory), then we're going to disappear into an orifice the size of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy; nothing will escape.

It's this aspect which makes me so angry. What right have these arrogant, corrupt, self-centred parasites got to allow our country to head for socio-economic disaster like this? Something really has gone wrong with our political institutions, our political class and our (so-called) democracy.

Thank God for a free press. If we don't watch out, I wouldn't be surprised if Labour spent the next year enacting legislation to gag the press.

Oh god, Hain's back ... well that will obviously increase trust in politicians. Sounds like Gordy doesn't think too much of the Welsh then!

Hoon gone and now Beckett. Time for another Cabinet reshuffle methinks!!

Who said this in March 1992?

I do not know who Mr Gordon Brown is. Excuse my ignorance, but I dont. Whoever he is, he has not done his homework properly. The man doesnt know what he is talking about.

Oh, none other than the new ennobled Enterprise Tsar Alan Sugar, when Brown was the shadow Trade and Industry spokesman at the height of the recession.

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6437959.ece
You could not make it up.

Nick,

This is the only day I can remember in which No 10s news machine has got it right in recent months. They have dripped out news of the reshuffle so slowly (aided by a host of faltering resignation announcements) that broadcasters like the BBC have take their eye off the ball. What an excellent way to bury the bad news of Labour's annihilation at the polls.

What on earth will they do to divert attention from the Euro election results? Announce Susan Boyle as the PMs 'singing czar' and the resignation of the Downing Street tea lady?

#40

"If I believed you [Nick Robinson] and your press colleagues, Brown was toast and Alan Johnson was the PM."

[In reply to the above I'll repeat some comments I posted to one of Nicks previous blogs today]

Just a though: Johnson, who is thought of as a successor to Brown should he (be forced to) step aside, has been given the Poison Chalice that is the Home Office - historically all the responsibilities that non of the other Govt. deportments want(ed). How many ministers have had to walk away from that Job and the cabinet with their tails between their legs, it would only take a future "Baby P" or another psychopath to be be released from custody and then go on to kill again and one of Browns possible adversaries from within has to fail on his sword... Could Johnson not have accepted the cabinet position, probably not - do I see the hand of Mandy...

You are right Nick, theres no real change is there, but then again what did you expect?
I still expect Gordon Brown to tough it out for as long as he can.
Do you really think that the back benchers will rebel knowing that they only have about a year, at the most, to choose a new leader, install him & get the country to back him.
Cant really see this happening, can you.
No, this is a damage limitation exercise by NuLabour to try to get a little support back before next years GE.
Any way, what sane person would want to become the new Labour leader during this time of turmoil?
Far better to let GB carry on, maybe pick up a few points in the polls, & then fall on his own sword, thus leaving the way clear for a new leader with a new vision (in opposition of course).

Just been listening to Harriet Harmen on the TV & she still doesnt understand that this is about so much more than MPs expenses, so they still dont get it do they.
Still, a little wallpaper & paint over the cracks & know body will be any the wiser.

One last point about Brown, we are talking about the man who bullied himself into the top spot without letting anybody else get a chance to run as competition.
Hes a nasty piece of work, so expect the unexpected.

As far as Joe Public is concerned, all the reshuffle amounts to is the moving of the same deck chairs around the deck of the Titanic.

From number 27

"Not at all strange that the 3 characters Nick lists as NOT bringing down Gordon Brown did not stick in the knife. I recall that was not one of the conspirators, Brutus, or Cassius, but the man who came to praise Caesar rather than bury him, almost made it to be Roman Emperor."

But ii was a love entanglement which did for Mark Antony.... who is Cleopatra?

Nick

I'm sure you are right about all this but it shows that ministers are totally split about whether it's best to lance the boil or cary on in the hope Cameron will do something stupid.

They are also still deluding themselves, at least in public. This from Tom Watson's resgnation letter:

"However spitefully your character is traduced and your triumphs degraded by Labours enemies, they can never erase these towering achievements to your name." Sounds like a discarded verse from the Red Flag!

#42

"If todays results are anythng to go by Nick Clegg will be the leader of the opposition to the Tories after the next election."

Hmm, more like that Nick Clegg will hold the balance of power in either a Labour or Tory minority government...

ref 54 WoundedPride

Susan Boyle would have to be a Singing Czarina. Don't want to be petty, but a site that has already told me that snakes don't blink and Julius was never a Caesar...

I'll get me hat, coat and wellies.

Gordon Brown is looking less like a Prime Minister and more like a desperate Dictator.
He has pledged repeatedly since he took up residence in number 10 to listen to the British people.
Yet he still cannot hear the clarion call for him to step down.

Lend us your ear Gordon... the people have spoken.
Labour is being ritually slaughtered in the council elections.
How much more humiliation are you prepared to take?

The way things are going Gordon may demand that we do some underground nuclear weapons test, Launch a few ballistic missiles, and tear up a few peace treaties.

At the moment we have a governement of the Gordon for the Gordon elected by the Gordon.

Viglen, the UK PC maker, (chairman, Sir Alan Sugar) has recently won an Office of Government Commerce contract worth up to £30m to supply public sector organisations with 70,000 PCs.

The contract has a 12-month extension period and is open to other public sector bodies and charities.

=

The title is just a bonus then.

Nick,

I go back to Hutton, for it was he who actually got up in parliament and admitted that previous holders of his post had not been given all the correct information and that therefore the numbers of Iraqi detainees was in error. I think that we had a good and honest man at last in charge of the MoD. So honest and truthful that he has had to go.

As for Hoon he should have been sacked because of his 'within the rules' property transactions. The same with Darling. I continue to demand an inquiry into the period leading up to the war in Iraq, the conduct of the war, and more importantly our actions during our occupation. We have been involved in extra-ordinary rendition, and we have taken advantage of enhanced interrogation techniques, and we did detain people who were subsequently handed over to the Americans and the Iraqis and some terrible things have been done to these people. We are totaklly shamed, and the sooner the real truth comes out the better.

The men who fought and died to free Europe deserve better than this.Some of our soldiers followed orders, they should not been put in that position. That is why this government is imploding, it is the war, and David Kelly, Mr de Menezes, and the weapons of mass destruction. This contemptible parliament must be ended, can't wait for the weekly meeting between the Queen and Brown, oh to be a fly on the wall.

The fire and brimstone that is the Freedom of Information Act

https://www.cluelessaboutwine.co.uk/2009/06/anyone-for-home-secretary.html

@ 42 Ian_the_chopper

"If todays results are anythng to go by Nick Clegg will be the leader of the opposition to the Tories after the next election."

We said the same thing about the Lib Dems back in 1997 after the fall of the Conservatives. I remain unconvinced they have the clout to ever become real contenders.

#45 and #54 exactly right - nuff said.

Crash is just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. He's still doomed.

Post 59. According to the BBC todays council share of the vote is

Conservative 38%
Liberal 28%
Labour 23%

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8085783.stm

Like to review your assertion re Clegg holding the balance of power between Conservative & Labour?

Pay attention at the back please........er that means you Nick!

McNulty has gone.......yippee!

Just seen that gordon is to hold a news conference......how can he when
events are changing by the minute?

McNulty Gone.......good

1650 Lord Adonis, who has served as an education and a transport minister, has been promoted to the cabinet as transport secretary. He replaces Geoff Hoon, who resigned from the government earlier today.

----------

Yet another 'unelected' member in the Cabinet.

THIS IS BECOMING A FARCE!

Ref #50
It's strange I know, but Evil Overlord Brown is not alone in this galaxy in trying to force a planet into a Black Hole.

For instance: -
Invader-Grom ended up as the saviour of Nermulon Prime after their evil overlord, Glort the Bloody, caused the gravitational collapse of their sewage works having eaten a particularly hot Splurm (similar in nature to a very hot curry).
Invader-Grom managed to reverse the flow into the sewage works and eject Glort and his newly formed black hole into intersellar space.

Funnily enough, Overlord Brown has a striking resemblence to Glort the Bloody.
Is this coincidental?
I must investigate further.

Gordon Brown - "No Prime Minister"

In the above clip, the unelected Mandelson defends the unelected Prime Minister and says (at 01:04) "You will also see a lot of political and constitutional reform"

Where is the mandate for these 'constitutional reforms'? It wasn't in Labour's manifesto - and frankly, Labour's track record on the constitution is totally abysmal. (House of Lords, one-sided devolution, Lisbon etc)

The constitution, such that it is, is far too important for last minute meddling by a failed government about to be booted out of office.

If major constitutional changes are needed (which is very doubtful), the issues should be considered by a new government, voted in with a specific mandate based on choices put to the people in a manifesto.

If we are considering constitutional reforms, I have a suggestion of my own.

I would suggest that if a government fails to honour a manifesto pledge, all current MPs of that party should be banned from standing for election ever again. The referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty springs to mind.

A manifesto pledge should be seen as a binding contract. If MPs break their promise, it is a form of election fraud and they should be barred for life from standing again.

Just watching the latest episode.

I..I..I... How many I's did he use? At least you tried to get him to insert "I am to blame".

But then he comes out with, after the results of yesterday...'what the country wants'.

What possible way can that mind get that what the people are telling him by deed is, or at least he thinks, is 'what they want'. After 12 years!!!!!!

If this guy is not arrogant, then he is candidly certifiable.

How much worse does it need to get before, eventually, the system actually purges us of this blockage in the body politic. If I were a Belgian nun I'd be worried, because if he lobs up in a pointy helmet with a dodgy leer she's on her own. Can nothing be done to avert us from this one man disaster. He's not Kim Jong Il, fo heavens' sake... is he?

Oh God, he's dragging in Dad's moral example again... enough!

Oh My God!!! Glenys Kinnock!!

You couldn't make it up!!

#67

"Conservative 38%
Liberal 28%
Labour 23%

Like to review your assertion re Clegg holding the balance of power between Conservative & Labour?

23 + 28 = 51%
38 + 28 = 66%

Either Labour or the Tories could form a government using a balance of support from the Lib-dems.

Perhaps you might like to explain won't be holding the balance of power - given those figures?

Being named after a chocolate bar could never have ended well for Mr McNulty.

Unfortunately he will always be remembered for his creamy chocolate coating and chewy peanut butter filling.

Gordon Brown's press conference...

1657 Emotion audible in his voice, Mr Brown declares: "I believe in never walking away from people in difficult times."

---------------------------------

He just doesen't get it!

Mrs Kinnock to replace Caroline Flint!! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Things must be getting desperate in No. 10.

1711 Europe minister Caroline Flint - a close friend of Hazel Blears, who resigned so unexpectedly on Thursday, has also quit the government. She will be replaced by Glenys Kinnock - wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Now THAT is a surprise.

THE NEVER ENDING GRAVY TRAIN FOR THE KINNOCKS...KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY EH!

No Gordon...

...I am pretty sure that 'the people' are just saying 'stop getting on with whatever the heck this job is that you are doing', and GO!!!!

And stocking the government with a bunch of Lords and Ladies a'leaping (the need to get voted in) is not that encouarging, really, as such...

1712 Mr Brown invokes his Presbyterian heritage. "I've always been brought up to believe that you have got to act with integrity at all times." He recalls the advice given to him by his father, a Church of Scotland minister: "Always be honest."

----------------------------

This just gets better and better!...he must simply think we are more deluded than he is.

I can't wait to see 'Have I Got News For You' tonight!

Caroline Flint gone. Does this mean that the back bench rebellion is on again?

1712 Mr Brown invokes his Presbyterian heritage. "I've always been brought up to believe that you have got to act with integrity at all times." He recalls the advice given to him by his father, a Church of Scotland minister: "Always be honest."

-------------------------------------

This just gets better and better!...he must think we are more deluded than he is.


I can't wait to watch tonights edition of 'Have I Got News For You'.

I posted too soon earlier!

1720 Glenys Kinnock will be elevated to the Lords.

News conference!! His ignorance is only outweighed by his arrogance!
He tells us we want to hear his policies and what he intends to do.
We don't!!! We want to hear him to resign.

How can it be right for unelected people be parachuted in on the whim of the Prime Minister?

Glenys Kinnock, Alan Sugar, Peter Mandelson...

Only an unelected Prime Minister could think this is OK.

And this is the person who wants to reform our constitution!!!

Emergency distress call from Invader-Zim.

It appears I have been tricked into believing this is earth.
I have just discovered evidence that this is infact Unearth.
This must have been the place reported on by Invader-Alice in her report code named "Through the looking glass".

To escape I will need the support of the indigenous population in order to depose their evil "Cabinet of the Unelected".

More dangerous than their UnPrime Minister is the one known as the Prince of Darkness - Unlord of the south and Baron of Foy.

Should the indigenous population be too weak then I will need more Invaders to lend support.
These are challenging times.
I will send my next transmission soon

Zim over and out.

What a shame. Caroline Flint was being treated as "window-dressing" by Gordy ... as she's now gone, does that mean she can come and dress my windows ... she is pretty cute for an MP ... but ... well maybe Gordy did get THAT right?

I will have to wait a little longer for snakeman to say that despite his undying loyalty to Gordy, due to other NASTY and DEVIOUS members doing for him, that reluctantly he's had to tell Gordy the writing is on the wall and GORDY'S TOAST!! (well I DO think he's behind all this plotting)

#87

"Glenys Kinnock, Alan Sugar, Peter Mandelson...

Only an unelected Prime Minister could think this is OK."

No ... only an INSANE unelected Prime Minister

News just in...
Elvis has just been spotted heading into 10 Downing Street.
He was accompanied by Lord Lucan and the Lindberg baby.

Spectators overhear him say that Gordon Brown was "All shook up" over the loss of Flint, Hoon, and Mr Nutty.

Pudits expect Elvis to be given the position of Justice secretary and to be made a life peer.

Jack - the current Justice secretary announced that this was the last Straw.

Hain has just said "Brown is a towering figure in British Politics"

Arrrrgghhhh Invader_Zim is Hain of your planet? 'cos he certainly ain't of ours.

just think if flint had resigned last night with purnell instead of defending GB.......... he would be gone by now!

Balls left dangling

Gordon Brown is rumoured to be in the process of writing his Autobiography.
There has been some speculation regarding the title, but the strong favourites are: -

Me, Myself and Mandy.
Mein Kamper Van
Wing Comander Wheezy and his amazing sporran
Being Gordons Brown
Wheres my underpants?

I am sure it will be a real page turner.
I have a suggestion though.
Maybe he should think about putting it on a roll.

Machievelli reveals his hand.
So, Peter Mandelson, yet again, pulls the strings and this time of Gordon Brown. Or perhaps Gordon is a glove puppet.
Whatever it is, this is what Peter Mandelson does worst - worst for the Labour Party, worst for the government and certainly, worst for the country.
Any potential revolt of the cabinet started and stopped with James Purnell because of the influence of Mandelson. His malign control of anything that moves in government. But, what goes around, comes around. Brown will fall, Mandelson will still be an unelected member of the second chamber and he will, like a chameleon, change his alliegence to his successor - the king is dead, long live the king!
I remember being on a flight with Mandelson from Heathrow to Manchester in the 90s and during the flight he asked me if I knew who he was. When I replied yes, he said "Yes, that's right, I'm Peter Mandelson". Even then I think he thought he was the most important person on the flight.
What we need now are Bravehearts. It is up to the parliamentary party now - the cabinet have flunked it. Despatch Brown & Mandelson to political obscurity!

Ref #92 Blair Watch.

Thank you for brining this to my attention.
Invader-Hain was disgraced when he failed the re-entry to your 7th planet and jettisoned himself to safety in a pod.
We lost many Invaders on that sad day.
I will report back that he has resurfaced.

ref 94 Nelson.

For tactical reasons I require clarification.

Balls in the cabinet or Balls out?
Dangling suggests indecision
I know Brown wanted Darling out the treasury so he could thrust Balls in.

Post 76 you obviously don't understand how a first past the post voting system works!

This is what 38% to 28% to 23% works out like across England with our current voting system

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/elections/local_council/09/map/html/map.stm

It may not be fair but both the Tories and Llabour have won elections with majorities with much less than 38% of the vote.

May 2005 comes to mind for one.

Nick Robinson seems to be on a crusade to try to write off GB. I believe viewers would prefer less talk about personality and more about issues that interest us all. I can't see that GB has done anything particularly 'wrong' and whenever he appears on the tele he appears to be an eloquent, decent, hard-working man of real character. So why do the BBC/media obssess about his personality? Is it because he does not 'court' the media? I am bewildered by their unsubstantiated claims against him.