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Black day in Liverpool for Gordon Brown
The Mole: Gordon Brown goes to address trade unionists as an opinion poll shows ‘literally anyone’ would be better as PM, says our Westminster insider
The temptation to stay at home with Sarah and watch the video of Dirty Dancing for old times' sake must be hugely tempting. Instead Gordon Brown heads for the TUC Congress in Liverpool, ready to tell trade unionists that his government will have to introduce some public spending cuts to get Britain out of recession.
Until now, he has been loathe to use the word "cuts", preferring to talk about "tough choices". But according to the BBC's Nick Robinson, today is the day Brown will finally own up to the fact that no one can get us out of this mess without reducing public service costs.
The PM is apparently due to say: "Today we are on a road towards recovery. But things are fragile, not automatic, and the recovery needs to be nurtured. People's livelihoods and homes and savings are still hanging in the balance and so, today, I say to you, don't put the recovery at risk."
He will argue that because David Cameron's Tories have objected to virtually all the measures he and Alistair Darling have taken to save the economy, from Northern Rock onwards, the Conservatives cannot be trusted.
"Don't risk it with the Tories," he is due to say, "whose obsessive anti-state ideology means they can't see a role for government in either recession or recovery."
While some trade unionists might throw in their lot with the Conservatives - many already have, of course - Brown is equally worried about them voting LibDem, Green or not at all. His speech is intended for all of us - a desperate attempt to persuade the British people that not only can he continue to steer the economy through the next nine months, but that he can still beat Cameron in a May/June general election. This despite opinion polls which show our faith in him falling by the minute.
The latest - a Populus poll for the Times today - shows that half the population - okay, to be fair, 48 per cent - believes "literally anyone" from Labour's frontbench could do a better job than Brown. David Miliband is favourite among those of all parties nominating an alternative, with Harriet Harman several points behind.
More interesting, among Labour voters Miliband is equal first with Harman on 12 per cent, followed by Jack Straw on 11 per cent and Lord Mandelson on 10 per cent.
This seems to support the rumours that Harman has been at it again - secretly plotting a run at the party leadership.
According to a report in the Daily Mail today, she recently dispatched "an army of volunteers" to ask constituency party chiefs to give Brown's performance marks out of five.
Then, after asking: "Who do you think is the best person to sell the Labour Party?" the secret survey posed the follow-up question: "On a scale of 0 to 5, how do you rate Harriet Harman?"
Subtle or what? ·
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I would say to Peter Simmons, that the BNP, far from not trying to garner votes, are out every weekend in force, doing table top presentations in towns all over the country and we are out distributing leaflets in all weathers. You won't find the other parties doing this until election time. As far as Harriet Harman is concerned, nothing would give me more pleasure than to see this divisive sexist hypocrite become the new leader of Labour. Then we would know that Labour were finished for good. Amongst the other wicked things that Ms Harman has been responsible for, in a document entitled 'The Family Way', she effectively claimed that fathers weren't even necessary within the family. 'It cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life, or that the presence of fathers in families is necessary as a means to social harmony and cohesion'. These evil words speak for themselves, and dont really require much comment, but Stalin believed that the way to destroy society was to first destroy the family. There has been a concerted attempt to do just this by left wing feminist extremists who colonised the Labour Party in the sixties and who have frankly been 'pussy-whipping' the males ever since. Now, they as good as are the Labour Party.
If Cameron wins we will be changing a third rate government for a second rate government, so whoever leads the Labour party is a matter for the opium smokers. I sense the need for a Cromwell to chuck the lot of them out, although I would prefer this to happen without the rest of Oliver's baggage!
Brown should be on a charge of war crimes alongside his co-conspirator Blair. But for the voters, what's the choice? NewLabour, NewReich, Same old privileged Tories, or those lib-dem wankers? No wonder the BNP is gaining voters without trying.
I'm moving to Scotland, and will vote for independence when I get the chance.
Like her or not, Harriet Harman is Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. She was elected to this role in a fair and open contest against other senior Labour Party figures.
As Deputy Leader, she is responsible for the future of the Labour Party, not the career of Gordon Brown, and as such she is obliged to react when a poll shows 'literally anyone' would be considered a better Prime Minister than him.
It may well be in the best interests of the Labour Party for Gordon Brwon to step down, and in such as situation only natural for the Deputy Leader to take over until a leadership election can be arranged.
A similar process took place following the untimely death of John Smith.
Let's clear the air with a General Election now.
A parliament for England would be an idea whose time has come.
Everybody else seems to have one,why not us ?
There is always the possibility that for all his faults, unlike the rest of the f*cking weasels in government, Brown is simply an honest man doing his best. Personally, I'd take him over the others any day.
Wrong. The right answer is a General Election - now. The unelected Brown has been a catastrophe for the country. The public won't accept another Stalinist shoe-in without the say of the voters. Mandelson? Hasn't even been elected to Parliament and never would be. Minibrain? A spineless yankee puppet whose strings are pulled by AIPAC - even further in the hands of the yanks than Gordon Clown. Harman? Perhaps. But that is for the *voters* to decide, not the Labour Party.
Ms Harman is a truly georgeous specimen of a loathsome political type: full of hypocrisy, double-dealing, underhand manoeuvring, and a splendid example of deluded demi-m.isanthropy