Tag Archives: gordon brown

Daily View 2×2: 8 November 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 8th November 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time to find out how peanut butter is made. But first, the news.

2 Big Stories

Gordon Brown floats idea of tax on financial transactions

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s idea of a financial transactions tax has received a lukewarm response from G20 countries.

The proposal, which took delegates by surprise at the meeting in St Andrew’s overshadowed other items on the agenda.

The US said it would “not support” a transaction tax and Canada added it was “not an idea we would look at”.

The Conservatives said that Downing Street had previously “poured cold water on this proposal” and that the Treasury had called it “unworkable”.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said the leaders had agreed the International Monetary Fund should now consider the possibility of introducing an international transactions tax, which would be used to create a fund for bank bailouts. (BBC)

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alistair darling, banking, germany and glasgow north east | Leave a comment

Biscuitgate proponents left with custard on face

By Alex Foster | Wed 28th October 2009 - 1:55 pm

Remember “Biscuitgate” – which Stephen reported on last week – the apparent inability of the Prime Minister to decide which sort of biscuit he liked?

Turns out there’s not a crumb of truth in it. Private Eye’s Adam MacQueen reports for First Post:

“Being more decisive would spare the Prime Minister needless embarrassment” declared the leader column of the Times, and even David Cameron weighed in at Prime Minister’s Questions: “Are we really going to spend another six months with a Prime Minister who cannot give a straight answer, who cannot pass his own legislation, and who sits in his bunker not even able to decide what sort of biscuits he wants to eat?”

Except, er, no one asked him. As Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts has now clarified in a posting on the website, the biscuit question proposed by various messageboard users was never put to Gordon Brown in the hour that he devoted to the interview.

Posted in Humour and News | Also tagged biscuitgate and mumsnet | 10 Comments

Tory frockgate unravels further

By Alex Foster | Fri 23rd October 2009 - 5:07 pm

On Monday I reported that a scandal was unfolding concerning Samantha Cameron’s “£65 M&S dress” worn at Conservative party conference.

On one level, it really doesn’t matter what the spouses of party leaders wear, and, within reason, how much they pay for it, particularly since the Camerons are well remunerated for David’s parliamentary work, as well as being privately wealthy.

On another, when strenuous efforts are made for one thing to appear as something else entirely, that’s hypocrisy and it should be exposed. So when, as the Mirror reported last Sunday, strings are pulled to obtain an off-the-shelf dress that …

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party, david cameron, hypocrisy, marks and spencers, samantha cameron and sarah brown | 8 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 22 October 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 22nd October 2009 - 7:46 am

Good morning readers. It’s the 22nd October and there are just 70 days left til the end of the year. Today is Derek Jacobi’s birthday, the 43rd anniversary of the first time an all-female group topped the charts in the States, and the 114th anniversary of a rather scary train-wreck at Paris’s Montparnasse station.

2 Big Stories

Postal strike poll puts blame on government as union announces action

The Guardian reports a Yougov poll in which voters put the blame for postal strikes squarely on Gordon’s shoulders.

Gordon Brown’s handling of the Royal Mail strikes comes under strong criticism from the public and Labour backbenchers today, with a new poll showing most voters believe the government should get directly involved in the dispute and force management and unions to go to the conciliation service Acas.

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged 10:10 campaign, bing, carbon, facebook, google, jane watkinson, maureen rigg, microsoft, stockton, strikes and twitter | Leave a comment

Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos update

By Mark Pack | Wed 21st October 2009 - 11:50 am

Back in September I blogged about how difficult it’s been to get a response from the Cabinet Office to a small complaint I had about possible misuse of letterheads by Gordon Brown:

Tally so far: two emails and one letter from me plus four letters from my MP spread out over nine months and what to show for it all? Just one

…

Posted in News | Also tagged cabinet office | 4 Comments

Revealed … Nick Clegg’s preferred biscuit of choice

By Stephen Tall | Tue 20th October 2009 - 6:05 pm

There’s been a story doing the rounds too inane even for me to want to read anything about it – the ‘controversy’ over Gordon Brown declining to name his favourite type of biscuit.

This is, according to some of the more desperate right-wing blogs, evidence of the Prime Minister’s tendency to dither. Or perhaps it’s because he has more important things to worry about – just as the media has more important things to report, or so you’d have thought.

Anyway, as a result of this over-literal storm in a teacup, Nick Clegg has also been asked about his …

Posted in News | Also tagged bbc and nick clegg | 8 Comments

What Mrs Cameron actually wore

By Alex Foster | Mon 19th October 2009 - 11:39 am

At the Tory conference, a few acres of of newsprint were dedicated to what the Tory leader’s wife wore. Apparently, it was a £65 dress from M&S, which she paired with some £29 shoes from Zara.

Goodness me. Who cares? I mean, you expect people in the public eye in receipt of a pretty decent wage to be turned out nicely. And on occasions such as this where you know people will be taking pictures and you can be pretty certain your photo will show up in prominent places in national newspapers, it’s entirely acceptable to make sure you’re wearing …

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party, david cameron, marks and spencers, samantha cameron and sarah brown | 4 Comments

Nick’s Commons statement on Afghanistan

By The Voice | Wed 14th October 2009 - 3:30 pm

The BBC reports on Gordon Brown’s statement today to the House of Commons on the situation in Afghanistan:

Gordon Brown has announced plans to send 500 more troops to Afghanistan – but only if key conditions are met. The troops will be sent as long as they have the necessary equipment, if other Nato allies boost their troop numbers and more Afghan soldiers are trained. …

There are currently about 9,000 UK troops stationed in Afghanistan. There are also 150 reserve troops in the country which the Ministry of Defence said would be available for further temporary deployments.

Below is the text of Nick Clegg’s statement in response:

We on these benches have argued that we cannot continue to fight this war on half-horsepower with half-measures and half-baked thinking. Time is running out for the mission in Afghanistan and we need a radical change in direction.

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged afghanistan and nick clegg | 2 Comments

Nick to pay back £910 #mpsexpenses

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 4:32 pm

The party has just released the text of the letter from Nick Clegg to Sir Thomas Legg confirming that the Lib Dem leader will – as recommended by Sir Thomas – re-pay £910 of taxpayers’ money claimed as expenses for gardening costs associated with Nick’s second home. Here’s the text of the letter:

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, mps expenses and thomas legg | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 12 October 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 12th October 2009 - 9:45 am

2 Big Stories

MPs’ expenses row re-ignites as MPs question findings of independent inquiry

In case you thought the row had blown itself out, here comes the sequel:

Gordon Brown has urged MPs to repay expenses claimed up to five years ago if asked to do so following an audit ordered after the furore. There are reports that some MPs plan to defy calls to repay money and may challenge the request in the courts.

The PM is among hundreds of MPs expected to be asked to repay sums following a review of all claims by former civil servant Sir Thomas Legg. …

The BBC understands he has set retrospective limits for some items and annual limits on what he believes they should have claimed. These are £1,000 a year for gardening, and £2,000 a year for cleaning. It is believed to have angered some MPs who say they will not repay the money.

Saturday’s Telegraph reported the following snippet:

Last night, the Lib Dems, who are confident that they avoided the worst excesses, stepped up pressure on the Conservatives

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged george osborne, mark thompson, matthew oakeshott, mps expenses, peter black, thomas legg and vince cable | 2 Comments

The leaders’ debate – is it really now game on?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 6:40 pm

Fair play to Sky News. It’s a month since the broadcaster upped the ante on a leaders’ debate, with Adam Boulton launching a full-throated campaign – including writing for LDV – for Nick Clegg, Gordon Brown and David Cameron to debate each other in the lead-up to general election day.

The result? The AP tells us a deal has now been reached between the broadcasters:

Broadcasters have written to Britain’s main political parties proposing a series of televised debates before the general election. The BBC, Sky News television, and ITV have written to the leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties with a joint proposal for three live televised debates before the election, which must be called by the middle of next year.

Posted in General Election and News | Also tagged ConservativeHome, david cameron, hansard society, leaders tv debate, media, nick clegg and stephen coleman | 12 Comments

YouTube ‘cos we want to: Gordon, Dawkins and Fordham

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st October 2009 - 8:10 pm

Welcome to the latest edition of our occasional LDV feature, YouTube ‘cos we want to, featuring some of the most memorable political moments from the past week (or so).

First up, in tribute to the triumph of this week’s Labour party conference in Brighton, let’s enjoy in all its 11 seconds of glory, Gordon’s huff with Sky’s Adam Boulton after a particularly feisty interview:

Hat-tip: Paul Waugh. You can enjoy the full interview here.

Second’s up … for many the highlight of Lib Dem conference was meeting Richard Dawkins, while for others it was hearing his declaration that, though not a member, he has voted for the party in every election since it was founded. So here for your delectation is his 5-minute speech to the conference hall:

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged adam boulton, ed fordham and richard dawkins | 3 Comments

73% say Marr wrong to ask PM about prescription pills

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st October 2009 - 12:15 pm

An interesting little stat from YouGov’s latest tracker poll (with a hat-tip to Anthony Wells’ UK Polling Report blog). The internet polling company asked the question: Gordon Brown was asked on TV to respond to media rumours that he had been prescribed pills to help him cope with the stress of his job. Do you think it was right or wrong to ask him about this?

And here’s how those polled replied:

>> 22% – Right: the public have a right to know full medical details
>> 73% – Wrong: everyone, including the Prime Minister, has a right to privacy on medical matters that do not materially affect their work
>> 5% – Don’t know

Posted in Polls | Also tagged andrew marr, anthony wells and yougov | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 30 September 2009

By The Voice | Wed 30th September 2009 - 9:05 am

Two big stories

Gordon’s speech to conference

It almost passed unnoticed in the blogosphere, but it seems Gordon Brown made some sort of speech yesterday.

As the Daily Express put it:

Brushing off reports he is a “dead man walking,” a deluded Brown gushed: “It’s our Britain that works best.”

Though Labour activists might prefer The Guardian’s take:

In a determined 59-minute speech to the party’s autumn conference in Brighton, the prime minister said the Conservatives had faced the “economic call of the century” and had called it wrong.

Polanski arrested

Roman Polanski had sex with a 13 year old girl 32 years ago, so is …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged vince cable | 9 Comments

The problem with Gordon’s speech was that it was so Gordon #lab09

By Mark Pack | Tue 29th September 2009 - 9:00 pm

Living in London and (attempting) to use the Tube most days, it’s deeply ironic the legacy of Gordon Brown’s political career which I am reminded of most often – his insistence on forcing through the botched part-privatisation of the Tube – is something quite at odds with his overall record.

For his overall record is not of dogged determination to bring in as quickly as possible a radical policy come what may, but instead it is one of ducking the big tough choices and looking to attempt to play clever with the details instead. Not so much a case of fiddling …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged labour party and mori | 2 Comments

Gordon’s speech – Danny Alexander responds (and so do I) #lab09

By Stephen Tall | Tue 29th September 2009 - 6:50 pm

Gordon Brown delivered his speech to the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton today – you can read it in full here, or watch it here.

For the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg’s chief-of-staff Danny Alexander has issued the following response:

Gordon Brown’s speech showed just how tired and bereft of new thinking the Labour Party is. His new announcements were a hotchpotch of the ineffective and the ill-thought through, rehashed press releases, copied ideas and humiliating U-turns.

“The fact is Gordon Brown has presided over a huge and widening gap between the richest and the poorest, he has failed a generation

…

Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander and labour party | 4 Comments

12 years to re-state a watered-down pledge. So much for progress. #lab09

By Stephen Tall | Tue 29th September 2009 - 6:25 pm

The Labour Party manifesto 1997:

We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.

Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour Party conference 2009:

There is now a stronger case than ever that MPs should be elected with the support of more than half their voters – as they would be under the Alternative Voting system. And so I can announce today that in Labour’s next manifesto there will be a commitment for a referendum to be held early

…

Posted in News | Also tagged alternative vote, electoral reform, labour party and proportional representation | 2 Comments

To be fair …

By Stephen Tall | Tue 29th September 2009 - 9:40 am

I made clear my view on Sunday that the BBC’s Andrew Marr was bang out-of-order to ask Gordon Brown whether he uses prescription drugs seemingly on the basis of nothing more than Internet rumour:

… in making it an issue on the basis of no evidence, Andrew Marr and the BBC have done a real disservice to serious political reporting.

I stand by my assessment. However, I also pointed out that, at the time of writing, no-one from the right-wing blogosphere had taken Mr Marr to task. It’s only fair, therefore, to note that Tory MP Nadine Dorries yesterday broke ranks with the fellow members of her tribe to post a stinging denunciation:

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew marr, iain dale, nadine dorries, nick assinder and tim montgomerie | 6 Comments

Rumours suggest Brown will accept debates, but seek to exclude Clegg

By Richard Huzzey | Mon 28th September 2009 - 10:23 pm

The BBC reports that Gordon Brown will accept the proposals, forcibly proposed by Sky’s Adam Boulton, for a leaders’ debate… but with only partial involvement for Nick Clegg:

Months ago, Conservative leader Mr Cameron called for a TV election debate to be held involving Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as well.

Sources suggest Mr Brown would rather go “head to head” with the Tory leader and is prepared to take part in a series of debates – some involving Mr Clegg and others not – in order to allow this to happen.

This seems to be yet another gaffe by Brown. …

Posted in News | Also tagged adam boulton, david cameron, leaders tv debate and nick clegg | 17 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 28 September 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 28th September 2009 - 9:45 am

2 Big Stories

Germany elects new centre-right government to be led by Angela Merkel

The Financial Times reports:

Germany is on course for its first centre-right government in 11 years after voters gave chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and her Free Democratic allies a majority in parliament.

The victory of the conservative-liberal alliance – which had campaigned for tax cuts and a return to nuclear energy, but also social justice and tougher rules for finance – in Sunday’s poll ends four years of awkward co-operation between the CDU and its rival Social Democratic party in a grand coalition. …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alistair darling, angela merkel, caroline flint, fdp, germany, james oates, labour party and paul walter | 3 Comments

That Andrew Marr question: wrong, wrong, wrong

By Stephen Tall | Sun 27th September 2009 - 5:15 pm

It’s a few weeks since I was emailed an article by John Ward (also sent to a number of other blog-sites), subsequently published at notbornyesterday.org, alleging the Prime Minister suffers from depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, and that these conditions are being treated with prescription pills.

I decided not to publish, or refer at all to the allegations on Lib Dem Voice. As I explained to John in an email at the time, “without named sources for the story it’s not something we could publish on LDV. I appreciate, given the nature of the story, that having sources on the record is difficult, but still.”

The BBC’s Andrew Marr today felt no such compunction, asking Gordon Brown bluntly: “A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?” To which the Prime Minister would have been quite entitled to reply – though of course he couldn’t, as Mr Marr would have known – “None of your damned business.”

There are two issues here. First, was the BBC right to pose the question (and I’m sure the line of questioning was cleared at a high level within the Corporation)? And, secondly, should it matter to us what the Prime Minister’s reply was?

Was the BBC right? Absolutely not.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew marr, bbc, blogging, featured, john ward and NHS | 37 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 27 September 2009

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th September 2009 - 7:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 7am. It’s time for the Daily View, today with a special sing-a-long political ad that makes current politics look not so bad really.

2 Big Stories

Speedier tests for cancer planned

Skipping past the utterly predictable stories (senior Labour figures aren’t all happy, shock horror and Baroness Scotland didn’t check paperwork properly, shock horror) we get to this from the BBC:

Patients will get key tests within two weeks of seeing their GP, will tell the Labour Party conference on Tuesday.

It will mean faster reassurance for patients and could save thousands of lives by picking up cancers earlier, he is expected to say.

Late diagnosis has been blamed for poorer cancer survival in the UK.

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged adrian sanders, andrew reeves and angela merkel | Leave a comment

Cabinet Office: correspondence chaos

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th September 2009 - 11:20 am

It’s all a bit rum. Back in December I put in a complaint via the Cabinet Office website about Gordon Brown. It was a pretty minor issue – using government letterhead for partisan purposes – but given how stringent the rules imposed on other bodies around the country, it seemed to me worth all of oooh 30 seconds to make the point of principle.

But I got no reply. And I don’t like that sort of thing…

So I sent another message via their website. And got no reply.

So I wrote a letter. And got no reply.

So I wrote to my MP, who then wrote to the …

Posted in News | Also tagged cabinet office | 16 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 17 September 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 17th September 2009 - 8:00 am

Good morning. Today we remember the deaths of Hildegard von Bingen, and, centuries later, Laura Ashley; and today’s birthday girl is Tessa Jowell.

Two big stories

A surprising number of newspapers seem to be leading with a story about how soon, we will all have the right to register with any GP we choose. I struggle to see why that’s made so many front pages.

Instead, my picks are the Independent’s story about racism in the US, with President Carter weighing in on opposition to President Obama’s current policy platform:

After lurking near the surface of political discourse in America

…

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged atomium blog, barack obama, deficit, economy, hildegard von bingen, jimmy carter, laura ashley, mary reid, pefect woman, race relations, real women, social security, tax credits and tessa jowell | 4 Comments

Will there be a cull of ministers after the next general election?

By Mark Pack | Thu 10th September 2009 - 8:55 am

Whoever wins the next general election, they will have to make some tough choices about public spending. Will they dare look very close to home though?

In late 1914 when Britain ruled much of the world and was fighting a world war, there were a total of 49 ministers. Gordon Brown’s government currently has 119 ministers – an increase of 143%.

Some of the growth is for reasons most people across most parties would support, such as the creation of the National Health Service resulting in the creation of some new roles. But those areas of ‘consensus growth’ are relatively small, and …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron and public spending | 3 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 7 September 2009

By Stephen Tall | Mon 7th September 2009 - 9:45 am

2 Big Stories

Government’s Libya policy: confusion reigns

The mounting government confusion over its policy towards Libya continues today.

First we had the Prime Minister’s refusal to make a comment on the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi; then it emerged that Gordon Brown had let it be known he agreed with the Scottish executive’s decision; over the weekend Justice Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged the obvious – that government policy was strongly influenced by trade and oil.

And now it emerges that Mr Brown is stepping up British attempts to win compensation for the victims of the bombing:

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged bbc question time, bnp, libya, lynne featherstone and peter black | 1 Comment

Is Gordon safe?

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th September 2009 - 2:45 pm

Martin Kettle’s article in The Guardian – suggesting that the week beginning 12th October is make-or-break week for those Labour MPs who’d like to oust Gordon Brown – has sparked a fresh bout of Labour leadership speculation. The Economist’s Bagehot is having none of it:

Labour MPs have had their chance. And it wasn’t in June 2009 or in October 2008. It was in 2007, when almost all of them lined up, baa-ing, to endorse Mr Brown. They were too numbed by more than a decade of unthinking obedience and by cowardice to do anything else. That is a

…

Posted in News | Also tagged bagehot and martin kettle | 9 Comments

Daily View 2×2: Friday 4 September

By Alex Foster | Fri 4th September 2009 - 8:00 am

Today I went to Wikipedia to see what happened today in history, and saw that it’s the birthday of the composer Edvard Grieg. Quick as a flash, the Kit and the Widow song “hundreds of Norwegians on the London Underground” to the tune of the Hall of the Mountain King rises unbidden in my mind – and with it, memories of the Brent East by-election, and Ed Fordham’s uncanny rendition of “Can you tell me please – where can Dollis Hill be found?” For many of you, this will mean nothing, but I’m hoping a significant number of …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alistair darling, barcharts, douglas carswell, eric joyce, mark reckons, OECD and recession | 2 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 2 September 2009

By Alex Foster | Wed 2nd September 2009 - 8:00 am

Well, that’s it. August is over, nights are drawing in, it’s downhill to Christmas, and LDV’s daily 2×2 slot that’s more-or-less been on hold over the summer returns to its more-or-less 8am schedule to bring you two top news stories and two must-read blog posts from the world of Lib Demmery.

With just 120 days till the end of the year, 2nd September is the day the Great Fire of London broke out in 1666, the day Thomas Telford died in 1834, and Salma Hayek’s birthday. Happy birthday, Miss Hayek!

Two top stories

PM’s role in release of Megrahi

Gordon Brown

…

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged abdelbaset ali al-megrahi, anders hanson, andrew reeves, ann widdecombe, bernard hogan-howe, darrell goodliffe, david miliband, economy, great fire of london, jane watkinson, libya, paul holmes, personal debt, rational liberal, salma hayek and thomas telford | 1 Comment

Daily View 2×2: 30 August 2009

By Stephen Tall | Sun 30th August 2009 - 12:05 pm

2 Big Stories

Sunday Times: Lockerbie bomber ‘set free for oil’

Today’s Times has the big story:

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal. Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release. The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

The Lib Dems Ed Davey – who has been leading the campaign for full disclosure over Mr Al Megrahi’s release – is quoted by the paper:

This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking.”

Brown’s surprise Afghanistan trip scuppers Cameron

Posted in News | Also tagged abdelbaset ali al-megrahi, afghanistan, barnet council, david cameron, duncan macdonald, jack straw, kenny macaskill, libya, nick clegg, oil, sandy walkington and terrorism | Leave a comment

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