Home – Keep Tony Blair for PM original site
Comment at end
27th July, 2008
Former Deputy Leader blogs for Brown
Thought I’d put this post in this sub-site attached to my main site – Keep Tony Blair for PM.
With all this terrorised paralysis within Labour’s ranks about what to do with their leader (and the country’s) I thought I’d just rub it in a little that it wasn’t so long ago that they had no worries about the quality of their leadership. EVERYTHING ELSE about it may have worried them, yes. (Though they were wrong about that ‘everything else’ too.) But never “OMG, what is Tony going to NOT do next?”
Yes, read that last sentence again. One of Brown’s big problems is that he doesn’t seem to be DOING anything! And yet he works all the hours there are.
Well, leadership squandered is … leadership lost. Or perhaps vice-versa.
The panic has got to such a level that even the former Deputy leader, John Prescott is blogging it today! Writing in to Labour Home website!? Mr Prescott? Whatever next? Tony The Former-and-Much-Missed Blair?
These are Mr Prescott’s words:
Campaign for a Fourth Term not a Fourth Leader
Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to all the members who’ve been campaigning hard in the local elections, mayoral election, by-elections and the upcoming European elections. It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it?
So I hope you all enjoy your holidays over the next few weeks.
I’m sure I also speak for all of you in wishing Gordon, Sarah and their boys a thoroughly deserved break and that they have a wonderful time in Southwold. I have every confidence that he will come back refreshed, renewed and ready to lead us through these difficult times.
I also hope that my fellow Labour MPs will take a break too – both from the Westminster bubble and divisive talk of a pointless leadership challenge.
I’ve been honoured to work very closely with the last three leaders – John, Tony and Gordon. I’m also proud to have worked with all of Labour’s cabinet ministers since 1997. We have undoubtedly some very talented men and women. But with respect, none of them at the present moment, has anywhere near the skills and experience, nationally and internationally, to lead this great party and country as we tackle these unprecedented major global problems.
It’s only a year since party members, trade unions and MPs unanimously voted for Gordon to become our leader. Let me make this very clear – party members and the public will never forgive MPs and others who force Labour to go through another leadership election in less than two years.
That’s what Tory and Lib Dem MPs do. It’s not the Labour way.
So my message to Labour MPs is this – let’s take a break from feeding Westminster gossip and hostile press prattle, recharge your batteries and if you want to campaign, get out in your constituencies and start campaigning for that fourth term.
That’s what our party wants and what our country needs.
So that’s them told. Support Gordon – no-one else is good enough – the party and country would never forgive us – and we just elected Gordon a year ago (er, come again, Mr P?. Who just elected Gordon?)
Read it here and the 75 comments, at the time of my writing this, Sunday evening, mine included at number 74.
Sample of comments:
Gordon Brown has done a lot for Labour – we wouldn’t have won in 2001 and 2005 without him. He is being harassed much like Al Gore was against “compassionate conservative” Bush in the USA in 2000. For those who remember, Gore was painted as a self-important idiot who couldn’t communicate, and Bush was deemed the brighter more “normal” candidate. And the pity of it all was that some people on the American left bought it all, some abstained, some voted Nader, and Bush got through. Don’t let us be patsies in the same way.
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You are delusional. 200 MPs are shitting themselves watching their ambitions float away…It is at their behest that they themselves have to act.
So its not about being nasty and labour being different as you put it. It is about labour being seen to be different, which doesn’t make us seem that special does it?
Whatever GB has done for labour, he is now negative 63 approval the worst figure for any PM ever, worse than Major after black Wednesday.
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We have nothing to say for ourselves as it stands, you need to appreciate that this in not politics as usual.
It could be the end for Labour, because when they are down in 2010 with maybe less than 100 MPs and a dwindling+aging natural constituency, new forces will emerge.
So we need to show a type of loyalty to Gordon… the kind he showed towards Blair for 10 years.
We need to undermine him, and remove him and dispose of him forthwith.
If we wait till the after we are buggered again at the 2009 locals it will be to late for a leader to become credible.
I disagree with your views that no other member of the PLP has the skills and experience to lead. Skills and experience matter but so do does media performance and emotional literacy. David Cameron is not skilled or experienced yet somehow he comes across as understanding the cost of fuel and food prices. Gordon Brown comes out with platitudes – the same old ones we have heard all year after each election defeat. He is boring! We have several members of the Cabinet – Milibands, Purnell, Johnson who would make better leaders and indeed be a match for a resurgent Tory party.
The public feel cheated anyway as they elected the party believing that Tony Blair would remain in office for the full term. A reminder that Tony Blair attracted “middle England” and GB will never do so. GB was in my opinion complicit in the coup to remove Tony Blair and for many years schemed and plotted for the top job. He only ever came to the rescue at elections if he felt his own position would be jeopardised. I fail to see why I should now show loyalty to this man – does he deserve it? His political machinations are embarrassing – anything to win political points. As one who remains £112 a year worse off due to the 10p tax fiasco – he is not top of my pops. And yes, I did write to a number of Ministers to express my concern about the effect of the tax change when it was first announced but noone was interested. I have supported the party for 43 years and am in despair at the current leadership. I also believe that the public’s views are now entrenched regarding GB and no raft of policies will help his position.
The PLP should hang its head in shame. There were enough indicators that GB would be a poor leader. His behaviour has been well documented over many years. The complacency by many in taking the electorate for granted is astounding. The days of party loyalty (and safe seats) are beginning to disappear. Perhaps our elected representatives need to wake up to the need to communicate and nurture their supporters. We are heading for a defeat at the next election. A new leader may just ensure that the Party is not totally wiped out.
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“It’s only a year since party members, trade unions and MPs unanimously voted for Gordon to become our leader.”
John Gordon was not elected unanimously by member, unions and MPs. Only MPs had a say and they denyed the wider membership and unions any say in Gordon’s election. They ensured a coronation that meant that Brown’s lack of vision was not exposed until it was too late. This is NOT a problem of the membership’s making. The coronation means that the wider membership felt cheated in the democratic process and don’t have a sense of ownership of their leader. Brown may have won in the membership but a coronation meant that he is not OUR leader, but rather leader of the PLP.
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“party members and the public will never forgive MPs and others who force Labour to go through another leadership election in less than two years“
There wasn’t a leadership election – it was a coronation. What the public will probably not forgive for 20 years or more is leaving the most unpopular PM in history, who has never been elected, in charge of this great country when he clearly lacks the management and leadership skills to do so.
If you want to guarantee that Labour is out of office for at least the next 20 years, keep Gordon.
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Can I, as someone commonly regarded around here as an Evil Selfish Tory, make a point that everyone else seems to be missing (not just here but in the wider debate).
Gordon Brown must be under incredible pressure. Being PM is bad anyway, but having to cope with two wars, global economic meltdown, dismal poll ratings - I don’t think it would be any exaggeration to suggest that he must be under more stress than any PM for decades. And if the press reports I read are true, he might not be coping well.
Regardless of the effect on the country, or of the Labour Party’s electoral prospects: does anybody, friend or foe, really want to see the man driven to a nervous breakdown? Is anything worth that? John Prescott says that Brown is the most able person in the party to lead the country. Maybe he’s right. But God, we’re talking about one of the country’s two major political parties. Even if not as experienced or able, there must be someone else. What if he did have a breakdown? What about a heart attack or a stroke? Who would you choose then? It’s for sure you wouldn’t just say “Well, Gordon was all there was”, call a general election, give in to whoever won and all quit politics.
The man wants to serve his country. Good for him. But there are limits to what the country is entitled (and would want) to ask of him or his family, and I genuinely wonder whether these limits are being reached. Note also that one of the symptoms of being pushed to the limit (and I’ve been there) is precisely the inability to realise what is happening to you sometimes until it’s almost too late. Some people never realise at all.
John, if you’re reading these comments, you are the ideal man to check. Nobody could accuse you of disloyalty or of personal ambition if you started talking to people – quietly, and off the record. Talk to his cabinet colleagues. Talk to his family. And talk to him personally. And if you do find that the demands being made of him are taking more than the rest of are entitled to ask, get him to quit. For his family’s sake if not for his own.
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My comment (just in case they delete since it mentions the B word – I mean the other B.):
I am not a Labour supporter – I am a Blair supporter. Sorry if this rankles somewhat with some of you, but I am presently disenfranchised for reasons that are pretty clear at my blog. (Google “Keep Tony Blair“)
I recently put together a bit of fun called Labour Wiki 2050. Hopefully you people can avoid it coming true. It would be dreadful to think that New Labour was in the end no more than a blip.
Death of Labour and Wiki entry 2050
Now if Blair were still in charge and was doing what I think NEEDS to be done – and it ain’t the economy, stupid – I’d be in there with you, campaigning to keep out the empty vessel that is Cameron’s Tories.
As things stand it really is difficult to know WHAT Labour can do. You can hardly give us another leader and PM, who would likely only be interim and go down to defeat anyway, unless Cameron’s Tories fluff it. And you already know the press would crucify you if another coronation were held. The public, who ALWAYS listen to the press’s screaming headlines, caused you (largely) to lose the BEST leader you ever had. They then smiled incongruously while you found (arguably) the WORST one.
Perhaps you need to think ahead and see if you can catch out the Tories on something upon which they are soft – like 42 days’ detention. Oh no, forgot. Many of you are soft on that too.
Well, perhaps you need to see if you can catch out Cameron on his real approach to the Lisbon Treaty. Oh no, forgot. Many of you want a referendum on that too.
Well, perhaps you need to point out that the Tory frontbench looks like a load of inept, immature overgrown schoolboys. Oh no, forgot …
Sorry, can’t think of any way out right now.
Like the Tory commenter here I DO hate all the personal attacks on Brown from his own, even though personally I’ve attacked him pretty relentlessly since he “killed off” Blair. But then I didn’t matter. Who cared what I said? You people do matter. You are mostly Labour stalwarts, of one sort or another. I used to be quite concerned over Blair’s health when he was battered from pillar to post from within (and without). But he survived. Hopefully Gordon will too.
You didn’t trust your three times winner enough to see that HE was the great social reformer, along with being the incomparable international statesman of his generation. You caught complacency – a nasty contagion – and thought you were tough enough to continue without your main line of defence, the man who reached across the parties.
You were wrong, I’m afraid.
I have no expectations for the return of Blair despite my website, of course. Why should he come back to this split party even if it were constitutionally possible ?
Gordon was supposed to be the continuation – or the better option – or the more inherently Labourite.
As though it’s all about being Labourite! It’s been about winning.
You KNEW the limitations of Gordon’s personality and yet …
What more can I say than good luck.
I mean it. You need it.
Nice of Mr Prescott to get down and dirty with the bloggers, eh? Perhaps they’re on the lookout for good ideas. Sorry if I have disappointed.
I’ll keep an eye on Labour Home – just in case any other Big Guns feeling like firing away there. You never know.
Re: Campaign for a Fourth Term not a Fourth Leader (#74)
by BlairSupporter on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 08:58:43 PM GMT