Archive for the ‘Democracy’ Category

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Why hasn’t Jack Dromey resigned?

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

One of the players in “Cash for Peerages scandal” was a certain Jack Dromey. He thought it would be helpful to appear in a TV studio and ‘sing like a canary’ about how he had no knowledge of the loans despite being the Treasurer of the Labour Party. He was so indignant I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel.

I couldn’t understand his motive for so publicly airing his grievances on the inner workings of the Labour Party other than to undermine Tony Blair and hasten his departure.

A few years on, there was found to be no scandal and regrettably Tony Blair has moved on and Jack Dromey is still the Labour Party Treasurer.

I am looking forward to seeing an appearance on the news by the Labour Party Treasurer telling us what he knew of the latest donations. Was he aware of them or not? Also was he aware of the donation received by the winner of the Deputy Leadership contest? The problem for Mr Harriet Harman is that this time he can’t credibly play the “I was kept in the dark” card.

Posted in Jack Dromey, Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | 1 Comment »

Memo to Brown

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Listening to you floundering in defence of the latest cock ups under your leadership, some observations:

You need to get a grip on that stutter under pressure. It makes you sound evasive and nervous. You don’t want the tabloids to start referring to you as Arkwright of Open All Hours fame.

Stop trying to tell us what we think. You have developed what you believe is a clever phrase to use as your shield (now you can no longer hide behind Tony) – “I think people will (+ verb)”. The trouble is that you have over used it and it lacks effect. Worse still people could infer the phrase as your own distress signal, like the “I’m going not to take any lessons……” line you use at PMQs when you get rattled.

Posted in Gordon Brown, Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | No Comments »

How a prime minister leaves the job, BBC style

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

It is on the big set piece occasions you can rely on the BBC…..to go overboard with a lot spin, hot air and very little substance. I will comment later on Nick Robinson’s having finally lost the plot. Hopefully he will have had a lie down before he is sick.

The Pontrieux Report is drawn to a “Magazine” article on the BBC news website “How does a prime minister leave the job?”

For the benefit of any students foolish enough to cite this article in any coursework, I offer some corrections;

“Some PMs have dined with the Queen on their last night in office, but it is thought Mr Blair will not be doing this.”

Presumably only those who have known that it was their last night in office. Most PMs have departed as the result of a General Election, so their last night in office was probably spent in their constituency.

“From there he will be carried in the limousine for the last time to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen to resign his post and hand back the seals of office.”

No seals of office changed hands.

“He then leaves the palace in a different car, not the prime ministerial limousine.”

Well it may not the “prime ministerial limousine”, but it looked like the very same car to me.

“As soon as he has left, Mr Brown and his wife, Sarah, will be summoned to the palace to be invited by her majesty to form the next government.”

Actually only Mr Brown was invited to form a government.

“He will be presented with the seals of office.”

No he wasn’t.

“Afterwards the couple return to Downing Street in the limousine left behind by Mr Blair.

Mr Blair didn’t live a limousine behind.

Good old BBC, it’s the way they’re funded you know.

Posted in BBC, Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Snatching hope from the jaws of despair

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Watching the deputy leadership results unfold was a depressing experience. If Hazel wasn’t going to win it at least my second choice Alan Johnson was predicted to win by Sky and the BBC . Alas my fifth choice got the job. During Gordon’s speech I thought it was a little bit off for him to publicly sack Hazel and give Harriet her job. I was surprised by the number of colleagues who fell for the “it has to be a woman” line – it wasn’t deemed important last time round. The trots on Labour Home  were gleefully gloating over Hazel’s result, combining vindictiveness towards Hazel with predictions of the demise of New Labour. So I was quite depressed.

But hang on a moment didn’t Gordon mention New Labour twice in his speech? And what was that appearing on the screen after his speech, yes New Labour was back.

On reflection it became clear that giving Harriet the role of party chairman was a master stroke. He has effectively made her minister for the Today programme and  Question Time, having to defend all those things she rubbished during her campaign. I look forward to hearing her defending the Trident decision. Talk about being hoisted by your own petard! Also what one give one can take away, so if she isn’t up to the job Gordon can still move her.

Posted in Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Has Benn blown it with a lacklustre campaign?

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

In between rushing out my plats du jour and trying not to burn the toasted sandwiches I have finally got round to casting my votes in the Labour Deputy Leadership election.  Here is your exclusive Pontrieux Report guide to how my votes were finally cast, with the position of the candidates in brackets before the Newsnight debate. (more…)

Posted in Democracy, Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Silence is Gordon

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

Perhaps the only thing I am “looking forward to” about the Brown premiership is that he will be no longer able to hide away when the going gets tough. I think that having to appear at PMQs will be quite a shock to the system. I fear he will resort to his usual steamroller performance he gives at Select Committees. This may get him through the first few weeks, but a weekly  diatribe of baffling statistics and incomprehensible rhetoric and platitudes will make him look evasive.

One subject on which Gordon has been particularly reticent is his preferred choice of Deputy Leader. As a party  member I would like to know who he feels would be the best choice for the Labour Party. I personally feel that it would be a disaster if Jon Cruddas were elected (in spite of the enthusiastic support of the man off the telly). Would Gordon welcome a deputy with a contrasting vision for the party? Is he hoping that Harriet Harwoman gets the job? Plenty of MPs, Unions, CLPs and individual members (including that man off the telly) have publicly pledged their support for one of the candidates.

Why the silence Gordon? Perhaps he is afraid that we vote in someone other than his preferred candidate and that he looks a bit silly? Or perhaps he has been too busy working out which of our political opponents he wants to join his government?

Posted in Democracy, Labour Leadership, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Glasnost Gordon?

Saturday, May 12th, 2007

Despite Tony Blair’s generous endorsment, it only took a few hours for Gordon Brown to start making veiled attack’s on Tony Blair’s style of Government.

For the past ten years Gordon has had ample opportunity to have run the Treasury as a model for openess, with respect for Parliament. Yet he hasn’t. His own respect for Parliament has been to appear at debates and committees and blitzkrieg with a barrage of unfathomable statistics, often irrelevant to the question asked.

Where will Gordon draw inspiration for his new found glasnost?

Posted in Labour Leadership | No Comments »

Why bother with a ringside seat?

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

Have you ever been to a sporting event or concert only to find that you didn’t really see much of the action and that you would have had a better view watching in on the box? Although I will always try to scrape together enough euros to attend a Formula One race I do miss the comforts of home – TV coverage -ITV plus RTL, Radio Five Live and a live timing screen on the laptop.

The same can be said for elections. As a candidate at the count, you have little idea how the election is unfolding outside. Sat up in bed at home in Pontrieux I was watching “Tory Boy” Robinson et al backpeddling from their pre-election predictions of a Labour catastrophe (a 1% increase in Labour’s vote wasn’t in the script). I was also keeping an eye on South Gloucestershire Council’s website, which for the first time was giving a results service.

Having noted that my good friend Matthew Riddle had successfuly defended his seat with a whopping Alan B’stard majority,  a congratulatory phone call was in order. I caught Matthew watching the count for the Thornbury seats. After pleasantries I spent the next ten minutes reading out results from the South Glos website, with Matthew relaying this information to others at the count. “I’ve got Gary Pepworth on the phone calling from France giving me the results”, does have a certain surrealism about it.

Alas, lest we marvel too much at the wonders of technology, the call dropped and soon after, to use a technical explanation, the South Glos elections website went tits up.

Posted in BBC, Democracy, Thornbury, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Sitting this one out

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Thoughts turn to Britain and in particular Thornbury today with the local elections. For the past two sets of local elections I was a Labour Party candidate for both South Gloucestershire and Thornbury Town Council. My key concern would have been whether I would beat my record from previous votes.

So far in each of the 5 seats I have contested I have come bottom, which has included the ignominy of being beaten by a joke candidate. My vote in 2003 was nearly halve that of 1999. I should make it clear that apart from 1950 when Tony Crosland was the MP, Thornbury is not Labour territory.

Even so this is not how I expected it to turn out. I had expected that some of the Pepworth magic that was successfully deployed in my student union election days would rub off. (For the purpose of vanity, I should point out that I was elected in each of the 6 elections I contested and topped the poll in 5. The last election being to become President of the students’ union.)

So tonight I will be spared having to conceal disappointment, listening to mutterings from the counting staff that “the Labour man isn’t doing well”, remonstrating with the returning officer that his staff aren’t counting the votes properly and at 3am Friday morning for a fleeting moment wondering that if I was really that desperate to be on the council perhaps I should grow a beard and/or don a floral print polyester dress and throw my lot in with the Lib Dems. I am not that desperate to be on the council.

Fraternal greetings to Bob Hall, Gillian Foxton, Colin Burgess and Alasdair Hall, your extremely talented and able Thornbury Labour candidates for South Gloucesterhire Council.

Posted in Democracy, Thornbury, UK Current Events | No Comments »

Confused by French politics

Friday, April 27th, 2007

In an earlier post you can see the Mayor of Pontrieux, posing with members of Sarkozy’s campaign team. I was confused, as looking at the results of the mayoral elections in 2003, the Mayor was elected as the UDF candidate. The UDF is closely associated with and supportive of the UMP, to the extent that it is often suggested that the two parties merge.

So why should I be surprised that the UDF Mayor is supporting the UMP Presidential candidate? Because in the first round of the election, the UDF leader Francois Bayrou was standing as a candidate. Has the Mayor changed sides, or did I witness a convention of French society where the Mayor was fulfilling a civic duty, in the same way that the Mayor of Brighton or Blackpool will give a welcoming address to the Labour or Conservative Party conference when in town?

Why don’t I just ask him? As he is a politician I might. Ordinarily, as I have discovered, one does not ask a French person their political allegiance, it is considered very rude. The French will discuss politics til the cows come home, but keep mum about their voting intentions. As a foreigner I am often excused compliance with French social norms, but in politics I tread carefully. On this occasion the local equivalent of the Thornbury Gazette “L’Echo” has provided the answer. Commenting that Segolene Royal topped the poll in Pontrieux – on the patch of the M. Yves Le Mouer, the UMP Mayor!

So confusion over? Not quite!

On Wednesday the Sarkozy and Royal camps were waiting with baited breath to see which way Francois Bayrou, (who came third in the first round) would advise his supporters to vote in the second round. The answer: neither. On top of which he announced that he was quitting the party of which he is currently the leader to set up a new one. I am still confused.

SARKOZY.FR

Posted in Democracy, Pontrieux | No Comments »

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