Archive for Dr John

It’s all just a bit of a laugh

January 26, 2007 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Dr John, Media, Murdoch's Minions, Spin

Like many others, the thought of John Reid becoming Prime Minister fills me with horror. I’m not a gambler myself but it does seem that the odds of it happening are pretty slim. Brown is odds on to become the next Labour leader and Reid is in a very distant second place.

As Mike Smithson notes, it is interesting that Reid’s still second favourite at all given the way the tabloid press, and the Scum in particular, have decided to go after him. To my mind, that’s a sign of just how impoverished the Labour Party has become under Blair. His insistence on a Presidential style government in which all the major decisions go through him - Brown’s relative independence, secured in the infamous deal, aside - has damaged the ability other members of the party to develop as credible candidates to succeed him. The unintended consequence of Blair’s centralist approach, it’s legacy if you like, is that there really isn’t a credible challenger to Brown. I think we all know what Blair thinks about that.

(Just in case you don’t, remember that before there was an alleged plot by Brownites to depose Blair, there was an actual plot by Blairites to undermine the Chancellor and push Alan Johnson as the next PM!)

Mike concludes, rightly in my opinion, that that Reid will definitely not be elected as the next Labour leader. The Scum shows every intention of continuing their search for Reid’s brain until any credibility he might have had is destroyed.

The fact that Reid is hugely unlikely to become the next Prime Minister makes me happy.

But does this mean that I’m grateful to Rupert Murdoch and the traitor for taking him down? Does this mean I’m now going to reconsider my opinion of these unscrupulous manipulators of public opinions? Should I now be not be quite so worried that Murdoch uses his power and influence to promote his own self-serving right-wing agenda while employees of his disingenuous rag pretend that it’s all just a bit of a laugh?

No, obviously not; your enemy’s enemy is not always your friend.

In conclusion, for reasons which should become increasingly obvious if you click through, here’s a link to a post on he who speaks only in the third person. Hamster finds himself in full agreement…

Comments (3)

January 11, 2007 at 5:44 pm · Filed under Dr John, New Labour

John Reid = hugely unpopular.

Listen to that sweet, sweet music.

Comments

January 10, 2007 at 5:09 pm · Filed under Dr John, New Labour

As regular readers may know, the idea that John Reid could be the next PM scares me silly. The ex-communist bully boy he has a reputation for competence which seems to be based solely on the fact that he can string sentences together in a semi-coherent fashion. This, admittedly, is something that not all members of the government are capable of but it’s hardly a good indicator of wider competence in running a government deperatment, never mind the whole country.

So it is fortunate, in a way, that the Doctor’s efforts at the Home Office are revealing the depths of his “competence” for all of us to see.

And here’s a wee reminder of Reid’s not so distant past.

Reid is not without serious blemish. A few months before his Ulster posting [2000/01], he was the first senior cabinet member ever to be severely censured by the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Elizabeth Filkin. It was a tangled affair, but in essence he was accused of using parliamentary allowances, taxpayer’s cash, to pay the salaries of staff, again including his son, in his constituency office, knowing that they were really working for Labour’s electoral campaign. In the course of the inquiry, it emerged that Reid had held “discussions” with other witnesses, which in plain unparliamentary language sounded a lot like threats. Conveniently for Reid, Filkin’s censure was overturned by a Labour-dominated House of Commons committee. It was a political fix that undermined her office, and diminished the notion of independent parliamentary scrutiny of MPs’ conduct.

Reid is the personification of everything that is wrong with New Labour.

Comments (3)