Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
The intention of The Sun newspaper appears to have been to try to inflict maximum damage on Gordon Brown. Its brutal reporting put the worst possible construction on his actions and the knife was plunged in farther when it published the full heart-rending private phone conversation between Mrs Janes and the Prime Minister when he called to apologise for his sloppily-written letter.
The newspaper failed to give any concession to the fact that Brown is blind in one eye and has poor sight in the other, which would go some way to explaining his spelling mistakes and clumsy script.
Very soon, however, there was a public backlash against this malevolent reporting. Many people (not necessarily Labour voters) said they were impressed that the Prime Minister had taken time to get in touch with a grieving mother in an attempt, even in the smallest way, to try to mitigate her despair.
A typical reaction was that of a group of soldiers and senior officers I met in Leeds on Thursday night when I attended a boxing tournament between Yorkshire and Duke of Lancaster regiments. This was a stirring event held to raise funds for the Help For Heroes charity which has done such superb work in aid of soldiers who have been injured serving their country.
Without exception among the crowd of men, some of whom had just returned from fighting on the Helmand front line, everyone I spoke to was disgusted by the cold-hearted media coverage of Brown's letter to Mrs Janes.
So The Sun's 'bash Brown' stunt backfired. Rather than heap more contempt on our beleaguered Prime Minister, it actually secured him a measure of sympathy.
That's strange, not a single Tory gobshite has elected to comment on this post. I wonder why that is?
Good article by Oborne, which sums up how most people have the fundamental decency and intelligence to see through the Scum's anti-Brown propaganda.
Also worth noting in Oborne's article is where he makes a realistic assessment of Cameron's election chances.
An internal Tory Party document sets out the scale of the problem, stating baldly: 'The Conservatives have never won a General Election from a starting point as weak as they face now.'
The paper calculates that to win a majority, the Conservatives must hold every seat they won in 2005, plus an additional 117 constituencies. To put that in perspective, Margaret Thatcher notched up an additional 63 seats in 1979 for the Tories, while Edward Heath made 69 gains in 1970.
The Tory briefing note sums up the problem as follows: 'To become Prime Minister, David Cameron must surpass the electoral achievements of both Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill.'
Fergus said:
November 14, 2009 7:24 PM | permalink
It ought to have been obvious to anyone who paid any attention to anything that David Cameron has said about the next election that he is fully aware of the scale of the task involved. It has not "just dawned on him".
As to the internal party document, the fact that Peter Oborne felt it worth quoting says more about him than it does about the document. It was obvious in 2005 what the scale of improvement would need to be in order to win next time. It's hardly news, except to those who haven't been paying attention.
As to the "gobshite" reference, Nicky, it just reaffirms who the nasty party really are. And it's not the party I'm in.
Your comments about the liklihood of a conservative victory are just wishful thinking.
Your lot are going down to the most humiliating of defeats, from which it is possible the Labour party will not recover. This could be an epoch making election. The last time Labour will ever be in Government.
You just will not see how much your lot is loathed. I fought the '97 election in Scotland door-knocking for the Tories, and that is the only parallel to the hostility to the Labour party are seeing now. The difference is the Labour party is broke, broken and stripped of footsoldiers and has given up, in a way the Tories of '97 (being made of sterner stuff than that slug brown) didn't
Jackart, I think I was at infant school when I realised that just wishing hard for something didn't make it come true. Sadly, you are slipping into middle age and haven't worked it out yet.
By the way, on Sunday night I asked for volunteers in our Branch Labour Party to deliver 5,000 leaflets. By Monday lunchtime a band of broken footsoldiers had come forward to claim there share and volunteer for more if we had got them. And we are not talking about the bunch of geriatrics that the Tories were forced to pin rosettes to in '97 to try to create an impression of volunteers.
As Peter Oborne implies, it ain't over til it's over.
Were you out getting the door slammed in your face in Glasgow last week? It was amusing to see the people of Glasgow still find heroin more attractive than the Conservative Party.
iain ker said:
November 17, 2009 11:17 PM | permalink
Gordon Brown has just had his brest week in Downing Street for over a year.
************************************************
I luv it BSkyBob considers Captain Insensible has just a his brest (sic) week for a year.
Why?
Because a small section of the nation pitied him. (Never mind that a large section of the nation hates him).
Prime Ministers aspire to be followed, admired, respected... but pitied?
Hardly.
He's the lead pig in a modern-day version of the Gadarene swine.
Bob Piper said:
November 17, 2009 11:35 PM | permalink
Muphry's Law is an adage that states that "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written".
Lol. You spell the word "love" actually.
(Sometimes batting these idiots in to the long grass is just too easy).
Fergus said:
November 22, 2009 6:49 PM | permalink
Sorry, Robert, but all your last comment proves is that you (and, to an extent, I) are too old. "Love" IS spelt "luv" by the texting generation. Doesn't make it right (cue rant on declining standards), but that's the way it is.
I don't know what you are too old for, Fergus, I thought it was Mrs Robinson who played with younger folk. Try to maintain some dignity man, rather than trying to pretend you are 'down with the yoof', you are just embarrassing yourself
November 14, 2009 3:11 PM | permalink
That's strange, not a single Tory gobshite has elected to comment on this post. I wonder why that is?
Good article by Oborne, which sums up how most people have the fundamental decency and intelligence to see through the Scum's anti-Brown propaganda.
Also worth noting in Oborne's article is where he makes a realistic assessment of Cameron's election chances.
An internal Tory Party document sets out the scale of the problem, stating baldly: 'The Conservatives have never won a General Election from a starting point as weak as they face now.'
The paper calculates that to win a majority, the Conservatives must hold every seat they won in 2005, plus an additional 117 constituencies. To put that in perspective, Margaret Thatcher notched up an additional 63 seats in 1979 for the Tories, while Edward Heath made 69 gains in 1970.
The Tory briefing note sums up the problem as follows: 'To become Prime Minister, David Cameron must surpass the electoral achievements of both Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill.'