Dines' Days : A beaten leader

A beaten leader

THE political silly season has certainly ended with a bang. When his bluff was finally called this week and Tony had to face up to the reality that power and authority were ebbing from him, he looked thoroughly disheartened.

There'll be plenty of time to judge the Blair legacy but I can't help asking myself this unanswerable question. Had the transatlantic plane bomb plots not been foiled and 9 US bound jumbos exploded over the Atlantic or on their runway approaches, killing perhaps 2,000, would the Labour Party really have acted the way it did this week?

Probably not, although politicians are a funny lot - peculiar that is, not hilarious. If they'd been on the stage of the Glasgow Empire on a wet Wednesday afternoon in February, the whole lot them would have been given the bird.

I've no idea what the long term damage to the Labour Party will be. For now, let's just say that the happiest MP in Britain right now is not Gordon Brown but David Cameron.

posted on 08 September 2006 11:02 by Graham Dines

Comments

08 September 2006 20:56 by Margie

# re: A beaten leader

Never mind Tony, you'll soon be able to spend all your time freeloading in a Barbados villa. As a low paid health worker, I can't even afford a week in a caravan at Hopton.

09 September 2006 09:21 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

Hello there.
Working today at the POW.
Looking at my list of observations taken at the school the PM visited.
Before leaving our London home, I heard my wife tell the Driver that on waking this morning she checked to see if there were any daggers in my back.
She asked for me to be returned to har likewise.
See you later
Bye
ADG

09 September 2006 09:49 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

Hello again,
Have a Wit in my office.
She has read your piece Graham and suggests Charles Clarke could also be a happy MP.
She was telling me her angle on the PMs Grand Tour.
Songs of Praise, Blue Peter (as already suggested elsewhere) then a guest on Have I News for You and then to end with a lrad role in the remake of the Tony Curtis movie,Houdini.
Where is Alistair Campbell?
I thought, he would have popped up by now.
Normally anything like this, and he is up and about.
Keeping his powder dry, as they say.
I am told Alan Johnson, is a minister who once held a proper job.
A Postie.Well my mail to this office is always late.
Bye for now
ADG

09 September 2006 11:29 by Dianne Hosking

# re: A beaten leader

I agree entirely with your comments about the warring factions within the Labour Party, a party I am a member of. Their behavior at this time is absolutely disgraceful. Those who are agitating for Gordon Brown to take over the role of PM are certainly going about it the wrong way. There is no certainty that the job is his. I for one would not vote for him.
The Tory Party are having a field day with this.

09 September 2006 17:17 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

Hello there.
Can any of you Ladies and Gentlemen propose a lady for taking over the leadership and be able to bring another win at the next election?
From where I am sitting I am just not sure.
Maybe the males will drop to one side and reveal a lady wishing to take the title of PM.
Bye for now
ADG
POW

10 September 2006 10:09 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

Hello there,
Whilst feeding the young children, I had the TV on to watch Andrew Marr interviewing Gordon Brown.
As my father says from time to time.
The pair have got more Flannel than a Pussers (Royal Navy) Blanket.
It is hard to believe I watched them.
Hard to convince an 8 year old I would have thought.
From time to time they did look uneasy.
OK gentlemen once more. Scene 2 take 45.
Bye
ADG
Wigmore St
London.

10 September 2006 19:56 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

I have just come back from visiting close friends in Ealing. I hasten to add not Stephen Pound MP amongst them. For me always a disapointment. Many tell me I am wrong.
The years I spent here in Ealing as a young lad. Happy and safe days.
Anyway, by now I would think Gordon, Andrew and the editor of Sunday AM are saying to themselves did we do good?
The latter, as it rolled before the nation must have felt a little faint.
Having watched the Disc three times, I did.
Bye for now
ADG
Wigmore St
London.

10 September 2006 20:27 by Angus Danton Green

# re: A beaten leader

Hello there.
SP I have just heard had a proper job before coming an MP.
A Bus Conductor no less.
Well done. Bet he was a charmer.
Anyone for Covent Garden? Apples and Pears.
I remember the first person to scare me in childhood.
A woman Bus Conductor. I was around 7 at the time. She had Whiskers. I would stare like a crazy cat at her. She would bawl out what are you looking at Fatso? I could not wait for Gunnersbury to come quick enough.
A private school. So no time was wasted.It was all heads down there.
Step out of line, and you would get to know about it, pronto.
Loads of Latin as well.
Sports were done in your own time.
We went with the PM to visit a school last week. I could not relate to it.
So many pupils with dreadful manners.
And the noise. For a moment I thought I was at Fulham FC on match day.
Early start tomorrow. 4.30 AM.
Bye
ADG
Wigmore St
London.

11 September 2006 11:06 by Debbie Hardy

# re: A beaten leader

Good Morning,
Other than the young children and an Aunt the Danton Greens are at Brighton for the Party get together.
Best regards
Debbie
House keeper
Wigmore Street.

11 September 2006 13:17 by Graham Dines

# re: A beaten leader

Hi

Talented women among Blair's famed babes are, I'm afraid, in short supply.
Margaret Beckett was once leader of the Labour Party, albeit for a short while between John Smith and Tony Blair, but 12 years on and I don't really think she's up to the job. Can't really hack being Foreign Secretary.
Nanny Tessa Jowell has the double capability of turning off Middle England and those voters in the inner cities.
Patricia Hewitt is highly talented, but if we don't want Scottish Gordon Brown, how can be support Aussie Patricia?
Which leaves St Pau's School educated Hattie Harman, who used to have a wekend home in Suffolk. (Folk in my office think she's sold up). But as she's married to Labour Party Treasurer Jack Dromey, who blew the whisle on loans for peerages which could yet see Tony Blair interviewed under caution - and knows where that might lead - I doubt if she'll get the job.
How about Yvette Cooper, whose Brownite husband Ed Balls is about to lose his seat under boundary changes . . .
No, there's no-one, leaving the Tories to proudly say they've had the only female leader in UK politics.

12 September 2006 10:43 by Graham Dines

# re: A beaten leader

Perhaps the Danton Greens woiuld like to buy this over worked and under paid hack a pint of Kroneberg in Manchester. And I'm sure they'd be very welcome at the East of England do to "celebrate" TB's time as Labour leader.

12 September 2006 16:56 by Debbie Hardy

# re: A beaten leader

Good Evening,
The Danton Greens wiil be home tomorrow evening.
I told them what you had said last.
They said, they have yet to meet an under paid hack.
Beer is for JP and the new Tories.
Best regards
Debbie
House Keeper
Wigmore St

12 September 2006 19:44 by Marge

# re: A beaten leader

What we want is Tony Benn!!!!

13 September 2006 09:35 by Graham Dines

# re: A beaten leader

The Danton Greens have yet to meet a regional journalist. I certainly can't afford a housekeepr. How much are houses in Wigmore Street? - easily a million plus I reckon, plus the proerty in Walberswick.
Never mind, just think how much inheritance tax will have to paid. Pribably finance the salaries of loads more nurses. Better not leave this mortal earth until Alan Milburn or David Cameron reach Downing Street.

13 September 2006 18:32 by Hadrian Wall

# re: A beaten leader

I have no sympathy with the plight Labour finds itself i. It'll be all smiles in Manchester and then the blod letting will really start.
Time for a fresh start.

17 September 2006 21:46 by Mark Ereira

# re: A beaten leader

Tony has done a very good job at producing sound governance here in the UK. Labour MPs owe their seats to his competency, so I think that when the polls tumble (and they always do to whichever party is in government)abut of humility and - and this is an old-fashioned concept - loyalty would not go amiss. I for one don't to see the Labour party return to a party of the industrial north, Scotland and trade unions; Tony Blair managed to pull us out of that cul de sac. Leave him alone to vacate government as he committed to do at the last election - held some 15 months ago.