Liberal Burblings

Archive for July, 2008

On Saturday I mused that there was no obvious challenger to Brown who was “hard enough” to take him on.

Well crikey oh riley, knock me down with a feather and consider my gast well and truly flabbered.

Five days is a long time in politics. During that time, Miliband has grown the gonads, no doubt from a petri dish culture, which he hitherto lacked. Bambi has bounced onto the scene. Step forward Blair mark two. A man who has the testosterone to challenge Brown and the skill to articulate a vision – indeed, simply someone able to lead – a skill Brown demonstrably lacks in spades….no, make that shovels.

I formally decorate David Miliband with the Liberal Burblings “Gonads of the week” award.

All this might be Silly Season fizz, of course. But I have just gone through the recent political blogs and there are some fairly stunning news snippets floating around (of course, their veracity may be limited, if non-existent):

-Miliband has cancelled a major tour of India in September and held a little conflab with close Foreign Office officials which had the tenor of a ‘goodbye talk’. This has led to speculation that is planning to resign to mount a challenge to Brown.

-In today’s Jeremy Vine show, Miliband made some platidunous noises to support Brown. But he was then drowned in laudatory calls and emails from the public saying he should “go for it” and that Brown was a shower. Miliband, rather than repeating his support for Brown, said things like “How very kind”….”You really shouldn’t”….”Did my mother pay you to say that?” He, he, he. Blushes all round.

-There has been a deafening silence from anyone supporting Brown in the wake of Miliband’s foray into all-but challenging the not-so-Great Gordo.

All this leads me to a point of almost uncontrollable and hysterical excitement. I must calm down a bit. I would have thought that it is fairly probable that Brown will get challenged by Miliband and I cannot see Brown winning, unless the Labour party have collectively lost the plot.

This, I would have thought, will change the landscape of British politics.

Now, where is that darkened room? I need a lie-down.

An unnamed ally of the Prime Minister has described the Foreign Secretary as having a “surprising lack of judgement and maturity”. This has left lobby hacks struggling unsuccessfully to recall precedents for similar public backstabbings at such a senior level.

All this nonsense cannot go on. Something’s got to give sooner or later in Labour land.

To misquote Star Trek’s Scotty: “She canna take anymore Cap’n, she’s gonna blow!”

Cameron blunder on children drinking safely ran the headline for a Melissa Kite-flying exercise in the Telegraph. I would normally pounce, vulture-like, on such a juicy morsel. Much as it grieves me, I have to duly declare that I agree with the Camshaft on this occasion.

Accustomising youngsters to thimblefuls of weak alcohol in a responsible, adult setting can help to foster a mature approach to alcohol in later life. Then again, if it’s decreed in someone’s DNA that they’re going to head for the bottle/gutter, then it could just grease the slippery slope for them (or at least be blamed for their subsequent demise – something’s got to be blamed, hasn’t it?). There are no absolutes in life are there?

What is it about Melissa Kite anyway? Is she on official Telegraph silly season patrol? Employed to make the season even sillier? Yesterday she wrote an article about Brown’s jacket which I thought was a spoof until I realised she was deadly serious. The spirit of Polly Filla lives on.

It is great to hear from Nick Clegg that he is upping the ante on Labour target seats by giving the LibDems extra hard cash to fight them. Labour are really vulnerable and this is an historic chance for us:

This is a huge opportunity for us. We’ve got to seize it. So I’m shifting our resources to put more campaigners and moreeffort into those seats where we’re taking on Labour. I’ve instructedour campaigns chief Chris Rennard to step up our campaigns in the 50seats where we’re best placed to beat Labour. We’ll be launching aspecial fundraising drive for those constituencies in the autumn, and I hope you’ll help.

See Nick’s message on YouTube below or here:

It is great to hear from Nick Clegg that he is upping the ante on Labour target seats by giving the LibDems extra hard cash to fight them. Labour are really vulnerable and this is an historic chance for us:

This is a huge opportunity for us. We’ve got to seize it. So I’m shifting our resources to put more campaigners and moreeffort into those seats where we’re taking on Labour. I’ve instructedour campaigns chief Chris Rennard to step up our campaigns in the 50seats where we’re best placed to beat Labour. We’ll be launching aspecial fundraising drive for those constituencies in the autumn, and I hope you’ll help.

See Nick’s message on YouTube below or here: