Bugsy Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Daily Mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 It's a Blunkett idea, so any imbecilic rubbish is possible. The man is a total fool and a menace. Followed rapidly by Charles Clarke.You all have goes at Blair, but he's a political genius compared to clowns like those.Do you know that Blunkett used to write to teachers, and sign the letters? Who told him that was a good idea? At the DfES he had braille direction plaques put on the walls. But how would blind people know they were there? And so on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oglefakes Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Keep in mind that it's in the Daily Mail, so it's probably wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted April 2, 2007 Author Share Posted April 2, 2007 It's not just the Mail OF it was featured on the news yesterday. It's one of the most stupid things I've ever heard of.As regards Blunkett, well that man is a total p**t.I've long held a wish, when he had a job, that I'd be on security at a place he was visiting. I'd have to dress him up in protective clothing and lead him around to meet people. Only thing is I'd put him in a 'chicken suit'............................. .................please note, before anyone starts, I'm not being dis-respectful to blind people, just that fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I agree with The Sage From Carshalton in that Tony Blair is certainly the only class act on the Labour benches. The scarcity of talent amongst his cabinet colleagues - look at Beckett, Prescott, Hewitt, Straw, Byers, Blunket et al - explains why ten years of Blair in office has achieved so little. The other reason being that ‘the clunking fist’ has vetoed any genuine reform.The area where Blair was enjoying greatest success was in foreign policy such as the US-lead Afganistan campaign against the Taliban and the bombing of Serbia that lead to the freedom in Kosovo. Sadly this led to the hubristic invasion of Iraq. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 You missed out the worst of all - Kelly.How do you rate Miliband? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 What exactly has Miliband done other than not be Brown? But what track record had Tony Blair before he was elected leader?He is being promoted as the Anybody-but-Brown leadership candidate. My guess is that he knows that Brown destroys anybody who is a threat to his ambitions, so he is waiting to suceed Brown after it all goes wrong.Miliband has certainly been adept at stoping Cameron claiming the environment as exclusivly Conservative ground. The press say that Cameron would prefer to be contrasted with Brown rather than face Miliband at the election. Sorry that I had forgotten Kelly, but I was happy at having managed to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 [quote user="Bugbear"]Daily Mail[/quote]As usual with the right wing British press a misleading headline and not at all the whole story.I wonder if it would have been such a good headline if it had read, "Criminals, Scumbags, vandals and piss heads " (those people the Mail loves and embraces into its readership), to pay a surcharge on fines" The real story is just that anyone convicted of crimes and made to pay a fine will now be surcharged £15 to finance domestic violence counsellors to help bring alleged cases of abuse to court. Not such a great story anti Home Office story now is it? Oh and of course Mail readers never batter their wives do they[Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I think Miliband is a clever politician and a serious operator - with his background you'd expect it.He also tells a wonderful (true) Mandelson story.David takes Mandy home for supper on a Friday in his constituency (South Shields). In order to maintain contact with his working class roots (where's the irony emoticon?) David goes out for fish and chips.In the chippie David asks Mandy if he sees anything he'd like. Mandy looks around and sees some mushy peas.He isn't very hungry, he says, but he could probably manage some of the avocado mousse...I once made a joke to Ruth Kelly. If you ever get the chance to do the same, save the effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I only hope that last Saturday's Dr Who episode where a NHS hospital is relocated to the moon does not give Patricia Hewitt any ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Ron - I think that the upset is that motorists are the only people who reliably pay their fines. Becides a judge sending a murderer down is not going to do much for the majesty of the law by adding "and you gotta pay £15." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 So, in effect, this is a £15 charge if you want to exercise your right to a court hearing? As I understand it, if you are 'done' for a motoring offecnce and just say 'it's a fair cop guv' you get the fine and points. If you dispute any aspect and want to argue in court (and still found guilty) it will cost you an extra 15 quid for the privilege. So, is this just in place to put people off going to court so the courts can rattle through more cases (target setting?)? Because I can't see how on earth this will be administered and accounted for and leave anything left for 'victims of domestic violence' or whoever it's supposed to go to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasD Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I want to think along the lines of DS, and others, I had so muh hope invested in Blair. But if he is so politically astute how is it he has filled the cabinet with such loosers. Kelly is surely the worst of the lot - what that woman and her two predecessors did to the education system, under the guidance of Blair, in the UK is nothing short of criminal. Hearing Milliband on R4s 'Any Questions' this last week he is more of the same I fear. [As an aside, and I hope I dont get zapped for going off thread, I have heard so many versions of the avocado mousse story I am sure it is an urban political myth.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 It's as a direct result of Red Dawn Primarillo that I am now a migrant worker in Luxembourg - at least my talants are appreciated here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 It is too delicious to be true, isn't it?[:)]For me the biggest difficulty has been a similar effect to that of Thatcher's wets and dries - talented outsiders were 'off-message' and were sidelined. Then there were blows - the death of John Smith and later that of Robin Cook. The devolution agenda robbed the national parliament of some talented people (Dewar) who then died.For me the ultimate betrayal has been the intrusion of religion into the secular state - the only reason I can think of for promoting Kelly - and where that has led us. TB is a messianic visionary in both senses, as is GWB of course, and look where that has got us.I do think that at the beginning TB had a genuine political vision. It was about healing the split in the Liberals from 1918, and restoring Britain to liberalism if not Liberal governments. Given half a chance he would have merged with the liberals, I believe, to create a centre-left bloc that could have been in power for years - a genuinely progressive liberal social democrat government. That was one of the main reasons for breaking Old Labour, to go back to the Labour Representation Committe of the Liberal Party, but now in charge. Paddy wouldn't have it - don't know why, possibly because he wasn't a great political thinker, and most of the Labour Party never got the message. But it's too late now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasD Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 [quote user="Dick Smith"]But it's too late now...[/quote]Sadly, never truer words said [:(] [:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 [quote user="ThomasD"][quote user="Dick Smith"]But it's too late now...[/quote]Sadly, never truer words said [:(] [:(] [/quote]Would you have gone for that idea?I think I would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 hmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Dick, I agree with thesis that Blair would have liked to have merged with the Liberals, however the size of his first majority meant that he did not need them and so the idea died. Paradoxically the size of his majority was in no means due to a lib-lab pact amongst the voters.My daughter's school in Putney organised a debate, my daughter was due to speak, she asked me if I would help. So I took her to the various local party headquarters in Putney - which we found very interesting. She asked the Labour candidate (soon to be MP) what his policies were on education - he replied to the effect that he was going to be sent the official line the next Tuesday (I an not making this up). The Liberal candidate basicly said that he was urging his supporters to vote Labour. We met a retiring Conservative MP (who had previously been involved in a three-in-a-bed scandal) who wittered on about the election being all about 'choice' - a rather abstract idea to try on a 14 year old. The nice old ladies at the Referendum party were very jolly and handed out purple baloons. It is a sobering thought for me that the son of the referendum party founder is the prospective Conservative candidate in the constituency of Richmond where I live. Still better him (or almost anyone) than Jenny Tonge.David Mellor, the soon to be defeated MP, came to my daughter's school and alienated them en-mass by patronising them: "Well, we are sort of like Mole and Ratty and the other parties are sort of like the Wild wooders".I too had a good opinion of Robin Cook but he was given the wrong job. He would have been a great Home Secretary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oglefakes Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I can't believe that people don't like Gordon Brown! After all the man oozes pure, um, ooze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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