Filed under: Brown
Word of Gordon’s accession as Prime Minister has not been warmly received by everyone in the Gulf. I refer to a letter in today’s ‘Gulf News’ from one ex-pat who comes from Gordon’s homeland of Scotland.
‘Gordon Brown will do what all Labour governments have always done; increase tax for those that work and hard it over en masse to those that keep them in government. Such as Labour voters who enjoy living of the state because they are too idle to work. This is exactly why people like me have spent so much time working in countries like the UAE – here the money you earn belongs to you!’
Well someone had to say it………!
I have just come in from the blistering Gulf heat to catch a glimpse of Blair’s final PMQ’s. But before I could watch the final farewell, I had to endure what I can only describe as the over the top and somewhat ‘gushing’ coverage on Sky News’ of Blair’s departure. Clearly the British media has lost all sense of perspective over the Blair/Brown handover. I appreciate that we would expect to see an increase in media coverage of the back of a change in leader, but please! This type of coverage is down right excessive. With such back to back coverage, is it any wonder that Brown is allegedly considering an early election….
Filed under: Brown
My friends and family are all acutely aware of my strong views on matters of law and order, so readers won’t be surprised to read that I am outraged by the Ministry of Justice’s moves to set free early thousands of criminals from jail because of the prison overcrowding crisis. Increasingly, judging by these ridiculous policy decisions, this department acts more and more like the Ministry of Injustice. Like many other members of the public, having been a crime statistic myself (for the record that is a victim of crime) it is incredible that the government of the day has chosen to put public safety at risk rather than address the fundamental need to build more prisons. Clearly the government no longer cares about protecting the law-abiding majority. Off course, the real culprit behind this problem is the PM elect for causing the crisis by refusing to fund adequate prison capacity. Having taxed us to the hilt and used public money to keep offenders in court and police cells, the time has come to ask of Brown – ‘just exactly whose side are you on’?
Filed under: Brown
Last night I had a delightful evening consisting of great company, thoughtful conversation and political discussion at a rather special candidates fundraising event. Topics of conversation were well and truly focussed on getting a Conservative government elected, but also on the potential challenge we could face by the so called ‘fresh faced’ Gordon Brown. Now I struggle to find anything positive to say about Brown, but nonetheless there is a great deal of speculation about what Brown may do. There’s so much speculation that I get the impression that everyone expects some kind of dramatic gesture when he takes office, perhaps his own clause four moment: Blair had that moment, apparently Cameron’s had one over Grammar school’s so I guess peer pressure dictates that Gordon must have one too. The speculation seems to be around possible troop withdrawal from Iraq, or a shift in Anglo-American relations which would be interesting to watch during the run up to the U.S Presidential election. However, for a man who one week ago called for a new kind of politics, it is interesting to see that he may already have a Blair type problem on his hand – one of expectation management.
