This
A towering political figure from his early thirties (from his mid-twenties in Scotland) until he became Prime Minister, and again now. It is very odd.
A towering political figure from his early thirties (from his mid-twenties in Scotland) until he became Prime Minister, and again now. It is very odd.
The Scots can hardly say they didn't have their share of influence over British politics- they gave us Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps they'd rather forget that.
Brown is more than memorable today.
DeleteHaving never been a fan of Gordon Brown before I thought that this was a bravura performance of belief. passion, and conviction that impressed me greatly. In contrast, Ed Miliband sounds - and looks - like a man who is completely out of his depth, and not only over the referendum. David Cameron looks more panic-stricken with every passing day, and Clegg is like the invisible man.
ReplyDeleteCome back Gordon (did I really say that?).
After this, they are going to find something for him to do.
DeleteAs a UKIP supporter, today is the the first time I've ever agreed with Nick Clegg. He said that we have to end the injustice Labour created of Scottish MP's voting on matters that affect only the English.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. It's a complete disgrace that was introduced as part of Labour's bid to smash up the Constitution so as to increase its own power, and in this case allow it to ram through laws that were unpopular in England.
The "West Lothian question" should have been resolved years ago.
The grievance of England, especially Northern and Western England, is cold, hard cash. The only people who care about the West Lothian Question are weird, anyway. Making them very easy to dismiss.
DeleteThe grievance of the English is with the democratic outrage that Labour can use its army of Scottish MP's to railroad through any unpopular laws it likes because they can vote on matters which don't affect their constituents. It's one of the many ways New Labour wrecked British democracy to increase their own power ( their devastation of the Lords and weakening of Parliament being among others ).
ReplyDeleteYou're both embarassingly ignorant and shamelessly unpatriotic if you don't think that a constitutional and democratic outrage.
This outrage does not exist among normal people. John Redwood, Peter Bone and Christopher Chope have never been noted as the voices of those.
DeleteAnd of course you are just wrong about the parliamentary arithmetic. The only ever Labour Government where there would have been a Tory one (with a majority of one) without Scotland was in 1964, 50 years ago.
The Barnett Formula, on the other hand...
But expect the Labour critics of that to be as ignored as the Labour opponents of Maastricht were. And for the same reason: they are just not the made-for-television figures of fun that the Tory Right are.
"Normal" people? Like the ones who dismissed the warnings of Peter Hitchens and the rest back in 1997 as the ravings of the fringe Right and chirpily went and voted New Labour. (Which is most of the media and alot of the country including you). How did that work out for them?
ReplyDeleteWho'd want to be with that flock of idiots? The ones dismissed as "loony" back then turned out to be prophets.
Everyone's a critic of Blair now.
Particularly the flock of idiots who voted him in.
John Redwood Peter Hitchens and Simon Heffer were critics of New Labour back when it mattered. And they have print proof to show they were right.
In the words of Peter Hitchens, the worst thing about an English Parliament is that it might actually happen.
DeleteHe and Simon Heffer certainly did not want the Government in place on the day of the 1997 Election to win. There was only one way of getting rid of it, as they pretty much said many times. You weren't there.
We've heard enough bleating from the flock of idiots who voted Blair into power in 1997, thanks.
ReplyDeleteJohn Redwood Peter Hitchens and a select few others can quote their writings from the time to show they were right when everyone else was wrong.
Redwood's The Death Of Britain? (about the constitutional reform package in New Labours manifesto) is just pure brilliant prophecy, dismissed at the time as lunacy.
If they were arrogant men they'd boast about this rather more than they do...
Hitchens and Heffer very vocally wanted Major to lose, and I don't think that Redwood wept on that morning, either.
DeleteOh, they certainly hated Major. But the difference is they also warned what New Labour would be like (the Mail recalls this week how Hitchens was shut out of the Labour conference in 1997 and ordered to sit down by Tony Blair for his persistent attacks on him from the floor). They were right about New Labour from the start. As they can demonstrate in print.
ReplyDeleteYoutube has a recording of Hitch and Redwood on BBC Any Questions (in the heady days of 1996) warning that New Labour planned to wreck the British constitution, introduce the rest of Maastricht e.g the Social Chapter, weaken Parliament, end centuries of common law with Human Rights and weaken the United Kingdom to increase their power.
They were right all along. And the flock of "normal" people who celebrated when New Labour were elected are the same people who now pretend to hate Blair.
They were right about New Labour from the start.
DeleteWho wasn't? You obviously never attended a Labour Party meeting in those days.
You are ought of your depth on this one. Some of us do not need to go trawling YouTube for any of this.