Mirror, Mirror. Gordon Brown loses more newspapers’ support < Beau Bo D'Or

via bbdo.co.uk

Political train wreck coming up.

Posted via web from poobumwee's posterous

Idiots Guide to the UK Election - Private Eye

via private-eye.co.uk

Ha Ha
Now you have all the facts, you can vote. Where is Nick Clegg?

Posted via web from poobumwee's posterous

HMS Browntanic heads south and gets ready to dive

via guardian.co.uk

How much humiliation can one man take?

Posted via web from poobumwee's posterous

Pre Labour Conference Meetup - Exclusive Shots

Gordon and the Cabinet plan the Second Coming of NuLabour.

Unlikely Events. An Occassional Series

BwaHaHaHa

I wonder if they bought him a return ticket. Have a nice holiday and don't hurry back.

In other sporting and soldiering related comments, Chicken Yogurt points out that he has that one right.

Perhaps he will be invited back. 

McObama Claims Victory in Glasgow East?

From the Front Page of the Glasgow Herald. (You can click on the picture to get a larger version).

Seems that the SNP candidate for Glasgow East has morphed. Is he Haggis McObama or Porridge McSarkozy? I wonder how well Bonjour Messieurs et Mesdames (pardon the French) or Totally Awesome Dude will go down in Shettleston from their elected member. The latter would likely end up with grevious bodily harm being chibbed on the guilty party.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown has been awarded the following trophy by his colleagues for services to the Scottish National Party and David Cameron's electoral ambitions.

Mr Brown meanwhile is banking on an encouraging population trend to keep him in power. Long term youth strategy I think.

What is all the more amazing is that all those young families must have been listening to Jack McConnell.

Madame Tussauds votes on El Gordo

I wonder which one will have more life?

Update: Ginro gives the not very surprising result.

All he has to do is dream the impossible dream and fight the improbable fight and win and election and they will have to put him in.

HMS Iron Lady to Hang At Ten Downing St.

From Broons Petition Site

18 October 2007

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to honour the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, by naming a ship in Her Majesty's Royal Navy "HMS Iron Lady".

Details of petition:

"As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher protected the interests of the UK on the world stage. She ensured that the Falklands were defended when invaded by a foreign power. During the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy fought valiantly and were distinguished by their actions. The Baroness's determination to stand up to Communism, in particular by maintaining our Armed Forces and nuclear capability, contributed greatly to the fall of Communism, and the liberation of millions. The US have honoured Sir Winston Churchill, who stood up against the tyranny of fascism, through naming one of its vessels "USS Winston Churchill"; we should accord a similar honour to a woman who struggled against the tyranny of dictatorship. The Royal Navy is currently commissioning Type 45 Destroyers. One such ship could be named "HMS Iron Lady" in reference to Baroness Thatcher, echoing the designation of the vessel "HMS Iron Duke", named in honour of the Duke of Wellington, who also stood firm against a tyrant."

And the Response

Recommendations for the names of new ships are made by the Ships Names and Badges Committee, whose selections are passed through the First Sea Lord and Ministers before final approval by Her Majesty the Queen. I have ensured that the Chairman of this Committee is aware of the views of you and your fellow petitioners so that the name IRON LADY may be considered when a suitable vessel comes to be named in future.

The last politician to be recognised by having a vessel named after them was Sir Winston Churchill, after whom the nuclear submarine HMS CHURCHILL was named in 1968, three years after Sir Winston's death. In addition to the Duke of Wellington, after whom HMS IRON DUKE was named, the only other record of a vessel being named after a former Prime Minister is HMS WALPOLE, a W Class destroyer launched in 1918, some 180 years after the death of Sir Robert Walpole.

You may be aware that Baroness Thatcher recently visited No10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister. He asked her, and she has graciously agreed, to sit for a portrait which will hang in Downing Street on a permanent basis. The only other 20th century Prime Ministers whose portraits currently hang in Downing Street are David Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill.

Having supported the petition I laughed reading the last part. I wonder if Broon likes to play with boats in the bath. I wonder if the Iron Lady will hang in the Rogues Gallery or in the toilet next to Tony. Will Tony be offered a photoshoot? Does Gordon Brown have the hots for Maggie? I can imagine Gordon wanting to hang Tony, but more likely from Tower Bridge. Also on the question of ships, what would be an appropriate ship? Imagine the potential insult if the latest tug is commissioned as HMS Iron Lady.

These questions, issues and less to be answered shortly.

Union Flag Spins in the Wind to Promote Britishness

Turns out Gordon Brown's decision to allow the Union Flag to be flown more than 18 days a year was a furphy. There are no restrictions on when the flag can be flown, only that it must be flown on those 18 days at Government Buildings.

Interesting take on the issue. I think that it defuses three of El McGordo's big issues. It draws attention to the essence of Britishness from the perceived threat of the undermining of British values by immigrants and the underlying increasingly not so taboo perceived threat of the islamisation of British society. It also defuses the nationalist issue, promoting the unity of the state. The other issue that it addresses is the identification of the Union Flag with the racist BNP.

One of the people who influenced his thinking said that

factors such as Protestantism, the fear of French power and the prospects afforded by the rising empire forged the new identity. She emphasises that, although Britain was at that time an aristocratic society, this new Britishness had real meaning for most citizens. Even poor people felt that they had "ownership", as the jargon now puts it, of our laws, our dominant religion, our Parliament and our Armed Forces.

She does not argue that this was automatically a good thing - the Britishness she describes was often aggressive, violent, greedy and opportunistic - but, politically, it worked.

This interests Mr Brown because he likes the idea of something that reaches almost everyone. He is not opposed to the forces of globalisation in the modern world, because he sees the opportunities that they bring. But he worries about the void they can leave when they sweep through a society - the alienation, the sense of being lost.

Nor will he want to argue that biffing the French is the answer - although this traditional sport is, in fact, highly relevant in all our dealings with the European Union.

Above all, he believes he cannot invoke the empire. Indeed, he tells me that the main challenge of modern Britishness is to put behind us all that mixture of pride and shame about our imperial past, and change the subject.

What does that leave? The Prime Minister dwells on what, even with his increasingly anglicised vowels, he still calls "vaalues". These include liberty, tolerance and fairness. We need to see these not just as abstract goods, he thinks, but as part of what it is to be citizens of this country. The many races that live in Britain today will not all have Britishness in their blood, but a good government can make sure that it is in their mental DNA. Mr Brown thinks these values could all be written down and enforced in a Bill of Rights.

Values don't hover above the British Isles like this summer's rainclouds. They arise out of the choices made about who runs things and how they are run. You find them in a Church, or an army, or a police force, or a profession, or a legislature, or a school, or a family. In other words, you find them in institutions. And it is free institutions that modern politicians are so bad at understanding.

Living in America and Australia, the flag is flown regularly. Our kids school has a flag pole and the Australian Flag is raised every day. The flag of course incorporates the Union Flag. Hannah's class has that job and she does that regularly with her mates. It is good that people have a positive identification with a national flag and it does not have to have the quasi facist negative connotations with racism that the Union Flag is sometimes identified.

Thanks to Jeremy who advised me that it is the Union Flag and it is only the Union Jack when it is on a ship. I have corrected that. I never knew that. I still think that the Union Jack sounds a bit more jaunty. And thanks Spine for the jaunty Union Flag pants. How many days a year are we allowed to fly those?

It's a Hello from Him and a Goodbye, Goodnight, Adios, Get Lost, Be Gone from Him

Viva McGordo. The Scottish Political Occupation Continues.

Up yer kilt Tony McBliar. Awa and feed the coos.

And if you think Gordo is lucky, think about his neighbours.

From Shades of Grey

By the way, it may be Gordon Brown's dream home, but Downing Street is in a seedier area than folk imagine. In a council house just over the back fence lives an extended family run by a grumpy old woman who keeps a pack of fierce dogs. Her husband makes racist comments and a local shopkeeper says he murdered his son's girlfriend – but the police do nothing. Most of their kids have broken marriages, and their grandchildren are always out clubbing. They all live off the state, and every day the papers are full of their excesses. Who'd want to live near Buckingham Palace?