Musings on the Labour Conference
Pants on fire etc
Presumably Cherie Blair's habit of saying crass things out of lines comes from her parents. When asked by Newsnight, Mr and Mrs Booth said that she wasn't Gordon Brown's biggest fan. Who nees enemies with friends like these? Or is it stretching it a little to describe Gordon Brown and Cherie Blair as friends? Good to see that number 10 did at least deny the story - only a mere seven hours after it was first reported by Bloomberg. And Peter Hain says we should take that denial at face value. So that's alright then.
Arctic Monkey Watch
In his speech, Gordon Brown mentioned the Arctic Monkeys again:
It will not be a surprise to you to learn I'm more interested in the future of the Arctic circle than the future of the Arctic Monkeys.
Can any politician make a speech without referring to the Arctic Monkeys? Brown's been at it almost since day one. Ming Campbell has also mentioned them - but in typical Ming style he got it wrong, saying the Arctic Monkeys had outsold the Beatles already. As far as I know, David Cameron hasn't mentioned the Arctic Monkeys; but putting "David Cameron Arctic Monkeys" into Google gives you 250, 000 hits. Watch this space...
Is it cos I is Scottish?
In a polling session conducted by Frank Luntz for Newsnight, rumblings were made about Gordon Brown's unsuitability to become Prime Minister because he is Scottish. About four or five people out of the thirty people in the session had concerns - because of the too-large influence (as they see it) Scotland has on the politics of England. My usual reaction would be "Who gissa crap?"
But from Frank's little session, the overwhelming choice for the group to be next Prime Minister was John Reid. And guess which nationality he is...! It seemed strange that Mr Luntz didn't push the group more on this issue, but there have been problems with the reliability of his findings before. So it's probably more a problem with Gordon Brown personally, rather than an outburst of petty nationalism.
For general interest, when asked who they wanted to be PM from the six people Frank Luntz picked, the results were:
Gordon Brown - 3
Alan Johnson - 0
John McDonnell - 3
Alan Milburn - 0
David Miliband - 6 (breathe Adam!)
John Reid - 18 (!)
Well, well, well...
Cory
