Monday, September 15, 2008

Gisela Stuart Attacks Brown

I think it is safe to say that Gisela Stuart will not be on Gordon Brown's Christmas card list, after the tirade she has apparently written in next week's HOUSE MAGAZINE, which will be distributed at the Labour conference. There's a write-up about it in today's BIRMINGHAM POST. She says...

Gisela Stuart (Lab Edgbaston) said Labour under Mr Brown had failed to come up with fresh ideas and had forgotten how to communicate with voters. She criticised Government policies on dealing with terrorism and the European Union, as well as Mr Brown’s decision to invite former CBI chief Digby Jones, who is not a member of the Labour Party, to become a Minister.

Ms Stuart also claimed that a “steady trickle” of Labour MPs was simply giving up and leaving politics for other careers.

...But Ms Stuart, who was a staunch supporter of Tony Blair and is not friendly with current Prime Minister, pointedly warned that the failure to hold a proper leadership election when Mr Brown took the helm last year had robbed the party of the chance to discuss new ideas. She said: “Not only was there no election, the mere suggestion of mounting a challenge was interpreted as a sign of disloyalty. So the deputy leadership campaign became the proxy playing ground for thrashing out ideas.”

When Mr Brown came to power, Labour MPs were humming “Things Can Only Get Better”, the theme song used for the party’s triumphant election campaign in 1997, she said. She added: “Today it’s more likely to mean ‘surely it can’t get much worse’.”

Ms Stuart said: “It became clear that not only had we failed to renew ourselves with fresh ideas – we also seemed to have lost the knack to tell a good story.” She went on to criticise the Prime Minister’s decision to bring in people such as Digby Jones, Lord Jones of Birmingham, who are not Labour members, in what is known as a Government of All The Talents or GOATS.

The MP said: “The performance of the Goats has been patchy . . . Lord Jones, who started by refusing to join the Labour Party and has now publicly stated that he intends to step down as a Minister before the next general election. But we can expect him to keep his life peerage - courtesy of a Labour government.”

“Bringing outsiders into the tent to be inclusive is one thing, but those brought in to divide the opposition have a tendency to be troublesome.”

I think it is safe to assume Ms Stuart has request a nomination paper.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another woman !

Interesting that the fear of Brown's retaliation, and the repercussions for their careers, is ebbing away..

Anonymous said...

We're starting to see individual Labour MPs with slim majorities making a big public deal of disagreeing with the leader in a doomed attempt to save their own ass.

Presumably she's hoping the voters of Edgbaston will think "Well, Gordon's a nose-picking, bogey-eating, graceless freak, but Gisela's OK so I'll vote Labour after all." Fat chance dear!

All they achieve is to make themselves look like ferrets in the proverbial sack, which makes things worse.

Public disintegration: good.

David Anthony said...

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Either Brown hangs on until May 2010 (God that seems a long time away) and gets kicked into touch by the electorate...

The economy won't begin to get better until at least then and no one will vote Brown in if there is even any suggestion that he will be kicked out by his own lot. The country fell for that at the last election and look where that has got us. It won't happen again.

Or... they do kick Brown out and have to go to an immediate election, which they will surely lose anyway.


It all reminds me of the quote from Titanic...

Ismay: But this ship can't sink!

Thomas Andrews: She is made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can, and she will. It is a mathematical certainty.

Newmania said...

Gisela Stewart wrote an article in the Telegraph about the EU ages ago .It was so good I wrote obsequious fan mail to her saying the only thing I cannot understand is why you are not in the Conservative Party . I think she just fell in with the wrong crowd and I would be happy to see her on the side of the Blues . She is a goodly woman.

Anonymous said...

Iain, she is German - but I expect you know this.

Anonymous said...

It feels a bit like how I remember the last days of the miners' strike ...... each day the news reported another handful of miners going back, tiny insignificant numbers that nevertheless accumulated day in day out and kept the story running until eventually the back was broken

Anonymous said...

It's Gordodämmerung now, I feel.

Anonymous said...

"Gordodämmerung". Brilliant! Who's the Fat Lady?

Anonymous said...

Boy, am I fed up with Lab Apparatchicks bemoaning the lack of an election for the leadership of the Lab party.

I know Blair survived on the public having an atttention span rather shorter than my john thomas, but really, you all ushered Brown in with no contest because everyone in the Labour Party was running scared.

Your contribution to the current debate should really be "I can't possibly comment", meaning I cannot comment on current politics because I am an airy fary wimp"

Anonymous said...

Who's the Fat Lady?

Siobhain?

rob's uncle said...

Wikipedia reproduces a fine Gillray cartoon of the original Misitry of the Talents [1806] with htis description which has some resonance today:

‘Charon's Boat - or - the Ghosts of "all the Talents" taking their last voyage, - from the Pope's Gallery at Rome / Js. Gillray, fec.

A group of naked Whig politicians . . crossing the river Styx in a boat named the Broad Bottom Packet. Sidmouth's head emerges from the water next to the boat. The boat's torn sail has inscription "Catholic Emancipation" and the center mast is crowned with the Prince of Wales feathers and motto "Ich Dien".

On the far side the shades of Cromwell, Charles Fox and Robespierre wave to them. Overhead, on brooms, are the Three Fates; to the left a three-headed dog. Above the boat three birds soil the boat and politicians.’

Anonymous said...

Gisela may be many things (including desperate to hold on to her seat), but one thing she isn't is a Tory.

Tapestry said...

Gisela should be on the list of possible next Labour leaders. She is the only one who has been consistent about Brown's leadership being a mistake from day One, and she's held up against the Lisbon Treaty to boot.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said 5:08 PM...

"Another woman !"

Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

For it's own ludicrous reasons the Nulab leadership forced hopelessly inadequate women on constituencies that didn't want the stupid birds. Now, having done immeasurable damage to party and country, the worthless feministas turn on that leadership.

Anonymous said...

Actually Gisela is more than OK and I wouldn't come close to describing her as 'hopelessly inadequate'; for one thing she seems to have her own view on most subjects, which is rare indeed for modern-day politicians. I don't know whether the fact she's not British has anything to do with it, but it may.

Anyway, the full article for anyone who's interested is here. It's rather fun as she takes side-swipes at a whole raft of Labour members. I did enjoy the passage about Parliament's waving-through of the Lisbon treaty... though I must say I don't understand her problem with 'trial without detention' !

Anonymous said...

troymolloy said...

"Actually Gisela is more than OK and I wouldn't come close to describing her as 'hopelessly inadequate'"

Most of them are. She may be less bad than most, big deal.