Sunday, September 14, 2008

Hutton: Government is "Drifting"

I have just been watching John Hutton's interview with Andrew Marr. He got a pretty easy ride considering the circumstances, but he did agree the government was suffering from "drift". Unfortunately Marr didn't follow up this interesting admission.

At the end of the interview he was asked twice if it was likely that Brown would lead Labour into the next election. He avoided the question by saying that Brown "can" do so, rather than say he will do so.

Otherwise he stayed on the tightrope. Hutton is a key figure in this. If he decided that time was up and jumped, things would really get interesting.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

An interesting aside - rumour has it that Hutton's Conservative shadow secretary of state for business (BERR) - Alan Duncan - is to be dumped by Cameron - apparently business leaders think him in effective.

Hutton is driving an excellent department - which business leaders recognise as such.

Also interesting that Clegg was interviewed on Marr this morning - he has significantly shifted the lib dems to the right - and will be fighting tories hard for those lib dem seats in tory areas.

Anonymous said...

Andrew Marr never asks difficult questions unless he is interviewing a member of the Conservative party.

Another trick is to constantly interrupt a conservative politician.He never does that with Labour.We all know why.

Anonymous said...

Easy ride for a Labour politician being interviewed by Marr?
What next Iain? Are you going to tell us that yesterday the sun set in the West?
What did you expect from the State Broadcaster?

Anonymous said...

Not surprising that Marr gave Hutton an easy ride - he never does anything else with Labour cabinet ministers in whom he seems to be in awe!

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with ken from glos. Marr hardly ever invites Tories.

Anonymous said...

What did you expect from Marr ? At a meeting of BBC editors last week in London, Peter Knowles Head of BBC Parliamentary Services is alleged to have told those present not to give Labour a hard time as they are doing so badly in the polls. Subsequently, of course, once this was made public Mr Knowles spokesperson issued a statement saying that his comments had been "mis-interpreted" and that the BBC is careful to be "impartial" but then they would say that wouldn't they - once they've been rumbled ?

The BBC is renowned for being biased towards Labour either by distoring reports in their favour;selective editing or even not even reporting certain items unless they are forced to do so by other media organisations reporting them
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055608/Fury-BBC-boss-tells-staff-lay-Labour.html

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it Hutton that said "Gordon would make an effing awful Prime Minister"

As for the easy ride, Marr always does when it's a Labour MP this becomes more obvious over EU issues

Anonymous said...

An easy ride indeed. No questions about Gordon Brown's inaccurate claims about help with energy efficiency. No questions about the government's failure to include in the ATOL protection scheme people who book flights only. And no request to clarify whether or not John Hutton did claim that GB would make a disastrous prime minister. It looks like Andrew Marr has been listening to Peter Knowles allegedly instructing BBC staff to "go easy" on the Labour government.

Anonymous said...

Clegg is committing funds to fight Labour where he sees the Tories as weak, but talking tory to shore up the seats where he faces a strong tory challenge.

Unfortunately, he is missing one very important point. The Lib-Dems are no longer going to benefit from tactical voting against the tories by Labour supporters in these seats.

Those core supporters, from loyalty in adversity, will vote Labour so they can say they did not desert the party in its time of need. The floaters now desperately want Labour out so they will switch straight to the tories as they have done in London, Crewe, Henley etc etc.

Clegg will be known as "not more than 30" for more than one reason after the next election.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Hutton will jump ship? He always struck me as one of the decent ones amongst New Labour's motley crew.

Catosays said...

Clegg is saying that he'll give 'power back to the people'. This is the same person who sat on his hands over the Lisbon Treaty.

Anonymous said...

He is probably thinking something along the lines of...

"Flipping heck, Gordon, can't you take a hint..."

Man in a Shed said...

Labour minister - easy ride - The Marr show ?

Surely not ...

Anonymous said...

The best solution to all this is ridicule. This Government has lost all credibility but is clinging to power by the force of Brown's stubborn unwillingness to see that it's over.

The only way to deal with this is to make them see that they look so rediculous that they can no longer hold up their heads. That means taking every opportunity to expose and make fun of them for their shambolic policies, petty infights to their total ineffectivess in basic hosuekeeping, like keeping data safe.

Only when the Cabinet fully realise that they look like fools with they develop enough backbone to dump Brown and call an election.

Anonymous said...

John Hutton just seems too normal and competent to be a minister in this Cabinet of misfits. I cannot imagine how he can bear to be around them. Cameron should hire him and keep him in place. As a business owner, I like and repsect him. And of course he was spot on about Gordon - pity he didn't do something about it at the time.

Anonymous said...

Indeed John Moss,

Clegg could well be part of the exodus as he represents one of the most prosperous seats outside of London.

Many of the more left wing LD MP's are in rebellion against Clegg's warped and twisted Seat Targets and Policy announcements. It does not make sense, particularly when Clegg has just been seen as more leftwing than Brown, he says I am not Tory then makes a load of unrealistic uncosted policy announcements.

The people want a government after the next election, not a hung parliament with a self indulgent freakshow holding the balance of power.

The LD's could well suffer on election night and the use of a Yellow Taxi to symbolise the parliamentry presence is a scenerio i look forward too!

Nick Clegg is the rich & privetly educated man's Neil Kinnock!

Anonymous said...

Pinko Marr giving giving a Labour stooge an easy ride?

Hard to believe after the grilling he gave Brown innit?

Anonymous said...

Labour drifting.

They have hit the iceberg and are drifting gently to the sea bed. Dragging us all down with them.

There was a time when I wanted Brown to stay to help the Tories win the next election. Now I think that for the sake of the country he should go now.

scott redding said...

Andrew Marr was handed an open goal.

Hutton: "We do need to set out a stronger vision of what we're doing, what we've all been trying to do."
Marr: "Whose fault is it that you haven't done that yet?"

And then Marr never insisted on Hutton answering the question.

Anonymous said...

Hutton?
How can anyone with an atom of honour or pride or decency or shame state to Nick Robinson : "Gordon Brown would make a f****** disastrous Prime Minister and you can quote me on that" and then go on to accept a job from him, admittedly a very well-paid ministerial job, a ministerial limo, a ministerial red box, a ministerial pension, plus all the fiddles?
On reflection I seem to have answered my own question.

Anonymous said...

I attended a course given by John Hutton when he was a lecturer and found his professional approach faultless. He was unfailingly polite and helpful, even when giving the same seminar for the umpteenth time, and always immaculately turned out.

It goes without saying that the Labour front bench is a defiantly untalented shower of former lecturers, policy wonks and student union leaders but his handling of his portfolio, particularly his unflinching and clear-minded engagement with the forthcoming power generation crisis, suggests that John Hutton might be above the common run.

I don't profess to be a political pundit but would not be surprised if he is one of the tiny handful that will survive the coming bonfire of the New Labour project with his reputation for competence relatively unscathed. I hope he does.