What if…?
There are rumours floating around that a senior minister is considering resigning. I’m on a few political mailing lists and have heard this from different sources. Tony Blair, despite the current storm he is in now, has not been dealt the killer blow. In other words the storm could still pass if he rides it out.
On the other hand if a senior ally was to resign, let’s say like Jack Straw, then events could go over the cliff. Would it make sense of Straw to resign or openly ask for Tony Blair’s? I believe it does.
1) Despite his unswerving loyalty for years, Straw was unceremoniously dumped by Blair after Condoleezza Rice’s visit. He will be smarting over that.
2) Dealing the killer blow to Blair would be good move for his own re-election chances, not just because he runs a constituency with a large Muslim population.
3) There is a prisoner’s dilemma here - no senior minister wants to make the first move in fear of looking disloyal. But given Blair has already stabbed him in the back and there isn’t much to lose, it makes sense for Jack Straw to go first.
Is he our fall-guy? I can’t speculate on that with confidence since I don’t have access to political corridors like Iain Dale or Guido. But I think there is more to this than meets the eye.
Update: While Newsnight and commenters over at Iain’s seem to think the same, Nosemonkey wonders if David Miliband is the one sticking the boot in.
Oh, and Tom Watson has put the resignation letter and Tony Blair’s reply on his blog.
Iain Dale seems to think so.
Jack Straw will stand for the leadership I reckon. I doubt he will want to be the one with the blood on his hands.
After all, even if Blair was to resign now, the mechanics and procedures of the Labour Party would not allow a new leader to be elected for a few months. By that time, it would only be another few months until Blair would be leaving anyway. Why risk a bloodbath, the divisions (have the Tories recovered from the Thatcher coup yet?), the electoral punishment for a divided party, and Jack Straw’s own chances, just to get him now?
As it stands it’s a bloodbath already, it’s unprecedented. I can’t recall this kind of a rebellion against a labour leader with this sense of urgency and knives-out approach behind it.
choice cuts: Blair publicly saying he was gonna fire Tom Watson 2 mins after Tom pre-emptied with his resignation…really Tony? were you really? he had almost 2 days to do that, what was stopping him? could it be that he is so utterly weak and useless in his position right now that he believied it possible for Watson to strike his name off the letter and return to the ‘loyal’ royal fold? What a joke…
…I’m glad that Watson as a junior minister at least gave the handling of Lebanon as a reason for his departure. It’s utterly valid and I’m glad it was mentioned along with the usual hoopla.
I suspect Jack Straw won’t come out to play for the simple reason that he knows how Zombie Tony has 50 lives and seems to rise from the dead every time we think he’s finally in his grave. Jack must be aware of Tony’s superhuman political re-generation mind-altering powers, that’s why he hasn’t thrown his hat in yet:)
I’m hearing Straw as well
It is a bloodbath indeed. 7 resignations in one day, a scathing letter from Tom Watson, rumours of more (senior) people quitting in the next 24 hours. Well, he wanted go out in a blaze, it just isn’t in glory.
Life must be feeling pretty sweet for Cameron right now….
Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow…
Yup.
Incidentally, I notice that Tom Watson’s blog was designed by Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads: the man behind the ironic “Backing Blair” website, whose message is now “Don’t Vote Labour”.
I’ll be very interested to see quite how potty the British Left will go under a Tory Governmnet.
My prediction is: very.
Who cares?
There are no genuine differences between Tony Clair and David Blameron anyway.
Tony Blair being elected 3 times ..has broken many political records. So it shouldn’t surprise people that the manner of his fall would be unprecdented..thats politics..
Personally I think it shows that amongst the “third way” leaders of the 90’s and early 21st century. Clinton for all his personal flaws was probably the superior politician.
What are the chances of other candidates putting up a good fight against Brown in the leadership election?
Zak, agree with your Clinton comment.
Jack straw eh? That’d really be something.
David T, you’ve misrepresented the “Don’t Vote Labour” message from Backing Blair. It was a specific message for the 2006 local election campaign designed to pressure Blair and the party.
You’ve also implied a link beteween Tim Ireland and Tom Watson which doesn’t actually exists (unless you think Boris Johnson, whose website Tim also produced, is also of “the British left”?).
I’d make a lame joke about the way H’s P writers love to deliberately misrepresent stuff but I really am curious to know whether you do this sort of thing intentionally or what?
Amir, I don’t really feel the 2 candidates differ that much either. I’ve always viewed popular politics as a 2-monkey race, with the participants wearing near-identical caps.
I think what’s significant is seeing the ‘fireworks display’ taking place like this publicly, what a contrast to the days of Noel Gallagher sipping a drink with fresh-faced Tony in 1997 and that cheesy ‘things can only get better’ crap blaring in the background…I think a dissection of how it all came to this is relevant for the future. Is this how it will always end? In utter disgrace…for the people we hand power to?
I feel it’s important that history remembers this man for closing his eyes and ears to the 2 million man protest on Feb 2003 regarding war in Iraq, and aligning himself with the extremist cowboy for imperial adventures and greater ’standing’ in the world he intended for the U.K and himself.
I secretly want it to be publicly accepted that his foreign policy commitment with the US Gov cost him his prize, and that the recent situation with Lebanon was the last nail in the coffin. I, like many others just DONT WANT another war-mongering nasty-piece-of-work as my prime minister anymore. So, it’s important to know what led to his (upcoming) downfall. I certainly think the Media has been more powerful in changing things than ever before. It still amazes me that the Independent still have the guts to print headline after headline ramming it to Blair, surely they played a tiny part in all that’s going on.
Hello from Budapest
The man has achieved a lot and I salute him as a fervent Blairite. But he fucked up badly on the foreign front by supporting a reckless, ill-thought out attempt to change the world through near-unilateral military force. I was among the mugs who bought his WMD arguments. His initial silence over Lebanon was probably the last straw by reinforcing just how much he is now a hostage to Republican folly. He is clearly a liability and not the asset to New Labour that he once was. It’s time for renewal at the top. Who knows I might rejoin the Labour Party if he goes, even if my MP is Diane Abbott. Power corrupts, as they say — or in this case U.S. military power.
But you’re right….With Blair soon to end it all with his media blitz (laid-back family man-cum guitarist poet who single-handedly saved the UK from Alien invasion and went on to become a christ-like figure for future generations) it’s all about who will fill the void, who will rise in this vacuum to show common sense…Brown? I bloody hope not.
“Garry”
I’ve no particular views about the alignment of Tim’s politics, or indeed Tom Watson’s.
I do think, however, that the Tories have a fairly decent shot at the next election, if they manage to keep their lunatics and feuders quiet for the next little bit.
Who knows I might rejoin the Labour Party if he goes, even if my MP is Diane Abbott
Mine too, neighbour!
Ach, she’s OK.
The mendacious bunch have to be kicked out - lock stock and barrel.
How many last straws did this man have?
His offer to leave after the elections was, if we care to remember, because of the lies over Iraq. And once he’s re-elected he’s back on his high horse planning his grand exit - at a time of his choosing.
The man is an insult to the collective intelligence of the British People. He has taken us from a point where we could find freinds the world over to be amongst the pariah.
And at home: the divisions he’s caused and resentment he is leaving behind - all so he could last another few months in power.
Good riddance to him and all the reactionaries that bought his shit because it re-inforced their prejudices and bigotry.
Nyrone - with you on what you’ve said so far.
Nyrone,
‘…and aligning himself with the extremist cowboy for imperial adventures and greater ’standing’ in the world he intended for the U.K and himself.’
Now, if I had to name one thing that gets right underneath my skin, it’s this silly, infantile nonsense about evil-imperialistic-oil-obsessed Americans vs. little Saddam and his ‘unobtrusive’ regime. It is, in my opinion, the crassest form of sloganeering; it is an ultima ratio for those who don’t know anything about tyrants or the nature of tyrannical regimes.
My problem with today’s USA is not that it is a new global Empire, but that it is not. The Bush administration took on the largest foreign policy project in a generation with little planning or forethought. It occupied a foreign country of 25 million people in the heart of the Middle East with only 140,000 troops!? It was, from the outset, a recipe for disaster.
But in saying this, also, I prefer the pro-war Left to her sulky, anti-imperialist sister, which, on the basis of a common anti-Americanist denominator, is allied to a grotesque manifestation and misrepresentation of Islam. Not only that. My contempt for the anti-war movement is directed against the contrived and infantile ‘purity’ of its politics, the stance of Tony Benn and Noam Chomsky. Thus, where pro-war people recognise that any authentic political judgment will bloody one’s hands (i.e. the moral calculus of leaving Saddam in power and Uday/Qusay to succeed him vs. a bloody regime-change), the anti-war movement is enslaved to the fantasy of its own political innocence. This is both dishonest and dangerous.
Amir
http://www.chomsky.info/
Amir, as usual I have to read your post 3 times just to understand what you are trying to say Now, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or a criticism.
But seriously…I forgive you for punching everything you do through a thesaurus-random word generator and consequently removing all heart from the piece.
As long as you have something to say right?
Anyway, did you have to crush my ideological unicorn-filled dreams? Why can’t you just let me believe in a third way, which is bloodless and full of chest-thumping bravado where everything is right, and people simply lay down their guns, hug each other and eat Doritos all day? I don’t want to talk about blood! “Blood on my pristine white shirt is dirty” as Harold Pinter recently said. Look, me and other left-leaning folk want you to kindly shut your dirty trap hole and stop nit-picking about us wanting peace and yet not wanting to see a drop of blood spilt! We don’t believe in reality! Surely, that should be clear to you now! Just let us follow our hearts godammit! Who cares if it means we end up standing besides dictators who boil children in Africa chanting “we are all Hezbollah”? Can’t you see we are ignorant of what we say in reality? We only understand peace in our hearts and heads, not in ‘reality’…..leave us to our ways, we believe in what we think, that’s all that is important.
Just kidding!
But seriously, I do agree with parts of what you have to say.
At 15, I believed in corporate punishment (I blame it on my parents) and then at 17 I became a complete pacifist and then a couple of years later, I realized that scarily sometimes guns and soldiers would be necessary. EG: Rwanda UN peacekeeping force.
As much as I hate it, I can understand a few instances and circumstances in which use of force would be the only way to handle a problem: EG: Hitler in Nazi Germany
It’s an important bunch of stuff, because most people seem to be quite absolutist in their approach and either go one way or the next.
In fact, one of my most frequent questions to people who sharply condemned the war in Iraq was “what should have been done differently? Would you have left Saddam in place? What was the solution here?” and it’s always something my anti-war left friends understandably struggle with.
I’m still with the anti-war movement though. The lesser of 2 evils is a realistic prospect, and it seems to be evident here. I would rather have someone like Tony Blair out and a discussion about the next candidate than have him still lingering on.
The anti-war movement wants him to be handcuffed and sent to the UN international court of law, and so do I.
“where pro-war people recognise that any authentic political judgment will bloody one’s hands”
It all boils down to that.
Do you really believe that?
Is that truly the only way?
Is it inconcievable that bloodshed could be spared?
Isn’t that possible?
I’m gonna be optimistic and say maybe.
Straw? Yeah hearing similar…he wants his Foreign Affairs brief back I reckon and if knifing Blair for Brown does it? Well, it may be just too tempting for the guy to pass up…things have certainly got interesting.
The anti-war movement wants him to be handcuffed and sent to the UN international court of law, and so do I.
I’m with you on that one.
Stab stab stab Jack, there’s a good boy - you’ll be the most popular Jew in England if you do
Is Jack Straw the Straw Man you keep referring to? Is it because he looks like Worzel Gummidge?
Amir - you paint a very confused picture. Unless of course you are with the neo-con PNAC project, in which case you are only elaborating on the regret Rumsfeld must have. The shock and awe didn’t work.
The idea that there needs to be complete world dominance by the US (or any other hyperpower) is absolutely abhorrent.
If that really is the objective then - perhaps its rejection by the world is correct.
You disappoint me completely and thoroughly. I expected that there would be some intelligence as to why you want this, and definitely some morality behind the argument. I too have had to re-read what you said and am no less incredulous for it.
Its too late for Straw to have the impact he could have whilst a serving Foreign Secretary - when Clare Short was a popular Cabinet minister, she failed to seize the day on the Iraq vote.
Other than shortening the timetable for departure, a senior minister resigning now is not going to make much difference to the bigger picture which is
“Have Blair (and Brown) done to Labour what the similarly sweeping all before them Clinton and Gore did to the Democrats. Namely hollowed out the party of its core members through a unsustainable policy of spin,triangulation and hoping that a rising economic tide will be sufficient to satisfy floating voters”
By allowing the Daily Mail and Murdoch to dictate the agenda, Blair and Brown have done nothing to win over new voters to the Labour movemment (Blair is winning elections thanks to a slump in tory turnout - he gets less votes as a winner than Kinnock got as a loser in 92 )
With an uncahraismatic Brown at the helm any economic slip will play into the hands of Cameron. But with Mo Mowlam and Robin Cook dead, there is no one sufficiently senior who isn’t tainted by Iraq - or a sex scandal - who can unite and invigorate the party.
A steady economy and a still ageing tory party means that a hung parliament is still possible next time round - in which case the deal Paddy Ashdown offerred in 97 to bring in PR and for Labour and Liberals to keep the Tories out indefinitely, suddenly becomes a much more attractive prospect.
If only Ken Clarke was heading the Tories.
Sajini, Jack Straw is not Jewish. I believe some demented Islamists loons went around saying he was, but you shouldnt really on the barkings of mad dogs for your information.
in which case the deal Paddy Ashdown offerred in 97 to bring in PR and for Labour and Liberals to keep the Tories out indefinitely, suddenly becomes a much more attractive prospect.
I disagree here. Any hung parliament is more likely these days to produce a Lib/Con coaltion (as we’ve seen around the country locally).
Worzel Gummidge was Jewish though
Amir
As usual, you make some excellent points! Although I dont agree with it all, it is always good to read your contributions, and the amount of gratuitous abuse you attract as a result of them are also enjoyable to read.
Jagdeep, according this he has “Jewish ancestry”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2999219.stm
That’s not the same as being Jewish Leon. I have Hindu ancestry but it doesnt make me Hindu. But I do understand that to the dogs sniffing for that kind of thing, the smell of Jewish blood puts them in a frenzy, and is a kind of satanic stain on them. I mean, why does it matter? hmmmm I wonder….
Agreed it’s not the same thing but then I don’t know whether Jack Straw identifies with it or not. It’s not clear how far back we’re talking but anyway…Blair fucked Wooooooohoooo! Etc.
Nyrone,
=>”At 15, I believed in corporate punishment (I blame it on my parents)”
I think you meant “corporal punishment”.
Corporate Punishment is when your line manager handcuffs you to your desk and makes you create Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations over the weekend without paying you overtime.
Amir
When you suggest that criticism of Bush’s Iraq War is anything other than an imperialist failure because thats the political ballpark inhabited by the anti-War Left who happen to share a “common anti-Americanist denominator” with “Islamists” is peddling a, by now, haggard and baseless pro-War argument. It suggests that to be against the Iraq occupation is, by definition, anti-American and pro-Islamist simply because some elements of the Left take that stance.
This couldn’t be a more ridiculous straw man even if you got Ray Bolger to come along and sing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” for you.
sid, I am afraid you are the one creating a strawman if you are saying you can´t disagree with a Galloway groupie who uses phrases like ´imperialist cowboys´ without implying that anyone who has any disagreement with Blair is a member of al qaeda.
There are three distinct traditions of British left wing thought: anti-war, anti-fascist, and anti-imperialst. Some think that calling saddam a fascist was a ludicrous exaggeration, and so anyone thinking in terms of anti-fascism was obviously a deluded tool of imperialist propaganda. The opposing side thinks the same about the idea of Bush as an imperialist.
But that long-running dispute has litte to do with those who were generally or specifically anti-war.
This idea that if you oppose Bush and his government means your anti-American (what ever that dumb term really means) is tedious to the extreme. There are many Americans who are just as opposed and I dare any pro war types to go and tell them they are being anti their own country and people!
Exactly as Leon says.
This was an international war with forces from 6 or 7 different countries. Its bigger than a piddling factional tussle within the UK Left-wing. Its possible to be anti-Bush and anti-IraqWar and resist being pegged as pro-Islamist, “anti-Imperialist” and anti-American.
LOL!
Thanks Jai, That was quite an overlooking on my part!
I meant ‘corporal’ punishment.
Sid: ok, given that, would you admit it is possible to have been in favour of the forcible overthrow of Saddam without being imperialist, islamophobic, pro-Bush or pro-war?
If so, will you stop using the term ´pro-war´ for anyone not actually the equivalent of a Haliburton stockholder?
soru: yes sure, on both counts. Absolutely.
I’m all for a sensible discussion Iraq not framed by this absurb UK Leftwing soap opera.
Doh! What a let down! Tony reveals he will be gone within 12 months.
But Tony….we want you to go now!
and what’s the deal with this photo opp at a school?
Those children wouldn’t be shaking his hands, if they knew what Tony had been doing for the last 9 years.
That’s it! Im booking my ticket to Manchester for the 23rd, and Im making my own placard this time…
Looks like Straw hasn’t the balls:
‘Commons leader Jack Straw moved to calm speculation by saying voters would expect Mr Blair to stay “to the halfway point of a normal four-year parliament”, which would be May.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5322094.stm
would you admit it is possible to have been in favour of the forcible overthrow of Saddam without being imperialist, islamophobic, pro-Bush or pro-war?
Possible yes, soru, but many people who did support the war did so on naive predications that Bush knew what he was doing and that he was doing it for the right reasons. I would have loved to see Saddam go because he was a tyrant. But I didn’t want Bush to try his hand at it because it was obvious he was a bumbling fool who wasn’t aware of world events. And hindsight is proving that indication right.
Sunny, while your here, something I didn’t quite get with your comment on your CiF piece:
Excellent, it looks like going according to plan. Tony and Gordon have come to an arrangement and now Brown has released a statement backing Blair.
I’m curious, why is this excellent and going to plan?
Sajini - I believe Mr Straw had a Jewish paternal great grandfather. This makes him, I am delighted to say, NOT JEWISH. If any other religion out there wants him, please claim him as your own. We have enough to contend with, thank you, without being lumbered with him.
It’s going according to what I want - Gordon Brown as PM. He’s managed to get Blair to concede power and set out a loose framework so he’ll not get fully started with alliance building and setting out his own agenda.
I think Blair’s allies have not been able to manage to scupper Brown’s chances… primarily because Blair doesn’t have that many allies left.
Hmmm, fair enough but I’m not sure getting such a long term exit strategy will work for Brown.
Why Gordon Brown? I don’t see him being a vote winner despite what the polls have said previously. All this in fighting and letter writing just takes us back to the eighties. The party looks a shambles again. The Conservatives are looking electable. This may be fun to watch, but it’s suicied.
Chairwoman’s on the money with this one.
Soru, I am not sure what you mean by ‘Galloway groupies’. If by that you mean those that opposed the war, then the man has such a phenomenal support base (and growing) that he could simply be the most popular person on the planet.
With regards being called ‘pro-war’, if you were pro-war then you are pro-war. If the justification for supporting the war was humanitarian, and not mendacious then hopefully your sentiment is in the right place but mistaken in most other respects. Certainly Mr Blair belatedly took this option, once his mendacity was exposed and lost David Kelly. And especially after the ‘post-victory’ electoral bounce failed to materialise.
He needs to go now. The country cannot wait. The crocodile tears in his televised statement were those of a psychopath. It made me howl with laughter when he apologised for the Labour Party machinations of this last week as well as ’suggesting’ he’d been working on lifting the blockade of Lebanon.
Now I’ve worked with one of the finest presentors in the land. He could pick up a script or presentation and be so unbelievably believable that you’d think he’d researched and written it himself. But we all knew he’d not understood a word of it. Yet I would say he could not touch Mr Blair.
Chairwoman did you see the report on anti-semitic abuse experienced by the Jewish community in Britain which has become very widespread? Will PP be doing an article on that?
Jagdeep, I have been thinking about doing an article on that. I am not sure that it can be described as very widespread yet, but it has certainly doubled in a relatively short period of time.
Katy, I too think its worth doing an item on the rise of anti-semitism. I’d be grateful if you could do it as a comparative study with Islamophobia.
At least then we can address some serious issues as well as give Jagdeep his fill.
What do you say Jagdeep?
I dont really understand your hostility to me Refresh. I just wondered if there would be an article on the subject as I think it is very alarming, although not really surprising in the current atmospherics. Tak a chill pill bwana.
This is an extract from a diary kept re anti-social behaviour shortly to be published under the title of ‘We Vote For Monkeys’, it has already caused an outrage because it tells the truth, something Mr. B lair is not too keen on. All the details and incidents can be proved by correspondence, audio tapes and video recordings. The house opposite me was an Asian shop that suffered as I had and eventually the house was petrol bombed and the family left. The shop was empty when I moved in and during the course of 3 and half years I had 215 incidents of crim..ranging from having Die Bitch painted on my door to petrol bomb threats and 23 bricks through my windows in 28 days. What follows is a meeting with my MP over my ongoing problems.
‘We sat inside the car until it was almost time for our appointment and then crossed the
forecourt to Trimdon Community Centre.
Inside it was bright and cheery, smelling of new paint, and a friendly receptionist bade us
follow her to a small reception room at the side of a large communal area.
The room was full of people coming and going; a camera team were there to film a
piece for local TV, together with a photographer from the local rag.
A group of Salvationists were also in attendance to receive ministerial recognition for
their good work, joined by the ‘Trimdon Triplets’ – an MP’s mainstay for good publicity,
and me.
A motley crew, we stood waiting, while a tray of coffee was wielded upstairs-
to the man himself.
I spoke to the Salvation Army Officer, himself a Southerner and seconded to the North
East about the area and we agreed that Durham was very picturesque, but he admitted that he was going back down south to retire, because of the increase of criminal damage where he lived.
After he went in to see the Prime Minister, accompanied by the newspaper
photographer, the rest of us chatted amongst ourselves, passing the small talk, the
chitchat and the niceties between us. The usual custom that passes for conversation and
makes the English well known for our reserved-ness, the great art of speaking but saying
nothing.
Next to leave our little group were, the ‘Trimdon Triplets’ and the camera team there
to capture Mr. Blair doing the usual- kissing of baby’s heads and saying well done as if
this mammoth task was worthy of only his blessing.
Then came the call – “Is there a lady from West Cornforth here”?
‘Yes, I’m here’ and I moved forward and together with G we took the long walk
down the corridor to the foot of a set of steep stairs.
I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to negotiate them with a walking stick and by the
time I had got halfway up, the receptionist called out to me that there was a stair lift, but
too late, onward and upward. I made it. I was escorted past a line of more security men
whom I believed to be Secret Service and totally amazed that no search of my
person or handbag contents took place, which I thought was more than a little lax.
I was then shown into a room with assorted tables and chairs – looking rather like an old
fashioned student’s common room and seated at the far end of the room was the
secretary with whom I had had so many tacit conversations. To my right was seated John
Burton – Mr. Blair’s agent and to the front of me sat the great man himself.
He rose to his feet, shook my hand and then sank back down onto the chair facing me,
and asked why I was there.
“Well, I’ve prepared a letter to read I thought that might be the easiest thing” I said.
‘That’s ok’ he replied leaning forward ‘the one thing about this job is you learn to read
very fast’ and he took the letter from me and slipped on a pair of spectacles.
He read my letter in stunned silence and after looking across to his agent looked gravely
back at me.
Then came the comment I was waiting for – ‘Well it’s clearly not acceptable”.
‘No, but it is accepted’.
“Clearly you’re being targeted”. Clearly I was.
Full marks to the man who had deduced the obvious!
‘John, what’s going on in Cornforth’?
“Well there’s a bit of car speeding and running around”!
‘Better get on to the Chief Constable’s office; see what he can do about it.
What about A H, the borough councillor, has he been made aware’?
“Excuse me Prime Minister; I had a letter outlining a meeting with A H dated
25th October, but the meeting didn’t materialise”.
‘What’s going on? A is usually so good’?
“Mr. Blair”, I interrupted, “before you go any further, 25th October, 2002 and I’m still
waiting” (it was November 2003 by now).
He said nothing then went on to mention that the offenders if they were of school age
should be attending full-time education.
I pointed out that I had pursued that route of enquiry only to be told that the youths
involved in the massive amount of crime against my property had been excluded from school or were on special educational packages and
only attended certain days of the week, such was the volume of their offensive
behaviour.
I also pointed out the fact that I had tried the local authorities, the county council,
the borough council and the parish council for help and with the exception of two
parish council members giving me suggestions to go elsewhere for aid, I was very
firmly told ‘You’re on your own pet”.
The police had attended when requested but their hands were tied since most of
these vandals and intimidators were under the age of seventeen and knew the law inside
and out. They walked a fine line between making my life a living hell and being caught
doing so.
The hardened majority of youth in Cornforth were serving the modern apprenticeship of villainy,
entering into the scheme via anti-social behaviour and progressing swiftly through the
ranks of hooliganism and petty crime until they were fully qualified thugs.
No matter whom I had asked for help, my pleas fell on stony hearts. It seemed
nobody was prepared to try and put a stop to this misery and nothing could
deter these bullies from their incursions onto my property. Not even the tally of
four cameras, microphones and surveillance equipment in the house, could staunch the
flow of criminal activity against me.
Mr. Blair then addressed my question over the anti-social legislation he had recently
introduced and said there would be no exceptions and the law would apply to house-
owners, and both council and private landlord tenants.
He also remarked that there would be on the spot fines and the fast tracking of
offenders to court for anti-social behaviour.
He advocated the use of community wardens to help police trouble spots, and
assured me that all these measures would be put into force.
He then questioned Mr. Burton over the use of anti-social behaviour orders and
acceptable behaviour contracts to try and stem the problems in Cornforth.
Mr. Burton replied that ‘they were difficult to enforce because the youths broke them
and then they had to start the process all over again and it was costly’.
Changing tack he enquired of me what business I was going to bring to the North East
and I mentioned Film Distribution had been my goal and putting a business in Cornforth
would have brought much-needed jobs to the area.
I remarked that the area needed ‘new blood’ but the welcome people received
was it any wonder they didn’t stay? I also told him that the only knowledge I had
gleaned from the North East thus far, was not to trust anybody.
And he agreed that ‘That was a shame, because there are nice places here.”
That wasn’t the point one should be able to live anywhere not have to pick and choose for
a decent and safe place to live. He glanced across at John Burton and then back toward
me and for one fleeting moment, my eyes caught his and his expression said I am truly
sorry.
It was a hopeless situation and I’m absolutely sure he knew that.
Our meeting at an end I also pointed out that without the help from G and Victim
Support, my health would have deteriorated even further than its present level.
That said and done he shook both of our hands and assured me that he would be writing
to me in due course even though he knew by this time, as I told him, I would not be
making a life in Cornforth.
Even so, he hoped that those left behind might be helped in some way, and assured me
once again that he would be ‘in touch’ quite soon.
I thanked him and G and I walked slowly down the stairs, out to the car park beyond.
“Well”, said G, “I wouldn’t have missed that for the world”.
‘Really’? I said ‘A bit of a waste of time I thought’ but as the blind man said – ‘we’ll
see’. I was quite sure that I wouldn’t have been given time to bend the ear of Caesar if I
hadn’t persisted in my fight and bombarded his office with phone calls.
Given my background with media connections, I believed that this was a
damage limitation exercise, to keep me sweet before I left Cornforth. They were counting
their blessings that I hadn’t gone public with the disgraceful way I had been treated,
pushed from pillar to post and fobbed off with excuses from every ‘official’ source.
We drove back to Cornforth and G gave me his mobile number, so I could reach
him if needed, and even he admitted that he would never entertain the thought of living in
Cornforth – it was just too rough. So it wasn’t just a North –v- South perception then.
Even a fellow Durham-ite wouldn’t place a safe bet on ‘Straw - Doggie’.
I went inside to reflect on how my meeting with Mr. Blair had gone and to draft a letter
thanking him for seeing me at his constituency surgery, hoping that my remaining time in
Cornforth might be safer now that he had agreed to help.
I had mixed feelings over the meeting; my first impressions had been that he was
genuinely concerned and caring, my second that he knew Cornforth and he knew of its
bad reputation, my third that he promised me help he couldn’t deliver and my fourth, and
underlying one was that he was a consummate actor. Added together the sum total was of
a man who cares about situations he has no hope in changing, but give him credit he
cares with some amount of panache and style.
I had explored all the avenues he had suggested and I wondered just what, if any,
difference he could make.
Perhaps he had a bigger stick to wield than I did, I had to put my faith in him and trust
that he would be a man of his word.
It is said that a prophet is never known in his own land and there is plenty of evidence of
that here.
Whether it is because he is away from his constituency so much or because he is not a
‘home grown’ I don’t know but I have witnessed first hand that the vox populi don’t like
him, with endless quotes of – ‘He’s never done anything for us like, man’, but then they
have never done anything for themselves either, so one has to take that remark at face
value.
I wrote my letter of thanks, duly posted it and waited to see how things might shape up
in West Cornforth- I was in for a long wait.
Two weeks down the track with no correspondence from Mr. Blair’s office, no
communication with the Chief Constable of Durham and still no meeting with A
H my borough councillor, where do I go from here?
And yes, you guessed it, exactly two weeks after seeing the First Lord of the Land- we
are back to square one.
Bang! Bang! eggs hitting the windows full force at 11pm at night from the entourage of
half-wits and no hopers shattered my Saturday night and brought on an asthma attack.
I only hope and pray that the throwing of eggs is the only form of fertilisation these
low- lifers ever manage, for God and the Devil help the child that is born of such losers.
Some place this really is!
Bang! Bang! Your spirit is dead, killed by the uneducated and the ignorant and
aided and abetted by a village that looks on and does nothing.
The plot sickens.
BTW Mr. Blair wrote a letter tome some 6 weeks later saying’I hope you keep an occasional contact with the people of the village’….in other words …move.
I’ve taken the pill. I’m sure it’ll have worked by tomorrow.
Oh look - Jack Straw has “Jewish ancestry”. How very relevant to the Labour leadership contest. This thread would not have been complete without a reference to it.
Mercedes - Erm, what does that large swathe of text have anything to do with…. anything?
Katy, I’m pretty sure Sajini didn’t mean it maliciously.
Refresh…
“….all the reactionaries that bought his shit because it re-inforced their prejudices and bigotry.”
Really? I think you’re the one showing prejudice here. I think you’ll find a sig proportion of the population that reluctantly backed the war don’t fit into that category. Leave the back-biting to the historians. See that mushy doo-doo over there. That’s you that is.
I am sure that she didn’t. I just don’t see what it has to do with anything. But then there is a growing trend in the comments on this site to drag Judaism, “zionists” or Israel (or Muslims, terrorism or Islamophobia) into every thread no matter what the original post is about.
I just wonder if there is any possibility that we could all make a concerted effort to go back to judging people on what they say and do rather than just slapping a label on them.
Sunny
I think I saw the word ’straw’ in it as I skimmed through. Link identified!
I agree with Katy. We never quite seem to complete a thread without it.
El Cid
“….all the reactionaries that bought his shit because it re-inforced their prejudices and bigotry.”
Really? I think you’re the one showing prejudice here. I think you’ll find a sig proportion of the population that reluctantly backed the war don’t fit into that category.
I wasn’t referring to those that were misled. And yes there were very many. Then there were the others.
And yes I am prejudiced against those that are happy to accept the simplistic, stereotypical view of people - enough to moblilise B52’s to bomb them into democracy and freedom.
I am even more annoyed with those that peddle that rubbish. I feel pretty confident you are not that far behind me on that front.
Sunny, do you really want Gordon Brown to become PM?
Have you read his article on terrorism in the sun today?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006410725,00.html
I think he could be worse than Blair.
Nyrone - Absolutely in agreement on that one. This is not only a foreign policy issue. He’d just be a disaster.
Refresh - Katy and I were talking about this thread this morning, and we’re agreed that the increase of antisemitism and Islamophobia are just the tip of the iceberg. Soon the indigenous population are going to be fed up with all of us, and it’ll be ‘thanks but no thanks’. Meanwhile, instead of reconciling our differences, we’re all fighting amongst ourselves.
Well done us.
if anyone wants to read the full antisemitism report (i have), it can be found at:
http://thepcaa.org/Report.pdf
and, by the way, there’s a really good article by amir taheri in asharq al-awsat, the arab newspaper on why muslims having a go at blair are basically ignoring a lot of the facts about his record:
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=6300
i’m sure a lot of the people here will pick holes in it, but i think it deserves consideration.
b’shalom
bananabrain
Nyrone - he is just pandering to the Sun audience. I’m still to be convinced he is GW’s poodle like Blair is. Let’s see what happens.
Chairwoman - depressing ain’t it?
The iceberg is a good analogy.
Sunny now is the time to stop the pandering to the right wing press- That was surely one of the problems with Blair.
Being beholden to Murdoch is of no use to the country. The long standing structural problem of ownership of the mainstream media had been swept under the carpet. I guess this a part of worship of money and power.
Blair being considered for place on the board of News Corp. will only undermine what remains of his credibility. The question of course will be: Who was he serving?
And does Gordon Brown wish to be associated with that?
The only reason for Straw not to do it is that it might nobble his own leadership ambitions, if he has any. Don’t laugh, he might.
[…] Keep an eye on Jack Straw over the weekend. Have fun in the Middle East Tony… Technorati tags: Brown, Blair, Leadership, Infighting, NuLab […]
Bananabrain,
For numerous reasons that article takes us way back to the start of the whole Al Qaeda fiasco.
The writer thinks muslims in general are absolute fools.
I really do not feel I have the energy to deal with this guy.
If, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the ‘muslims’ hadn’t offered themselves as cannon fodder for the Capitalism V. Communism battle - then there would have been no Al Qaeda. Whatever the merits of that little skirmish - no one should fall into the trap again. Everyone should act with great care and not accept any other ‘global scenario’ coming out of some great global power. Blair is the master communicator for this great power.
A good blog you got there! I’ll bookmark and come back later.
Keep up the good work!
Eddy