Brownies - Guy Fawkes' blog

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Balls : It Wasn’t Me

Ed Balls may be an unpleasant bully, but he is no fool. He knows Labour is going to lose the election and he knows he will be blamed almost as much as Brown, for he is Gordon’s homunculus. The politics of reckless dividing lines, big government over-spending, the vicious briefing against internal party enemies, his personal use of “Mr” McBride to poison politics and his low, lying Machiavellian ways are not going to be faulted for Labour’s defeat if he can help it. If they are, his ambitions will be thwarted. In private he and his few allies are blaming the prospect of defeat on Hoon and Hewitt’s recent divisiveness.

Labour’s defeat will, he and other loyalists claim implausibly, be nothing to do with the years of kamikaze politics from Balls and Brown…

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Frightened Downing Street Pushed Ruth Resignation Story

It says something about the clumsiness of Team Brown that they had a 3 a.m. press conference in a hotel lobby to announce that Ruth Kelly was resigning to spend more time with her family. Could it be that they were scared that this was going to come out today (perhaps even in her conference speech) and other government ministers might co-ordinate their exits in order to further undermine Gordon.

Is there any other plausible explanation?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Sunday Sleaze Special

Ivan Lewis is what used to be known as “Not Safe in Taxis” (Damian Green is another one) always sniffing around young women. So it is no surprise that he was leering over a 25 year-old young girl working in his office. After all he broke up with his wife after having an affair with a local Labour Party councillor behind her back.

Why has the News of the Screws story come out now over a year later?

Ivan Lewis has been a little too outspoken about Gordon’s failings, accusing Brown of being out of touch, it was remarkable that he escaped censure at the time. If there is one thing the Brownies excel out, it is malevolence. That the girl isn’t quoted means it is not kiss and tell for cash. A few other ministers will be worried that their office darlings could be exposed by vengeful Brownies. This is a warning to other ministers and a score settled…

UPDATE : Have just noticed this story about Lewis’ former assistant was hinted at in the comments on Guido’s story hinting at his affair with Maggie Gibb on June 25, 2006. Fair amount of reading between the lines required with these type of stories. Always difficult when if they both deny it, you are scuppered, you have to read these stories carefully for the hint..

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Brown’s Speech Writer Quits

Decade long Brownie Beth Russell is reportedly quitting Team Brown next month to return to the Treasury. She will be the third member of the mobile phone target team to quit Number 10. She was the official speechwriter, though it is understood that Gordon is the one who inserts the lists of statistics that make his speeches so special.

Downing Street’s Jeremy Heywood has written to Whitehall’s mandarins euphemistically seeking someone for ‘a high profile and demanding post involving daily contact with the Prime Minister… I would be grateful if you could each put forward the names of one or two individuals who would particularly excel in this role.’ An ability to duck under fire would be useful.

Fiona Gordon has already given her notice, Spencer Livermore went in March. The captain will be alone when the ship goes down…

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Spin from 10 on 42

Downing Street is making out that it is on a knife edge tonight. In reality they have got it in the bag and are trying to set the ground for the “Gordon Wins” stories for which the Brownies think it is well worth tearing up the Magna Carta.

Congratulations are due to the honourable member for Glasgow central, Mohammed Sarwar, who has secured, as the price for his voting for 42 days detention, assurances that he can pass his seat down to his son. It seems the Labour Party was only against hereditary peers, but are more than happy with family seats for MPs..

UPDATE : Punters on Betfair reckon the bill has a 90% chance of passing.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Is Des Down?

Ever since that bizarre interview on the Today show last week people have been speculating about Des Browne’s state-of-mind. John Humphrys tore him to pieces following a High Court ruling that families of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan could sue the Government under human rights laws. Des was all over the place.

Then MoD documents released under an FoI request showed he had misled the Commons over the 15 weeping Royal Navy sailors taken prisoner by Iran last year. Contrary to his claims they had been in Iraqi rather than international waters. He will have to apologise to the House for his lies.

Whitehall reckons Browne is down and possibly suffering from mental exhaustion because he is both a part-time Defence Secretary and a part-time Scottish Secretary. His SpAds spin that he has a chest infection. Guido prefers to believe that in the dark hours of the night his soul is tortured by the ghosts of the soldiers he sent to their death under-equipped.

Or perhaps he is ashamed of himself over the failed court action (in his name) to gag a coroner’s ruling from becoming public which criticised the MoD over troops deaths?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lower Taxes for the Lower Paid

Watching Darling spluttering explanations for abolishing the 10p rate this morning it is clear that the Brownies can’t see that their preference for taxing with one hand and then paying benefits back with the other hand, is a wasteful bureaucratic merry-go-round that doesn’t work – except on paper.

Darling says “tax is complicated”. Who complicated it? Simplify it by raising thresholds dramatically. Why should people on earnings of less than £10,000 pay any tax? They only have to fill out endless forms to get it back in welfare payments. Crazy. Raising the threshold on the low paid will incentivise people to come off benefits and work. It will reduce the cost of collection which is disproportionately higher on low incomes.

The Tories are too timid, the mood of the public has changed. New Labour has always referred to “unfunded tax cuts” and demanded to know how many hospitals and schools would correspondingly be cut. The Tories should be pointing to Labour’s “unfunded spending commitments” which have given Britain the highest budget deficit in the Western world. We can’t afford Labour’s reckless spending commitments – they are literally mortgaging our children’s taxes to pay for current spending. It is the economics of the “never, never”.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Brown at Close Quarters

Fascinating and sympathetic Guardian piece by Tom Clark about what it was like to deal with Brown and the Brownies at close quarters for four years. It confirms a lot of what we have already surmised about the core method of policy development through dithering.

Tom Clark was a SpAd at the DWP and the old DTI hired from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He clearly admires Brown whilst recognising his faults. Faults that make him unsuitable to be PM. Well worth a read.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Bad Start for New No. 10 Digital Media Guru

So on the day No. 10 confirms the appointment of their new web / digital media guru an email drops in the inbox from the webmaster@pmo.gov.uk himself!

Subject“Add your voice to the debate” – PM

The Prime Minister has urged people to add their voice to the debate on “some of the biggest challenges of our times” by logging onto a website dedicated to the Progressive Governance Summit …

Guido, keen as ever to share his thoughts with Gordon, clicks through a couple of times to the website to add his “voice to the debate“ to find:

Can they get anything right? Doh!

UPDATE 18:40 : Guido *waves* to Number 10 geeks. They have now added some waffle saying, basically, come back later. So why send out the email today to tens of thousands of people from the PM urging us to log on before it is working? Please stay away from any breweries…

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Blinky Balls on Marr

Ed Balls was spinning happily away on the Andrew Marr show when all of a sudden the blink rate went into overdrive when he was asked about the bottled election. Marr asked him had he told Brown to raise his game, Ed said words to the effect “of course not”, Marr retorted “shouldn’t you?”, Ed started mumbling.

For Andy Marr, this constitutes an all out attack. Mrs Marr’s articles in the Guardian are less than adulatory of late. Are they disappointed?