PM — three times foolish
I think the Prime Minister’s foreign adventure to Iraq yesterday was three times foolish:-
1. It was a deliberate attempt to upstage the Conservative Conference in Blackpool and came across as such. John Major not a man easily moved to anger denounced it. There is a convention amongst the political parties not to indulge in this sort of behaviour and it is impossible that the Prime Minister did not see this as an oppportunity to steal headlines from a conference that was going well.
2. Gordon Brown had promised a new style of politics working through parliament and making governmental announcements in parliament–that pledge did not hold for long.
3. The actual announcement of the number of troops coming home was mendacious.The way that he announced all those tax increases over the years ( ie often well disguised ) and triple counted spending commitmtents by rolling three years together has translated across to his new role.
1,000 troops to come home announces Gordon but 500 had already been announced and 500 have not gone to Iraq at all.Headline seeking announcement backfires bigtime.
Last night Jeremy Paxman roasted poor Bob Ainsworth the armed forces minister on Newsnight as the poor chap tried in vain to protect his Prime Minister from Paxo’s withering contempt.Mr Ainsworth looked as if he would rather have been in the lion’s den.Not since Harriet Harman received a deserved mauling on Radio 4 over welfare cuts has a government minister had such a torrid time on the media– he must be a future deputy leader.
