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Cherie says Tony rings Gordon regularly to advise him how to win the next election. That accounts for a lot.
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John Prescott`s memoir stands out in the flood of alibiographies now pouring out. For example, it`s honest. But he was ignored. Why? Because as the only representative of the Labour Party in the Blair Cabinet he couldn`t possibly hope to be heard. He was there to be used to give a Labour face to nasty policies.
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Dear Gordon
They`ll all be writing to give you advice. Like resign, drop dead or take up hang gliding. Remember I`m the one who told you to cancel Conference and go for a September election. Your problems began when you didn`t do that. So I`m sure you`ll listen now. Here goes.
(1) Put Prudence to bed. Forget New Labour. Give up the rag-bag of Blairite follies. Announce that we are in a new ball game (we are). You`re going to have to guide us through difficulties and protect the people. The Pilot who’ll Weather the Storm. You’ve let Finance run the shop. They’ve landed you in this mess. Now you have to clear it up and put Finance back in its box.
(2) You`ve apologised for the 10p rate disaster but are in a mess over compensation. Get out of it by doubling the allowance to take the lot out of tax. No harm in a bit more borrowing. You can always take it back next year by putting up the top rate – but not this year. Daft to increase taxes in a recession.
(3) The fall in house prices will hit private building and DCLG have screwed up your proposed housing drive by their pathetic Housing Bill. Buy to let is collapsing, mortgages are hard to get. Housing associations won`t build enough and are hit by the credit squeeze too. So your only chance of a big housing drive is to bring the councils back into building. Give them proper management and maintenance grants plus a development grant. Let them keep the £1.5 billion you filch from the Housing Revenue Accounts and the half billion you grab from Right to Buy and, Bingo! You`ll have a big build of exactly the housing people need. Don`t let DCLG fuck you up. By the way, Caroline Flint’s proposals to ‘help’ those facing repossession are pathetic. You have to dole out many and force concessions from the lenders whose irresponsibility got us into this in the first place. Look at the US.
(4) Change the instructions to the Bank of England to inflation at 3% and add a responsibility to maximise growth and employment. Then chuck the inflation hawks off the MPC. Otherwise they`ll screw you by keeping interest rates high in order to keep the pound up and you’ll created a doomsday machine which will resist the fall in the exchange rate we need to shift the balances in the economy and boost production.
(5) Go for growth and a huge dollop of Keynes. This will compensate the people for the tightness of household spending and the increase in costs which is making them so unhappy.
(6) Pull out of Iraq. Bush is dead. Obama will win. We can`t look as though we`ve no will of our own by following him out as we followed Bush in. Ditto Afghanistan. It`s unwinnable. We bear the brunt. Why?
(7) Make nice noises on Global Warming, Green issues, Burma, Darfur, Foreign Aid, World Poverty, Kyoto etc and then leave them to the Liberals. It keeps them off the streets and our people aren`t particularly interested.
(8) Stop trying to be tough on everything down to the regular brushing of teeth. Be understanding, kind. Protector of the People. Tough all the time is counter productive and useless. Besides, it`s not you. From now on it’s about fairness, equality of sacrifice, working together and caring for each other in tough times.
(9) Be yourself. Take it easy. Get more sleep. Be happy in your wok. Don’t listen to the media or Blairites. Forget their policies. Yesterday’s people and yesterday’s agenda.
More helpful advice to follow. Then you`ll win.
Your sycophantic admirer
GRIMSBY MAN
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The bombardment of books is as if a crammed bookshelf has fallen on poor old Gordon. It’s yesterday’s people with yesterday’s books trying to grab today’s quick quid before it vanishes. Tomorrow the books will be in the locker room of history. So will they.
Ignore it Gordon. Too late. You’ve replied to the Evening Standard. A mistake. Never show hurt. |
