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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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24 April 2007 |
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Inflation at 3.1% isn`t serious and will soon go down, but the frenzied knicker-twisting it`s produced is the first test of the MPC. Put interest rates up and it becomes a Doomsday Machine killing the economy to cure it. A $2 pound is ruinous for exports but will go up with higher rates reducing inflation by putting people out of work. Just like the good old days. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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16 April 2007 |
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Don`t join the chorus of praise for the Blogsphere as a new dimension of democracy which will liberate the people from dependence on old media.
Crap. Blogging is a forum for gossip, character assassination, sensation and expose. It is inherently anti-government and conservative because prejudice is easier to get over than serious explanation. Just like Talk Radio. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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16 April 2007 |
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Coming down the coast from Whitby in the Inspection vessel we drew up to three blokes fishing from an open boat. They held up their hands in surrender. “3 thought we were in Iraqi waters. Honest”. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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19 March 2007 |
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Tony`s triumphs are turning tatty, Trident renewal is tattiest of all. I voted against the Government on the Trickett amendment saying what`s the rush?
Blair committed himself to further votes before contracts are placed and argued that the purpose of this early, daft, vote was to keep the design team together. I abstained. It`s barmy politics to force the PLP to jump through unnecessary hoops to prove Tony`s virility and leave a legacy no-one particularly wants. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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12 March 2007 |
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The 20-20 Vision website looks more and more like Blair by any other means.
The old gang! Milburn, Byers, Charles, Mandy. The old crap: public service reform, new thinking period, a dollop of Europe. They should put up or shut up. But better still forget it. Blairism was a stage |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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12 March 2007 |
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Jack Straw blew Lords` Reform just as I warned. We voted for maximum screw up – 100% elected – and knew that that would cause a revolt of the life peers which would screw up government business. That in turn ensures that Gordon Brown won`t touch it with a barge pole so it`s kicked into the long grass. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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01 March 2007 |
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The Clarke/Millward meeting in the City Inn wasn`t a Labour Party meeting at all but a media-fest. Britain`s Best and Brightest crowded the front 15 rows and asked all the questions. About 20 lower IQ politicians huddled at the back. I, as photographer, sat in the middle. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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14 February 2007 |
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Mustn`t personalise it. Yet Social Home Buy, whether it comes from Ruth Kelly or Stanislaw Poniatowski, former King of Poland, is insane. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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14 February 2007 |
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Austin`s interview with Jaqui Smith, Labour`s Headmistress (Head of HR). “You`ll know why I wanted to see you”. “Not the foggiest idea”. Three charges, all justified by reading out PLP rules: |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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06 February 2007 |
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What a mess! Israel`s President is under indictment for rape, its Prime Minister for corruption. We`re worse.
Generals mutiny `cos they`ve no brass. Judges rebel `cos they can`t send folk to prison. Ministers picket against health cuts. Cabinet rebels on Catholic adoptions. The Party divides between “go nows” “hang ons” and “stay forevers”. And the media pack is moving in for the kill on Tony, lampooning Prezza and trying to destroy Gordon before he`s even got the job. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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15 January 2007 |
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What a contrast with the last time we met at Christmas 1997. We`d just won the election. Labour was in power at last. Laurie Quinn was MP – and what a marvellous, hardworking MP he was. What a tragedy he lost the seat. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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11 December 2006 |
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Fourteen blogging days to Christmas. Here’s an advent calendar of blogettes. Poke each one in the eye.
Leadership. I’ve decided not to stand for the Non job of Deputy Leader. Can’t stand crowds. Too busy dealing with telephone calls and letters from candidates I’ve never heard of discovering they suddenly would like a chat.
I’m still considering standing for Leader. I can just about find the time for it because it doesn`t demand much if done properly. Attlee style. I won`t exhaust myself with endless new initiatives like Tony.
So I’m therefore advising all those who consult me about standing themselves |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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15 November 2006 |
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Treadwater Time. We wait for Gordo. Gordo waits for Tone. Tone keeps waiting for some coup that won`t come. Like Dame Nellie Melba he invents new objectives – peace in the Middle East – save the World from Global warming – Beat the Yobs – Build the Legacy – Stop Gordon – as reasons for staying on. Forever. The people wait for change. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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30 October 2006 |
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Normally I hate the return after the summer. It`s like going back to school. Yet now it`s wonderful. We’re all waiting for Gordo. Contenders are all friendly. John Hutton smiles for the first time ever. Harriet Flirts. John Reid cracks a menacing joke about why I`ve killed the North Sea cod. Satraps ask what we think of Peter, Gordon, John and less likely candidates. Even the Whips are trying to be friendly, though most have forgotten how, and Tommy McAvoy is practicing benign. Bliss is it in this dawn to be alive. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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04 October 2006 |
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Emotional feast. Commentators` carnival. Delegates` delight. A Conference packed into two speeches (in truth there was nothing else to it), Gordon`s extended job application topped by Tony`s triumph. Ave, not quite, Vale. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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11 September 2006 |
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News Front for the life time after the night before. tony has gone to the Middle East on his Walter Mitty tour, to urge a ceasefire in the Labour Party. The Telegraph says (and hopes) that the backlash against Brown has begun. Peter Hain is running round crying “Don`t Panic”. Alan Johnson is smiling enigmatically, and the great (but diminishing) bulk of a Party kept out of this Westminister Village Gala may be despairing but isn`t panicking. It just wants us all to shut up. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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08 September 2006 |
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Tales of the death of Kings are always sad. None more so than Tony`s.
The trumpets don`t depart but begin the Last Post. The trappings fall away. Acolytes make their accommodations. A smaller figure stands before us, trying to play noble but emerging as petulant, deflated, blaming and, above all, sad. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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06 September 2006 |
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Arrive back from R. & R. Tanned, fit, rested, like Tony, and raring to go. Unlike Tony. But the PLP has had a nervous breakdown. Panic is worse than those the Tories used to have. Everyone is signing letters. Even Blairites. Three months ago they would be begging Tony to stay to Election minus 3 (weeks, not years). Now they`re expressing delight that he`s going next year and hoping for an orderly transition when they really want someone to stand against Gordon the Inevitable. The rest want Tony to go now. Tony begins to look pathetic by leaking through Miliband the Mouthpiece that he`ll go end of May. Poor lad. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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10 August 2006 |
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Tony should go on holiday immediately and stop sitting around in London pretending that he’s exerting influence in a world which isn’t going to listen to poodles when the leashholder is going to be forced to do something.
Bush cant afford to let the killing of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of their environment go on to give the Israeli’s time to defeat Hezbollah because they can only achieve that by destroying Lebanon. He’s forced to listen to swing states such as the French and Turkey, not to a poodle whose going to jump through any hoops Dubya wants. In any case, staying on in London to denounce militant Islam is only going to infuriate cabinet colleagues and those in the Labour Party who never go on holiday, into a rousing reply of “We wont be fooled again” Long guitar refrain. |
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General Ramblings
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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02 August 2006 |
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Tony Blair performed so well on his US visit it made me feel proud but also guilty about attacking him for so long. He got a great reception though not as much coverage as Fidel Castro’s illness. |
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