Gordon Brown is clever and wily

He knows a voter winner when he sees one

If I were David Cameron I wouldn’t be straying too far from British soil this summer for fear of allowing the Labour Party’s poll leads to grow. Gordon Brown seems to have had a strange time at Camp David, not exactly cosying up to George “Dubya” Bush and not lavishing praise on his host either. As Nick Robinson points out in his blog;

“….Mr Brown, while talking warmly about the shared history and shared values of the two countries, did nothing to return those personal compliments. He even referred to their meetings as full and frank - which is normal diplomatic code for an argument.”

The whole visit has been about political posturing by the Prime Minister, positioning himself in the so called new world order (in post Blair terms) but what may become apparent as an election nears is the rumoured decision to call an end to British military involvement in Iraq, sooner rather than later. Hence the chats about “Private Full” and “Sergeant Frank.”

Just by talking about the possibility and without mention of a probability, Brown has managed to entice his audience back home with another tasty treat. There can be no doubt (even though the job is unfinished) that talking of bringing the troops home from Iraq will be a mighty vote winner.

That’s the trouble with Gordon Brown, as David Cameron must be quickly learning, he is wily, clever, adaptable, and with an astute political nose.

Plane spotters

New airport security measures

For those of us in South Tyneside who might soon be flying from the Durham Tees Valley Airport, please don’t take the mick out of the bobble hatted anoraks, geeks, and plane spotters. They are there to save your life and protect us all from international terrorism, Doh!

The fact that most of these guys operate inside the terminal buildings might rather restrict their ability to spot overladen 4X4s speeding in from the outside don’t you think?

I’d rather see greater resources being made available for a new border police and additional recruitment to the intelligence community instead of crackpot ideas!

Ministry of Defence apology

I’m dumbstruck by the incompetence of this!

The MOD has sent letters and made phone calls after this enormous gaffe, just how did Des Browne and his incompetent civil servants manage to hang on to their jobs?

Words fail me.

No one to blame

Fifteen British sailors seized but no one to blame says MOD!

I suppose we ought to be used to seeing such whitewash reports coming from Whitehall these days, here we have an inglorious cock-up of massive proportions which resulted in the Iranians staging the biggest propaganda scoop for years, at our expense. HMS Cornwall operating with inadequate aircover close to Iranian waters sends out a boarding party armed only with SA80 rifles, without a covering helicopter, radar fails to pick up Iranian gunboats and the rest is embarrassing history as they say.

Hopefully by the end of next week, Des Browne will be in the same boat, history too!

25th. Anniversary of Falklands Liberation

Baroness Thatcher in rare speech

Tomorrow marks the 25th. Anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands, and Lady Thatcher has recorded a message for the people of the islands and our armed forces stationed there. Iain Dale has the full text of the message on his site, but her final passage perhaps rings a very loud and clear bell, and reminds us of Britain’s historic sense of duty to the free world and the fight against evil

“So, as we recall - and give thanks for - the liberation of our islands, let us also recall the many battlefronts where British forces are engaged today. There are in a sense no final victories, for the struggle against evil in the world is never ending. Tyranny and violence wear many masks. Yet from victory in the Falklands we can all today draw hope and strength. Fortune does, in the end, favour the brave. And it is Britain’s good fortune that none are braver than our armed forces.”

This is worth sharing, and it is worth reminding ourselves of the need to spend a little more of our national resource on the most professional armed forces that we are so privileged to have to defend our interests. I have met many in South Shields and on Tyneside who served in the Falklands campaign who have interesting and sometimes harrowing tales to tell, yet I’ve never met one who complained that they served there for the wrong reasons.

Were you one of them perhaps?

Speech uploaded by mikerouse

Worst PR by a govt dept. for months

Good job they got some work experience recently then!

So, it was o.k. for Prince Andrew to risk dying on a burning sinking ship off the Falklands, or to be taken prisoner by some fanatical Argentinians and possibly paraded blindfolded on television for the world to see. Oh dear, how come our silly Ministry of Defence failed to see the risks to his mates in the helicopters and ships he was deployed on, their risks must have increased enormously.

It occurs to me that there are people at the heart of the machinery of government who are more involved and concerned with spin and news management than they should ought to be. They should be more concerned with the operational effectiveness of their departments. Instead we face a situation today where a Royal Prince may as well leave the Army, because of a silly decision taken yesterday, Harry’s effectiveness as a soldier has been completely nullified by a decision made by a deskbound officer relying too much on the spin from a press department, and under pressure from politicians. Radio stations and newspapers have been inundated by people asking if Harry’s life is worth more than that of their own sons and daughters serving in the dreadful theatre of Iraq.

Leave the Army now Harry before the political spin merchants plot the rest of your life, they have already ruined your choice of a noble career!

A damning failure at a critical time

Hague article exposes government’s ill judgement.

Having tried to steer clear of troubled waters, I feel that the time is now right for comment, and for opposition politicians to expose the flaws in our government’s diplomatic efforts to gain the release of the 15 servicemen and woman at the centre of the Iranian hostage taking affair.

Without wasting time on the media complications enjoyed by the Ministry of Defence and Des Browne, in particular, William Hague the Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary reveals the dangers present in the government’s role in the recent trouble, in an intellectual and realistic article in today’s Sunday Telegraph.

There must be many who questioned how on earth 15 sailors and marines managed to allow themselves to have been captured, who questioned why they were allowed to operate without close air support, and why they were allowed to be exposed in vulnerable waters when the heavy guns of HMS Cornwall were too distant. Hague gets close to the bone and marrow in his article and suggests that it’s time to turn the screws on the Iranians NOW before they get the impression that the U.K. is some sort of soft touch. Denial of international banking services, denial of arms sales, denial of oil customers, denial of export credits, might just be enough to persuade the Iranians that they do not need to go down the road of developing a nuclear weapon. If such international efforts fail, then it’s time to think of military options (perhaps through a regional friendly state) to destroy their nuclear ambitions.

All at sea!

Trident spells trouble for Blair!

Isn’t it incredible to watch a party famed for it’s pacifists, elected on a programme that included the scrapping of Trident’s replacement, now trying (in vain) to support Tony Blair as he sees (rightly) that Britain should maintain an independent nuclear deterrent. The resignations have already been written, the Chancellor is having to get his hands dirty” whipping” Labour members into line, the revolting ones grow in number.

Without Cameron’s Conservatives Blair would lose the fight, it’s a good job they believe in holding fast to principles. (Some might just see this as a good time to stay out of the Yes lobby and force a humiliating defeat on Blair, this would not be politically, ethically, or morally correct, principles once arrived at are there to defend, and we should not be playing politics with the ultimate defence of the nation.)

Mercer had to go.

Decisive Cameron sacks front bench colleague.

David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party had no choice yesterday, other than to require Patrick Mercer (pictured) the Shadow Homelands Security minister, to resign his position. The Conservative Party needs to be seen as “changed”, it needs to be seen as having joined the “politically correct”, it needs to show that it is no longer “nasty”. and therefore Cameron needed to show a quick judgement with forthright conviction, that loose talk just will not do, so Mercer walked the plank.

His crime was to discuss how he saw life in the Army, and while not talking of how he saw his own men under his command, he was easily drawn into the language of the common soldier. A more sensible report of the mess is featured on BBC News.

In the modern world of PC, those who perpetuate the “instutionalised racism” in the armed forces should learn to call everyone who is slow, useless, or ineffective a “never ready” and those who show the most resolve and fortitude can be known as “copper-tops”.

Beckett - no negotiating with Taleban

Foreign Secretary not ready for pow-wow!

Margaret Beckett has ruled out any immediate negotiation with Taleban rebels even though British soldiers in Afghanistan have spoken about luring lukewarm insurgents away from violence.

The Foreign Secretary, who arrived in Kabul last night, said that she had “no inclination to hold dialogue” when asked if Britain was prepared to open talks with the Taleban. But she left open the possibility of talks with Taleban sympathisers or those no longer active.

Full story - here