Another Elephant in the room!
Just as poor, put-upon Tony was hoping we'd all, y'know, calm down and shut up and move on, Charles Clarke reignites the leadership row. So now there are two wounded and blundering elephants for Tony to worry about, one being Iraq, of course, and the other dear Charlie. The ex-Home Secretary has popped up with some wise media advice for 'Stupid' Gordon. ''He is talented and brilliant but there are these little incidences, like the grin in the car, that build up a terrible picture."
Yeah, those unfortunate little incidences can be buggers can't they? Especially when the pesky media get hold of them. As Mr Eugenides points out, ''for Safety to criticise a Cabinet Minister for stupidity and unfitness for purpose, may strike some as ironic.''
Dad bumped into Mr Clarke recently, (who remains his MP), in Norwich, at a cashpoint , and he felt terrible, so said 'Oh I'm so sorry Charles, I didn't want for all this to happen like this, your job, I'm very sorry.' And Mr. Clarke said heavily, ' Yes, so am I, Phillip' . He looked a bit thinner, apparently. I hear he has taken to walking the streets of his constituency, which must be better for his blood pressure than writing long angry letters about his mistreatment at the hands of recalcitrant genius columnists, or bemoaning the ''lazy and deceitful'' media and tiresome ''pathetic'' liberals for encouraging terrorism, and endangering the realm, or whatever it is we do.
Anyway, he must have had enough of wandering the pretty medieval streets of Norwich, chatting to his constituents, as he is now back, and on the rampage, so Gordon can look forward to Charles' sage wisdom imparted to him via media briefings about how to get your staff in order, and your department fit for purpose, and how to knuckle down to the job the PM gives you and not whinge about wanting something more in keeping with your ambitions and experience, and not slagging off the PM's judgement...
I'm sure Gordon will appreciate it; their relationship is, we hear ''extremely cordial''. Which is jolly fortunate.
Yeah, those unfortunate little incidences can be buggers can't they? Especially when the pesky media get hold of them. As Mr Eugenides points out, ''for Safety to criticise a Cabinet Minister for stupidity and unfitness for purpose, may strike some as ironic.''
Dad bumped into Mr Clarke recently, (who remains his MP), in Norwich, at a cashpoint , and he felt terrible, so said 'Oh I'm so sorry Charles, I didn't want for all this to happen like this, your job, I'm very sorry.' And Mr. Clarke said heavily, ' Yes, so am I, Phillip' . He looked a bit thinner, apparently. I hear he has taken to walking the streets of his constituency, which must be better for his blood pressure than writing long angry letters about his mistreatment at the hands of recalcitrant genius columnists, or bemoaning the ''lazy and deceitful'' media and tiresome ''pathetic'' liberals for encouraging terrorism, and endangering the realm, or whatever it is we do.
Anyway, he must have had enough of wandering the pretty medieval streets of Norwich, chatting to his constituents, as he is now back, and on the rampage, so Gordon can look forward to Charles' sage wisdom imparted to him via media briefings about how to get your staff in order, and your department fit for purpose, and how to knuckle down to the job the PM gives you and not whinge about wanting something more in keeping with your ambitions and experience, and not slagging off the PM's judgement...
I'm sure Gordon will appreciate it; their relationship is, we hear ''extremely cordial''. Which is jolly fortunate.
posted by Rachel at 1:58 pm
Great post with some excellent links.
It helps that I loathe Charles Clarke with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, brought to a head over this episode three years ago:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,952292,00.html
Not only is he pig-ignorant, he must remind everyone about it at every opportunity.
Oh, and he's got the stupidest ears I've ever seen on a human being.
Somebody out there must have done this before, but can we please have a Photoshop job morphing Jack Nicholson's Joker into the Dear Leader of Downing Street?
Gordy just soooo fell for it yesterday. Much as I have issues with Bumble the beadle, he got Brown's last 24 hours spot on today: 'stupid, stupid, stupid'