Mandelson portrays 'insecure' Brown in email

Ananova - Mandelson portrays 'insecure' Brown

"Business Secretary Lord Mandelson portrayed Gordon Brown as "insecure, self-conscious ... and angry", according to a leaked email appearing in the Mail on Sunday .

... It was sent in January 2008 - before Lord Mandelson rejoined the Government - to ex-Labour spin doctor Derek Draper who was then acting as an unofficial adviser to Mr Brown.

In it he states: "He is a self-conscious person, physically and emotionally. He is not as comfortable with his own skin as Tony (Blair) was (is). A new public persona cannot be glued on to him."

And "Lordy" Mandyavellie is Deputy Prime Minister, so if Poor Gord has a heart attack like the lamented John Smith and Robin Cook, or if he should suddenly have a lapse into cognitive lucidity and resign, the noble Lord, Lord Mandelbrot will be Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

God help us. Lord hear our cry. (No, not you, Mandy, the other One).

Making Hay - 4 Satisfied pigs, 1 satisfied human

Yesterday I began the first cut on the grass on my bit of land - the place where I grow veg, where the rabbits live under the brambles, where the pole lathe stands. I know when it is time to cut the grass when I cannot see out if I am standing in it. Also, when it is all ready to set seed and take over. Also grass is where the ticks live - we get one or two tick bites a day, which is a bit annoying, and I got Lyme infections twice already, (watch for a spreading red ring around a tick bite) which calls for a dose of doxycycline in order to avoid a debilitating illness.

I use a scythe - the kind that Death carries. It is a superb tool, so long as it is sharp enough to take a shaving off your thumbnail. Choof, choof, and all the grass and stuff is lying at your feet, moistened by precious drops of sweat. Scythes are not dangerous to the user, so long as you don't dig the tip in (twists yer arm), but do not stand near someone using a scythe if you want to remain a biped.

Raking it up is hard work (more sweat) but fun when it forms into rolls, and there is something infinitely satisfying about picking a roll up with a pitchfork and putting it into the barrow.

Then down to the local farmer to feed the Old Spots. Appreciative grunting noises.

Now it's come on to rain, and only half of the meadow is mowed, so the rest will have to wait.

Prediction: UK Green team of 6 MEPs?

The Predict 09.eu website does exactly what it says on the tin: It predicts the '09 Euroelection result. Their methodology is explained on this link.
Hat tip to the authors of the report.

Their forecast for the United Kingdom is as follows: "The opposition Conservative Party is running well ahead of the governing Labour Party in the polls. However, the Labour Party did extremely badly in the European elections in 2004 and the electoral system (regional districts with d’Hondt) should mean that Labour should not lose as many seats as some people are predicting. The Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) could come third overall, but is unlikely to win as many seats as it did in 2004. Meanwhile, the Greens could gain several new seats, as many former Labour voters switch their support. Our model currently predicts that the extreme right British National Party is unlikely to win a seat, although they could win 1 or more seats if support for UKIP collapses in certain regions.

They predict gains of 4 MEPs for Greens, (i.e.total of 6), SNP 1 gain, (total 3), and all the other parties losing seats: Labour -4 (15) Con -3 (24) Ukip -2(10) LibDem -2 (10)

I have no idea about the reliability of this website, but it has a foreword by the EuroParliament President, so it is probably not run by total crackpots.

Anyway, it puts a happy thought in our heads to carry us through to Sunday evening; though if the results are worse than predicted, we may have to put up with disappointment.
Health Warning:
Don't Blame Me if they have got it wrong.

Et Tu, Purnell? Then die, Gordon.

You have to feel sorry for poor Gordon. I would not like to be him tonight. He was so keen to be PM, and all he got was this lousy mess. No more Flash Gordon, savior of the world's banking system, just Poor Gord, The Sinking Ship.

Gordon, bear chained to a ragged staff, surrounded by blood-crazed media mastiffs.

So on a personal level, tough luck, mate. Nobody's perfect. There's always your memoirs to look forward to.

But let's not waste too much sympathy on him; let us keep some sorrow for the victims of the wars that he supported and sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan; let us remember his choices on the Trident, the British Weapon of Mass Destruction; his choice to resurrect Nuclear Power, the Creature from the Phosphorescent Lagoon; his failure to close the gap between rich and poor; his actions in restricting our civil liberties; his reclassification of cannabis to Class B; his support for the ridiculous First Past the Post electoral system; his plans to privatise the Post Office and the NHS; his hot air about global warming, while putting blocks in the way of renewable energy systems; his pumping money into the banks, but not thr real economy; his continuing servility to the banksters; his failure to fence off the derivatives; the 10% and all the rest of it...

Right, Gord is Gone. He is an ex-Prime Minister. Phew. Now then:

All hail Alan Johnson, the next PM of Great Britain and Northern Ireland!

This could be good. Here's how:

Prime Minister Johnson, mindful of the need to purge the Augean stables, makes his first act the fulfilment of a manifesto promise: he calls a referendum on PR to be held in early September. He also cancels the summer recess, and Parliament sits to draw up plans for radical political reforms.

Come September, the referendum says Yes to PR. So he calls a General Election - get this - to be held under PR.

OK, there's a problem here. PR will require a redrawing of boundaries, and that will take time.

But. It could be done, after this fashion:
Using the present constitutencies, we can modify FPTP to make Parliament reflect the will of the people. It goes like this: elect MPs under FPTP. Look at total proportions of the vote, and then re-allocate seats to make parliament proportional. Say the Tories are over represented, and LibDems are 2 MPs short of a proportional share of seats. Find the 2 LibDems who came second in their constituencies to a Tory by the smallest margin, and replace the Tory with a LibDem. And so on, until Parliament reflects the will of the people.

Yes, I know, nothing is perfect. There are details to be considered, but give us a chance, I only heard about james Purnell's defection 10 minutes ago.The point to be kept in mind is that we need a Parliament elected under PR asap, because under FPTP we are going to get the Tories in, and the Tories have certain defects. Serious Defects. They have just gone to join up with a climate change denier in the EU, and they want to have tax cuts and public service cuts in the midst of a recession, both of which are recipes for a political disaster of such a magnitude that we will look back on Gordon Brown and say, "Poor Gord! He wasn't such a bad PM."

In short we need PR not just because it is right and democratic, but also because it will save us from a full-on Tory assault on the fabric of the universe.

Why vote Green? 17 reasons

1. Because all humans are green at heart, it just becomes overlaid with a bunch of learned misconceptions.
2. Because it is not a good idea to saw off the branch on which you are sitting.
3. Because the best place to defecate is in the composting toilet, not in the bed.
4. Because Green MEPs top the list for transparency and cutting waste.
   
5. Because sustainability can only happen with equity.
6. Because Greens put principles before self-interest.
7. Because the future has to be Green, or it is not a future.
8. Because economics should be based on ecology.
9. Because it is impossible to expand forever into a finite space
   
10. Because it is impossible to take forever from a finite resource
11. Because everything on Earth is interconnected
    
12. Because the Green New Deal+ is the way to go
    
13. Because we take no money from big corporations
14. Because we want to save the human, as well as all other endangered species
15. Because we can see that militarism is an institutionalised form of paranoia
16. Because the Green vote makes the other parties green up their act
    
17. Because voting Green is better than voting for a pack of mad yaks, or not voting at all
    

LibDenvy with Greens

Thanks to Aurea Mediocritas for this:

As you know the Ashley ward is a keen contest between the sitting Lib Dems and the rising Greens, and as a result much canvassing is being done by both sides and this often generates a thirst.

The Farm is a pub in the St Werburgh's area of Ashley with a nice beer garden perfect for catching the late evening sun, and after a hard evening's canvassing the Lib Dem team including Bristol West MP Steve Williams took themselves to the pub to quench their need for liquid refreshing. Before doing so, they decided that they would remove their nice yellow rosettes - for reasons known only to them. Whilst at the bar waiting to be served their drinks, they were interrupted by the sound of applause from the aforementioned beer garden. What could have caused this?

One can only imagine their dismay on discovering that the Green Party canvassing team had also chosen to drink at The Farm and, on entering the beer garden proudly displaying their Green rosettes, had been met by a spontaneous outburst of applause and support from the pub's customers.

The Lib Dems quickly drank up and quietly left.

MEP expenses - Greens rule, Ukip drool

OpenEurope is a think tank calling for reform of European institutions. it has published an important league table of MEP performance here: http://www.openeurope.org.uk
MEPs were ranked on transparency, openness, democracy, fighting waste and misuse of EU funds. (http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/rankingguide.pdf/ )
From the data for some of the UK parties - Green, Con, Lab, LibDem and UKIP – I have calculated the average position for each. The lower the score, the better the political group has performed.
And the results are:
Greens – 51 (best performance)
LibDem - 116
Conservatives 152
Labour 205
UKIP 343 (worst performance)

This survey is vitally important for the electorate. People are understandably angry with the three Westminster parties, and at the moment, due to deficient information, UKIP is the one of the main beneficiaries of the disaffection. This research shows that to vote UKIP in protest at MP expenses scandals is to jump from the Westminster frying pan into the Brussels fire.

Reform Parliament should sit through the summer

The MP expenses scandal has created an urgent need for radical reform of parliamentary structures and procedures.

Here is a little list of necessary reforms:

1. A General Election as soon as practically possible
2. MPs get a flat rate London basic accommodation allowance
3. Criminal charges against any fraudsters in Parliament
   
4. Proportional Representation to elect MPs and the Second Chamber (i.e. the old House of Lords, now abolished)
   
5. No more pantomime dresses/routines allowed in Parliament
6. A new written Constitution
   
7. A Bill of Rights
   
8. Strict controls and real-time transparency for donations to political parties from corporations
9. Strict controls on corporate lobbying
10. Electorate to have power to recall an unsatisfactory MP
11. Reduce the voting age to 16
12. and a few others...

Now is the time to get things rolling. Strike while the iron is hot. But the problem is, how to find Parliamentary time to construct these reforms? This sorry government has 12 months max to stagger on, and its agenda will be packed with things to try to shore up Labour's crumbling fortunes, as well as dealing with the recession. As things stand, the reform agenda would drag on for years, tucked into spare corners of Commons time, and the heat and urgency will go out of the issues.

Losing their summer break would concentrate minds most wonderfully, and freed of the Gormenghast-style pantomimes of Parliamentary routine, they could get through the work in double quick time.

Therefore, it is entirely reasonable for we the people to demand that MPs cancel their summer holidays in Tuscany and Marbella, and stay on in Westminster over the summer, working up a decent reform programme.

They owe it to us, their employers, to do this. It will go some way to make amends for the mess they have created over their allowances.

Send your MP an email today from this link.