The House of Commons must be a depressing place to be at the moment. No more troughing in the almost unlimited expense system which existed until recently and which most MPs (of all parties it has to be said) regarded as a legitimate extension to their parliamentary salary of £64,000 per year. The Labour MPs face humiliation within the next 6 months or so at the next election, forcing many of them onto the streets where the prospect of finding a job, for the first time, terrifies them, whilst the Tories, salivating power for the first time since 1997, are still appalled at the thought that the polls might be wrong and they won’t actually be voted into office.
Those of us who take an interest in politics find it all fascinating and the most fascinating aspect of it all is the continued attacks on Mr Gordon Brown, our poor, downtrodden Prime Minister. Now those of you who read my blog, know that I cannot stand the man. He may well be good company in the pub watching the footie with a pint in his hand but never has a man been so clearly ill-equipped to run a country as this guy. Even his own party knows it and occasionally, they let him know that if they’re all out of work in 6 months time, it’ll most certainly be his fault. Piling misery upon misery are the Tories whose current strategy is to attack, attack, attack. This can become a rather unedifying spectacle but when they do it with style and above all humour, it becomes good fun and game sport for all.
I have to say it doesn’t take much to reduce Brown to an embarrassing side show in the Commons. A bit of wit and repartee with the Prime Minister is met by sullen looks and humourless ripostes. It’s probably just as well that he doesn’t have staplers to throw or fax machines to reduce to their electronic components as he hurls them to the floor and so he sits and growls, completely incapable of humerous debate. A few jokes. A bit of repartee with the Opposition. A smile or two. It would all help but at the end of the day, when the Tories wish to reduce the Prime Minister to a complete laughing stock, up steps William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary.
You may remember him stepping into the highlight as a 16 year old at the 1977 Tory party conference. He then entered politics, as he was destined to do with a middle name of Jefferson, and ended up becoming the Leader of the Opposition in 1997 after the Labour landslide win but then had to resign when Labour won their second term in Parliament in 2001. During his 4 years as Leader of the Tories, his time at the Dispatch Box was wonderful to watch. He was constructive, knew his brief inside out and more, nearly every speech was liberally sprinkled with humour.
These days, when the opportunity calls for the Opposition to ‘have a go’ at the Government, the Tories press him into action and up he steps . The Labour MPs cringe because they know that here is a speaker with authority and who will reduce their Minister to a gibbering wreck.
Last week, as Shadow Foreign Secretary, he was debating the proposal to put Tony Blair into the seat as President of The European Union. As usual, he managed to get his point across with great good humour and at the same time, poke relentless fun at Gordon Brown, despite the fact that it was David Milliband who was his opposite number that day. Look at the YouTube video of his speech. Milliband just sits there in hysterics.
http://order-order.com/2009/10/22/sarko-says-non-to-president-blair/
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