Saturday 21 June 2008

A year of cock-ups and misery for Gordon Brown.

Next Friday Gordon Brown will have been Prime Minister for a year. (Perhaps I should have made the title of this post: "A year of cock-ups for Gordon Brown and misery for us).

Click on the dates to read the full story.

25/09/07

D'oh! - Greatest threat since WW2 - The sun publish an excellent graphic depicting Gordon Brown giving the British people the two fingered salute over the EU Treaty.

28/09/07

D'oh! - The number of prisoners in England and Wales has reached a record high.
Official figures suggest there were 81,135 people locked up in jails and in police stations.

06/10/07

D'oh! - According to Nick Robinson the BBC's political editor, Gordon Brown is to announce very shortly that he WILL NOT be calling an Autumn Election.

07/10/07

D'oh! - Gordon Brown's week is just not getting any better. It turns out that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Robert Mugabe is entitled to attend a Europe-Africa summit.

09/10/07

D'oh! - European Scrutiny Committee report that they are not confident that Gordon Brown's EU Treaty red lines cannot be eroded over time.

09/10/07

D'oh! - Alistair Darling's Pre Budget Report receives massive criticism for stealing Tory policies.

22/10/07

D'oh! - Labour (who were not that serious about an autumn election) are allegedly facing a bill of £1 million for their election that "never was" campaign.

29/10/07

D'oh! - Independent ComRes poll shows the Conservatives 8 points clear of Labour.

04/11/07

D'oh! - Ruth Kelly apologises for breaking rules on using public money for party political material. She spent some of her £10,000-a-year communications allowance on a newsletter which repeatedly referred to "Labour".

07/11/07

D'oh! - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said "The answer is I don't know" when she was asked on BBC Radio 4 just how long the proposed detention limit should be.

13/11/07

D'oh! - Jacqui Smith makes a statement in which she tries to explain (spin) why it was not announced back in July that 5,000 illegal immigrants have been wrongly cleared to work in security.

20/11/07

D'oh! - 25m sets of personal details get lost in the post. Bank account numbers, sort codes, names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers.

23/11/07

D'oh! - Lords debate that saw five ex-chiefs of staff attack Gordon Brown for inadequate MoD funding levels and the appointment of "two hats" Des Browne.

26/11/07

D'oh! - Labour party's General Secretary Peter Watt resigns over dodgy donations.

26/11/07

D'oh! - ComRes poll commissioned by the Independent shows the Tories 13 points ahead of Labour.

28/11/07

D'oh! - Vince Cable brings the house down by pointing out the Brown had transformed from Stalin to Mr bean over the last few weeks.

29/11/07

D'oh! - The electoral commission call in the police to investigate the dodgy donations received by the Labour party.

30/11/07

D'oh! - Harriet Harman admits that she took out an unreported £40,000 extension to her and her husband's mortgage with the Halifax to fund the campaign.

3/12/07

D'oh! - Cabinet minister Peter Hain has said more donations to his Labour deputy leadership campaign "were not registered as they should have been". That's on top of the £5,000 donation that he forgot last week.

6/12/07

D'oh! - A leaked letter from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, to the Chancellor Alistair Darling has got the police gnawing on their truncheons. It seems Jacqui is not keen to bide by the judgement of the Arbitration for the latest police pay award.

6/12/07

D'oh! - Jan Berry, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, says: If the government want a fight, they have got a fight. We are actively pursuing a legal challenge and have requested an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary who must be held to account for her scandalous decision."

7/12/07

D'oh! - Ben Brogan writes: Senior figures have been holding secret talks to decide a response to the drastic turnaround in Mr Brown's fortunes after a disastrous two months.

11/12/07

D'oh! - Frank Field requested a report from the Statistics Commission after the DWP gave him a dodgy estimation on the number of foreign workers in the UK. The report states that 80% of jobs created since 1997 have gone to foreign workers.

12/12/07

D'oh! - At PMQs Vince Cable said: "Given his (Gordon's) own position, the prime minister might not be wise to speculate on leadership elections".

13/12/07

D'oh! - Gordon Brown turns up late to sign the EU Treaty - to much criticism.

13/12/07

D'oh! - Jacqui Smith announces in a Commons statement that a least 6,653 (possibly 11,100) illegal immigrants are working security jobs in the UK.

13/12/07

D'oh! - At an emergency meeting about the police pay crisis, the staff associations representing the UK's 170,000 police officers have called for Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to resign.

14/12/07

D'oh! - Scientists at the IAH blame the government for failing to stop the foot and mouth outbreak from spreading. The scientist say that Defra were wrong to give the all clear, and this led to the second outbreak a month later.

17/12/07
Illegal immigrant working on security staff at the Home Office.

24/12/07

168,000 NHS Patient records lost - What do you expect?

1/1/08

DNA database balls-up - 13.7% of the people on it, don't exist.

21/1/08

Des Browne apologises for missing MOD Laptop

23/1/08

25,000 Police Officers march and rally in London for fair pay.

24/1/08

Peter Hain resigns from the cabinet - about bloody time.

9/2/08

Charles Clarke - Gordon Brown is a Ditherer

22/2/08

Labour's trips to Auschwitz are a gimmick - Full stop.

4/3/08

Labour targets force up average NHS waiting times.

17/3/08

Police Federation - Poll for full industrial action rights.

21/3/08

Post Office closures - See how your Labour MP voted.

28/3/08

Conservatives command a 14 point lead over Labour (YouGov Poll).

10/4/08

Gordon Brown IS boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony.

16/4/08

Jacqui Smith accused of breaking election rules.

19/4/08

Gordon Brown - It's not so good to talk.

24/4/08

Gordon Brown turns on a tenpence (Nick Robinson interview).

24/4/08

Conservatives - 18 point lead in YouGov Poll.

2/5/08

Local and London Mayor Election - The morning after.

2/5/08

Boris Johnson - Mayor of London 2008.

7/5/08

Only 11% support Gordon Brown - No Confidence?

9/5/08

26 point lead - Cameron must be given the credit.

18/5/08

Crewe and Nantwich - Dunwoody tears up campaign leaflets.

21/5/08

Jan Berry slaps down Jacqui Smith - Police Federation Conference.

23/5/08

Crewe and Nantwich result - Conservative win!

25/5/08

This is your pilot Gordon Brown speaking.

1/6/08

Gordon Brown put on two weeks notice by Hilton.

5/6/08

Labour MPs warn of rebellion - again (Planning).

9/6/08

Stuart Wheeler takes Government to court over Lisbon Treaty.

10/6/08

Video - Gordon Brown - Where did it all go wrong?

10/6/08

Defenceless Royal Navy Destroyers - No Sea Dart missiles.

11/6/08

42 Days Detention - The result of the MPs vote.

11/6/08

Top Secret documents left on a train. Ooops.

13/6/08

Irish have said NO to the Lisbon Treaty.

14/6/08

David Davis on why he is fighting to defend our basic freedoms.

15/6/08

Labour MPs pledge support to David Davis over 42 Days.

And the hits just keep on coming!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Extremely well referenced and enough material to bring out again when the time comes (the GE).

But who is the alternative to Brown? It could be Miliband who, when faced with the reality of being PM, might just change his spots and prevaricate over the EU question. Or it could be Cameron, whom I still consider to be an unknown quantity over the EU (and other matters).

We know that Brown is a busted flush, and any Labour successor may find the legacy Brown leaves is insurmountable.

So now is the time to really hammer the Cameroons to come out much more positively on the need to have a referendum on the Lisbon document, and show their utter disfavour with the federalist machinations of Sarkozy, Merkel and co.

John M Ward said...

Crumbs! Quite a record of non-achievement when gathered together like that -- and in less than nine months too.