The Labour party never fails to amaze me. It is being reported that Geoff Hoon could be facing a vote of No Confidence from his constituency over his failed coup attempt. What a bunch of chimps his local party must be. Never mind the outcome, Geoff acted with the best interests of the Labour party in mind. What members in Ashfield need to consider is that Geoff fully expected his coup to be successful and was surprised when several Ministers did not take the bait. We are all exceedingly aware of the unstable nature of the Cabinet, constantly briefing against Gordon Brown off the record, but lacking the gumption to show their hand in public.No matter what Geoff Hoon and Pat Hewitt may have said, they were sure that at least six senior ministers would support the coup. Those six, and others, took an awfully long time to drag their sorry backsides in front of the cameras to pledge their half hearted support for Gordo. They all lacked the metal to be the first to stick the knife in, preferring to see which way the wind was blowing across the back benches. The daft thing is, if one of them had come out, then back bench support for the coup was likely to follow.
So Geoff now faces a vote of no confidence for doing what a majority of the Cabinet agree needed to be done. I wonder if any of those Ministerial whisperers and plotters will have the decency to speak up for Geoff? Going on past form, I think we all can guess the answer to that one....
2 comments:
May I suggest you read Peter Oborne's comment about the so called "coup"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1241780/PETER-OBORNE-He-survived-week-thanks-Mandy--But-assassins-strike-election.html
As a seasoned (though not infallible) political commentator I would suggest that his take on the matter is more likely.
I don't believe that Hoon or Hewitt thought they were going to unseat GB. Nothing in it for them as they are both standing down which means the deselection is a waste of time. So maybe his "spine" was in the right place at the right time.
This was more likely a power shift away from Ed Balls to the rest of the Cabinet who were increasingly being sidelined. And is potentially more of a threat to the Tories. Neutralise Brown and Balls and they have a BIG problem on their hands.
And no-one in their right mind would have taken on the poison chalice of the leadership before the election. Anyone fancying that job is more likely to want to see David Cameron struggle to deal with Labour's mess and see the Labour Party elected again in 2015 on the "we told you so" basis.
Two possibilities with this story.
1) Like the rumours of Charles Clarke facing re-selection last week, the story could be total rubbish.
2) Since the coup was so farcically bungled showing a high degree of absolute amateurism and cock-ups, it might make people wonder how he could have been defence minister during a war.
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