Confidence In Government Plummets!.

rjt · 03-12-2007, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Britannist

Yes, you are right Arden, If it happened it would one of the most significant things to have happened in UK politics. Has it ever happened before? Not since I've been following politics it hasn't.

Eurosceptic Conservative Mr. Iain Duncan-Smith was, of course, the most recent opposition leader to come and go between elections without fighting a General Election as the leader of his party. A shame this happened to him - I always liked him.

But as you imply, Arden, if the same thing happened to Prime Minister Gordon Brown (appointment and departure without fighting a General Election) it would be something that he most certainly would never have planned would be his political epitaph (i.e. the first Prime Minister in the modern era to come and go without leading his party into a General Election).

Looking back, one wonders why someone/some people in the Labour Party didn't make some serious effort to remove (by persuasion or by a formal leadership contest) James Callaghan as Labour Prime Minister in 1978 when his party had slumped in opinion polls and it looked as if Conservative opposition leader Mrs. Thatcher was going to defeat them (which, as we know, she did the following year). Maybe, with the 'winter of discontent', Labour MPs thought that the damage had been done and replacing Mr. Callaghan as party leader would not have done much to improve their electoral fortunes before the 1979 General Election.

Possibly in the case of Callaghan there was a real fear that Tony Benn might win the leadership or deputy leadership and so it was safer to keep him. In the end the Labour Party split anyway.

arden forester · 04-12-2007, 10:20 AM

Thick-skinned or not, the ship of New Labour apparently took on a few more rats when it stopped in port last time to get a new captain! Jack Dromey is being labelled "thick" for not spotting the Abrahams character, and Wendy Alexander offered her resignation but it was refused in case that would make the Cabinet members in London who have been dissembling as fast as their mouths will let them look like resignation fodder too!

Don't you just love how they behave? If a check-out person at a supermarket made a ****-up we'd be told they were having "retraining"!!

I'd retrain this lot of cowboys (and cowgirls!!) with a thick stick for their thick skins!!!!

pentameter · 07-12-2007, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjt

Possibly in the case of Callaghan there was a real fear that Tony Benn might win the leadership or deputy leadership and so it was safer to keep him. In the end the Labour Party split anyway.

I think that Callaghan and Major were both extremely skillful politicians as far as internal party politics were concerned. Neither of them were up to much when they got to be PM, they were just good at getting there.

A66 · 14-12-2007, 10:00 PM

Labour Are Scum. The Party That Sold A Country !. Roll On The Next Elections.

rjt · 15-12-2007, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pentameter

I think that Callaghan and Major were both extremely skillful politicians as far as internal party politics were concerned. Neither of them were up to much when they got to be PM, they were just good at getting there.

Certainly Major presented himself as the Right Wing candidate in 1990 when Lady T got the boot, we soon found out diffrent.

Callaghan knew how the Labour party worked at the time of is election, how he kept it together I will never know.

Britannist · 15-12-2007, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pentameter

I think that Callaghan and Major were both extremely skillful politicians as far as internal party politics were concerned. Neither of them were up to much when they got to be PM, they were just good at getting there.

I notice that after the election defeats of Mr. James Callaghan and Mr. John Major their parties were out of power for many years.

Britannist · 15-12-2007, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjt

Certainly Major presented himself as the right wing candidate in 1990.

He was lucky to get the job of Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister.

Had Lord Tebbit's wife not been injured in that dreadful republican terrorist attack (resulting in Lord Tebbit spending time to look after her and not being able to stand for the leadership) and if Lord Parkinson had stood for the Conservative leadership then europhile Major would not have even been in the running to replace Lady Thatcher (as Conservative leader and Prime Minister).

04-12-2007, 10:20 AM	#42 (permalink)
arden forester Uber Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Solihull, in The Forest of Arden, Warwickshire! Posts: 2,633 Party: None	Thick or wot!?! Thick-skinned or not, the ship of New Labour apparently took on a few more rats when it stopped in port last time to get a new captain! Jack Dromey is being labelled "thick" for not spotting the Abrahams character, and Wendy Alexander offered her resignation but it was refused in case that would make the Cabinet members in London who have been dissembling as fast as their mouths will let them look like resignation fodder too! Don't you just love how they behave? If a check-out person at a supermarket made a ****-up we'd be told they were having "retraining"!! I'd retrain this lot of cowboys (and cowgirls!!) with a thick stick for their thick skins!!!! __________________ www.westminster-whispers.blogspot.com

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14-12-2007, 10:00 PM	#44 (permalink)
A66 Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: CO DURHAM Posts: 105	Labour Are Scum. The Party That Sold A Country !. Roll On The Next Elections.