Poodle Marr's interview with Gordon Brown

I have already blogged about Adam Boulton's disparaging reaction to the BBC poodle in chief's interview with Gordon Brown and included a transcript of Adam Boulton's comments. Now I have found a partial transcript of the interview:

"MARR: Right Prime Minister, let's start with what I suppose is the bleeding obvious: Are you going to call a General Election?

BROWN: I'll not be calling an Election and let me explain why: I have a vision for change in Britain and I want to show people how in Government we are implementing it.

And over the summer months we have had to deal with crisis, we have had to deal with foot-andmouth, we have had terrorism, we have had floods, we have had financial crisis - and, yes, we could have had an Election on competence and I hope people will have understood that we have acted confidently.

But what I want to do is show people the vision we have for the future of this country, in housing, in health, in education.

And I want the chance in the next phase of my premiership to develop and show people the policies that will . . . are going to make a huge difference and show the change in the country itself.

MARR: Two weeks ago when the polls looked very good for Labour you were clearly thinking about the General Election and you were moving events forward and so on and now when the polls are not good for Labour you have changed your mind.

BROWN: Well I think we would win an Election now, sooner or later and I've no doubt about that, but . . .

MARR: The polls in the marginal constituencies tomorrow and in today's papers are going to show . . .

BROWN: Yeah but . . .

MARR: . . . six points ahead for the Tories in the key marginals, three points ahead across the country . . .

BROWN: The polls go up and down, I've got no doubt we'd win an Election. I would relish the chance, obviously, to scrutinise and examine and forensically show how the Conservatives' policies would bring economic disarray to this country.

But, you know, as Prime Minister you have got a power and you have got a responsibility. Your power is that you alone make a decision about Election.

The responsibility, however, is to listen to people and to exercise that power with responsibility. So yes, I think I had a responsibility to consider it, to listen to what people were saying, to listen to what the opposition parties were saying, to listen to what people in my own party wanting an Election were saying, to listen to the public, I believe the public, the priority was not an Election but . . .

BROWN: But having made the decision I made it for the reasons I am saying. I want the chance to show the country that we have a vision for the future of this country and yes I could have a mandate or want a mandate for competence; but I want a mandate to show the vision of the country that I have is being implemented and practised.

MARR: Two weeks ago, apart from being ahead in the polls, what was the case for a General Election?

MARR: But . . .

BROWN: You've got to consider what the people put to you, as I say you have got a power as Prime Minister and all Prime Ministers have that power but you cannot exercise that power without listening to people, without considering what they have to say.

MARR: But your advisers were suggesting you went.

BROWN: Erm, there were people saying that you should go, there were people saying you shouldn't go. But you know, I made the decision for a different reason.

The decision I have made is because I want to get on with the job of change in this country and I believe I have got to show people that we are implementing the changes in practice and I believe that what we are really talking about now in Britain is the rising aspirations of British people.

They have got to be met in housing and home ownership, they have got to be met in education, they have got to be met in the health service and I want the chance to develop and show that the policies that we are developing for this will make a real difference, will make a real change in this country."


Thanks to the Mail on Sunday for the transcript.

This is not a complete transcript buut if you want to here the whole interview then you watch it in two parts at the end of this posting.


Andrew Marr lets Gordon Brown repeat his claims about a £5billion black hole in the Conservative plans without challenging him at all. The claim last week was £3.5billion black hole but I suppose we all know that the real rate of inflation in Brown's Britain is rather high. Just remember that £5billion sounds a lot but is less than 1% of Government spending. I have worked around accountants for all of my working life and if an Financial Director of a large company couldn't make a 1% saving in costs without damaging the company he would be a very poor Financial Director; I suppose the only conclusion we can draw from this is that Gordon Brown is a very bad Financial Director of Great Britain PLC.

You can read earlier criticism of Andrew Marr's poodle interviewing here, this time Andrew Marr's interview with Gordon Brown after the aborted Brownite putsch against Tony Blair.

A General Election in 2008?

I have been pondering this possibility for a while and Jan 1 seems a good time to publish. At the moment the political landscape looks poor for Gordon Brown but not yet terminally so. If the economy is about to nose-dive including house prices then the position will only get worse for Gordon Brown. An economic collapse would finish Gordon Brown's reputation off completely.

A possible tactic for Gordon Brown would be to go for a snap election to be held alongside the local elections on May 1, this would help get the Labour voters out and so reduce their losses in the local elections and maybe he could squeeze back albeit with a much reduced majority. Of course if the Conservatives did win the election it would be with a small majority at best and then Gordon Brown, New Labour and the BBC could try to pin the economic collapse on the Conservatives.

Ah but didn't Gordon Brown promise no election before 2009 in his interview with Andrew "poodle" Marr? Well no, he did leave some wriggle room - take a look at the transcript from the Andrew Marr show (my emphasis)

"ANDREW MARR: Before we leave the subject of election timing... For the benefit of clarity, since you are rejecting the idea of a mandate general election right at the beginning of your premiership, are you also rejecting the idea of a general election in next spring or next autumn? Can we at least have some clarity about the fact there's not going to be an election for a while?

GORDON BROWN: I think that's not likely that we'll have an election, because I want to get on with the business of governing.

ANDREW MARR: Not likely when, what's the period?

GORDON BROWN: Not likely this year, not likely whatever dates you were suggesting.

ANDREW MARR: Like next year?

...

ANDREW MARR: And can you, thinking about the next period, then at least reassure those people watching that unless there's some extraordinary cataclysm there will not be a general election called in 2008, even if a few opinion polls show you well ahead?

GORDON BROWN: Well that's unlikely, I've just said it's unlikely."


Unlikely...


I still think that it is unlikely that Gordon Brown will call an election, after all his decisiveness is hardly legendary BUT I think it more likely than it was in December.

Gordon Brown fails to answer a question - shock, horror!

Take a look at this video of David Cameron and Gordon Brown during the Queens Speech debate yesterday. Apart from David Cameron looking as though he is really enjoying besting Gordon Brown yet again, take a look at Gordon Brown's right hand during his non-answer about looking at the opinion polls before deciding not to call the election. He is pointing with his left hand but the right is clenched hard into a fist and is vibrating. Guy NEWS ask if he is cracking up or shaking with fear. I think neither; I think he is just desperately trying to hide his rage, he's been caught out and he wants to scream and shout and threaten all sorts but he needs to keep control. It's a shame there wasn't a PMQs today because a few more shots on target and this PM might just blow...



Do you think Gordon Brown answered the question? I think not, you can read that part of the debate here and judge for yourselves.


Maybe at the next PMQs, David Cameron could just ask that same question six times "Will he look across the Dispatch Box and tell us that he was not looking at the polls when he cancelled the general election?". Maybe every interviewer could ask Gordon Brown the same question when (or rather if) he deigns to be interviewed again. I assume that at some point Gordon Brown will be interviewed by someone other than a poodle or a comfy sofa "interview" with Richard and Judy or Des and Mel. Perhaps he could try Newsnight's Kirsty Wark if he wants a BBC/NuLab friend to go easy on him; I assume he isn't man enough to go face to face with Jeremy Paxman. Maybe this rumour about a planned interview with Russell Brand might suit him best of all.

The Prime Minister's official poodle

Andrew Marr - a study in interviewing technique

Feel the love poodle or attack dog - can you guess which party gets which approach?

Roger Harribin (update)

Further to this post on the poodle like qualities of Roger Harribin, here's some video from CNN Headline News that makes it all very clear...

Marxists in the Labour (shadow) Cabinet - off on a slight tangent

The subject of (former) Marxists such as Peter Mandelson and Alistair Darling serving in the last Labour cabinet is one that I have covered before and will again when I have got around to analysing the present mottley crew. However as an aside I have just read George Galloway in the Daily Record state that:

'Andrew Marr is a Scotsman and when I first met him he was a raving Marxist - a bit like Alistair Darling and Dr John Reid...

Nowadays Marr, the BBC man, is of course a pet poodle of the Establishment against which he once barked as a Scots terrier.

...

But it was when Andrew Marr - the former seller of Trotskyite newspapers - started laying in to Arthur Scargill that smoke came from my ears.

"Scargill was... a Marxist," exclaimed Marr in disgust, as if most miners' leaders throughout the 20th century hadn't been Marxists. And, of course, as if he hadn't been a Marxist himself.

...

a quarter of a century ago, I myself had a conversation with Andrew 'Marxist' Marr about this very subject, the destruction of the mining communities, this very man Scargill and, indeed, these very 'delusions' - that another world was possible but you had to fight for it.

Let's just say Marr, like Saul of Tarsus, has experienced a great conversion from one point of view to its diametric opposite. In which case he should be a man about it and, AJP Taylor-like, he should stand up in front of the cameras and state his case...

How he, a clever young Cambridge man, had spent years of his life as an absolutely deluded insurrectionist. But he knows better now.

Come to think of it, he's not a poor man's Taylor, he's a poor man's Andrew Roberts, the rabid, right-wing historian.'

An interesting accusation to make about Andrew Marr, I wonder how he would respond to such a claim about him having a Marxist past... Now having quoted George Galloway to support me, I feel I need a wash.

Andrew Marr

Guido reports that

"The Indy this morning has an interview with Andrew Marr, this passage made Guido laugh:

"I can be exceedingly aggressive when I want to be," he says, claiming that encounters with Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling on his Sunday morning BBC1 programme, The Andrew Marr Show, "were as aggressive as any interview you will have seen for a long time"."

I felt compelled to comment on Guido's site and here is my response:

"Marr is a Labour poodle of the highest order. Maybe because he did not actually go down on both knees and suck Gordon's knob until the juices ran down his ears (per your cartoon), Marr thinks that counts as him being aggressive.

The BBC's pro-Labour bias disgusts me and I am fed-up with having to pay for the BBC to spout the pro-Labour/anti-Conservative propaganda that they broadcast day in day out. As the general election gets closer we can look forward to the attacks on Tory sleaze increasing in intensity and frequency. I only hope that come June 2010 David Cameron has the balls to launch a proper independent investigation of the BBC, one with the scope to investigate all BBC bias and to recommend prosecutions (or at least censure) of those that have broken the impartiality requirements of the BBC Charter. I look forward to seeing a number of high ranking BBC figures, both management and journalistic in court and maybe even in prison, but maybe I am being unrealistic.

Do I sound pissed off? That's because I am pissed off. I'm pissed off with the BBC's endless attacks on TORY SLEAZE whilst downplaying any stories about Labour sleaze. The BBC's attacks on Boris Johnson's team are in such contrast with the way that the BBC soft-soaped any references to allegations of corruption in Ken Livingstone's team, that only a fool or a knave could claim there was no bias.

I am pissed of with the pro-Palestinian propaganda and the anti-Israel bile that emanates from the BBC. The BBC know what they are doing when they denigrate the only democracy in the Middle East and by extension the Jewish inhabitants of that Country.

The BBC that I loved, the BBC of quality Radio 4 programming and BBC TV programmes that do not just cater for the lowest common denominator, does still exist but only in the margins. In general the intelligent unbiased BBC is hidden beneath the facistic left-wing group view of the rest of the BBC. For every "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" or "Just a Minute", for every "In Our Time" or "The Archers", for every "Dr Who" or "David Attenborough" there is a biased piece of reporting by Roger Harribin or Andrew Marr or a "Question Time" panel biased to the left with an audience to suit, or a 5Live phone-in devoted to the absolute certainty of Global Warming (no dissent to be tolerated), or yet another segment on "Today" devoted to the wonders of Cuba's medical system or Hugo Chavez or multi-culturalism or the failings of American foreign policy, or there will be another George Bush is an incoherent moron "joke" on "The News Quiz" or "The Now Show".

It's brainwashing, it's bias and I have had enough."

My apologies for the rather tasteless oral sex reference, you will need to look at Guido's cartoon for it to make sense.

Adam Boulton on Gordon Brown's interview with Andrew Marr

This is a transcript of the Sky TV news interview with Adam Boulton following Andrew Marr's poodle type interview with Gordon Brown. I think it shows that Andrew Marr and Gordon Brown are both held in really high esteem by Sky News and Adam Boulton in particular.

"Adam, one of the key points of that [interview] seemed to be the way [Cameron] started it, talking about Gordon Brown 'cancelling' the election. Presumably that's a message the Conservatives want to get through?"

[Adam Boulton] "They do and to be fair to them, it's a point they can make with some justification. In the coming days people will talk about media hysteria and the media ramping up this election.

"Let's be in no doubt about it: The reason why we were on election standby was because very senior officials close to Gordon Brown, and indeed Cabinet Ministers, told all of us that they were preparing for a general election and, if the polls were good enough, that general election would be called.

"Gordon Brown had the opportunity - I myself said to him 'If you want to stop this speculation, just say that there's not going to be an election this year' - he refused to do so at the time of his conference.

"This has nothing to do with the media. The reason why everyone has been so excited about a general election is the governing party - the Labour Party - and senior members and officials of it, have said that is what we are doing. Therefore, one can only say, now that Gordon Brown has finally said that he's calling off a general election, that the reason is, as they said to us, that the polling data is not there.

"All the talk about running the country, spelling out the future and all that, is so many words."

[Question to AB from the studio about Brown not having an election this year or next]

"Well, it's certainly what the Prime Minister said in his interview with Andrew Marr...he agreed with that. Again, it's an extraordinary situation, isn't it, that we don't know, even although we know what the Prime Minister's done, we don't know precisely how he said it.

"He's not like David Cameron, stepping out of his front door and talking to the cameras live. He's done some sort of interview that's apparently going to be held overnight. So, again, from that sort of style, people might draw their own inferences on who is on the defensive and who's on the front foot at the moment.

"And of course, it's an oppportunity David Cameron probably dreamed of, to come out of his front door, with some credibility and to accuse the Prime Minister of [Adam Boulton reads off his notes] 'indecision, weakness, humiliating retreat, opportunism and spin'.

"I mean, this is the disaster that Team Brown have brought on themselves by their hubris of thinking that they can go for a general election and winning it, and then bottling it when they see the polls are not so good. I mean, it is, whatever else, it will call into question the judgement of Team Brown and also their sincerity when they talk about the national interest because of the political caclulation which they have clearly now been caught by the headlights."

[Question from the studio about whether there is a crisis in Team Brown, given the advice he has received from his young advisers]

"It's all very well calling them young advisors. Let's remember that they are Cabinet Ministers - Ministers of the Crown - people like Ed Balls and Ed Milliband and of course, Douglas Alexander. All of them occupy lofty offices of state so their age doesn't really matter. They are very senior figures, apparently."
...
"At one level, this has been a political storm in a tea cup because at the end of it, Gordon Brown still has a healthy majority - he can still govern for 2 years or more - Britain is much the same today as it was 24 hours ago BUT if you're talking about trust in government, trust in the judgement of the people who are at the very top, there's no doubting it, they've shot themselves in the foot."


Thanks to CWOblog for that transcript.

More on the Prime Minister's official poodle

Andrew Marr, you have lost the last vestige of credibility. Your "interview" with Gordon Brown was a journalistic disgrace but I see that your political bias has been questioned before...

Media analysts David Edwards and David Cromwell, in their book "Guardians of Power", cite this statement by Marr on BBC news in 2003, after the coalition invasion of Iraq, as evidence of Marr's bias:

"I don't think anybody after this is going to be able to say of Tony Blair that he's somebody who is driven by the drift of public opinion, or focus groups, or opinion polls. He took all of those on. He said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result."[5]


The same critics also presented comments written by Marr in The Observer newspaper in 1999 as evidence of Marr's lack of impartiality during the Kosovan crisis :

"Having said that I thought it was disastrous to start with, and I do, I want to put the Macbeth option: which is that we're so steeped in blood we should go further. If we really believe Milosevic is this bad, dangerous and destabilising figure we must ratchet this up much further. We should now be saying that we intend to put in ground troops. I don't believe this stuff about the Serbian army being an undefeatable, extraordinary, superhuman group.".[6]


Whilst writing his column in The Observer newspaper, Marr expressed a number of political views. In 1999, Marr defended the implementation of the Race Relations Act after the Stephen Lawrence enquiry stating :

"And the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain 'natural' beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off." [7]


In October 2006 Andrew Marr said: "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias."[10]


5. David Edwards and David Cromwell. Guardians of Power. p.53
6. David Edwards and David Cromwell. Guardians of Power. p.71
7. Marr, Andrew. "Poor? Stupid? Racist? Then don't listen to a pampered white liberal like me?", The Observer, 1999-02-28.
10. Walters, Simon. "We are biased, admit the stars of BBC News", Daily Mail, 2006-10-21.

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill - third reading

I was preparing an expose of the sheer lack of respect for Parliament shown by this Labour government yesterday when they crammed the whole of the report stage and the third Reading of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill into just one day of debate, then I came across John Redwood's piece and suddenly I lost the will to wade through Hansard. So go and read John Redwood's article instead and wonder at how Gordon Brown is turning out to be even less of a fan of democracy in the UK than Tony Blair was.

As John Redwood concludes his article: "Mr Brown said all the right things at the beginning of his term as PM, claiming he wanted to rebuild trust in Parliament and politicians, and wanted parliament to have a more central role. This week, yet, again, by his actions in stopping debate on what we want to talk about and inviting debate on what he wants to talk about he has shown he does not want a stronger Parliament, but a poodle Parliament."

Roger Harrabin

Pop over to Bishop Hill to see how the BBC's Environment Correspondent Roger Harribin reacts to emails from an environmental campaigner demanding changes to an article he had written for the BBC website. "Have a look in 10 minutes and tell me you are happier - We have changed headline and more."

It would seem that Roger Harrabin like Andrew Marr is something of a poodle.

Barack Obama - Building a Religion

That's Cake with "Building a Religion"

"We are building a religion,
We are building it bigger
We are widening the corridors and adding more lanes
We are building a religion.
A limited edition
We are now accepting callers for these pendant keychains
To resist it is useless,
It is useless to resist it
His cigerratte is burning but it never seems to ash
He is grooming his poodle
He is living comfort eagle
You can meet at his location but you'd better come with cash

Now his hat is on backwards. He can show you his tattoos
He is in the music buisness he is calling you "DUDE!"

Now today is tomorrow and tomorrow's today
And yesterday is weaving in and out
And the fluffy white lines that the airplane leaves behind
Are drifting right in front of the waning of the moon

He is handling the money. He's serving the food
He knows about your party. He is calling you "DUDE!"

Now, do you believe in the one big sign?
The double wide shine on the boot hills of your prime
Doesn't matter if you're skinny. Doesn't matter if you're fat.
You can dress up like a sultan in your onion-head hat

We are bulding a religion. We are making a brand
We're the only ones to turn to when your castles turn to sand
Take a bit of this apple, Mr. Corporate Events
Take a walk through the jungle of cardboard shedies and tents
Some people drink pepsi. Some people drink coke. (coke)
The wacky morning d.j. says democracy's a joke.

He says now, "Do you believe in the one big song?"
He's now accepting callers who would like to sing along
He says, "Do you believe in the one true edge?"
By fastening your saftey belts and stepping towards the ledge

He is handling the money. He is serving the food.
He is now accepting callers. He is calling me "DUDE!"

Do you believe in the one big sign?
The double wide shine on the boot hills of your prime.
There's no need to ask directions if you ever lose your mind
We're behind you. We're behind you.
And let us please remind you
We can send a car to find you
If you ever lose your way

We are bulding a religion...
We are bulding it bigger...
We are building............... a religion.......
A limited edition
We are now accepting callers for these beautiful pendant keychains "

The Obama worship in much of the US and indeed elsewhere scares me, it has too many resonances of the worshipping of such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao and others.