I am not a sheep, I have my own mind
I have had enough of being told what and how to think
Whilst we are still allowed the remnants of free speech, I will speak out.
I also reserve the right to discuss less controversial matters should I feel the urge.
I suppose you might think it a little unfair to take the piss out of David Lammy so much today but there's so much material out there and he really does deserve to be taken down a peg or three.
If this had been a Conservative politician making such a fool of themselves then this would be repeated again and again on BBC topical news quizzes and other satirical programmes. However as it's a gaffe by a Labour politician, the BBC really aren't interested.
David 'Mastermind' Lammy strikes again. Look over your shoulder you pillock!
There seem to be many people speculating as to how the government or the House of Commons or the House of Lords could overrule the Brexit vote.
To all the people speculating and especially those like David 'Mastermind' Lammy who are actually calling for such anti-democratic action I refer them to the government's own EU Referendum leaflet which has this on page 14:
'This is your decision. The government will implement what you decide.'
'A Labour MP has apologised for claiming the BBC made a "silly innuendo about the race" of the next Pontiff.
David Lammy was commenting on a BBC Twitter message, which asked "will smoke be black or white?".
Mr Lammy, tweeting from the Commons chamber, said the BBC message was "crass and unnecessary".
He later apologised after Twitter users pointed out the role played by black and white smoke in announcing the election of a new Pope.'
Labour MP, and former minister, David Lammy is on BBC's Question Time tonight. I wonder if David Dimbleby would remind us of David Lammy's most famous TV performance, I am sure he would were David Lammy a Conservative politician...
13 points on Mastermind
The incredible general knowledge round starts at 4:22, or 5:16 if you'd rather miss John Humphry's adoring chat.
Q1: So easy - he got it wrong
Q2: Didn't know but would guess Jamaica
Q3: So easy
Q4: So easy - he got it wrong
Q5: Tricky
Q6: So easy - he got it wrong
Q7: So easy - he passed
Q8: Easy
Q9: So easy - he passed
Q10: Easy
Q11: So easy - he got it wrong
Q12: Easy
Q13: So easy - he passed
Q14: Easy
Q15: Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII, that's unlikely!
Q16: Tricky
Q17: So easy - he got it wrong
As of 17:30 update today: Diane Abbott - 5 (+ 2) - some movement at last as Diane Abbott garners nominations from Chinyelu Onwurah and Jon Trickett to add to her previous star-studded selection of Kelvin Hopkins, David 'Mastermind' Lammy and herself.
Ed Balls - 33 (no change) - still no nomination from Gordon Brown, can he not decide who to damn with his vote?
Andy Burnham - 20 (+ 1) - getting closer Andy, well done you.
John McDonnell - 7 (no change)
David Miliband - 62 (+ 3) - keeping the nominations nicely trickling in day by day and keeping ahead of his younger, even smugger, brother
Ed Miliband - 49 (+ 2) - smugly racking up some additional nominations
Rumour has it that John Cruddas is about to nominate Diane Abbott, thus maybe moving his acolytes to follow suit and so kill of John McDonnell's campaign.
For some analysis of the Labour leadership nominations process and where the extra nominations might go, may I recommend a read of this piece by Duncan Hall...
As of 17:30 update today: Diane Abbott - 1 (no change) - Just David 'Mastermind' Lammy, are you not going to nominate yourself Diane, not sure if you are the right candidate? Ed Balls - 33 (up 1) - he's there Ed Balls is in the competition, now UNITE can put their weight behind him in the Trade Unions ballot... Andy Burnham - 17 (no change) John McDonnell - 6 (no change) David Miliband - 54 (no change) - keeping ahead of his younger, even smugger, brother Ed Miliband - 45 (no change)
So who has fallen in behind Ed Balls this afternoon? Teresa Pearce - A new MP
So Ed Balls is over the finish line and all without having to rely on Gordon Brown's kiss of death nomination.
So a three way battle, Miliband senior (the smug one), Milband junior (the even smugger one) and Gordon Brown's protoge; what a choice.
As of 12:30 update today: Diane Abbott - 1 (up 1) - David 'Mastermind' Lammy finally works out how to nominate someone Ed Balls - 25 (up 1) - just one more so far today, running out of time and MPs Ed Andy Burnham - 14 (no change) John McDonnell - 5 (up 1) David Miliband - 53 (up 2) - keeping ahead of his younger, even smugger, brother Ed Miliband - 45 (down 1!) - How has he lost a nomination? My mistake yesterday or typical Labour party accounting skills?
So who's the new nominator of Ed Balls? It's Lyn Brown, another serial PPS and government whip and someone who until May 2009 rented a central London flat using the second home allowance, despite her constituency being only a few miles from Westminster.
So that's another member of the Gordon Brown regime signed up behind Ed Balls, he really is the continuity candidate isn't he. I wonder if he will need Gordon Brown's nomination in order to reach the 33 nominations target, now that would be embarrassing!
last night I posted what I believed to be the latest state of Labour nominations for the leadership as per the Labour party website. It seems that the site is woefully out of date and inaccurate (rather like the last Labour government). The Labour website still shows: Diane Abbott - 0 Ed Balls - 4 Andy Burnham - 1 John McDonnell - 0 David Miliband - 19 Ed Miliband - 35
Whereas I am informed that in reality the current state of play is that David Miliband now has over 100 nominations, Ed Miliband over 70, Ed Balls around 20, Andy Burnham around 15 and John McDonnell somewhere around 11. But Diane Abbott is about to be nominated by David 'Mastermind' Lammy. Why is the Labour party's website so out of date? Should we read anything into the Labour party's website under-reporting David Miliband's figures by so much?
Let's remind ourselves of Labour's Higher Education Minister's 'finest hour'... The incredible general knowledge round starts at 4:22, or 5:16 if you'd rather miss John Humphry's adoring chat. Q1: So easy - he got it wrong Q2: Didn't know but would guess Jamaica Q3: So easy Q4: So easy - he got it wrong Q5: Tricky Q6: So easy - he got it wrong Q7: So easy - he passed Q8: Easy Q9: So easy - he passed Q10: Easy Q11: So easy - he got it wrong Q12: Easy Q13: So easy - he passed Q14: Easy Q15: Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII, that's unlikely! Q16: Tricky Q17: So easy - he got it wrong
A fine intellect and I see why he is nominating that other intellectual giant Diane Abbott.
UPDATE: It seems that the BBC are also reporting the Labour party figures so maybe my informant was wrong. Either way can I put on record that I find Ed Balls repulsive, Ed Miliband vile, David Miliband intensely irritating, Andy Burnham too made-up and Diane Abbott a joke.
Labour party site to be updated at 12:30 and 17:30 every day...
Further to my pieces on David Lammy's woeful appearance on Celebrity Mastermind I see today that he has been caught out making two more woeful mistakes. First Dizzy Thinks finds that the Labour Minister for Higher Education doesn't know the difference between the two homophones "here" and "hear", well he has only got a Masters in law from Harvard (can that be true?). Second Matthew Norman in The Independent reports on David lammy's interview with Sarah Montague on the Today programme: "But do you agree, asked Sarah, with the basic premise that they need more cash? "Look, I don't want to get into what will rightly be the scenarios when we begin the independent review. But I would say..." Yes but forget the review, she interrupted as exasperation finally began to flirt with her larynx, do you agree they need more money?
"Look," said Mr Lammy, understandably irritated himself now at being expected, as minister for higher education, to have an opinion about higher education,
"it's a bit like asking a farmer whether he needs more land." Answers on the traditional postcard, please, you cryptographers out there. In the absence of the Enigma machine, Mr Lammy's Agrarian Code remains uncrackable to me.
He then accused Ms Monatague of pursuing him on the point not on behalf of school pupils who might want a steer as to whether they'll be able to afford the higher of education for which, lest I forgot to mention this, he is minister; but rather in a cynical BBC hunt for "banner headlines". Even by the standards of Mrs Bottomley in the dog days of Major, even compared to the "I've already been very clear..." obfuscatory gibberish spewed by Hazel Blears herself, this was a display of psychosis-inducing obtuseness and complacency. I'd call it a calculated insult to the public's intelligence, of the sort disclaimed above, but it's hard to accuse someone who answered "Henry VII" to 3) of being able to calculate anything at all."
As Matthew Norman goes on to say:
"How did it come to this? How did this country come to be governed by people whose knowledge of everything from fourth-form history to popular culture, sport and even cheese (the blue variety served with port, he posited, is Red Leicester) verges on the non-existent?
So many questions, so few answers. If whether higher education needs more funding or not is yet another to stump David Lammy, so be it. It's in excellent company. But if our universities should shortly join every other once-revered British institution on the one-way journey past the U-bend, we should be able to make a fair old stab at answering why."
It appears to me that David Lammy like a very large number of his colleagues in this Labour Government are living proof of the Peter Principle - the Peter Principle says that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence."
Further to my recent piece about David Lammy's quite appaling performance on Celebrity Mastermind, I saw that someone came to my site after Googling David Lammy Mastermind. David Lammy's own site fills results one and two whilst I am in position three.
I took a trip to David Lammy's site and there see that he manages to put a positive spin on his appearance:
"David’s specialist subject is Muhammad Ali. He chose to answer questions about the life and times of the famous boxer because Ali’s outstanding achievements as an athlete inspire other young men to strive for excellence in their own lives.
Appearing on the programme was a great opportunity to do something for ActionAid, an organisation which David has long supported. By taking part, David raised £2750 for the charity which will go towards its work to tackle the effects of poverty and change what keeps people poor.
Commenting on his TV appearance, David said:
“I am delighted to have been given the chance to take part in Celebrity Mastermind to do my bit for charity. "
No mention of his appaling performance in the General Knowledge round, maybe it's time to update your site David...
I got 7 right on his specialised subject of "Mohammed Ali" and 14 right on his general knowledge questions, making a total of 21 points. Not enough to win the competition that week but 8 more than a man who chose his specialist subject and is this country's Higher Eduction Minister.
Do watch the video for yourself and revel in the ignorance of this Minister of the Crown. Also enjoy remembering David Blunkett's even poorer performance some years earlier, if only that piece of video could be found.
Thanks to Iain Dale for the video spot, which has allowed to me to post this story.
