Mighty Wind Cuts Through Brown Crap

Fear and loathing of Brown's rotting government are being exposed in a raft of devastating indictments delivered with a welcome breath of fresh air. As the rotten stench which lies at the heart of government is rounded on in unprecedented attacks of unity, the lies, deceit and downright dishonesty are finally being laid bare. But it has taken a mighty mistral wind to cut through all the Brown crap.

The discredited New Labour project is dead but it won't lie down. And that underpins the dilemma facing the fag-end of a government as the deluded prime minister looks set to implode. How can you round on Brown without destroying the brand?

But some are starting to have a jolly good go. They have no choice. 

Ministers, payroll MPs and their cronies know the game is up. Faced with the now certain outcome of a ballot box wipe-out, years of power will come to an end and with them go the Common Purpose cronies who've been stuffed into the huge wasteful quangoland, used to underpin and support a decade of deceit. 

Exposing Brown will expose the deceit and spin of the Blair years project but it's a chance they have to take.

The Orange Party has never subscribed to the argument of some political commentators who polarise battles into simplistic left and right politics. At the heart though is the rotting stench of spin and corruption at the heart of number 10. 

Writing in the Mail, Peter Oborne, one of the first to expose the political lying machine and one of last men standing to lose all faith in Brown, is now calling on Gordon to do the decent thing and sit down with a whisky and revolver:  

"Nothing can save Gordon Brown: So, who will hand Brown the loaded revolver and bottle of whisky?" Like Oborne, the Orange Party reckons that could come from Mandy's smoking gun. 

Love them or loath them, the game is up for the gang of chancers who after the shambles of the social democrat's Gang of Four" in the 1980s hadn't the guts to form their own party.  Instead they highjacked an off-the peg political movement which used to be called the Labour Party. 

And that's the disgrace which is coming back to haunt those who were taken in by the spin, those who just went along for the ride and those who now feel ashamed, running around, just  plain scared. 

One social democrat "Gang of Four" of Jenkins, Owen, Rodgers and Williams came and scurried off with their tails between their legs to their true Liberal home. 

Another "Gang of Four" of Blair, Campbell, Mandleson and Gould shoe-horned into its place, with Brown brought along to cook the books. 

Now blind panic from Blairites reveal their true social democrat colours, as more crawl out of the woodwork to condemn Brown's government and look to the LibDems for sanctuary. 

Spun as a fear that the Party could lurch to the 'left', it's more a fear that the bunch of cronies who highjacked the Party will be exposed as a bunch of crooks and thrown out on their ears. 

The worm has turned. Guardianista pseudo-liberals in the shape of Blair babe Polly Toynbee who once heaped praised on Brown now bleats it's: 'Gordon Brown: no ideas and no regrets': 

"Under his leadership Labour has become a rotten, defeatist rabble ... Many said he had neither the temperament nor the political skills for the top job. I was among those who hoped he had, because you have to live in hope.”  

But the most powerful indictment of Brown and Downing Street comes from author Nick Cohen's polemic in the social affairs magazine Standpoint, as New Labour's 12th anniversary in power is marked: 

"A movement that was committed to the democratic modernisation of Britain has imposed a Prime Minister who has not won a mandate at a general election nor secured for himself the smaller but still significant legitimacy that comes from fighting a contested leadership election within his own party. "

Writing about the 'Fear and Filth at Brown's Number 10', Cohen is not for the faint hearted but should be required reading for everyone from all colours of the political spectrum: 

"The only true suffering Brown has inflicted is on Britain's idea of itself ... we accept a PM who achieved power not through the ballot box but by bullying his critics and rivals. As with any other bully, all it would take to stop him is for his opponents to call his bluff. That for years hardly any have, says more about us than it does about him. "

Cohen finds few friends in the New Labour media elite as he rumbles their cushy and cosy world. 

But many of the comments to Cohen's article feel it was like a breath of fresh air. The Orange Party goes further. His mighty healthy mistral wind cuts through the crap of a stinking Brown summer. 

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Chaos In Brown's Big Brother House

Chaos descended on the commons as the muddy waters of MPs' mirky expenses were swamped in a mire of meaningless mayhem, after deluded Brown's foolish attempt to stamp his lost authority on parliament, the Party and the people ended in another climbdown.

Putting his authority on the line and with the anti-sleaze watchdog boss already telling him to stick his expenses, the dead man walking had already lost the debate, lost the plot and the Party has lost the will to live.

MPs want this sordid mess settled before facing the wrath of voters on the doorstep and are looking to the independence of the watchdog to get themselves out of the mess and off the hook.

But instead, in a remarkable act of self-deluded grandeur, Brown urged MPs to show "some humility" over expenses claims but showed none himself.

Already smarting from his foolish YouTube video, his smiley plan to pay MP's a fat-cat bonus for turning up for work was doomed from the start.

So up popped his house cheerleader, Harriet Harman, to announce the government now supported the bright idea for MPs to hold their fire until the independent review had been published. As for the per diem forget it.

That led many to ask: What's the point of continuing with the farce? Why do we need Brown's vote on piddling interim odds and ends? Why the sudden rush to close that review down? What have they got to hide?

U-turns, climbdowns and showdowns are one thing but after yesterday's humiliating defeat at the hands of the Gurkhas, a second thumping was well out of order.

The threat had come from a Tory amendment to hold fire until the outcome of a review by the committee on standards in public life, headed by Sir Christopher Kelly, who'se already crossed swords with Brown on the issue.

Forced to face up to reality and instead of getting a deserved kicking, Brown and his bunch of ministers and pay-roll MPs were forced into a second climbdown in 24 hours. New Labour did the honourable thing and caved in.

Brown and his ministers wants the whole scandal closed down with a firm lid before the full horror of all MPs receipts are laid bare in July and, even with the crucial bits blanked out, the proverbial hits the fan. Too right they do.

What horror stories will emerge? Who's dirty washing will be hung out in public? Who's been fiddling away in their two homes with a taxpayer-funded lavish lifestyle? Who's been having it away on an awayday at the taxpayers expense? Who'll be forced to resign in shame?

As the storm clouds gathered over parliament, Brown's future was in the balance and MPs trotted rapidly into the realms of "utter lunacy" over per diem, the Tories were quick to carpe diem:

"This is a clear acknowledgement from the Government that the tide of opinion is running against it. The situation has confused backbench MPs on all sides who clearly feel that the Government is tying itself in knots on this issue."

This shamed government had already been brought crashing to its knees by the Gurkhas as a feared alliance of Tories, LibDems and backbench Labour MPs threw out minister's indecent plans and cast further doubts on Brown's authority and grip on power.

Today beleaguered Brown simply avoided a battle to avoided defeat but he's already lost the war.

Confused? You are not alone. What will today's shambles mean for the scandal of MPs' expenses? Not a lot. How will it all end? In tears.

Picture: Front cover, Private Eye

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Gurkha Victory Brings Brown To His Knees

A shamed government has been brought crashing to its knees by the Gurkhas, as a deadly alliance of Tory, LibDem and Labour MPs threw out minister's indecent plans and cast further doubts on Brown's authority.

In what New Labour feared most, a deadly alliance of Tories, LibDems and backbench Labour MPs rounded on the fag-end of a government on an issue which has the backing of the whole country.

Cries of 'resign' from some and gasps from others echoed round the chamber as the ayes were announced.

MPs voted by 267 to 246 in favour of a LibDem motion that all Gurkhas should be offered an equal right of residence.

The humiliating defeat in the commons will send shock waves through Westminster as the government's hard-nosed policy of restricting the right of former Gurkhas to settle in the UK was rounded on as a shameful disgrace.

What a useless pair they are - a deluded Brown and his hapless home secretary. Fancy picking a fight with the Gurkhas. MPs and the whole country had united over a regiment which is so dear to the hearts and respected by everyone.

This Dad's Army bunch of ministers and pay-roll MPs led by corporal Brown deserved their comeuppance. According to Lib Dems, some 28 Labour MPs along with Tories voted for their motion to scrap "shameful" rules, despite last minute clumsy concessions offered to rebel Labour MPs, with a high number of abstentions swinging the vote.

The defeat is also a further nail in the coffin for two homes secretary Smith, who's already facing fury over her expenses fiddles and the heavy-handed handling of the Damian Green home office scandal.

As Brown's power ebbs away, he faces a further test tomorrow as MP's vote on what's left of his muddled MPs' expenses non-solution.

In a rare sight, Clegg and Cameron looked relaxed together, with a delighted Clegg saying: "This is an immense victory on a series of fronts: for the rights of Gurkhas who have been waiting so long for justice, a victory for Parliament, a victory for decency."

Cameron said it was "embarrassing" for the prime minister because his efforts to strike a "shoddy deal" with Labour rebels had failed.

A mere 36,000 former Gurkhas have been denied residency because they served in the British army before 1997. The home office reckoned new rules would allow just 4,300 more to settle but the Gurkha Justice Campaign said it would be more like a paltry 100.

Brown should have heeded the warning from Army chiefs over the Gurkhas: I don't know what they'll do to the enemy but they sure scare the hell out of me.

Picture: A rose between two thorns. Clegg and Cameron with Gurkha Avenger Joanna Lumley outside Parliament

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100 Days Of Obama Hype

A media rush to grade Obama is underway as the Messiah hits the magic 100 days with only a brave few unmasking his mistakes. Much of the media plays up the Special One's special place in history. But his Audacity of Hype has left a dangerous precedent, with a president personally more popular than his policies.

Presidents regard it as a pain but ever since Roosevelt, 100-days has been marked up but never picked over with such vigour and relish. 

Pundits are filling out report forms. The US blogosphere is awash with comment. The usual Obamabots are jumping in to defend Barry but it seems not in such force as during the frenzied election campaign.

The US media and bloggers have set out their stall. CNN will air a 'special', several hours long this week. Here the BBC has been a running an online diary staffed up to the hilt and full of the usual gushing, one-sided propaganda along with it's own biased report-card.

Anyone who still refuses to toe the line is often branded a rampant Republican. But what many still find difficult to reconcile is how can any liberal or leftie not support, worship and fawn over the Chosen One? 

The answer lies in the cult of personality. Obama swept to power on the back of a wave of popular admiration, stirring speeches and heady rhetoric. He talked the talk, walked the walk, captured the dreams and hopes, hearts and minds of many Americans - and captured their vote. 

But with the cult of personality comes dangerous evangelical admiration for your man who can do no wrong. Power can lead to smug arrogance. Doing what you think is right for no other reason than because you think you know it's right. We've had one here before. He was called Tony Blair. 

That pressure of personality over policies forced the incoming president to make ill-judged, hasty decisions for short-term political advantage, as Obama tried to assuage the baying crowds of adulating followers crying out for more.

To mark the 100 days millstone, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll shows three in four Americans feel Obama has the personal qualities a president should have. But when asked whether Obama agrees with the respondent on the issues, that number drops to 57 percent.

What the US public finds most controversial about Obama are his policies, much more than his personal qualities.

"Now that Obama is president, the number who agree with his views on the issues has gone down, while the number who say he has the right personal qualities has gone up," observed CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The sheer volume of initiatives for both domestic and foreign policy has been overwhelming. They've been picked over, picked on, selected and rejected ad nauseam. CNN's Julian E. Zelizer is among many with a near rational take to mark the milestone millstone. 

But in reality it can take years for the effects and consequences of policy decisions made now to hit home and abroad.

For a brief period, the president has enjoyed the clean slate of a honeymoon as Democrats push through their pet agenda, before the party political battles set in and the administration gets bogged down.

The fear and danger for the Democrats is that the Obama administration will push too far, too fast, getting the backs up of Congress and weakening the Party during midterm elections. 

Obama's mantra of “change” was just another election slogan and it's politics as usual in Washington. But it's left Americans and politicians polarised. For some he's a two-faced, ruthless, snake-oil salesman from the Windy City and the hype hurts. For others he's a god that can do no wrong. The Orange Party's views on that are decidedly atheist.

The president still thinks he's on the campaign trail and he's getting very boring. The final prize is already his but that heady feeling when you think you can do anything, say anything you like to get the vote still lingers and is wearing very thin. 

Only 100 days in office? It's difficult to keep track of the mistakes made along the way.

But those nice people over at the New York Post have done just that with their take on the two-faced mistakes of the boring teleprompter-in-chief's first 100 days in office.

The list just scratches the surface. Everyone has their own favourites but missing are the Orange Party's big and costly Obama mistakes: Escalating the war in Afghanistan and prolonging the war in Iraq (from 2010 to 2011).

No-one has the magic touch. Not even the new Messiah and certainly not after a mere 100 days. What is key is what happens in the second and third 100 days, if he lasts that long, as the election shine fades and the politics over the administration's agenda really kick-in and harden.

Can Obama sustain the momentum as did Roosevelt, ending with his 1936 election landslide, or will he do a Carter and see his political strength from these early days, sap away?

 

For many, Obama remains just as much of a mystery and as Zeilzer says his mission has been graded "incomplete." After 100 heady days of spin and hype, the Orange Party still holds the view expressed here on November 5, 2008: God Bless America - And God Help Her Now. 

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Brown Down But Is He Out?

Battered Brown returns from the peace of his self-inflicted exile to face the wrath of the commons and the country as his power ebbs away. Is he really that well-prepared to take the flak? 

All around him ministers old and new jockey for position, trying to come up smelling of roses but power would have to be prised from Brown's cold dead fingers.

Events in politics have a nasty habit of turning up when you least expect them but when the events are of your own making something is seriously, masochistically wrong. 

The media frenzy over swine flu which has captured the headlines will soon abate and the Supreme Leader will return to being the cunning political fighter he is, living and breathing ways to wrong-foot the Tories. It's in his blood. Clinging on to the bitter end until someone or something forces him out. And even then it won't be his fault. 

But the U-turns are coming thick and fast from all quarters. The Blair boys are on the march again. That's good for ministers past and present who have an eye on the main prize but seriously bad for Brown. 

The deluded prime minister has only himself to blame. 

Suddenly popping up in Pakistan after hiding away in Camp Bastian is no way to run a country still reeling from the fantasy budget. Not content with a snub from the Pakistan president, he's popped up in Poland to be given a resounding no to his economic masterplan by the Polish prime minister. 

What's needed in times of recession depression is a trusted hand on the economic tiller not someone playing at commander in-chief. 

Brown's half-baked car crash TV plan for the MPs allowances scandal ended in tears, as he was forced to abandon the not so bright and dim idea to pay MPs a fat cat bonus for turning up to work yet he is still trying to push through a half-baked solution. 

But just where did this silly scheme come from? Who's idea was it to throw caution and democracy to the wind and make him look a complete fool on YouTube? 

While the prime minister was far away in La-La Land, have a go Harman came up with her own brand of political posturing and a daft plan for her pet equality project. Fine for the boom years but not quite what is needed during a biting recession.

The New Labour elite is doing what it always does in times of trouble - trying to feather its own nest and tear itself apart in the never ending story of the battle of the Browns and the Blairs. 

And boy are the Blairites crawling out of the woodwork, all in the name of Progress. 

Already former cabinet minister Stephen Byers is denouncing the Brown/Darling's tax rise plan as an "elephant trap". Health secretary Johnson is pushing himself forward as the down to earth voice of reassurance which belies his despised Blair credentials. 

Now former home secretary, David Blunkett, says the government should scrap plans to introduce ID cards, former Blair hitman John Reid is back in the frame, if you believe anything you read in the sad old Mirror and Charles Clarke is sticking the boot in Brown over the MPs' expenses row with his usual two penneth. 

Blairites brief against Brownites. Brownie against Blairites, with Balls leading the smearing pack and the country is left to the dogs.

The only saving grace in the recent days shenanigans has been justice minister, Jack Straw, who at least had the good grace to come to the house of commons to announce plans to scrap the wasteful and scary Titan prisons and earn himself a few brownie points. 

Two homes secretary Smith couldn't be bothered, making do with a written statement but still back-tracking on her Big Sister plans for a big computer to prying into all our emails and website visits. Not keen to go to the commons but all over the media like a rash.

That all leaves Brown high and hung out to dry but he still doesn't get it.  

The Labour Party died with John Smith, highjacked by a bunch of chancers, the Gang of Four kept the brand going by the superb showmanship of Blair, sinister spin of Campbell, shifty skulduggery of Mandelson and political strategy of Gould, all propped up with a smattering of crafty accounting by Brown who was never really one of the gang. Without smiley Blair up front it was doomed.  And the boys are all back in town.

New Labour has survived through a mixture of arrogance and its own self-delusion. Convincing itself with the rhetoric that it was indeed ‘The People's Party’, it has taken its eye off the political ball and lost its way, while true Labour buried its head in the sand and went along for the ride. 

The Labour Party is now so shallow but that won't stop it drowning in its own puddle.

The Tories are biding their time waiting in the wings as the government-in-waiting. Regardless of party politics, Cameron is right on one very important pronouncement - New Labour has simply been in power far too long.

The Balls' in Brown's court but it seems his ex-treasury side-kick is among the few who is.  

The test of Brown's authority will come on Thursday when MP's vote on what's left of his muddled expenses non-solution.

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Swine Flu-Aren't You Pig Sick Of It?

The country's gripped by swine flu fever, the world is on the brink of a global disaster and ministers are milking it for all it's worth. Battered Brown is down with a bout of the U-turns. A dose of flu is just what the spin doctor ordered.

Hundreds die in our filthy hospitals, millions die of malaria around the world and no-one blinks an eye. But a few coughs and sneezes and the country goes crazy.

Overwritten, over-hyped and way over the top, the BBC proclaims: 'Too late' to contain swine flu. "The deadly swine flu virus can no longer be contained, says a WHO official, as the health agency raises its alert level." Scary stuff if it was true.

Dad's Army ministers are rushing around with corporal Johnson leading the fray - Don't Panic! Statements are made in the House, COBRA convenes in the bowels of Whitehall, newspapers clear the front pages and the headlines come thick and fast. Brown is on fine form promising to "do all he can to tackle the global crisis."

Does anyone really believe this swine flu fever is kosher? There's nothing like a global disaster of epic proportions to bury bad news and bad headlines - and this is nothing like a global disaster. Whipping up a fake crisis does wonders for pharma firms profits, set to make a packet out of anti swine flu vaccines.

The message is stay calm, everything is under control. Well yes of course we should and yes it is. There are enough stockpiles of anti-viral drugs and cute face masks to set a new fashion trend.

Brown's bunch has tried to play the terrorism card and that didn't work so how about a dose of flu.

You can just imagine what's going through the minds of Downing Street spinners as they press the panic button and swine fever wipes away the doom and gloom from the headlines at a stroke.

But where was the illustrious health secretary when thousands of people were dropping like flies from MRSA in our filthy hospitals?

Where was the outrage, accountability and responsibility from ministers when scores of NHS patients were killed during the country's deadly outbreak of the hospital C.Difficile superbug at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust?

And that's just here at home. What about the millions killed by malaria, filthy water supplies and heroin? Don't they count as full blown genuine world health emergencies.

The Orange Party was always taught that coughs and sneezes spread diseases - so trap them in your handkerchief.

The current outbreak tells more about the poverty and vast overcrowding in Mexico City, with a population of over 20 million struggling to cope with its health care system and a country caught on the hop without the resources to buy in and stock-pile anti-viral drugs which could allay nasty symptoms of flu.

If we've got enough to treat 33m people why not send a million over to Mexico to help them out? Or is that not the sort of global crisis Brown is keen to tackle?

Mexican health officials say the "suspected" death toll from swine flu had risen to 152 but of that number, only 20 have been confirmed as swine flu.

There have been a few cases in America and around the world and here in Scotland. But outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery. No-one outside Mexico has died.

This is clearly a nasty bug and people can die especially the old and vulnerable but flu outbreaks happen all the time.

The World Health Organisation is always on the alert for the next nasty around the corner and some, like Avian flu and SARS can be killers of epic proportion if they are not kept in check. But often the outbreak is down to the poverty, squalid living conditions and pathetically poor health care and hygiene rather than the bug itself.

Bird flu turned out to be a damp squib in this country with only a washed up dead swan to show for all the trouble. Here it's MRSA and C.Difficile which are the true indictment of the slowness of ministers to come to grips with our filthy hospitals aided and abetted by a target chasing management.

Interestingly it's the Sun which today puts it all into perspective. Often derided for working on the tried and trusted principle of 'Never let the facts get in the way of a good story', it's the Sun wot doesn't flam it up.

As Fergus Shanahan puts it: "But the scare does give Brown a breather after his lousy Budget. If he really wants the sympathy vote, I wouldn’t put it past him to start sneezing himself. No doubt his sleazy aides have already suggested it."

Though it seems the PM is taking no chances as he prepares to face the wrath of the commons and the country.

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