Which of these sounds the most credible?

Quoted from kingofthekippers

I don't doubt that Labour has the best policies (I speak as lapsed member) but the problem is Gordon Brown. As it stands the image given off is of a man who can't even control his ministers (or ex-ministers as teh case may be), yet alone run the country. If his own colleagues hold him in contempt how do the electorate respond?

I want Labour to win the next election but they are a party in choas. As I say, the saddest thing in all of this is that the Tories have no policies whatsoever. For Labour the battle is not in winning the next election - which I think we can write off - but the one due in 2014/15.

I suppose one has to resign oneself to the fact that all good things must eventually come to an end.

Did you not watch the press conference on Friday? Gordan Brown looked, sounded and acted the best he has for a long time, he showed passion and strength, qualities required. So what he doesnt have a personality, come next June i dont think the general public will worry about that. They will just see a man trying his best and one that is doing well (hopefully)

Labour have a year to turn things around, they have some great oppertunities in that the recession is high on peoples minds along with this expenses crap, if they can do well with these two main things then all can be recovered, as you say the tories have no policies so it will be easy to discredit them on a campaign.

Has i have previously said, a year in politics is a long time. One other thing Labour have going for them is the fact all local councils are now run by opposition, so perform bad at local level and this will also help the Labour party.

Quoted from kingofthekippers

There's the problem. We now live in the era of 24 hour rolling news and with it, the soundbite. Brown is a politician of another era when TV had solid in-depth current affair programmes such as World In Action or This Week. In programmes like that Brown would shine; in recent interviews where even the PM is given only five minutes max, he fails to deliver. Unlike Blair his personality is not geared for the soundbite.

I take it you believe everything on the news then? Come on people are not stupid and they know not to believe everything on the news. Has for his personality see my previous post.

Quoted from lincolnsmariner

Did you not watch the press conference on Friday? Gordan Brown looked, sounded and acted the best he has for a long time, he showed passion and strength, qualities required. So what he doesnt have a personality, come next June i dont think the general public will worry about that. They will just see a man trying his best and one that is doing well (hopefully)

Labour have a year to turn things around, they have some great oppertunities in that the recession is high on peoples minds along with this expenses crap, if they can do well with these two main things then all can be recovered, as you say the tories have no policies so it will be easy to discredit them on a campaign.

Has i have previously said, a year in politics is a long time. One other thing Labour have going for them is the fact all local councils are now run by opposition, so perform bad at local level and this will also help the Labour party.

I don't know where to start with this. To me GB has aged dramatically in the last year; he looks like a man who, despite his words, has had enough. We live in an age where people do judge personality - more people voted in last years X-Factor than voted in the 2005 General Election. In another age Brown would have walked it but society is now conditioned to process facts in 30 seconds. No one is prepared to commit themselves to anything in-depth.

I agree the expenses issue, whilst a huge fuck-up, is nothing compared to what matters to the man on the street - the recession. But after 12 years in office Labour has to take the buck. As GB often likes to say it did start in America. But our reliance on cheap and easy credit, coupled with lax policing from the government of opur financial system has exposed us more than most. Who was responsible for this? Well, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was. Who was Chancellor when this occurred? Step forward one James Gordon Brown. It's stuff like this that will be thrown in his face.

It is debatable whether the recession will peter out as a U-shape or a double V - one recession, followed by growth, followed quickly by another recession - but people will remember who presided over it. Unemployment continues to rise. When people cannot feed their families, that's when they will vote elsewhere. The fact that the Tories have no policies means you struggle to pin them down on any potential failings - as I say, oppositions do not win elections, they sit back and wait for governments to lose them.

If a year is a long time in politics, a week is even longer (as Harold Wilson once noted). I wouldn't be surprised if Brown is gone by this time next week. And as for councils being run by the opposition being an opportunity for Labour you'll find that when such councils hit troubled waters they'll blame funding or interference from central government. What is more, it works. Labour councils did it in the past, Tory ones will do it now.

may be the worst situation will bring out the best in GB, the guy clearly does know what he is doing with his improvements he made to the economy when labour first came back into power, he seems to lacking the pazazz type effect that blair had, or the likeability...also he is missing one man...Alastair Campbell...i have n doubt that with him as his spin doctor GB could do very well and improve his status and presentation.


as for cameron, its all spin and intercourse all policies, as per usual...i fear for the country when i think of cameron as prime minister

Quoted from aldi_01

may be the worst situation will bring out the best in GB, the guy clearly does know what he is doing with his improvements he made to the economy when labour first came back into power, he seems to lacking the pazazz type effect that blair had, or the likeability...also he is missing one man...Alastair Campbell...i have n doubt that with him as his spin doctor GB could do very well and improve his status and presentation.


as for cameron, its all spin and intercourse all policies, as per usual...i fear for the country when i think of cameron as prime minister

WHS

Quoted from aldi_01

may be the worst situation will bring out the best in GB, the guy clearly does know what he is doing with his improvements he made to the economy when labour first came back into power, he seems to lacking the pazazz type effect that blair had, or the likeability...also he is missing one man...Alastair Campbell...i have n doubt that with him as his spin doctor GB could do very well and improve his status and presentation.


as for cameron, its all spin and intercourse all policies, as per usual...i fear for the country when i think of cameron as prime minister

Well I'd reserve judgement on that. Inflation, interest rates and unemployment were falling for a considerable period prior to Labour coming to power, all during the time when Ken Clarke was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Brown just capitalised on that and an increasing global liberalisation of credit (which you might have noticed went mammaries-up recently).

One of Brown's first acts as Chancellor was to sell large chunks of our gold reserves at what was widely percieved to be (and indeed was) the bottom of the market and contrary to advice from HM Treasury. Equally he scrapped tax breaks on share dividends which has been a significant factor in the destruction of many final salary company pension schemes -  and if that doesn't bother you now, it will one day (unless you work for tha State of course in which case the poor sods who work in the wealth-creating sector will have to pay you).

Significantly Brown, during his tenure as Chancellor, used to often emphasise the end of the 'boom and bust' policies of the Tory party but here we are witnessing the biggest bust since Jordan last left the plastic surgeon's. This has to lead people to question his judgement.

As an aside, nearly a third of poll voters believe in UFO's. In fact recorded 'sightings' of UFO's increase dramatically in periods of economic recession. And skirt lengths shorten during periods of economic growth.

Now you may say 'bollocks' but both are actually used in the Square Mile as some form of indicator of the economy.

Come on people wise up.

The answer is the Nessy, I've seen her!

BH.

UFO's.