Thursday 8 May 2008

Strike up that brass band, let's have a party!

Another day, another farce.

Yesterday was interesting, including Ken Calman writing to everyone he's ever met to insist that he still matters and his Commission will still be ordering Hob-Nobs for meetings to talk about things that need talked about and peruse things that need perused before cogitating upon things which require a wee cogitation, but today was very special.

El Gordo, he of the Brownness, had replied to an epistle penned by Sir Dave of Cameron. In this witty rejoinder, Gordie the boy insisted that he and the Wendibles were united in their approach. Bad joke in any case, but it went too far when Helen Goodman had to read it out in the House of Commons and pretend it was serious. She was doing not bad until other MPs started laughing and that started her off.

That approach of saying "Well, Wendy favours an immediate referendum, I think Calman should report and can't possibly say I'm in favour of a referendum because that would shaft me good and proper on Lisbon among other things, but we're both absolutely in accord" is bizarre enough, but Labour spinners in Scotland took it a step further today.

Their approach has been to say that Her Wendibleness and His Gordia were actually in total agreement and the plan was working like a dream until the Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service, Prime Minister, etc, etc, etc, bottled it during questioning from Dave i' the Hood.

Excellent! Labour in Scotland picking a fight with Labour in London, demonstrating that neither of them have a clue. Up you could not make it.

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman made it very clear this morning:

Asked on an issue as important as the future of the United Kingdom, was the country not entitled to a simple yes or no answer to whether the Prime Minister wanted a referendum, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had answered the question in his own way.

Asked what the difficulty was with a simple yes or no answer, to whether the Prime Minister favoured a referendum as his answer could not be understood by any member of the public, the PMS replied that he thought it could be understood by members of the public. The Prime Minister was asked this question, there was a debate taking place in Scotland at the moment between the various political parties, and that was a very live debate. Separately there was a review taking place by Kenneth Calman looking at this, so the Prime Minister thought it was right that we should wait for the Calman Review and review progress in light of that.

Malcolm Chisholm cleared it all up though:
"There is absolutely no contradiction between what Gordon Brown said about Calman and what Wendy Alexander has been saying about a referendum," he said.
"Of course we need a choice, but we also need to have the Calman Commission to review, and I believe extend, the powers of the Scottish Parliament within the UK."
Clear as?

I'm also hearing that Labour is u-turning again and its MSPs are claiming now that they'll have to wait and see what the Referendum Bill says before deciding whether to support it or not. If they keep turning that quickly they'll end up with nosebleeds.
Brown has lost control of his party and Wendy never had control of hers. Bring on the General Election!

No comments: