Friday, January 21, 2011

After Johnson

A few quick-fire reflections on the implications of Alan Johnson's departure as Shadow Chancellor...

1) Blairism is dead. Again. For now. And not within the coalition government, unfortunately. But worth a hearty cheer, all the same.

2) Labour's top team has lost its best communicator, and now looks a little less likeable and 'normal' in general.

3) Our assumption that the departure of Brown and Darling would mean that the Labour leadership looks much less Scottish than for decades isn't quite as true as we thought it would be.

4) On the other hand, Douglas Alexander now sticks out like a sore thumb as the most over-promoted shadow minister since...well, the Gold Standard that was David Mundell.

5) Cancel point 4. I was forgetting Liam Byrne.

5 comments:

  1. I dunno about point 5, wee Dougie's only quality seems to be the capacity to rub people up the wrong way.

    And that voice....

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  2. I'd have to agree with 1971Thistle. That little unprompted anti-SNP tirade Mr Alexander gave us straight after retaining his seat last May was contemptable, even more so than Skeletor's one. Not to mention the fact that he was the man in charge of organising the 2007 election farce. If he's their best man for Shadow Foreign Secretary, then I believe I hear the sound of a barrel being scraped.

    Let's hope he's a bit better at international relations than Iain Gray!

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  3. Hmmmm Doug, it is a hard one to call. Liam Byrne is a really, really revolting character. But he likes a coffee at 11 am.

    I suspect that my rubber plant would be much better at international relations, indeed at most things, than Iain Gray... .

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  4. Ezio Auditore da Baile Nighean SheadnaJanuary 22, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    Ed Miliband BEGGED me to be his new Shadow Chancellor via a seat in the Lords.

    I, of course, refused. I work only in the interests of the people of Florence. And the people of Shettleston.

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  5. You could always have destroyed Labour from within, Ezio. Now, that really would have been in the interests of Shettleston!

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