An unholy alliance?
As news broke this week that Margaret Thatcher was returning to Downing Street to take tea with the present incumbent, Benedict Brogan wondered – in the light of Gordon Brown’s recent appointments – whether there was an ulterior motive: “Mr Brown has already riled the Tories by claiming that he – and not David Cameron – is a conviction politician of the Iron Lady mold. Might he go one step further today and find a task force for her to chair?”
While, The Huntsman wondered if the meeting of minds was not for a simpler reason: “Perhaps he is asking what he should do with those pesky unions as he faces his very own ‘Winter of Discontent’.”
The cosying-up of Thatcher and Brown was variously seen by the Right as a rallying call to a damning indictment of Cameron. Many on the Left saw it as a betrayal of Old Labour by Brown, but Snowflake5 was more philosophical: “Some in Labour will raise eyebrows at this, given the hurt she inflicted on the country in the early 80s. But we’re comfortably in power now, and vengeance isn’t part of the Labour character. We can afford to be magnanimous and kind to a very old lady who is clearly still upset at events of the past.”
In an interesting analysis of the political tactics at the heart of the meeting between the two “conviction politicians”, Dizzy Thinks began: “The master strategist and tactician Brown does it again and has turned the lady who was not for turning they say. Brown has played Cameron for the pygmy chump that he is.”
But concluded: “Gordon Brown may very well be a master strategist and tactician, but yesterday his ego and overriding desire to destabilise Cameron exposed his flank, and a superior master of the game exploited it savagely.”
In a two-pronged attack on the Conservatives on the day they launched the Blueprint for a Green Economy, Labour announced they would be hiring Saatchi & Saatchi (of “Labour isn’t working” fame) for their election campaign.
Guido Fawkes saw the move as a cynical reaction to the perception of modern politics: “The Times reports Populus research which shows that Brown is perceived by voters to have moved to the right and Cameron’s Conservatives are perceived to have moved to the left. So with increasingly little difference between the brands, it may all come down to marketing.”
Meanwhile, Will Howells has suggested a couple of failed Saatchi & Saatchi campaigns which may have been taken to LDHQ (“Not merciless, just Ming”) and CCHQ (“Not anything really. Just Dave”).
This also appears at www.newstatesman.com/blogs/best-of-the-politics-blogs.
While, The Huntsman wondered if the meeting of minds was not for a simpler reason: “Perhaps he is asking what he should do with those pesky unions as he faces his very own ‘Winter of Discontent’.”
The cosying-up of Thatcher and Brown was variously seen by the Right as a rallying call to a damning indictment of Cameron. Many on the Left saw it as a betrayal of Old Labour by Brown, but Snowflake5 was more philosophical: “Some in Labour will raise eyebrows at this, given the hurt she inflicted on the country in the early 80s. But we’re comfortably in power now, and vengeance isn’t part of the Labour character. We can afford to be magnanimous and kind to a very old lady who is clearly still upset at events of the past.”
In an interesting analysis of the political tactics at the heart of the meeting between the two “conviction politicians”, Dizzy Thinks began: “The master strategist and tactician Brown does it again and has turned the lady who was not for turning they say. Brown has played Cameron for the pygmy chump that he is.”
But concluded: “Gordon Brown may very well be a master strategist and tactician, but yesterday his ego and overriding desire to destabilise Cameron exposed his flank, and a superior master of the game exploited it savagely.”
In a two-pronged attack on the Conservatives on the day they launched the Blueprint for a Green Economy, Labour announced they would be hiring Saatchi & Saatchi (of “Labour isn’t working” fame) for their election campaign.
Guido Fawkes saw the move as a cynical reaction to the perception of modern politics: “The Times reports Populus research which shows that Brown is perceived by voters to have moved to the right and Cameron’s Conservatives are perceived to have moved to the left. So with increasingly little difference between the brands, it may all come down to marketing.”
Meanwhile, Will Howells has suggested a couple of failed Saatchi & Saatchi campaigns which may have been taken to LDHQ (“Not merciless, just Ming”) and CCHQ (“Not anything really. Just Dave”).
This also appears at www.newstatesman.com/blogs/best-of-the-politics-blogs.
posted by Owen Walker at 11:03 AM
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