Gordon Brown is a very determined man
Dear Gordon Brown,
It wasn’t long after Kraft’s audacious takeover bid for Cadbury got the green light that the unions starting stomping their feet about potential job losses. The deal ends more than more than 150 years of independence for the maker of Dairy Milk, which will now be subsumed within the world’s second-biggest food company. Your response to the takeover underlined what a very determined man you are but, as I discovered yesterday, your determination to achieve something is not always a blessing.
Yesterday morning, you pronounced that the Government would act to ensure Cadbury’s 6,000 UK employees were not sacrificed as Kraft seeks a return on its investment. He said: “We are determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadbury in the United Kingdom are maintained and we are determined that, at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure.” Anyone with even a basic grasp of the world of business will know that your determination is, of course, worthless and Kraft can do whatever the hell they want. In fact, your determination appears to become something of a curse these days and often ends us making things a lot worse. Allow me to explain.
1st June 2009: Shortly after the expenses scandal, you said that you understood public anger over MPs’ expenses claims and were determined to “clean up” the political system. “I am going to get on with the job that I set myself. People know I am determined and people know I work hard and people know that I am not going to allow temporary setbacks to deter me from doing what is the right thing for the country.” So how did your determination work out, then? MPs threatening legal action, MPs still breaking the rules even after being given warnings, Sir Christopher Kelly’s proposals being watered down shortly after they were announced, no pressure from you to prosecute MPs who defrauded the taxpayer and MPs trying to pretend that the whole thing didn’t happen. Good job.
16th June 2009: Alongside your pledge to have broadband in every home in the UK, you told The Times that ”I am determined that Britain’s digital infrastructure will be world class.” We’re still waiting, Gordon. We’ve been waiting for 13 years.
23rd September 2009: With Charles Clarke piling on the misery and pushing for your resignation, you said: “Of course I’m going on. I mean, for goodness sake, I wouldn’t be having this interview with you if I wasn’t determined to get my message across to the British people. I hope that people will see by my actions the determination I have to work not just on behalf of the Labour Party but on the behalf of the British people.” No Gordon, we don’t see it. We don’t see you working on our behalf. Sure, we see income tax rises, NI rises, leadership coups, a faltering economy and rocketing national debt, but we don’t see much else because nothing else is really happening.
6th November 2009: As the pressure over your failure to give our troops the equipment that they need went up a few notches, you responded by saying that “I am determined that while it is inevitable that conditions change and our strategy must respond, the fundamental principle must remain that every soldier and unit deployed to Afghanistan is fully equipped.” Doesn’t exactly sit well with your sly defence budget cuts over the past few years, does it. What about those helicopters that you recently promised which won’t be delivered for years? What about wasting billions on MOD procurement? Yesteray, former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told the Chilcot Inquiry that in 2003, you insisted on a reduction in MOD spending, forcing him to make “difficult cuts” in orders for equipment including helicopters. Shame on you.
11th December 2009: A Treasury spokesman said: “It is wrong to suggest that there was any disagreement between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor about the PBR. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister have consistently said that they are determined to protect frontline services while halving the deficit over four years.” How strange, because I’m sure Mandelson and Darling have recently admitted (or, should I say, were allowed to admit following the failed leadership coup which forced you to make concessions) that spending is going to have be cut drastically in all areas with no mention of being able to protect all frontline services.
16th December 2009: It may not be possible to get a new deal over global warming at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, you admitted as the hilarity of the proceedings unravelled. You told the BBC the barriers were “huge” but “not insurmountable”, adding that ministers faced an “uphill struggle” but that you were determined to play your part in “bringing the world together”. Well, we all know how this one played out – your determination resulted in one of the most embarrassing international debacles in recent history with no real agreement, no concerted action and no meaningful solutions.
7th January 2010: Speaking to an audience of business leaders alongside Mandelson, you said the government’s new growth plan “starts with a determination to maintain a low interest rate and inflation environment.” Newsflash, Gordo, you don’t control interest rates and inflation just jumped by the highest level on record last month.
10th January 2010: After Peter Watt’s stinging criticism in the Mail on Sunday who are serialising his upcoming book on the Labour Party, you told the News of the World that “I am Prime Minister and am determined to remain so. I am determined, I am resolute. I am concerned that the contribution I have got to make to the future of our party and the country is one that should continue.” Yes, we’re concerned about you making a ‘contribution’ too, because whenever you open your mouth it always ends up causing more problems that it solves. We’re also very concerned that your ‘contributions’ will continue for several more months before you get booted out.
In reality, your determination often ends up leading to disaster and humiliation. Perhaps if you didn’t try so hard, which would mean not being such a complete control freak and kidding yourself that you are still relevant on the national and international stage, these epic failures wouldn’t occur on such a regular basis. You may well be determined to make things happen to cover up your mistakes and general incompetence, but do not underestimate how determined the British public is to make sure that you are out of a job in May.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
He is DeTerminator! He will derterminate you business! Beware!
“…which would mean not being such a complete control freak and kidding yourself that you are still relevant on the national and international stage…”
Can’t ask a leopard to change its spots, LfaT. Or a delusional control freak to stop being a delusional control freak.
Nice point LTAT. The words we use reveal what we are and I am sure, having read your piece, that his determination is where he gets his strength from and behind which he hides.
Good research for this LFAT which reveals starkly just how formlaic, and therefore lacking in credibility, are the mantras of G. Brown.
In a previous existence I used to write the odd speech or two. It was a matter of personal pride, and I might say, no small effort, to craft a slightly different presentation if the words were to be heard in more than one venue or on more than one occasion. No such efforts in No. 10 it appears, where, for example, Brown’s PMQs tributes to the fallen appear to come from a template where all that is necessary is to ‘insert name here’.
However I do not believe that for the most part Brown writes his own stuff, and I don’t mind this. These and other of his presentational faux pas are the product of amateurish, complacent speech writers who are just not terribly good at what they do.
Incidentally, in one area Brown’s determination cannot be faulted: the determination for him and his cronies to remain in power no matter what further damage may be caused to Great Britain.
I admire his theoretical determination to change so many things – if only he was equally determined to actually carry them out.
Good research LFAT.
“your determination often ends up leading to disaster and humiliation”
It is not just out his “Determination” that leads to disaster and humiliation – Check out the history of Guido’s “Jonah Curse” – Gordon’s very presence and good wishes immediately damn any entity or person to immediate ruin.
The DeTerminator says ” I won’t be back…”
Hasta la vista baby – you won’t be back!
Considering how he’s robbed us all, I’d have gone with
“I need your clothes boots and motorcycle…”
Alright, look, will you lot please stop giving Gordon Brown a sense of credibility by comparing him to one of the greatest action heros of all time?!
Just because Brown wrote a book about courage, it doesn’t mean he understands what it means.
Dear LFAT. Great post, one of your very best. On the Cadbury thing. As a result of the price paid by Kraft, the ratings agencies are downgrading Kraft’s debt to BBB from AA2. Kraft will now have to pay more more for borrowing money to pay the price Cadbury’s gouged from them. (Good Thing for the UK balance of trade.) This will in fact both increase the chance and accelerate the likelyhood of major cutbacks at Cadbury’s UK operations. Not only the Cadbury’s workforce wll be affected, but all those people and small companies in the west midlands who provide services to Cadbury will be affected too. I would take a guess that Mandy and Salvatore Labore were mainly interested in getting Kraft to agree on not notifying cutbacks until after the GE. When the chop comes, the various Labour parliamentary splinter groups will claim that it was all Dave’s fault – another trap set by Labour?
Courage has never been a socialist Core Value, at least since the days of Ramsey McDonald. who put country before party.
Neither are Honesty and Integrity. The Truth can be smothered in a hundred small lies. Only the end result matters. (J. Stalin).
Determined? Terminator? Oddly enough, a compound of both describes him uncannily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementors#Dementors
A pretty good rule of thumb seems to be that whatever comes out his mouth, the exact opposite will happen.
Brown is not only wooden and lacking in human warmth, he has no integrity or backbone. For him to talk of courage or determination is sheer delusion on his part.
“Your levity is good, it relieves tension and the fear of death. “
The PM is determined that he is determined and is also determined that he will not be caught out by providing promises.
Can anyone believe in anything that comes out of Westminster these days?
I wouldn’t be so sure.
Somebody told me recently that she thought The Gobbler had had a minor stroke, and I had noticed that his personality had changed over the past couple of months – he is definitely more confident and more cheerful than he used to be. PS It sometimes happens that your personality changes when you have a stroke, for better or worse.
And the Tories seem to be deliberately messing up their own election campaign, yet again, they are hardly attack dogs, are they?
@Mark Wadsworth – Strategically, they may have looked at his difficulties and decided that they were better off with him in place, cocking things ups, that showing him to be useless and replaced in office with someone less loathsome.
The allies took the same decision in WW2 about assassinating Hitler for the same reasons – when you’re enemy is incompetent, you want him to remain your enemy!
Dear Mr Brown,
I am determined, VERY DETERMINED, that you make no statement, gesture or action of support regarding me, my employment, my family or my health. At the present time I enjoy employment in a job I like, my friends and family enjoy good health as do I. I wish all of these to remain so.
Therefore, respectfully, shut up and go away. A long way away, leave politics forever and spend the rest of your days trying to make amends for the destruction you have wrought upon my once great nation.
I’m determined to survive his last few months.
At what stage does “determined” become “demented”? Consider the description of Brown’s personality type from Jung’s Typology:
“He will follow his ideas …… inwards and not outwards. Intensity is his aim, not extensity.
In the pursuit of his ideas he is generally stubborn, headstrong, and quite unamenable to influence.
However clear to him the inner structure of his thoughts, he is not the least clear how they link up to the world of reality.
In his personal relations he is taciturn or else throws himself on people who cannot understand him, and for him this is one more proof of the abysmal stupidity of man.
The counterbalancing functions of feeling, intuition and sensation are comparatively unconscious and inferior.”
In most people, as they move towards maturity, those counterbalancing influences are supposed to develop. Unfortunately, that seems to not to have happened with Brown. And the rest of us – and the country – are suffering.
The (T)wat Controller – Gordo El Swampo McRuin is a delusional man with a degree of Bigshotism in his make up. He will show himself up at the Chilcot Inquiry by answering Questions with Questions. The same for the proposed TV head-to-head with Cameron and Clegg. Unless of course Brown bottles this and sends Hapless Harriet Harperson to front for the Labour Party.
Only weeks away from an election now, possibly March, but more than likely in May. Paw Broone has many, many, many Tractor Factories and Workers & Peasants Collectives to visit, and of course there all those 5 Year Plans he still has to formulate. But then he might try and pull the ultimate stunt and postpone the elections until May 2011.
But of course I jest. Brown isn’t that stupid, assuming that it is him that is pulling the levers of office and not my Lord Meddlesome!!