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Underground > Switchboard >

Sic Transit Gordon Mundi

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:59 / 04.07.07

Did anyone see Prime Ministers Questions today? He only seemed to come seriously unstuck when he tried for humour. What do people think of Gordon now he's got the top job?

08:26 / 06.07.07

I notice that one of his first moves is to change the rules so as to be able to start flying the Union flag at Downing Street every day, to "reflect Britains values". I recall previously mumbled about plans for a 'Britain Day' on the horizon and it's giving me a nasty picture of attempts to foster American-style blind patriotism in Britain.

Then again, reading some of the comments on the Youtube clips of the Glasgow carbomb I worry it might already be here.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:51 / 06.07.07

Hmmm, maybe British patriotism is one that, for the average person, would only manifest at times when there's something that is seen as threatening the country, such as terrorism. We don't have an Independence Day or a Thanksgiving around which to build a framework of constant pride in our national identity.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:55 / 06.07.07

maybe British patriotism is one that, for the average person, would only manifest at times when there's something that is seen as threatening the country, such as terrorism

Or during certain sporting events. Or St George's Day. I don't really buy this idea that patriotism is more an American phenomenon than a British one, even specifically in 2007. The expressions are just different. It's easy to have a slightly skewed perspective in you live in London, though...

10:18 / 06.07.07

Or during certain sporting events. Or St George's Day.

But surely the difference is that St George is the patron saint of England, not Britain. Same with sporting events where the home nations compete seperately...

10:52 / 06.07.07

Did you see the front of the Sun (I think) yesterday? A front page full of Union Jack and FLY IT IN THE FACE OF TERROR! across it? I think we've got our share of blind patriotism.

I'm waiting to see about Gordon, the handing over of powers to parliament seemed an obvious ploy to a) break with Blair and b) avoid the blame if there's another war.

Tryphena Absent

11:49 / 06.07.07

Well if it's an unwhipped vote than it is parliament's fault. Why should one person get the blame for the brainless idiocy of so many?

13:01 / 06.07.07

But surely the difference is that St George is the patron saint of England, not Britain. Same with sporting events where the home nations compete seperately...

Well, absolutely - I didn't really know St. George's Day was particularly celebrated; despite Jack McConnell's best (read: poor) efforts both St. Andrew's and Tartan (are they the same date? I don't even know) Days have not really registered as much of anything with people above Berwick.

13:28 / 06.07.07

On the topic, though, Brown's 'Scotchness' does seem to wind a fair portion of 90% of the electorate up so his emphasis of Britain is perhaps unsurprising, as was his non-congratulation of Alex Salmond for winning the Scottish elections.

Despite the continued onus on intrusivity: ID cards and anti-terror measures, particularly, I find myself - likely stupidly - moderately optimistic about him.

15:43 / 06.07.07

I'm guessing things will carry on much as they have been for the last ten years until there's a problem of some kind that Gordon has to try and deal with in a public way. Another outbreak of foot and mouth disease, a fuel strike, a rebellion over the ID card issue, that sort of thing. Tony, for all his many, many faults, was always 'good' in a crisis - however terrible his decisions actually were, he almost always got the party/parliament to go along with him. This could be less true of the fingernail-chewing son of the manse - a few months of being tutored by an image consultant aren't really going to help much with over fifty years of burning, puritanical rage. And he must know his position in terms of the Labour party is a bit less secure than it appears to be. The fact that no realistic candidate stepped forward to oppose his ascent to the throne doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any number of Labour MPs who'd quite happily stick their knives in the minute Gordon's back is turned. And I suppose this is the kind of thing Gordon dreams about, whereas I dare say Tony always saw only golden castles, in his mind.

In short, Gordon seems to have more in common with Richard Nixon, Stalin and the Incredible Hulk than he ideally should.

18:32 / 06.07.07

I don't get things like this :

Brown stated that the NHS was his "immediate priority", yet he had just cut the capital budget of the English NHS from £6.2bn to £4.2bn.

and :

The Treasury Friday night confirmed the NHS capital budget had been “adjusted”. But it indicated that, although it was not yet published, it would allocate the missing £2bn to spend to English hospitals over three years from 2008-09.

No published health spending plans exist for these years yet, so hospitals will not be able to verify that the money is additional.

The cut was slipped out in the March Budget, when Mr Brown referred only to spending on day-to-day NHS services when he said “the money available for investment and reform in the NHS in England will be £8bn more than this year, the biggest cash increase ever”.

Isn't the NHS in a mess? How can he justify taking that much money away from them in the budget, then make out like he's making it his immediate priority? For anything good I can find out about him at the moment, there's way more annoying stuff that goes with it.

One of the only cool things is that he's Scottish, but I get the feeling that the Scottish are only going to end up feeling sorry that we have to put up with this.

21:47 / 06.07.07

Well, that's a bit more sensible, Te - certainly the NHS is propped up by foreign nationals (without whom it would indeed be a shambling wreck) and suffers occasional superbug scare stories, but is it a 'mess'? My own experiences with hypertension and childbirth, in one of the country's poorer cities, don't seem to bear this out anyway. Tend to get quite emotional endorsing the nurses, really.

Anyway.

A capital budget is, apparently, "[a] plan to finance long-term outlays, such as for fixed assets like facilities and equipment" so you're basically talking about presumably things like sticking it out at Monklands, which John Reid apparently wants to do, and not closing/building new hospitals whilst that prospective £8 bil is spent on utilising what services are presently available. Which doesn't sound terribly awful to me, though 'prospective' is perhaps a key word.

I think, but then my head does tend bumwards when any economics starts being discussed.

01:03 / 07.07.07

The NHS might not be such a shambling mess, but what bugs me is how much that money could've gone into helping treat people better, and instead you're left wondering what they're actually doing with all of it, despite what they say it's being spent on. I'm not good with economics either and know little of it, but I get the idea that that amount would've been a massive help for them. I think some of me not liking GB as PM comes from all the times I've seen him going on about money as the chancellor though, so I just hope he isn't so bent towards the business/growth/economy side now that he's PM, and there's a change for the better.

When I think of the chances of that actually happening though it makes me amused because it seems so unlikely, and that's the thing that's eventually the annoying part, it shouldn't seem like such an unrealistic thing to expect or hope for.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:54 / 08.07.07

So, as Gordon is not going to have a deputy prime minister does that mean charisma-free Ali Darling subs for him when he's out of the country?