Monday, October 10, 2011

When in a hole...

Stop digging, common sense really, if you're already in the public eye for say getting your partner to admit to a driving offence that you actually committed, it might just be best to keep squeaky clean at least until the heat dies down. But of course this is politics and politicians we're talking about...
Telegraph.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has been caught attempting to smear two Tory Cabinet colleagues in a single weekend.
The Lib Dem minister admitted briefing against Theresa May by tipping off a national newspaper that a section of her controversial party conference speech on human rights appeared to have been plagiarised.
And Mr Huhne was embarrassed again after claiming in a television interview that Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, had recently received points on his licence for speeding.
A source close to Mr Hammond, who last month announced plans to increase the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph, vigorously denied the claims and suggested that the Lib Dem minister should “check his facts”.
In the same BBC interview Mr Huhne apologised to Mrs May, the Home Secretary, for telling a journalist from The Guardian that part of her speech appeared to have been copied from a previous speech made by Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader.
 Now as far as I can tell the plagiarisation claims are a bit spurious as Farage and May used the same source, a story in the Daily Mirror earlier this year, if anything they are only guilty of not checking the actual facts in that the story is a bit of an urban myth. Not that I have a great deal of sympathy towards May anyway, the stories she used in the speech were all aimed at the HRA and the abuses within it, without mentioning the fact there's sod all the government can do about it short of leaving the EU. As for Farage, well, brilliant speeches, but UKIP are currently in the doldrums as there is little or no direction from the top. They should be gaining in the polls, but they aren't, perhaps a rebranding and a change of emphasis on to local policies rather than the anti-EU bit which we all know about wouldn't go amiss, dropping the logo wouldn't hurt either.
As for "windmill" Huhne well I wonder if the government will remove him, doubt it, there aren't that many Lib Dems available to put in his place and I cannot see EuroClegg allowing a Tory to occupy the position of Energy Minister, why they might actually insist on a policy which works when the wind isn't blowing.
Huhne is clearly damaged goods though and I doubt he'll be much of a problem to the government or the press, they have his number and he'll always be a marked man now, untrusted to a higher degree than most of his colleagues. His judgement and clearly his luck is badly flawed, and he seems to have forgotten one of the golden rules of plotting in that you should never put anything down in writing, particularly in an electronic medium.
I do hope this is the last straw though, the guy is clearly unhinged with his enviroloony proposals and it would be nice to get someone in there who actually understands about power generation and costs.
I'm not going to hold my breath though...

 

5 annotations:

WitteringsfromWitney said...

"As for Farage, well, brilliant speeches, but UKIP are currently in the doldrums as there is little or no direction from the top. They should be gaining in the polls, but they aren't, perhaps a rebranding and a change of emphasis on to local policies rather than the anti-EU bit which we all know about wouldn't go amiss"

Too true and something that I have been saying for yonks now. Unfortunately the words 'wall' and 'brick' spring to mind when attempting to broach that.

Anonymous said...

Actually, as you'll probably have guessed I'm not a fan of UKIP but, if I were, I'd want to have someone a bit more personable at the top. I've no doubt that Farage is clever enough, and that he has ideas. He's certainly made some powerful points. It's just that he's not very likeable. He's the kind of guy who you move along the train to get away from.

BTW, what is the logo you want to change?

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Quiet Man

'Rebranding' is what populist parties do - like NuLabour and the Nu-Cons.

Why change the logo (a pound sign with UKIP across the middle for the benefit of @tris) when the pound is still under threat? It is a well established and widely recognised logo now.

UKIP are beginning to make their presence felt in local elections after a belated start, winning their first borough council seat in the South East this year. In my area UKIP were two short of a full slate of candidates and aim to achieve that next year. They are gaining double digit percentages of the poll in many more seats and putting Labour into third or fourth place. At the last general election 100 deposits were saved compared with 37 in 2005 and 7 previously.

They are getting there, slowly but surely. Nigel Farage is still an asset, though sometimes he does seem to be trying not to be ...

DP

wiggiatlarge said...

What is totally wrong is that Huhne is allowed to carry on heaping completely unjustified charges to support his completely discredited windmill project at the expense of the taxpayer, simply because of a political set up that has to agree a certain amount of Lib Dems in cabinet positions,this is not representing the people which is why they are supposed to be there ,but merely doing backdoor deals to stay in power,and that sadly is all current politics is about.
As for wanting to move down the train to get away from Farage ,Tris , if any of the current and recent leaders were on the train and i knew ,i wouldn't board it,whatever the shortfalls of UKIP ,the political make up in this country is such the choice is almost nil in what they offer,personnally i hope UKIP can develope into something bigger ,theres nothing else on the horizon ,and you may not like Farage Tris but i can assure you a lot more people would vote for him on a personal basis given the opportunity of a decent platform than the plastic professional politicians currently on offer.

Anonymous said...

Thanks you anon, I remember it now.

Wiggi. I, on the other hand would find a discussion with Cameron, Clegg or Miliband interesting. As a Scot, I'm not interested in most of their policies, but the few that affect me would be fascinating to mull over.

I'm not particularly opposed to what the UKIP lot are about, although again it really doesn't affect Scotland as they have almost no presence here, and hopefully we'll be out of union with Wales and England soon.

I simply make an observation that you have had some terrible luck with leaders, from those who admit that they aren't politicians to those who have orange faces, to Nigel who is plain creepy.