He has just spent almost two hours in a cabinet meeting talking about a failed car bomb!!
I remember when former PM Blair dealt with 7/7 so swiftly coming out and making a strong stand!
Brown has said nothing at the Treasury he was used to long term planning he did not deal with events on the hop.
He is quickly finding out just how difficult it is. He will soon get found out.
29/06/2007 at 16:26 |
I think it is a good move, it shows Brown listens to his cabinet, rather than ignoring them, in Blairs presidential know it all style!
29/06/2007 at 18:12 |
Yes because in the event of a terroist attack, it is essential for our PM to consult the Housing Minister.
29/06/2007 at 20:56 |
its called collective responsibility in Cabinet government.
29/06/2007 at 22:18 |
yea, labour know all about that
29/06/2007 at 23:07 |
I found Gordon Brown’s response refreshing. He seemed to respond calmly and according to the incident.
The referral by both the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to the central role of cabinet (mentioned numerously) I think will be a welcome shift away from Blair’s presidential, sofa style government.
30/06/2007 at 14:17 |
It was nothing like 7/7 so why do some people seem to want a ‘fight them on the beaches’ speech?
30/06/2007 at 14:29 |
You also refer to Blair coming out and making a strong stand. By this stage he’d made a speech and that was about it. If you think that making a strong stand means standing in front of a microphone and saying ‘terrorism’s bad’ then it is no wonder that you are so keen on David Cameron.
30/06/2007 at 14:53 |
Well look who it is! Jack i think you have over generalised, (shocking). Tony Blair did much more than say “terrorism is bad”. It is to his credit that he acted like a strong leader. His appearence was not only a boost for the morale of Londoners it was also a symbol of national unity and pride. His speech with the g8 behind him showed Britain defiant and resolute in the face of terror. It was also a smack in the face to those who perpetrated the attacks, you might have succeeded in killing innocent people but nothing is going to change. In fact it just makes us more united and more defitant. So yes physically the reaction did nothing but symbolically it did alot. The stand that the post refers to implies much more than a simple speech. I do agree that it was not on a par with 7/7 but it could well have been worse. Brown should be totuing our defiance more and praising the fact that this attempt has been foiled.
30/06/2007 at 15:36 |
You can’t get the same effect with bombs that don’t blow up.
30/06/2007 at 16:29 |
Whether or not they blew up is irrelevant it is what this whole event represents. The worrying fact is that they came so close and that we had no intelligence to suggest an attack of that kind was imminent. This highlights serious flaws and potential loop holes that can be utilised or manipulated in the future. Brown should be reassuring the people that he will deal with the issue personally aswell as praising the individuals responsible for averting disaster, not wasting valuable cabinet time. It was an issue that really only required him, security officials and the Home secretary. Anyway i think ill leave it at that.
30/06/2007 at 18:16 |
“we had no intelligence to suggest an attack of this kind was imminent”
do u work for MI5? its hard to see how you make that comment.
“wasting valuable cabinet time”
what are cabinet there for but to discuss the issues of the day and make decisions…
“it was an issue that only required him, security officials and the home security”
I think you’ve been watching Spooks too much mate. Everybody and anybody in London involved in transport, infrastructure or public order will in some way be affected. What the situation needed was not a snazzy politician giving everybody sound bites but serious co-ordination. You seem to want a strong speech to show resolution, well theres no better sign of resolution then the government getting on with its job, like we have seen today.
30/06/2007 at 22:43 |
How do we know they were talking about the attack? Theymight have been talking about other things as well. It can hardly be called ‘wasting cabinet time’ as the avergae Blair Cabinet meeting lasted 45 minutes.
30/06/2007 at 22:47 |
“he acted like a strong leader. ”
But as Dave will learn the hard way, that’s not the same thing as being a strong leader.
01/07/2007 at 00:10 |
This is going to be interesting…
Thomas ( or tom) , i ask Do YOU work for MI:5? Thus you cant say I am wrong for taking the word of security officials. We are told there was no information of a threat of this kind thus we must accept it. And “what are cabinet there for but to do discuss the issues of the day” I ask you what can the Minister for work and pensions or the education and community ministers do in the event of a terror attack? it is a waste of cabinet time and to suggest they can do anything is bollocks. The ultimate decision rests with the PM as we know. Too many cooks spoil the broth it should have been a meeting between the home seceretary, security officials and gordon brown not the whole cabinet. It certainly shouldn’t have lasted 2 hrs.
Also you say the Blair cabinet was 45 mins, how can u suggest that 45 minutes of Blair cabinet is comparible to 2 hrs of Brown cabinet. Blairs could have been 45 mins of decent discussion, Browns could have been 2 hrs of shit. Regardless this is just conjecture and leads down a rocky road. In regard to your suggestion that i watch too much “spooks” it is indeed a bloody good programme but no i do not use it as an intellectual resource as it is F-I-C-T-I-O-N. Apologies to Labour but there is a difference between fact and fiction and one hould not use spooks in an intellectualargument as tempting as it may be!
The situation did not require a soundbite… i agree but it did require our prime minister at least briefing our people on what the hell was going on, what the failures were and what he is going to do about it! forget soundbites, although that is hard for labour, we needed information. Also I would hardly call Brown “snazzy” dear!
- END RANT -
01/07/2007 at 01:16 |
Congrats on reaching 40,000!
01/07/2007 at 14:56 |
The security officials would be unlikely to say that they did suspect that this was about to happen as that would be embarrassing and would pose a threat to their operations. Regardless of the portfolio of a Cabinet minister, they are still a member of a collective decision making body. the intelligence services and the home office should make the immediate decisions but a cabinet meeting was necessary to discuss the long term counter terrorism strategy.
45 minutes of decent discussion? Try sitting in a room with about 20 people and having a decent discussion on anti-terror laws. About two minutes per person?