. Did anyone else hear the simpering publicity that Gordon Brown’s visit to the USA is being afforded by Al-Beeb? I was amused to hear the BBC parrot that Brown will invoke “memories of JFK” when he stands beside Edward Kennedy today and urges the US to embrace the global world. A few points here; 1/ Given the size of Teddy Kennedy, I’m surprised that there is the space to stand beside him! and 2/ How patronising is Brown’s “advice” to the current Presidency and those MILLIONS who voted for George Bush? The BBC is pulling out all the stops to pretend that Brown is making any impact in the States when it is obvious that it is the visit by the Pope (an elected leader, unlike Brown or Bush, natch) which is creating the real headlines.
TPO, can’t see the comparison?? Healey/Kinnock were clowns who had zero credibility on the global stage and were ideologically opposite to Ronnie. That visit was always going to be a pointless farce.
This time around, like it or not Brown is the PM. There’s a crisis in Zimbabwe in which Britain has the largest post colonial interest. There’s a crisis in global financial markets, of which London is the most important hub. There’s all sorts of issues regarding post US election policy in Iraq, where we still have a lot of troops.
You can argue that Brown isn’t the best person to serve our interests, which is true but there’s not much we can do about it. You can argue that Bush is an irrelevence these days, but Brown has also addressed the UN, met the presidential contenders, spoken to Wall Street.
Whatever the visit has been it hasn’t been pointless.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, why did the BBC give such insignificant coverage, at least in the Americas section of the web page, to Gordon Brown’s visit to the USA?
It’s like he was never here. Unless Gordon Brown intended to launch a stealth invasion of the USA, I don’t understand why he visited. The BBC has done little, if anything, to explain this. The US media did not even notice him. It doesn’t make any sense. Why come all the way to the US to be ignored?
Not for nothing, Tony Blaire is a tough act to follow( in the USA anyway)… Still, Who sent Mr. Brown to America to disappear in the Pope’s shadow?
The BBC can say anything it wants about the visit but no one here followed it at all, and some (like myself) were really trying.
The “Americas” page is completely absent of any news about Gordon Brown’s trip to America. Although it has a very nice wrap up of the Pope’s visit:
Papal Diary
Pope Benedict bids farewell to his American hosts
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7358751.stm
Papal journeys are scheduled years in advance, and this one had been flagged up for months throughout the American media. Even supposing that Brown had been set up by his own civil servants (as someone interestingly suggesed upthread), he ought to have known it was on. He is paying the price for his notorious hatred of Christianity and Catholicism, carefully exhibited – as if it was some sort of vote winner! – by his dreadful glove puppet Ed Balls. (About Balls’ name, I must say that this is not the first time that I find myself wondering whether God got his retaliation against anti-God twits in advance, by saddling them with ridiculous names – John Spong, Kevin Naff, Ed Balls.)
Nearly Oxfordian: speaking as a genuine and not nearly Oxonian, I can tell you that your description of the Pope as “a Fascist ruler” places you right alongside the worst Beeboids among the creatures beneath contempt. Do not bother answering – anything contemptous or insulting from the likes of you would be a considerable boost to my self-respect.
He no play the game, he no makes the rules – or at least, that would be the case were he not a Fascist ruler.
I see that your being a ‘real’ Oxonian has not helped you get your brain into gear. My handle is an ironic one. It does not mean that I couldn’t get into Oxford, you pathetic little creature.
Oh yes – and being a ‘real’ Oxonian, you don’t understand elementary logic:
“He is paying the price for his notorious hatred of Christianity and Catholicism” (a little hint, idiot: Catholicism is a subset of Christianity. Ask your tutor to explain this to you, otherwise you’ll be out on your ear before term is out).