Wonder how the BBC will handle the announcement from Alan Johnson that he is dramatically stepping down from his senior front bench job? He cites reasons in his personal life but there are no more details. Johnson is a BBC favourite so I assume there will be gnashing of teeth at this sudden news? For a while, I got the impression the BBC saw his as the successor to Gordon – before Red Ed assumed the throne.
THAT JOHNSON STATEMENT
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So he cannot add up or remember basic fiscal facts or has no financial expertise whatsover?
Being chancellor nowadays only requires the holder of the office to obey the EU commissar appointed to govern the UK finances. All the current stooge has to do is read his lines and look half way believable.
Ed Balls wanted that job so Ed Balls got that job, Postman twat got in the way of Ed and so postman twat gets his nuts crushed, just the odd threat and a bit of blackmail and job done. Eds next target is Millibrain, he will doing the ‘I want to sepnd more time with my family’ routine just as soon as Ed wants the job it will be his and no election needed.
Alan Johnson a great politician? Who is toenails trying to convince? A useless twat who was out of his depth. He should have stuck to delivering letters.
Listening to BBC 5Live it seems that now he has resigned the BBC seem able to report the criticisms of Alan Johnson’s recent mistakes, shame they felt they had to keep them quiet previously.
The first question that Ed Miliband and indeed all Labour apologists should be asked in every interview this week is this:
If Ed Balls is so superior to Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor then why did Ed Miliband appoint Alan Johnson to the role first?
BBC in full defense of Labour policy now.
And this differs from the norm how?
“Personal reasons” , yeah, right.
“He was the politician with a human touch,” sayeth the BBC. Gag.
Perhaps the problem was the humans he was touching?
The “personal issue in his private life” is the fact that he is seriously unqualified for his job. I can see how that would conflict with his ability to perform in an important Cabinet position.
Now here’s Ed Balls to reclaim his spot at the top of the BBC’s speed dial. The BBC is happy to let him use this opportunity to attack the Coalition.
So we now have Red Ed 1 and Red Ed 2 in both major shadow positions. Both were Gordon Brown advisers, both fucked up the economy. Let’s see if Gordon Brown’s name can STILL be airbrushed from any reporting.
Of course, I am not one to gossip but I wonder if Alan has being doing a Prescott ?
What is amazing is that Red Ed slapped Balls in the face by appointing Johnson as Shadow Chancellor in the first place and then appoints Balls as second choice.
What is even more amazing is that Balls accepted it.
Talk about ferrets in a sack. Although that is an insult to ferrets, an admirable small mammal in many ways.
Miliband Minor couldn’t let Balls be Shadow Chancellor straight away. It was too soon, not enough time had passed to re-write history. It was only a matter of time, of course.
Grant, you may be closer to the truth thank you realise. We may have to wait for the sunday’s tough.
As I say, I am not one to gossip, but Guido is suggesting that Johnson had or is having an affair with a Civil Servant http://www.order-order.com
And Balls knew about it.
I rise above this tittle-tattle and stick to the political issues.
PS I forgot to say that Guido doesn’t indicate whether the Civil Servant is male or female, but what does it matter ? It is a personal issue for Johnson and none of our business.
Hmm, except when it’s a tory shagging on the side.
Now Sky reporting a breakdown in his marriage, so a bit of side shagging might be on the cards.
Toenails on the BBC News at Six:
And there’s a lot of regret, I think, in Westminster that he’s had to resign. Relief that it appears to be not due to some illness, not some personal tragedy of that sort. But personal reasons have meant that Alan Johnson’s chosen to step down from front line politics.
Typical.
The difference in the tone of the coverage of this story between ITV’s 6.30 News and the BBC News at Six was extraordinary.
On Johnson’s gaffes, this was Tom Bradby on ITV:
It is one of the shortest tenures in modern political history. A few brief months ago, Alan Johnson’s appointment as shadow chancellor did raise a few eyebrows and he then raised a few more when he joked his first act would be to go and buy Economics for Beginners. The gaffes didn’t stop there. Here he was only a few weeks ago trying to remember what the rate of national insurance was.”
(There was then a 24-second clip of Johnson’s toe-curdlingly funny interview with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky.)
“Mmm, whoops!” continued Bradby.
Contrast that with James Landale on the BBC:
“At times Mr Johnson appeared uncomfortable in his role, questioning Mr Miliband’s support for a 50% tax rate and a graduate tax, appearing unsure of his facts on the time of Labour’s spending cuts on on national insurance rates.”
And that was it! Only “appearing” unsure? He was unsure!! And, yes, the BBC didn’t show the Murnaghan interview.
That passage from James Landale was the only bit of (very tame) criticism of Johnson in a piece that concentrated on his achievements:
“As a politician Alan Johnson always went his own way. Today he went out in his own way. His departure utterly unexpected. He was a politician with a human touch – the former postman and union boss who left school at 15, who rose to high office as health, education and, ultimately, home secretary in the dying days of Gordon Brown’s premiership” (followed by a clip of Johnson talking about his rise from humble roots).
Nick Robinson was even worse, showing only his toenails again as he began describing how “the Labour Party has now lost someone who speaks fluent human”, “someone who was smooth and reassuring”. On and on he went, “They will miss Alan Johnson for all the reasons that Ed Miliband gave him the job in the first place. He was an ordinary post office worker who rose to be leader of his union and cabinet minister, who stayed in connection with the real world and spoke the language of it.”
There was none of that drivel from from Tom Bradby.
Oh, and George Aligiah’s introductory words included this gem:
From postman to politician he’s been dubbed ‘Labour’s Man Of The People’
For heaven’s sake, Craig, pass the sick bag, please.
Insofar as it goes I’ve got no objection to the BBC coverage you’ve reported, but we all know the extremely different treatment it would receive if it was the other way round.
The contrast between ITV and the BBC on Ed Balls was even sharper.
The BBC was very coy with its mentions of Gordon Brown & airbrushed Balls’s past in a way aging Soviet presidents could only have admired:
Landale: “He’s replaced as shadow chancellor by Ed Balls, the long-time ally of Gordon Brown, who spent years as an advisor in thee Treasury. He was a robust critic of the government’s spending plans.”
Robinson: “Remember that Ed Balls knows his economics. He was Gordon Brown’s right-hand man. He was trained in economics at university. He worked for the Financial Times. He was chief economic advisor of the Treasury and then a Treasury minister as well. Those are all reasons why he will do the job well.”
Tom Bradby’s take was somewhat different, and one that would have seen him sent straight to the gulag:
“But what has really created waves down here is the decision to replace him with Ed Balls. Mr Balls was Gordon Brown’s closest ally throughout his tenure as prime minister and chancellor. He is a pugnacious and extremely able politician but an interesting choice when the party’s big problem is the economic legacy of that period.”
I think even Ed Ball’s opponents down here would acknowledge that in a lot of ways he is one of the most impressive figures of his generation. He’s very able, very intellectually able, very pugnacious. But the trouble almost anyone at the top of the Labour Party will tell you is that the party’s reputation for economic competence has been shredded among the public and the reality is – and this comes back and back from focus groups – a lot of people do feel the party messed things up a bit, let the bankers run amok, spent too much money and was then in denial about the deficit. Now apart from Gordon Brown, who was the one person absolutely at the centre of all those things? Ed Balls.
So I think in that sense he’s a very able performer but a controversial and in some ways quite interesting choice for the job.
Not re-writing of history from Tom Bradby.
Balls apponitment should provide the opportunity for some decent “mickey” taking at Question Times when every economic woe that we are presently suffering from can be identified as the direct responsibility of the Shadow Chancellor.
Of course the pygmy (in relation to the Speakers of quality such as Boothroyd and Thomas of course. I am not being heightist – did Labour pass a last minute law to makev that an offence?) in the chair can be relied on to intervene on Balls behalf if the going gets tough
“Of course the pygmy…”
No need to be size-ist about it, Gerald. Just refer to them on their place in the evolutuionary chain – “pond life” is about right.
JohnW,
No need to be pond lifeist about it. Some of my best friends are pond life.
Gerald,
The edgy Leftie “comedians” on the News Quiz will have a field day with Johnson. Can’t wait for the repulsive, but extremely wealthy, Jeremy Hardy to rip into him. 😀
Toenails says Balls “will do the job well “. In what way is it objective, impartial, even-handed for a Beeboid to make that comment ?
The BBC really believes Brown was the most perfect Chancellor the country has ever been blessed with, and the recession had nothing what so ever to do with his 13 years at the Treasury, therefore Balls having been Brown’s right hand is a major advantage in their eyes. Only that small minority of people who can count to 11 without removing their boots are likely to disagree. What worries me is the thought that enough sheeple get all of their “information” from the BBC and might actually believe it.
anyone notice on the letter from ed to alan the month and year were typed like the letter but the date was written in by hand ie the 20 so ed knew that he was going to go sometime this month…
I always thought that Alan Johnson’s face reminded me of someone. It has just come to me. The late,great, British Admiral Sir John “Jacky Fisher”.
I wonder if they are related ?
Much as I detest gossip, rumour and innuendo, it has to be noted that the Daily Mail is claiming that Alan Johnson’s wife had an affair with his bodyguard. Not that I read the Daily Mail, of course.
If true, apologies to Alan Johnson for suggesting he had done a
” Prescott “.
On the other hand , why should this be a reason for resigning ? I mean, just get rid of her , get another one, and carry on with your job.
Curiouser, and curioser. No doubt the BBC will get to the bottom of it.
Or even curiouser and curiouser !
If that’s the case, he has my sympathies regardless of the fact I disagree with him politically. It makes my joke earlier in the thread look a little tasteless, for which I apologise.
Still, if we never made jokes for fear they may turn out tasteless in light of future events, we’d live in a dreadful state of po-faced political correctness. A bit like the BBC.
Fair point, Roland , on both counts.
The main course will be served on Sunday – unless of course his leaving was part of a deal to avert that.
BBC-NUJ-Labour is not shielding its Mr. Johnson, is it?
Alan Johnson resignation: former bodyguard investigated over claims of affair with former shadow chancellor’s wife
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8273221/Alan-Johnson-resignation-former-bodyguard-investigated-over-claims-of-affair-with-former-shadow-chancellors-wife.html
Andy Coulsen has just quit apparently; a good day to bury that bad news.
Hanson,
Gives the BBC a chance to headline with Coulson and drop the Johnson story.