Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Wednesday 6 May 2009

"Gordon Brown resign" petition - Tory asks him about it at PMQs

A Tory backbencher, Andrew Rosindell asked Gordon Brown about the "Please Go" petition at Prime Minister's Questions today in the House of Commons. He pointed out that the number of signatures on the list are now more than twice the number of votes he got in his constituency at the last general election (which as I have posted about previously when the signatures passed this number is his only democratic mandate at all, as an MP for Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath).


Brown's response was to bat this question away by claiming that Mr Rosindell should be "ashamed" for not asking about policy.

I can assure Mr Brown that people like myself who have signed this petition and want him to go are not ashamed of doing this, or having our representatives in parliament bring it up like this. I am however ashamed that our Prime Minister has no democratic mandate to lead this country, is politcally tone deaf, has completely ballsed up our economy and yet has not accepted any responsibility for this. At all.

If you disagree with Gordon's analysis and think it is time he went then go to the petition and add your name to the 50,000+ people who have already done so in the last 2 weeks.

4 comments:

Gareth Aubrey said...

It's a simple enough question for El Gordo; would the performance of the chief executive of a half-trillion pound company be a) the shareholder's primary concern, or b) far less important than his policy on biscuits in meetings...

Judy said...

A good article, Mark, with valid points that the PM continues to ignore. It is great to have your ongoing support for the petition.

Atropos said...

Mark. Just come from LibDem voice. I would suggest that the Tories are, barring an enormous upset, already heading for an overwhelming victory in 2010. Furthermore, those seats you nicked from the Tories in '97, 01 and 05 will be at grave risk. On the plus side, there will be a number of seats whose electorate are totally fed up with Labour, but who would never vote Tory, where your best chance of significant gains seem to lie. Also, there is a sporting chance that, post election, Labour will split into (at least) two parties, a traditional union-led party and a social democrat party. Could you see an alliance between the social democrats and the LibDems to provide an effective opposition? 12 years of Labour have demonstrated that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and to my mind an effective opposition is essential for the continuation of good governance.

Mark Thompson said...

Atropos. I want us to fight tooth and nail for every seat we can get. However, pragmatically we are very unlikely to be the largest party after the next election. Our best hope for a real shake up of the political system is for there to be a hung parliament and that is not going to happen if Brown remains PM. If he stays there will be a Tory landslide.

So I therefore agree completely with your last sentence but I think the only way to avoid Tory hegemony for the next decade or more is for Brown to go. That will then leave the prospect of a hung parliament (or at least a much smaller Tory majority) up for grabs again.

Right, that's the pragmatism out of the way. I also want him to go for all the other reasons I have listed. He is an unelected, politically tone deaf embarrassment of a man and I do not want him representing my country for a moment longer.

I don't think the petition will directly make him resign of course but hopefully this, along with all the other stuff going on will contribute to a set of circumstances where he is either forced out or has to go.