Sunday 2 March 2008

I Want A Referendum Too

It's not been a good day for Gordon Brown-Trousers. Just as he must have been starting to hope that his more recent crises and catastrophes had buried the hugely unpopular EU Treaty, and all the trouble that came from the cowardly way in which he weaselled out of Labour's promise to hold a referendum, the thing is back to haunt him.

A bunch of mini-referendums, organised by the cross-party I Want A Referendum campaign, show that, in the biggest test of public opinion on the Treaty so far, at least 88% of voters would demand a referendum. The polls, held in 10 marginal constituencies, including those of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly and Jim Murphy the Europe Secretary, also showed that 89% of voters thought Britain should reject the Lisbon Treaty out of hand, according to the Telegraph.

Overall, this is not good news for the increasingly embattled Prime Minister, although it seems to have pushed the scandal surrounding Gorbals Mick from the front pages. It's coming to something when the best thing Gordon Brown-Trousers can hope for is a new scandal to drive the current fiasco (whatever that may be at the time) from the front pages.

Fortunately, his time as Prime Minister will be strictly limited - there must be an election some time in 2009, and 2008 is already well advanced. Conditions in the UK are very, very unlikely to improve in that time, what with the upcoming recession (What recession? Wait and see!), a sleaze-ridden Government that just doesn't know how to play it straight and now this pesky treaty doing yet more irreparable damage to the Government.

The concept of a Crazy Cammeron led Government does not appeal to me in the slightest, but he can't be any worse than Gordon Brown-Trousers. And that is what is going to cost Labour the next election - the idea that, no matter how crap the blue guys are, they can't be worse than the reds are now.

Hardly a good legacy for the tooth-sucking former Iron Chancellor, is it? But, you see, the thing about iron is that it rusts in the rain, and, right now, it's not just raining but pouring on Gordon Brown-Trousers. There is no way for him to magically keep his head above the deluge, because, to switch metaphors for a moment, he is utterly surrounded by problem after disaster after fiasco. All the crappy little stunts he and Tony Blair pulled to keep themselves at the top are coming home to roost, but Tone has jumped ship and it's Gord who's going to cop for them. No matter how he backs away, there's always some new problem waiting to tap him on the shoulder.

And it's taking its toll on the McBean, isn't it? Hasn't he aged considerably in the few months since he practically kicked Tony Blair out of Downing St? I wonder if he's not coping well with the job he so badly wanted? After all, up to now, his coping strategy has always been to be a long way away when trouble struck, and stick to ruling the Treasury with a rod of, well, Iron. But you can't do that when you're PM, and you sure as hell can't micro-manage everything - there's just too much of it!

No wonder he's not looking too clever, eh? Just goes to show, you should always be careful what you ask for - you might get it!

Billy Seggars.

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