Gordon Brown speaks: The former Prime Minister has been in the news recently by way of the voice mail hacking scandals rocking a number of News International papers in Britain, The Sun and the Sunday Times now the major duo (to say nothing of the now-disbanded News Of The World). Of particular note, a possible advancement in this story — Brown claims that the papers hired people to dig up his private information who had known criminal records. Just by looking at Brown’s posture and demeanor, it’s pretty clear the toll these revelations have taken on him. source
This fire keeps burning: In the wake of the scandal and subsequent closure of News Of The World, British society has been thrust into a debate about journalistic ethics, and for former PM Gordon Brown the matter isn’t just academic; in addition to the scurrilous behavior we mentioned earlier, Brown specifically believes journalists tried to access his voice mails. We confess ignorance on British law, but this seems like the sort of thing that could easily be called a national security risk, which would be bad news for whoever was calling the shots. News International ended News Of The World altogether to try to nip this cell hacking story in the bud. Even if they had the zeal to shut down The Sun and the Sunday Times as well, it’s too late now. This story looks nowhere near finished. (Photo courtesy Remy Steinegger/World Economic Forum).source
+88number of seats the Tories gained (not enough to lead outright)
-94number of seats
Labour lost (enough to fall out of power)
-5number of seats Lib Dems lost (so much for big gains) source
» So what’s next, anyway?: With the hung Parliament, nobody has enough votes to lead completely, so right now, the two major parties are trying to court the Liberal Democrats. Whoever can win them over will have proxy leadership over Parliament.
She’s just a sort of bigoted woman who says she used to be Labour.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown • Regarding a woman she met when he was out with the commoners today. Eight days before a major election. Too bad for him, because he was wearing a mic when he said it. Nick Clegg’s looking like a more viable option by the day, while Labour’s looking like a major fail. source
There was certainly some consideration by several of Brown’s ministers yesterday over whether or not to back him. In the end, none of them wanted to wield the knife. But yes, of course, this is further damaging to Gordon Brown.
University of Liverpool political department head Jonathan Tonge • Regarding the fate of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who barely survived a revolt by his own party this week. Some of his own staff barely even gave him any love. The ultra-unpopular Labor Party member fended off a couple of senior party members asking for a vote to get him out of office, and likely faces a worse fate from the British public in June elections. Remember how the last guy, Tony Blair, also left in a firestorm of controversy from his own Labor Party? Yeah. Just sayin’. Seems like a trend at this point. source
Ed Miliband sounds frustrated here. But in other comments he made about the giant ball of failure that was the Copenhagen summit, the British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change sounded pissed off specifically at China, which he argued used its power to veto a stronger climate agreement despite the fact that the strongest restrictions would not have directly affected them (but would have affected the countries suggesting them). Miliband and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are the leading voices in saying that the process of diplomacy on climate change is broken and needs to be fixed. source
