Gordon, do you Remember Vietnam?

I know Bew Labour politicians are not too hot on history but our author PM, especially one who has written a book on Courage, should be a bit more locked into what is going on before his eyes, day after day, week after week and, sadly, month after month. Why Vietnam should be remembered is because it was the home coming body bags that proved the last straw for the American public in the undermining of the war effort. Warriors on push bikes were difficult to defeat. The Taliban are fond of their lightweight motor bikes and Improvised Explosive Devices and the region is well known for it’s artisan gunsmiths. Thank goodness the huge losses the Americans took in Vietnam have not happened but I would have thought that if the PM wanted to win this war he ought to listen to the people who know an awful lot about that unpleasant business and to have some regard for history.

Some nameless characters got the procurement of helicopters wrong some time back now, not the commanders trying to cope in Afghanistan now, and it wasn’t them who decided to cut expenditure on defence. The reason we haven’t got enough Chinooks lies somewhere within a government which has cut back on defence spending in time of war to near 2.2% of our Domestic Gross Product. If this bloody war, and bloody it certainly is, is so important to maintain a terrorist free Britain then we ought to start listening to those who know how to fight a war and starting to pay for it through the anonymity of the tax system. Instead we are paying with the lives of youngsters and top notch soldiers who sadly will never be nameless now their names are being carved on memorials and written in Books of Remembrance throughout the land.

Gordon Brown is now well established in our political history as the dithering PM. At the moment we are again witnessing the denial stage. How long will we have to wait for the next stage, a belated change of policy, when we a shift from the ‘Land Rover War’ to the helicopter war? Since conjuring up helicopters can’t be done immediately the Government is cornered and I would estimate that we will have to wait for about another 50 respectful homecomings in Wootton Basset, before we see a new policy which seeks to get Gordon out of a corner his old Treasury department gas created. It might be sooner if that rate increases, but without helicopters any new policy will have to be pretty good.

Gordon, I would suggest that a quick call to your predecessor in his Ivy League college would probably allow even him to do some research for you on the body bag count and its political consequences for the US Government as it came to terms with defeat in Vietnam. I would also suggest you buy one of those new combined moral, political, historical and financial compasses, as your present model is clearly not up to the job. You should also remember that Iraq and Afghanistan are first wars where are fallen are being brought home to remind us youngsters are being killed. There is still a slim chance that we might win this war which you claim is so crucial. If not, then you had better line up the air troop transporters for an ignominious withdrawal, or should that be a fleet of buses for the overland journey. Going by coach is so much cheaper.

Dacier

They just don't get it

Harriett Harman tells us they have got the message. The Prime Minister is angry. So much so he had to repeat it three times. That was John Major’s technique. Watching ‘Mr Three Time’s’ government sink was rather boring. Watching the McMillan government go down against the back drop of the Profumo affair had great entertainment value. The final months of this government as it sinks into the depths will be painful. If only the waters were as shallow as some of the politicians it is consuming. Some of them still haven’t got the message.

The big mistake some MPs are making is that they don’t realise the questions voters are asking themselves. Why cant MP’s understand the simple words, ‘wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in the course of your Parliamentary duties’? Why should voters believe them when they try to convince us they know what they are doing? Competence, judgement, and honour are now being questioned. Even some senior politicians are clearly unaware of how ordinary people have to cope in a recession where keeping a job and a home is a losing battle for increasing numbers.

Politicians fail to understand that voters have a good idea of what is acceptable in the work place. To hear Sir Ming Campbell tell the Newsnight audience that the rules are in fact only guidelines, came as a shock. This from a respected MP and a Barrister. He is of course not the only lawyer in Parliament. Lawyers will exploit ambiguity and spurious justification in the performance of their professional duty. This doesn’t always work in a court, but to try it in the current public arena was a lapse of judgement.

For politicians to tell the public that this is all a distraction from major world issues is to state the obvious. The voters also know who has, in part, caused those problems. Government jumped into a war on doubtful grounds, failed to see where the money markets were taking us and then gave loans to the banks without seeking guarantees The present PMs talent for dithering and/or making policy on the hoof, compounds this poisonous mixture. We need a cooling off period not a General Election. Why? Because the deep waters which are consuming the worst offenders also contain more incompetents, especially those nasty sharks who once they have had our votes, will come after us.

Dacier