Comments on: John McDonnell’s Ron Brown Moment

By: Alan Ji

Alan Ji — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:09:23 +0000

I once met Ron Brown MP (Shoreditch and Finsbury) and brother of George. Few things annoyed him more than being confused with that fellow from Leith.

John McDonnell has many faults (no space to list ‘em) but on airports his opposition has been consistent for many years.

My concern is the shallow minded element amongst environmentalists and their high-profiling against airports. About half of carbon emmision reduction will need to come from buildings. Somehow I don’t see Greenpeace picketting the home of an old lady who can’t get her act together to fit loft insulation or draughtstrip the front door.

By: Andrew Adams

Andrew Adams — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:11:06 +0000

But there would be much better ways of using that £8bn to stimulate the economy through infrastructure projects. Look at the state our railways are in for a start.

By: Sea Kitten

Sea Kitten — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:23:49 +0000

I remember the days when a grand, 8 billion pound infrastructure project like an expansion of Heathrow would be seen by Lefties as just the ticket to stimulate the economy.

Do you people ever stop and take a look at yourself, to see how far you have strayed from the path you imagine you are on?

By: Gregg

Gregg — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0000

The third runway is forgone. Without it London and the UK will wither away as a force, economically and in other ways also. [...] If you disagree then the UK will decline and will become the ’servants of another man’s system’.

Come, Heathrow terminal 6,
Save us from apocalypse!!!

The danger is that Stunts can damage His chances of becoming the Leader of The Labour Party .

John McD isn’t going to become leader of the Labour Party, no matter how much you or I may want it. The Heathrow expansion guarantees that he isn’t even going to be an MP after next year – unless he can get himself selected for another seat pretty damn quick. But if he can build up a reputation for erratic, even comical stunts, then we could well have finally found someone other than Ken who would stand a cat in hell’s chance of beating Boris in 2012. I suggest when he returns to Parliament next week, the first thing he does is douse Geoff Hoon with a fire extinguisher.

By: Waseem

Waseem — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:59:16 +0000

lot of strangely grandiose capitalisation going on there

By: Andrew Adams

Andrew Adams — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:43:15 +0000

Ian, while I agree with you about McDonnell needing to be careful about safeguarding his reputation you have to balance the extra jobs against the thousands of people who will have their homes demolished, and the hundreds of thousands more who will be subject to extra noise and pollution, as well as our blowing a huge hole in our CO2 emissions targets.

By: Andrew Adams

Andrew Adams — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:36:17 +0000

McDonnell was angry that the Government was not allowing a proper Parliamentary debate and a vote on such an important decision and got carried away. But understandably so. I suppose handling the mace in this way is a contempt of parliament, but the contempt for parliament being displayed by the Government on this issue is a far greater scandle.

By: Ian Sternberg

Ian Sternberg — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:24:47 +0000

I understand that John feels passionately about the Heathrow expansion issue and has a duty to represent the interests of His constituents – but I think He should be carefull not to get a unwanted reputation of engaging in this type of gesture politics – John would be best advised to maintain His reputation as responsible , soft-spoken ; and thinking leader of The Working Class .
The danger is that Stunts can damage His chances of becoming the Leader of The Labour Party .

My Own Union ( The GMB ) is in favour of Heathrow Expansion & I believe that The Labour Movement should Support the Introduction of the thousands of jobs a third runway will lead to – and ensure that they are Unionised jobs .

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:13:15 +0000

I thought you might throw IRA quote in! You devil you David! :-)

Of course that quote means he has a “fondness for extreme politics”. What on earth else could it mean?

I remember, when McDonnell wrote a post on CiF about economic policy, David’s sole contribution to the thread was that quote.

Is it the be all or end of all argument (actually that reminds of a bit in The Office when Gareth Keenan tries to win an argument with Tim Canterbury…)

I note that nothing about the third runway (for or against), how the decision was reached, consequences etc., is mentioned. After all, that’s just to do with boring stuff like democracy and the environment.

Okay, as you were, back to the ritual Lefty bashing….

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:59:43 +0000

Or perhaps John McDonnell isn’t the chosen one?

Who knows? Labour didn’t bother with a leadership election.