Prescott comes out for David Miliband

John Prescott may not always appear to be the most up to date man in the world and seems liek some sort of political dinosaur, but he has always had his finger on the pulse of the Labour Party, and by that I mean Labour and not "New Labour". This was shown in 1992 /1993 when he really pushed the Labour Party to start reforming itself under John Smith and from 1994 onwards under Tony Blair too. So when John Prescott starts haling David Miliband as a great future leader, he does know what he is on about.

Now that someone has come out for Miliband in such strong terms, how long will it be before others start doing so too. Prescott has shown himself to be utterly loyal in the past, and he does clearly refer to Miliband as a great "future" leader, but I wonder if this is a sign that Prescott knows the mood of the party and knows it is in no mood to put up with two more years under Brown waiting to lose an election.

Two Jags to stand down

It's not exactly a surprise, but John Prescott is to step down as an MP at the next election.

As has been written about elsewhere, he has already had his leaving reception in his constituency, which indicates a probable early election, so this statement opens the way for the quick selection of a new labour candidate before a probable October poll.

Like him or loathe him, Prescott is certainly a character and to rise to the position of deputy PM from being a humble seaman is no mean achievement. Certainly his rather bullying and every so confident handling of PMQ's when he stepped in for Tony Blair, were always good for a laugh.

"Blair's Silence is deafening" - Too right Ming !

Tony Blair now stands alone in the Labour Party hierarchy in not saying anything critical about the shambolic and disgraceful way the Iraqi government executed Saddam Hussein.

With John Prescott (deputy leader) , Lord Falconer (Labour leader in the Lords) and now Gordon Brown (future leader) calling the way it was carried out "deplorable", Ming Campbell is right to highlight that Tony Blair's silence on this issue is deafening.

What concerned by also form the BBC report (linked to above) is that there is a possibility that Tony Blair might be being quiet because of threats made by our sol called "friends" in the Iraqi government.

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has threatened that his government could "review relations with any country which criticised the execution of ex-leader Saddam Hussein."

So let's get this straight. We go to war, to rid Iraq of a tyrannical leader who does not allow freedom of speech in his own country to replace him by one who does not want freedom of speech in this country.

I've said it before so I'll say it again, with friends like the Iraqi government, we should hang our heads in shame.

Prescott agrees with Norfolk Blogger

Following my comments yesterday regarding the deplorably way in which Saddam Hussein was taunted and photographed by guards and witnesses at his execution, John Prescott has been quoted as saying that those responsible should be "ashamed of themselves". The BBC reports on it HERE.

I am not claiming John Prescott has read my blog, but for once, at least someone in our awful government has had the guts to say what everyone else is thinking.

Sadly, those responsible for the behaviour John Prescott deplores are supposedly "our friends", the Iraqi government. They themselves have said they will have an enquiry, which apparently requires three people to investigate who leaked the images. What they ought to ask themselves is why one of the guards was a supporter of Iraqi warlord "Moqtada al Sadr", why everyman and his dog was allowed to take a camera, and why nobody noticed anything wrong at the time.

All in all, a disgraceful sign of just what the "new" Irqg is all about. If they are our friends, then we should also be ashamed of ourselves for the company we keep.

P.S. Thanks to Justin Hinchcliffe, who now links to this story HERE. Justin makes some good points about the hypocricy of this Labour government.