Broon's 'rebranding' continues apace
The Standard has a report on his forthcoming book 'Courage of Heroes'. I will look at the names shortly, but it does seem to bear more than a passing resemblance to Kennedy's 'Profiles in Courage', although I'll give Broon the benefit of the doubt and assume that this has not been ghostwritten by Ted Sorensen. And he won't be eligible for a Pulitzer Prize through dint of not being American, presumably.
His list has all the tragic predictability that one would expect of a book that can only be intended as a marketing stunt, and yes, he just had to include Nelson Mandela. He has opted for a series of broadly secular and unthreatening heroes and heroines - Aung San Suu Kyi, Bobby Kennedy (One eye on the US market, eh?), Martin Luther King, Eric 'Chariots of Fire' Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Raoul Wallenberg, Edith Cavell and Todd '9/11 Let's roll' Beamer. That comes to nine, with the tenth appearing to be 'the anonymous heroes who make such a difference to our daily lives'. So, a nice mix there, although DWMs do predominate. But no Muslims - come on Gordon, surely there must be someone you can find? And no environmentalists, no Scotsmen with grievances, no bearded Socialists. I wonder how many names he submitted before Bloomsbury greenlighted the project. Meanwhile, Amazon are already hawking the book for pre-orders, at a bargain £11.21 for all of 240 pages and a prospective publication date of 1/7/8. July-September for the Blair switch is currently trading at 7.6/8.6 on betfair.... I think that keeping an eye on the publication date could be a significant indicator, as far and away the best time to publish the book would be during a leadership campaign, and decidedly not after a successful lunge at the the brass ring. So just when will Blair decide he wants to spend more time with his money, the US lecture circuit, the board of Bechtel family?
Cynical? Me?
Meanwhile, I think we can cook up a list of people rather more like Brown in temperament and personality, given his utter joylessness:
Oliver Cromwell - only with far fewer laughs
Matthew 'Witchfinder General' Hopkins
Fabius Maximus
Andrew 'Prohibition' Volstead
His list has all the tragic predictability that one would expect of a book that can only be intended as a marketing stunt, and yes, he just had to include Nelson Mandela. He has opted for a series of broadly secular and unthreatening heroes and heroines - Aung San Suu Kyi, Bobby Kennedy (One eye on the US market, eh?), Martin Luther King, Eric 'Chariots of Fire' Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Raoul Wallenberg, Edith Cavell and Todd '9/11 Let's roll' Beamer. That comes to nine, with the tenth appearing to be 'the anonymous heroes who make such a difference to our daily lives'. So, a nice mix there, although DWMs do predominate. But no Muslims - come on Gordon, surely there must be someone you can find? And no environmentalists, no Scotsmen with grievances, no bearded Socialists. I wonder how many names he submitted before Bloomsbury greenlighted the project. Meanwhile, Amazon are already hawking the book for pre-orders, at a bargain £11.21 for all of 240 pages and a prospective publication date of 1/7/8. July-September for the Blair switch is currently trading at 7.6/8.6 on betfair.... I think that keeping an eye on the publication date could be a significant indicator, as far and away the best time to publish the book would be during a leadership campaign, and decidedly not after a successful lunge at the the brass ring. So just when will Blair decide he wants to spend more time with his
Cynical? Me?
Meanwhile, I think we can cook up a list of people rather more like Brown in temperament and personality, given his utter joylessness:
Oliver Cromwell - only with far fewer laughs
Matthew 'Witchfinder General' Hopkins
Fabius Maximus
Andrew 'Prohibition' Volstead
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 27, 2006 at 8:47 am.
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Gordo must be badly shaken by the latest polling in todays Torygraph. DC is well ahead of him in all respects. And his performance at Treasury questions yesterday showed that GB is under extreme pressure.
Cant believe the tosser didnt mention a footballer or johnlennon.
ISTANBULTORY
Yes indeed the economy is in far worse shape than it appears as I have been banging on about for ages, great article from Ruth Lea. Noting the slash and burn Capitalism of reducing Labour costs with immigration. Up the arse for the working class as ever .
Speaking of Bloomsbury I wonder why Maynard Keynes is not included as he reflects far more the Brown nose meddesomeness and true beliefs . Well, we know why.
My book of heroes would be
Winston Churchill
W. Shakespeare
Isaac Newton
Paul Weller
Beyonce Knowles...(..I like big butts and I cannot lie , you other suckers can’t deny...)
Wellington
Rudyard Kipling
George Orwell
Mr. J Lydon (pop crooner of Islington origins)
Margaret Thatcher
OI!
Villains
Enoch Powell ( although Croydonians inf on the infamous letter was most enlightening)
Harold Wilson
Polly Toynbee
U2
Bob Geldoff and the runt peaches
All Dimblebeys
The entire British Film Industry
Phillip Glass
Andrew Motion…
Strange new people of any sort with their funny ways .
Ok villains is a bit lazy but somewhat busy this AM.
Great post Mr. C your wit is as ever a deadly poignard. Better than Dale !!!If only i could sit around contructing the many lists that could easily be exchanged for the above
distinct lack of my great grandfather Eric Barnes, nor Keir Hardy...or any other red.
Back even further, the humourless Mr K. Mark or Mr F Engels would have merited a mention too.
Seeing as all the above allegedly frame his view of the world, he must rather lack inssight into his own dialectical understanding of the world around him.
By contrast, imagine Thatcher not mentioning Churchill or Adam Smith!
Also as a firm 'new man' some dreary book about 'how to bring up baby' was a glaring error
NM -Being utterly shallow, I do find that Ruth Lea's appalling haircut does rather detract from her unfailingly excellent economic insights....
Quite the list you've got there, and thanks for the kind words.
CU - yeah, stinks of avoiding controversy, doesn't it? Apparently GB re-reads Smith's 'Theory of Moral Sentiments' every couple of years. I suppose Benjamin Spock would have been a nice safe choice, apart from his being anti-Vietnam war.
Caesar Augustus:
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
In Gordon's dreams.......
he's fucked.
the bond yields inverted some time ago.he's hidden inflation by using the cpi instead of rpi,unemployment by bunging 2.5 million on icapacity,borrowed money he shouldn't have,sold gold at an all time low.there is nothing to reccomend him as a money man.
on top of that I do not think he will be labour leader.I remember richard bailey saying some time ago that each day emily stayed on was another day that reid or johgnson gets stronger.
fact,if he runs as labour leader he will get beaten.the other two are popular with the public or at least have a chance
oh and ruth lea,wonderful though she is,should get a new haircut
Serf - yup. And John 'Morton's Fork Morton: "His approach was that if the subject lived in luxury and had clearly spent a lot of money on himself, he obviously had sufficient income to spare for the king. Alternatively, if the subject lived frugally, and showed no sign of being wealthy, he must have substantial savings and could therefore afford to give it to the king. These arguments were the two prongs of the fork and regardless of whether the subject was rich or poor, he didn't have a favourable choice".
RM - yup, it is all going a tad pear shaped for him. Given he has spent so many years absolutely convinced that the office of Prime Minister is his with a sense of entitlement verging on divine right, I will laugh myself silly if he doesn't get it.
"Beyonce Knowles.....I like big butts and I cannot lie , you other suckers can’t deny..."
yeah baby got back.
good thing about my part of London , full of sistas with pumped up booties, in fact London full stop.
There's a rather amusing anime video mash up set to that song over at the boreme.com site, in the adult section.
"His approach was that if the subject lived in luxury and had clearly spent a lot of money on himself, he obviously had sufficient income to spare for the king. Alternatively, if the subject lived frugally, and showed no sign of being wealthy, he must have substantial savings and could therefore afford to give it to the king. hence why our Jewish friends have always piled cash in to portable things like gold and diamonds, easy to hide and easy to leg it with when the cossacks/nazis/catholics come a knocking.
oh and newmania,youare right about andrew motion.he is an absolute tosser
Peter Hitchens - not just the Jews. Indians, as well, buy gold.
Gordon Brown will never be prime minister. How he has managed to disguise his failure as Chancellor is something to wonder at. But he won't be able to pull off the premiership. He is repellent to look at and his personality is dire. And everyone knows why he suddenly got married.
I think it will be Alan Johnson. It will be wonderful watching Gordon fail to attain his dreams of glory and control.
'Courage of Heroes'
To be followed by what?
Speed of sprinters?
Flight of birds?
Treachery of Tonys?
Verity, are you implying that Brown is the sort of gentleman who would view that video posted by Croydonian and admire the soft furnishings rather than the cool toy?
I cant see brown as a bender , he is too unkempt.
One of the worst things Emily has bequeathed to Labour is the certainty that Gordo (a sure fire vote loser with a dodgy record at the Treasury) will automatically be leader of the party at some point in 2007. That was the deal on the succession TB and GB both agreed to in 1994. It's now very difficult to imagine that Gordo would reject what he has long regarded as being his for the taking. Or that an alternative leadership candidate could yet emerge who would be able to defeat GB at the risk of considerable strife within the Labour paty and lethal damage to the party's public image. Remember that although Gordo is decidely unpopular in the country, he is very positively viewed among the Labour party rank and file and the trade unions. Of course, we will defeat him in 2009 but that is the subject of a different thread....
She shinks...
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