Andrew Grimes
08.01.10
The two gormless Labour backbenchers who had a go at Gordon Brown this week do not appear to have renewed their subscription. Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon were easily outflanked by a few loyalists, and a rather
larger number of self-preservationists, when they called for a secret
ballot on the prime
minister’s future. Both, it is true, have held lofty posts, but neither with a distinctiveness that made them lovable. Hewitt, in her health ministry, began closing down 23 British pubs a week with her anti-smoking ban. Hoon was no genius at Defence, worse as Commons leader and recently denied preferment in Europe. Neither, today, could command a hearing in the Commons tea-room, or, indeed in a back-street snack bar. So when they unleashed their feeble soft snowball of a ballot plot, their parliamentary audience was aghast at the lowly, insignificance of its provenance. “Who,” some probably asked, “do those two think they are?” Others, of shorter memory, might even have asked, “Hoon
Source: Manchester Evening News