Gordon Brown leaves politics: an innocent coincidence?

Odd and short after José Socrates was arrested.

Coincidence?

I wonder whether the PJ will come up with  something that we still don't know. A secret payment?
If it happened, we will hear it, I hope.

I hope it is all to do with the timing of this case.All the major players out of the way,in order for the case to come to some sort of conclusion.

If I were in charge of the Labour party and knew that the McCann case was about to be blown wide open, I would want to distance the party from Gordon Brown so that any resulting scandal is aimed solely at the former pm rather than the party as a whole.

We won't ever know but perhaps he was pushed rather than jumped.

Poe, I didn't think of that, pushed. He is still too young to abandon his carrier and politics seem to be his passion.
I remember wikkileaks and who knows the former ambassador will be quizzed.

He was also asked to throw his hat into the ring as a candidate for the new Labour leader in Scotland. He obviously had his reasons for declining.

costello wrote:He was also asked to throw his hat into the ring as a candidate for the new Labour leader in Scotland. He obviously had his reasons for declining.

I think a lot of brown stuff is about to hit the cooling device Costello. I never liked Brown and thought his premiership was a disaster but his passion was clear during the referendum whether you were a yes or a no. Timing in politics is everything. Maybe he knows what is about to explode or was persuaded to go now and we`ll say no more. Interesting times ahead.

Is Cristobell around? I love her comments.

I agree Chirpy,he was instrumental in the Referendum.I just cannot see him coming out of this scenario in a good light at all.

@ paracetamol

I would like to hear Cristobell's take on this thread.I also like her comments.

It is wondeful to express our opinions without being banned. Thank you, adm.

paracetamol wrote:Poe, I didn't think of that, pushed. He is still too young to abandon his carrier and politics seem to be his passion.
I remember wikkileaks and who knows the former ambassador will be quizzed.

I agree Paracetamol, he is too young to abandon his career, and indeed his lifelong passion.  For Gordon Brown it is in his blood, he didn't marry until he was 49, and although he had a brief stint as PM, he never won an election in his own right.  He is not a natural 'family' man, and in fact he has long been known as a workaholic.  I just don't see him running the kids to school and pottering about in the garden.  Of course it may be that he has had some fantastic job offer that will pay considerably more than representing his constituency in Parliament, but I doubt it.  While Tony and Cherie were building up a personal fortune and property portfolio, Gordon was taking care of the housekeeping, he is not driven by a desire for money, but he is certainly driven by a desire for power.  He bit his tongue and played second fiddle to Tony for years waiting for his moment to step into the promised PM role, therefore his resignation now without a high flying Ambassadorship offer or similar is curious.  Although having said that, the offers may now pour in.

His retirement so soon after Socrates imprisonment is suspicious indeed.  I believe that when the first calls from the McCanns came into Whitehall and Downing Street, they responded with their hearts rather than their heads - we all did - it was a horror story, but the first ones to arrive on the scene must have known immediately that all was not what it seemed.  This is where the 'emperor's new clothes' came in, did those on the ground tell the emperor it was a staged abduction, or did they decide to run the show themselves and keep the lie going?  An organisation like CEOP were desperately in need of a poster child to convince the public their children were at constant risk, they wanted more government funds.  Equally the Labour party were very keen to get the entire population DNA'd and tagged, and scaring parents into having their newborns microchipped would be a good start.

Regardless of who took the decision to continue with the scam, Gordon Brown is implicated.  As PM he would have had the services and advice of MI5, MI6 and numerous police chiefs who's job it was to report directly to the top.  At a very early stage GB would have known Madeleine was not abducted imo, ergo, all the decisions he made after having this information must be criminal?  What did he discuss with Socrates?  Who has the power to have the lead detective removed from an investigation?  The McCanns didn't, they were at the mercy of the Portuguese authorities, and the police were closing in. Someone was pulling strings and the interference continued right up to and including the decision to release the McCanns from arguido status.  Detectives worldwide must have been astounded that the Portuguese did not continue to prosecution given imo the overwhelming evidence that pointed to the parents.  There was a wonderful quote from the head of the French police at the time amazed that the 'only person prosecuted for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was the detective leading the search', or words to that effect.  Kate and Gerry McCann with their machinations have imo made both the British and Portuguese police look inept and corrupt, both haemorrhaging taxpayers money in order to avoid prosecuting the only people in the world who had the means, motive and oppportunity to make a 4 year old child disappear without trace.

If and when the parents are arrested, serious questions will be asked as to why the British Government at that time prevented a criminal prosecution.  Questions will also be asked in Portugal, as to why their government assisted in the sabotage of their own police investigation as a 'favour' to the British, and as we have seen with the imprisonment of Socrates, they treat their fallen politicians rather more harshly than we do in the UK.      

David Cameron has no reason or desire to protect his old adversary, in fact, nailing the McCanns and trashing the former labour leadership before the coming election could bring the tories a landslide victory.  As someone else in this thread pointed out, all the main figures in this case have lost their power.  Gordon gone, Alan Johnson sofa surfing on current affairs, Clarence facing a hopeless election in Brighton, Gamble no longer head of CEOP.  And now the McCanns 'friend' of the past few years also retiring.  I think all of those who attached themselves to the evil at the heart of this case, either for power or financial gain, are about to get all their hens home to roost.  

As for Gordon, like all ambitious men and women, he is at an age when he must consider his legacy.  In his retirement speech he specifically says, he will speak now, then the newspapers, then history.  Does he foresee a media storm?

costello wrote:I agree Chirpy,he was instrumental in the Referendum.I just cannot see him coming out of this scenario in a good light at all.

And now he is under yet another spotlight, because a lot of people think that Westminster are reneging on "The Vow" and they have realised, too late, that they have been conned. There's now a fairly active campaign to boycott the Daily Record, who claimed originally that "The Vow" was their creation, only now they are trying to distance themselves from it.

Wow Cristobell, as ever brilliant post more than I had thought. Although I never had much time for Gordon Brown or Tony Blair(I am Scottish) I do think maybe Gordon has been stitched up. Will Gordon be the fall guy in all this thanks to Tony Blair  I think he will. I now think people are disassociating themselves from this case as hopefully endgame is in sight. Just my opinion.

costello wrote:Wow Cristobell, as ever brilliant post more than I had thought. Although I never had much time for Gordon Brown or Tony Blair(I am Scottish) I do think maybe Gordon has been stitched up. Will Gordon be the fall guy in all this thanks to Tony Blair  I think he will. I now think people are disassociating themselves from this case as hopefully endgame is in sight. Just my opinion.

I'm a sucker for flattery Costello, lol

I think Gordon will be the fall guy, Blair has wriggled out of it and moved onto new pastures - he has his place on the international stage. Brown will have many enemies, people who will blame him for losing the last election to the tories. Gordon lives up in the clouds I think, he does not want to be bothered with trivia and I would imagine he was happy to delegate 'niggling' problems to advisors who could make them go away. I doubt Gordon or Tony had any idea that McCanns would turn into the media monsters they became, or that they would grow out of control. Gerry had his heart set on heading up some sort of McCann Corporation, perhaps even a television career like of John Walsh in the USA.

Brown also lost control of the reins when Clarence gave up his government post and worked for the McCanns directly. Efforts at damage limitation were made by the government, but as Clarence said in the notorious Vanity Fair interview, they asked for a meeting with the PM or government minister but were only offered some at medium consular level, which they declined. This was around the time the McCanns had been released from arguido status and were blowing their trumpets in the Expresso and Vanity Fair interviews, they had got what they wanted, but as ever with this case, it wasn't anywhere near enough. They are a nasty pair and I would imagine the moment they had got something on someone, they will use it to manipulate them for ever more. I think the people who assisted them had 'stuff' on those in power too. The only way you could stand there and say the parents are completely innocent is via a full frontal lobotomy, blackmail or cash.

I hope the scandal will be used against Labour.
1000s of people donated money to the McCanns, believing their story, Brown allowed it and he is allowing the UK spend millions
n the Madeleine case.

paracetamol wrote:I hope the scandal will be used against Labour.
1000s of people donated money to the McCanns, believing their story,  Brown allowed it and he is allowing the UK spend millions
n the Madeleine case.

How is Brown allowing the UK to spend millions on this case?

What has Brown got to do with Operation Grange?

Have I missed something? Quite probably

paracetamol wrote:I hope the scandal will be used against Labour.
1000s of people donated money to the McCanns, believing their story,  Brown allowed it and he is allowing the UK spend millions
n the Madeleine case.

And when another "missing child" turned up dead, murdered by his mother, in Broon's constituency - he made no comment at all, nothing, zilch. Considering that these were his constituents, you'd think he would have had something to say to the police and public who spent days and nights out in the cold, searching.

Brown's brother was on a quango which also had Gerry McCann on it. The question is: how did a mediocre cardiac consultant get onto a quango?  Which usually means a nice little earner for giving the odd opinion. 

i'd have to check but iirc GM was not On that quango (atomic energy) a few years later. He was on the committee of the MRI thingy - which again is also unusual imo. GM isn't exactly at the top of his profession and his career path is extremely unorthodox. He lectured in sports medicine before moving on to cardiology. 

Getting the fellowship for a year in Amsterdam to learn how MRI works for cardiology is surprising in view of his track record at the time. Such fellowships are very sought after and you need backing 'from the top' to be considered. I've read the paper written after the fellowship and several other papers written by GM. 
Possibly C+. Imo. 

On the other hand Brown never used the then much admired couple to win votes. Refused to meet them.

Whereas it is recorded by Kate that Gerry left messages for Brown to call him back, now Brown won't  have liked that much at all and yet he did.  Those were the days..

Call me cynical, but I suspect the current allegations in the UK could be the reason why some MP's have suddenly took the decision to not put themselves forward for any future election.

Think about the last cabinet reshuffle and who, surprisingly, stood down. Perhaps these MP's were tainted by association and would damage the reputation of their party. General election coming up and all that.

I tend to think it is key that GB has stepped down at this time. If things blow up (relating to anything - not just Mc Cann) than better to have already have faded from public life rather than be under the spotlight and be forced to step down . It is damage limitation, surely. Regarding Mc Cann case, Brown was PM when this occurred and he clearly enabled political interference into the PJ investigation. This can all blow up in his face and probably will do in due course. Better he steps down now.

The endgame is in sight and GB had no choice but to step down. I'm certain he didn't want to but did not have a say in the matter.

It's common knowledge he poked his grubby nose it just when a conclusion was on the cards. He did that to save his own face for looking a complete arse and having his pants pulled down by a couple of average Joe Docs.

Everything that is going on at the moment is all clicking into place nicely and how it should be.

IMO.

Yes - I like that ...'grubby nose'...
I really dislike Gordon Brown - ((or what I know of him) especially when hearing him  talk about that woman in his car with his microphone still on !)).  What confuses me is his wife used to come across as pretty reasonable and nice - but hen she started to like being in the media and I went off her a bit. I think Gordon Brown appears to despise the general public (or that comes across to me) and he had no hesitation in pulling the wool over our eyes in this case.

Nice to see you back Andrew - you keep disappearing for days on end...

Ahh thanks Helenmeg - Very kind of you to say.

Been away, busy with work commitments and invites to lots of Xmas parties in the eve's so not really had the time to keep up on here.

Back to topic. Well a slightly different one..

Apparently Summers was on BBC this morning talking about the case..

Did anyone see it and what guff did he spout.....?

Not as big a load of guff as Charlie Steyt.
"The Portuguese police lost interest in the case" was just one of them.

I don't think brown had much choice at the moment what with everything going on, and I don't just mean in this case....

If he gets away without his part in this affair being too controversial he'll apply for a cushy EU number in the future.