Matt Withers has written a good piece for today's Wales on Sunday about the contenders for the leadership of the Labour Party. He makes some nice comparisons, which I'd like to share.
1) Matt describes the job of leading the Labour Party as being as attractive as the 'Welsh Rugby Team's jockstrap cleaner'. At least its pleasing to learn that they do have them cleaned. My friend, Edna Mopbucket would probably do the job for nothing. And in passing, Brilliant Blues this afternoon. Makes up for yesterday's other code woes.
2) Matt compares Peter Hain's decision to rule out a bid for the leadership with his own decision to rule out dating Anne Hathaway. I too announce today that I'm ruling out a bid to become the next Dr. Who.
3) Matt dismisses Dianne Abbott's bid as the equivalent of one of those novelty records released at Xmas which don't make the top 40. I see what he means, but personally, I think it could still be good enough to win.
4) Matt reckons Ed Balls' claims to be able to unite the Labour Party as the equivalent of Tony Blair being appointed Middle East peace envoy!! Now, how far fetched is that?
He ends up dismissing the 'Miliband Two' as only having read about working class people in history books - and advises us to place a wager on Andy Burnham. Until this morning I fancied Ed Miliband's chances - but then Lord Kinnock came out for him. Could be worse, I suppose. At least it wasn't Gordon Brown. Speaking of wagers, I met a man yesterday who got 15-1 against me winning the Montgomeryshire seat. Mrs D only had 8-1, while No 1 son, Edward had a mean spirited 5-1. Pity was that my friend only bet £5. Mrs D risked only £25. I risked nothing at all.
7 comments:
Don't rule out Diane Abbott, it might sound daft, but so did the idea of Harriet Harman becoming deputy leader back in 2007.
If a few things go her way, she could win it,
Assuming she gets the 33 MPs to back her and get the bulk of those to vote for her, she should be able to get a fair chunk of the grassroots vote, plus stake up the 2nd and 3rd pref vote, again as Harriet Harman did, should could just scrape it.
I hate it, but she'll get some votes and again a lot of 2nd/3rd pref votes simply for being a) a women and b) black
What ever happens she wont crash and burn, like some people think/
Do feel free to push the scrawl button … but hey, this issue is going to hurt the British economy big time if action is not taken quickly to stop the BP Gulf oil leak.
Big Story #1: I contacted the British Embassy today to ask them to get into contact with me ASAP - I don't think they will, but 'one has to try', I cc'ed the email to a well known journalist.
About the same time I contacted the Senior Senator from Virginia's DC Washington Office with a request for help in contacting 'the right people' in Obama's administration - the liaison guy at the Senator's office has already promised me to do just that (i.e. today - so contrast this with the British Embassy who have not got back to me).
What the devil am I talking about?
Well, some new engineering kit ten times better than the kit BP fabricated to 'put the light out' on that leaking BP pipe in the Gulf (of Mexico). I've had an AutoCAD guy working to turn my ideas into 3D engineering drawings – the AutoCAD draftsman got back to me today and travelled to my apartment (I am staying home so that I can save him fighting traffic to my office) to show me some of the 3D engineering drawings today - he's not British and like me was not born in the USA and yet he’s doing this work for free (contrast this with the pathetic disinterest shown by the British Embassy in Washington, DC), and he is bending over backwards on this project (again, nothing back from the British Embassy - BP is British yes? BP is about to get walloped by the US Dept. of the Interior - yes? ... doesn't BP pay billions in taxes to the UK Treasury? ... but the British Embassy can't be bothered to get back to me.
How important is this? BP is facing the real possibility of a fire sale of all its US assets - BP may be banned from operating in US waters. Yes, it’s that serious. It goes without saying that if this becomes reality BP is looking at billions in losses and will lose a massive amount of momentum which will naturally go to its main-line competitors.
Anyways/Fridays ... the Senator's office is working hard to get me in front of someone at the US Department working the BP oil leak issue. Whereas the British Embassy is working hard at ignoring me (can’t think why).
Anways/Fridays, I have a set of drawings ready for inspection right now. Hence my frenetic efforts to get Obama's administration on board - with the British Embassy pushing to show that they are keen to promote the new kit - except of course, NO ONE at the British Embassy can be bothered to get back to me.
Meanwhile around 20,000 barrels of oil are gushing into the Gulf every day while
BP is risking its very existence in the USA. This oil leak is an existential threat to BP.
Hey BP - do get in touch! While you still can.
If BP has to fire sale its US assets - this will make the recently UK government announced six billion UK pound cut-back look like a walk in the park.
But hey, don't bother to ring me, don't bother to look at the engineering drawings of the new kit/invention that is 10 times better than the kit you tried to put over the leaking pipe but because of poor design couldn't work due to methane hydrate-> gas formation inside your stupid 90 ton device.
PS I haven’t shown the drawings to anyone (only me and the draftsman, who is under a confidentiality agreement has seen them). But I would sincerely like to change that – BP/British Embassy – do get in touch. In fact come out to my office on University Drive in Fairfax – just 35 to 45 minutes from your offices in Washington or come to my apartment – just 15 minutes from your office with free daytime parking at my apartment building! Come on – get in that limo, and drive west for just 15 minutes and sample my mum's wicked Welsh Cakes – what have you got to lose apart from your US assets if you don’t stop that leak!
Just don't back whoever Lembit goes for ...:-)
You're not trying to be the next Dr. Who?
That's completely ruined my day.
Feel free to hit the scrawl button …
Glyn's "Rural Wales" is the place where I made the announcement that I have an invention that will stop the flow of oil out the leaking pipe - an apparatus at least an order of magnitude more efficient than the dome BP tried to lower over the fractured open end of a 26 inch diameter oil pipe.
I emailed British Embassy (BE) some days ago asking them to contact me, but still have not received a reply. This risks turning into one hell of a big stink - that the BE were so disinterested they didn't even bother to reply to my email or even come to my door to see the drawings. (So the drawings remain unseen by anyone except by me and my AutoCAD draftsman.) BE is just 15 minutes drive to ‘my house’.
BP has just admitted that their high risk top-hat procedure to block up the BOP (blowout preventer) is not going to plan. The top-hat process disposes a huge dynamic pressure on a BOP that is already ‘damaged goods’. I deliberately designed my dome to avoid creating dynamic pressure that could induce fractures - and to capture all of the leaking oil out of the leaking pipe and then if desired to shut-it down in stages. The kit is simplicity itself and can operate at any depth - certainly at any depth where man has built well-heads on the seabed. I know my stuff - I understand the methane-hydrate issue and my kit is designed to specifically render this issue moot - this is the issue that defeated the 90 ton dome that BP first tried to put over the leaking end of the fractured oil pipe. Say again: my kit is designed to render this issue moot.
Someone at BE should get in a car and drive 15 minutes to my apartment and see the drawings - to safeguard being ripped off I will file the drawings with the patent office - perhaps just minutes before I show them, I might even do that as they are taking the lift 10 floors up to my apartment! I can time it that sharply (I have an electronic account with the local patent office and can file instantly/electronically using broadband with or without using my a/c)! Anyway, unlike the UK, the USA has a one-year grace period; one can show one's invention and still file within 12 months of that date and secure patent protection in the USA (not other countries, but the USA is a BIG country). I can also petition for expedited patent processing based on environmental impact).
This effort is costing me and my AutoCAD guy a lot of time - and more importantly has an opportunity cost attached to it. I am doing this in my spare time, but I have other projects that I want to do, one of them is designing a revolutionary toothbrush which I hope to sell to one of the high-end electric toothbrush manufacturers for a million or so. I don't often 'go for money' - just that the economy here is now so bad it is seriously affecting cash-flow - clients are drying up because they can't get credit or sponsors. I have over 200 clients, but most of them are in the same boat - absent Obama doing something for main-street the small business sector is heading for a second-double dip.
Not enough money is available for small businesses to invest. It has got to the point that I don't read mail from would-be job applicants - some of them from top law schools (including Harvard - I kid you not). The US job situation is now dire - the hyperboli being put out by the White House is just that. The US economy, for lack of clear strategies to support American small business, is facing free-fall. Obama will probably want to print more money to fund yet another stimulus package (perhaps this one will finally do something for Main Street, but given Obama's total lack of small business experience I doubt it).
PS
Glyn, if memory serves you have had some chats with Hague - with his new cabinet post (Foreign Secretary) he can 'request' the British Embassy to contact me. I will make it so easy for them; they should know me already as they invited me to attend BE events last year (one led to a front page article in the Western Mail) and the other as a #1 published letter in the WM or Echo. I remember you saying that the #1 letter was so nice that Rhodri Morgan might invite me to be an assistant (or some such thing - I can't remember).
Anyways: here's my cell phone #: 516-984-7890 -it's a NY or NJ (New York or New Jersey) dialing code - long story, I nearly started my wee law firm in NY/NJ.
So BE can email me, phone me or come to 'my house' - I'm just 15 minutes drive from the BE. My mum can serve her best Welsh cake washed down with lashings of Tetley tea. Then she can twist their ear about the lack of reciprocity between the UK/USA on health matter issues - US citizens can get free NHS care in the UK whereas British citizens can't get that - well, not easily.
Well, I am now reduced to ringing the person in charge of car parking at the British Embassy (In re parking for an event held last year at the British Embassy (BE)).
I don't know what the conservative party are playing at - I have a kit design to stop the leak (In re BP) that will work down to any depth - and certainly at 5,000 feet/mile down. It is a mechanical structure designed to shut down the oil leak at the open end of the fractured riser pipe on the sea-bed. BP's kit/box didn't work (their #1 'try'), my kit is about an order of magnitude more efficient and does not require methanol or any chemical agent to render the methane-hydrate issue moot. Yet, no one at the British Embassy (now under the control of the Conservative Party) will talk to me - the amazing thing here is that under Labour it was easy to talk to people at, e.g., the British Consulate in Chicago/BE. In fact I was even invited by a British Consulate staffer to meet Tony Blair - she arranged the tickets via the Chicago Economic Club annual dinner. I met the British PM with two others - one was the acting chairman of Labour Internationa. Seems the toffee nosed attitude is back at BE - can't get anyone to even acknowledge my email. So today I ran the person who was in charge of parking at the British Embassy ... maybe that will do the trick - meanwhile guys, BP is pumping out thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf and is about to increase that to over 20,000 barrels with their latest (high risk) "lower marine riser package," or LMRP 'try'. This is going to hit the local newspaper here - which just happens to be the Washington Times/Post. Oh well, don't say I didn't warn you *(BE/Conservative Party). I even emailed one of your top Welsh Conservative Party MP. Cc'ed up to the nth degree - so there will be no hiding from the fallout.
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