Thursday, July 20, 2006

Disinformation, or just plain wishful thinking?

Mike Smithson seems taken in by today's Spectator "revelation" that Alastair Campbell thinks Blair will stay on "for a year and a bit," namely until next year's Labour Party Conference.

This is a little surprising, given that it is only a matter of days since Mike's highly-esteemed Political Betting.com site was saying he would go in 2006.

Leaving that aside though, I wonder what it is that makes him think that anything Alastair Campbell says can possibly be taken at face value, given that the man is a proven master of disinformation?

On this occasion, I don't think it even qualifies as that, more a hopeless case of wishful thinking from a man seemingly in denial about the extent of the crisis now facing the Prime Minister.

I am on record many times as saying Blair would step down on or around the 10th anniversary of his coming to power, namely on May 2, 2007, but I now take the view that that is the absolute limit of how long he can realistically hope to remain in power.

As one MP said recently: "The Labour Party will let him do 10 years. If he tries to go a day longer than that, they will kill him." Assuming, of course, that Inspector Knacker doesn't get him first.

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3 comments:

skipper said...

Agree we can't rely on anything Campbell now says. BTW, did you see the OBN piece in the Eye? AC suggests TB should seek to win the hosting of the World Cup adding that 'I might find time to help' and 'Winning three general elections was one thing. Winning the World Cup would be even better.'

Ellee Seymour said...

I agree about Blair seeing out his 10th anniversary. Maybe the Alastair Campbell line was said to throw reporters off the true scent.

Anonymous said...

I don't know... why would Alastair Campbell say something calculated to enrage Tony Blair's opponents unless it were true?

In the world of blogdom, the end is nigh. Meanwhile in the real world, Labour have just started a five year term till 2010, Tony is in charge and the alternatives aren't looking much better...