Wednesday 23 January 2008

Minister for Dirge

As visitors to this site well know, I like Parliamentary sketches as they take out the mundane and drivel generated by asinine MP’s, and highlight the fact that yes, our elected representatives can actually speak on the hoof, engage their brains and dare I say it, go of script.

Simon Carr’s comments in today’s Independent follow this style. Poor old David Miliband (apparently he is Foreign Secretary) made an appalling speech in the Commons yesterday. It was left to Patrick Cormack (Con South Staffordshire) to wake up the House. Raising a point of order, he asked the Speaker for an adjournment so that Miliband could rewrite his speech!

David, where is your mojo? The long hot summer of 2007, when the name Miliband was touted as a definite front runner for the Labour leadership, seems like another country now. Mr Miliband currently spends his time cultivating boredom, analyzing tedium and throwing them all together into a speech. He is now the official Minister for Dirge!

A point to note and one for the Hansard enthusiasts. Carr points out that William Hague made one of the best speeches of the year, and “probably next year as well”. Always a gifted orator, the ex Tory leader is rapidly becoming the balanced voice in what is clearly an unbalanced House!

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