Did he mean it, or didn’t he? And did the presence of Ed Balls induce sacked Home Secretary Charles Clarke into admitting he was wrong about saying those nasty things about Gordon Brown.
Clarke effectively conceded that his savage personal attack on the Chancellor had been unhelpful to the party. And he acknowledged that people, including himself, had behaved in “not the most best and advised ways”.
However, he did not retract his words, just said that they would have been best left unsaid. That hardly improves matters, the damage has already been done. I wonder what has been said between the two men since.
Clarke was speaking last night at a fringe event hosted by the Fabian Society and the Observer at the Labour conference where he was flanked by Brown’s close ally Ed Balls – was this a mere coincidence, or had Clarke been told to publicly put matters straight, but he didn’t quite manage it?
Chris Mole MP, however, has not have second thoughts about signing the letter calling for Blair’s early resignation and is quoted in his local paper today as saying he has “no regrets”.
I’ve just done a quick trawl of the Labour blogs and the official conference blog seems quite dull, just an interactive press release, Tom Watson has launched a new site and has had enough of being asked where to get a curry, Kerron Cross is not bothering, so Antonia Bance’s site is definitely the best read to date, unless you know differently…
‘Best left unsaid’ means “It was absolutely true what I said, but no one should have heard me.”
Semi-detached is how I think we can now describe Mr Clarke.
Charlie probably is semi-detached but he was also certainly right. Gordon, for all his private charm, does come across as a control freak and always has. He cannot project the inner wamrth and sounds as though he is in the pulpit, if they have those things in Scottish churches. The good news for the Tories, however, is that he is the only game in town. Forget John Reid or Alan Johnson – they wouldn’t last five minutes. My tip for next Labour leader but one: Milly, Andy Burnham (longer odds) and (rank outsider) Caroline Flint. It certainly won’t be Mr Balls, who is as hated as his master.
Well with the daily twists and turns in political life, those “ill-advised” words now relate to Cherie’s gaffe: “Well that’s a lie”. We don’t need Tory press officers with that kind of endorsement.