December 06, 2004

Blunketty Blunk

Posted by Daniel

I have no real post to go with this headline, but as a service to the British journalists with the thankless job of covering our Home Secretary’s love life (sample coverage “Mark, the Home Secretary is currently suing his pregnant ex-lover to force her to take a DNA test so that he can prove that her older child, as well as her current unborn child, is in fact illegitimate and fathered by him. Do you think he’s done anything unwise?”), may I pass on a fantastic old quote from JK Galbraith:

“Anyone who says four times that he won’t resign, will”

By my count, Blunkett currently has a Galbraith score of 1. I think he ends up staying, but that quote ought to be good for a couple of paras if you’re hard up against it. You can return the favour some time in the future.

Posted on December 6, 2004 10:57 PM UTC
Comments

You’d think with a situation as messy as this, a hardnosed operator like Blunkett would have avoided the temptation to cut a bit of red tape at the office on behalf of his paramour’s nanny. If he goes, that’ll be what does for him.

Posted by John Quiggin · December 7, 2004 01:03 AM

Had the Sun already beaten you to Bonkety Blunk when you were picking a heading for the post?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004562341,00.html

Posted by P O'Neill · December 7, 2004 02:38 AM

hahaha that’s fantastic. Just goes to show I’m not charp enough to work at the Sun.

Blunkett is now telling us that “politicians are as human as anyone else”, which must be reassuring news to anyone who thought that politicians were better than us.

Meanwhile, I have dug up a Blair speech from 1997 where he says that his ministers will be “the people’s servants”. I don’t think we realised that he meant the kind of servants who can’t keep their sticky fingers out of their employer’s wallet and milady’s drawers.

Posted by dsquared · December 7, 2004 07:10 AM

I’ll be sticking with David “Security” Blunkett, myself, even if he was even to busy to turn up to Brussels to rubber-stamp his own Mass Stalking Initiative.

Posted by des von bladet · December 7, 2004 09:05 AM

He’s a concerned father who wants to do the right thing and support his children. Why would he want to resign for that?

Posted by cloquet · December 7, 2004 07:04 PM

Isn’t that Galbraith quote something like the adage that any manager of a troubled team who gets manager of the month is on his way out?

Posted by Another Damned Medievalist · December 7, 2004 08:27 PM

Hmm, how many times now has Blair said he’ll resign to make way for Gordon… and then turned around and said he won’t resign?

Not quite what Galbraith had in mind, though, I’m sure.

Posted by Robin Green · December 8, 2004 03:11 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.