One man band app full#

Mr Blair is the second-youngest member of the shadow cabinet and the youngest of his senior colleagues. But there is a further problem in New Labour's case. Clement Attlee's post-1945 administration was effective despite bad relations between Ernie Bevin, the foreign secretary, and Herbert Morrison, the deputy prime minister. Such tensions need not be fatal to a government. Mr Brown does not get on with Mr Prescott or Mr Cook. Adding to doubts on that score are others, already more obvious, over how well Labour's ministers would work together. However, performance in office calls for different skills than opposition. Add to these Donald Dewar, the experienced chief whip and Jack Straw, a battle-hardened shadow home secretary, and you have a kernel to a Blair cabinet that at least equals Mr Major's team.

John Prescott, the deputy leader, though not much tested, has come over well on the street and put his foot in his mouth less often than usual.

Robin Cook, the shadow foreign secretary, outdazzles Malcolm Rifkind, his Tory counterpart. Gordon Brown, the shadow chancellor, has fought a good campaign. Is Labour a вЂњone-man bandвЂќ, as its strategy has seemed to imply?ДЄt the top, in fact, the ability of the senior people is not in much doubt. Labour strategists think their opponents might have done better to raise doubts about what lurks in those shadows. Never has the term вЂњshadow cabinetвЂќ seemed so appropriate. Mr Blair's campaign has concentrated on Mr Blair, and the Tories have responded by attacking him. Such are the difficulties of spotting talent in opposition. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with Mr Dobson that a ministerial limo and the aura of office would not put right. Tony Blair has been displeased by Mr Dobson's resistance to his plans for elected mayors: he may give the job to somebody else.

Mr Dobson, whose handicaps include a beard and a blunt turn of phrase, is the kind of Labour politician whom the Conservatives, long-accustomed to office, cannot imagine as a minister of the Crown. Mr Farage promised me that he wouldnвЂ™t veto her, which isnвЂ™t quite the same thing.вЂњYOU really can't back a party that is going to make Frank Dobson environment secretary,вЂќ one senior Tory strategist told journalists last week. The UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen, who once asked Mr Farage to resign, told me in an interview which we will broadcast on C4 News tonight that Mr Farage and his party weвЂ™re вЂњundemocraticвЂќ.ДЄndreasen fears Mr Farage will use his new power to relegate her down the UKIP party list for the south-east area for the 2014 Euro-elections. In particular they resent his command of the money the party gets from having MEPs, and a recent UKIP rule-change which effectively gives Farage a veto over candidates. I recall hearing Roy Jenkins there 30 years ago, at a huge SDP rally, and a photo in the basement shows the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley speaking in the building.Д«ut some in UKIP are coming to fear the party is becoming a one-man band, and accuse Nigel Farage of developing into a dictator. He was speaking in BirminghamвЂ™s old Victorian Town Hall building, which has provided a platform for many great orators in its time. Mr Farage declared that UKIPвЂ™s goal was now to top the poll, UK-wide, in the 2014 European elections. In his speech Nigel Farage welcomed the latest recruits, including Lord Stevens of Ludgate and Stephen West, a Conservative councillor from Basingstoke, who will now be UKIP candidate for Hampshire police commissioner. Also on the stall, for some strange reason, were two goldfish in a bowl and a competition to find the best names for the fish.

One man band app full#

Nigel FarageвЂ™s stall, manned by his wife (and neither will mind me using the non-PC word вЂњmannedвЂќ) was full of pictures of the dear leader, copies of his books, Nigel Farage mugs, and and a tea-towel commemorating the time he called Herman Van Rumpoy a wet rag. Each MEP pays for their stall from the promotonal budget they each get from the European Parliament. Around the conference hall were st alls for each of UKIPвЂ™s MEPs вЂ“ a clever way, the party freely admits, to channel EU money into UKIPвЂ™s coffers. It was an eyeopener вЂ“ rather disorganised, but also very colourful вЂ“ full of people sporting Union Jack ties, bow-ties or cravats, in bright waistcoats and with incredible moustaches. IвЂ™ve never been to a UKIP conference before. And when the party is competing with the Liberal Democrats for third place in the national polls, on 9, 10 or even 12 per cent of peopleвЂ™s voting intention, itвЂ™s hard to justify ignoring them. The BBC had at least two national correspondents at their gathering in Birmingham today, while ITV and Channel 4 had at least three between us. Suddenly broadcasters have started to cover their annual conference.