Smiler

Gordon Brown isn't known for his smile but towards the end of Mr Darling's statement - when the IHT changes were being announced - our PM couldn't stop grinning.  Watch the news bulletins tonight.  He appeared to be taking enormous, childish pleasure in the theft of Tory ideas.

Comments

[Peter Hatchet]

Nice and statesman like Gordon. Well done. Glad you're pleased.

This will affect the polls, to a degree, but nothing like as drastically as our original proposal did. Labour aren't going to win plaudits for it.

Something tells me most people will see right through this.

It's all too predictable.

[Andrew Woodman]

That is the face of a man who is only interested in clinging onto power and destroying our party. He has all the conviction of a lemming. That smile needs to be destroyed.

[John Leonard]

You forgot to mention Brown's nodding dog impersonation.

He could easily get a job sitting on the back shelf of John Prescott's Jag. We'd all be better off if he did.....

Seriously, he did seem to be taking some childish pleasure in this. Hardly Prime Ministerial behaviour is it?

[DavidRH]

That smile should come with a health warning

[James Burdett]

Like the smug shots!!

[Jacab]

I know this comment isn't adding anything to the debate, but I can not get across just how much I really do not like this man. I can't stand to look at him or watch any interview with him. I have never had this with any other politician. I always held a certain amount of respect for Blair, but I just want Brown to go away.

[Adam in London]

Gordon Brown has a clear vision for the country.

If you want to know what it is, go to the Conservative press conference the week before...

[David]

Says it all really-he's not concerned with running the country, just playing political games.

[Jonathan Sheppard]

Maybe it's part of his new vision... politics of the school yard?

[Patsy Sergeant]

Since Mr. Brown gives every indication of believing that he has a divine right to govern the UK for as long as he wishes to, in his mind I am sure that he firmly believes that he has the same right to annexe - or 'steal' as the commentator said on ITN News - anybody else's projects, policies, plans and ideas, that he fancies. Added to that his sour description of opposition rival David Cameron as namby pamby, as reported in an article in Sunday's Telegraph, and it becomes entirely clear why his own sour face is lit up with piggy-eyed gloating smiles. HOWEVER, I have every confidence that David Cameron did not give Brown the satisfaction of 'getting in a strop', or 'losing his cool' or a more familiar trait for Brown I am sure that David Cameron did NOT go into a SULK, something that Brown knows all about.

[eugene]

He is smiling because at long last, he has discovered how to run the country properly- that is listen to the benches opposite.

[S.Freud]

Barking mad.

[David Morris]

So if a single woman, or sibling in residence die they effectively only get a half allowance under Labour then? I seem to recall certain Conservative ideas about families being panned as discriminatory against these groups.... for the sake of £20, not the family house!

[chrisblore]

I agree entirely. There is something extremely childish about this whole affair and whereas in the past the Blair/Brown government has been able to get away with repackaging Tory proposals, I think it's going to be a whole lot harder this time around. The momentum is with us and the press will see that it is now the Conservative Party and not the Labour administration that is setting the agenda which is an extremely positive sign.

He really is naïve if he truly believes he's going to get away with it this time.

[Maggie Thatcher Fan]

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts......, Adam Boulton shows that its all smoke and mirrors

[Hand of History]

That's not smiling, it's smirking. Never seen such a smug look on the loser's face!

[Andrew K]

He who laughs last.....

[chrisblore]

The BBC have bought this one hook, line and sinker going by the latest 5Live news bulletin. Apparently there are "big tax cuts" coming! Perhaps they know something we don't!

Maybe that's what he's smiling about?!

[Kevin Davis]

I find it very interesting how the recent events of Brown have galvanised a hatred within our party tpowards Labour.

It was not there before with Blair and all Brown has done is create a line of steel in the Conservatives that he will clearly come to regret.

[Edison Smith]

We're not going to achieve and maintain 40% in the polls consistantly until the blimmin' BBC address their obvious bias.

Their headline for the 10 O'Clock News is "Labour make 97% of people exempt from inheritance tax."

This is in stark contrast to Sky and ITV, who have seemingly seen straight through the Labour spin.

Unfortunately, the BBC carries more clout than in the minds of the public than the other two broadcasters combined, and no doubt such headlines like above will convert a few floaters back to Brown's listing tent.

'Public service' broadcasting.

[Adam-]

Didn't anyone else see Gordon's head descend into his hands when Osborne ripped Darling's statement to shreads? Jolly good show!

[support the strivers]

Please can we get the msg across to these mal-motivated, chippy nonentities attempting to run the UK:

SPENDING FOR THE SAKE OF IT IS NOT A GOOD THING

[Oscar Miller]

Brown's emotional reactions show obvious signs of arrested development - stuck round about the age of three. How can this man be allowed to run the country? His personality disorder is so evident.

[Edison Smith]

Christopher Blore - I know, I just cannot understand why the BBC are so dim. They are meant to be a public service broadcaster but instead they stick with the Labour party line and don't bother thinking for themselves

Their investigative journalism is dead, and since 1997 they simply have not held the government to account.

Buttock-clenchingly grim.

As I've said in an earlier post, until the BBC wake up the Tories will continue to struggle to hit 40 points because the 6 and 10 O'Clock News remains to this day the primary news source for the majority of the British public.

Kevin Davis - Brown has concentrated Tory minds. Unlike Blair, who in another life could have ended up in a Conservative party, Brown is Labour to his bones and as partisan as it comes.

As a result, the Tories no longer have a 'blind spot'. There's no distracting charisma or subtletly with Brown. Just a hard-nosed Socialist who will commit us to dust unless we stand up to him day-in, day-out, until we throw him out in June 2009.

[Jacob]

Just seen three headlines for tomorrow's paper on News 24.

Guardian - Talk about how Labour Stole Tory Policies. Can't remember full headline - but it's all about how they stole Tory Tax Plans.

The Sun - Picture of Darling and 'Stop Thief'

Independent - 'Brown's Big Gamble'

[Andrew K]

What was the term Blair used....? Psychologically flawed.

[Hand of History]

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Address to the Rump Parliament (20 April 1653)

[Andrew Woodman]

To be honesty, anyone who at the age of 4 or whatever it was sets his heart on being Prime Minister needs to be looked at. It donates a power for the sake of power, rather than a formed opinion on what you think needs to happen to change the world. I can understand why Osbourne was unable to converse with him. The man's a maniac.

[Teck Khong]

Ed, light-heartedness could be misconstrued!

Or is this serious physiognomy?

[Steve MacFarlane]

Maggie Thatcher Fan: "Adam Boulton shows that its all smoke and mirrors..."

From Sky News' Boulton & Co. Blog:

"UPDATE: The Treasury have been in touch to suggest that this post suggests that today's announcement was nothing but a presentational stunt and ignores the fact that it will benefit the majority of those previously hit by IHT. On reflection, their objections are not entirely without foundation. This was not a case of spinning the maths (such as GB's 2p income tax at the last budget) but a genuine tax alleviation measure..."

[David]

What is the Treasury doing e-mailing a journalist to complain about his angle on a story? This isn't just stupid - it's dangerous...

[Edison Smith]

Newsnight are tucking into Darling.

Paxman:"First he steals their policies - then he gloats about it... Shameless."

Crick: "The Conservatives have the intellectual initiative. It seems George Osborne is more in touch with public opinion than Labour."

If right Jacob, that Sun headline is quite promising. We need them onside.

[Maggie Thatcher Fan]

Steve Mcfarlane.. you missed out the IMPORTANT BIT< typical Brownite spin...> READ THE LAST SENTANCE!!!

UPDATE: The Treasury have been in touch to suggest that this post suggests that today's announcement was nothing but a presentational stunt and ignores the fact that it will benefit the majority of those previously hit by IHT. On reflection, their objections are not entirely without foundation. This was not a case of spinning the maths (such as GB's 2p income tax at the last budget) but a genuine tax alleviation measure. Nonethless, it is still a formalisation of arrangements currently available to anyone who goes to the trouble of making them!

[Ken Stevens]

Ye Gods -- Brown is morphing into a Blair lookalike!

[Scotty]

"This was not a case of spinning the maths (such as GB's 2p income tax at the last budget) but a genuine tax alleviation measure..."

You forgot to mention that married couples can already do this.

Tim, any chance of a diary peice on what this will all mean for everyone's council tax. I think that this is going to be the nastiest spoonful of medicine for voters in the next couple of years. There are a lot of Tory councils out there and it would not surprise me if that is why they are being starved of funds and will have to up council tax further.
We have got to get that message across quickly, and firmly place the blame where it belongs.
Forget IHT, Labour's blatant thievery will be exposed by the media, we need to go on the scandal of council funding and how it is the biggest ever increasing stealth tax along with not raising the tax brackets on income tax. These are taxes which hurt people on lower and middle incomes, it is also a huge nightmare for retired home owners on a fixed income.
Come on CCHQ, you have to run with this and now.

[Steve MacFarlane]

? The last sentence is established fact, beyond contention - and featured on Conservative Home's main page. The reform IS a formalization of existing arrangements, but one with VAST impact.
Face reality: now, inheritance tax will affect 3% of estates - 97% of those who die will pay ZERO. Do you think that was ALSO the case yesterday...?!
If you don't accept that a reform with such fundamental impact is a genuine tax alleviation measure, there's no arguing with you.

[Andrew Woodman]

Is the Treasury a Labour mouthpiece or an impartial Govt department????

[Christian May]

For the past 6 months we've seen Brown's toothy forced smile - forced upon him by his advisors. Today, for the first time, we have seen a genuine grin.

[Teresa Rosell]

What I noticed was Harriet Harman's "opt-out" of smiling or even expression...what was that about?!

Teresa Rosell

[Londoner]

Steve MacFarlane at 23:31 does not understand the figures. Labour always said that (current) IHT only affects 6% of estates. So they seem to have just halved it as a result of this transferable nil band, and now say 3%. I distrust this profoundly even on its own terms because it implies that half of all estates will benefit from this initative, which ignores all the single and divorced people who die, and indeed all those who achieved the same effect anyway through tax planning.

But more fundamentally, the proportion of actual estates paying is not the right thing to look at. We should look at the proportion of people who, if they (and their spouse if they are married) died today, would find their estates paying IHT. Scottish Widows say that is about a third of all households, of which all but 3% would no longer be doing so if there was a £1m nil band. The reason for the big difference between a third and Labour's 6% is that people currently in their 50s and 60s are a lot richer than most of the people actually currently dying, who are in their 80s. IHT also has a much worse effect when people die in middle age because they are much more likely to have dependants who might need the money to live off (or the house to live in), i.e. minor children and dependent elderly relatives.

So I can possibly understand your mistake, Steve, but you really shouldn't parrot that stupid 97% figure. Like most things that come from this Government it is 97% spin.

[Andrew Sharpe]

Jacob said know this comment isn't adding anything to the debate, but I can not get across just how much I really do not like this man. I can't stand to look at him or watch any interview with him. I have never had this with any other politician. I always held a certain amount of respect for Blair, but I just want Brown to go away.

Well, now you know how Labour supporters felt about Maggie all those years. But isn't polarisation in politics healthy, an energising force? Compare the Thatcher/Foot era with Wilson/Heath, or going further back the muddy consensus years of Macmillan/Gaitskell, Baldwin/MacDonald. Regardless of who you like, which era got more done?

[Steve N]

From a back seat view, it feels as if I am a passenger in a taxi, but there are 2 drivers. The one on the right initially laid down the route and I agree with it, great route! However the guy on the left more or less confirmed the same route and he can't stop smiling when he repeats it, now they are arguing who's route it is and who is actually driving.

There was a nice but very old man back at the taxi rank with a yellow rickshaw, maybe I should have got in his cab instead, however he seemed too old to pull the rickshaw.

Taxii!!!!

[Chad Noble]

This is all excellent news as it means the (much-loved by political leaders) 'centre ground' is now firmly located in conservative lower tax territory.

It doesn't matter that Labour will balls these policies up, what matters is that GDP not a Happy Planet Index or GWB are now acknowledged by both sides to be the key buttons to public popularity.

In his pre-conference Telegraph interview, in answer to my question, Cameron refused to pledge a lower Tax Freedom Day than now even after *five years* of a Tory government!

I hope that will now change.

[ex-labour]

That display of triumphalism displayed by Brown in Parliament yesterday was thoroughly nauseating and demeaning to his office, however, it is already starting to backfire on him as it did on that other obnoxious charlatan, Kinnock, in 1992.

The picture of Brown with a smirk reminiscent of the evil villain The Joker in Batman films should be stuck on Tory election posters at the next GE.

Media reaction to Brown's cynical stunts is becoming increasingly hostile. Now that Andy Burnham, Bob Ainsworth, and even Alistair Darling (on radio this morning) have been publicly destroyed in quick succession lying pitifully on behalf of their master, will Bottler Brown unleash his big guns on the TV studios: Ed Balls, Ed Miliband, and Douglas Alexander?

I can't wait to see Paxman, Humpries, and Neill sink their big teeth into that bunch of over-promoted, talentless, nonentities.

[Clucking Fist]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.

[observer]

Smug, smug, smug. Why I simply don't know. For Gordon Brown to shamelessly copy policies announced by the Conservatives just days before hardly smacks of conviction politics or a Labour vision for the country!

Brown has exposed himself as a shallow cynical opprtunist...on Thatcher, on a conference speech that wasn't his, on Iraq, on a General Election, on the NHS, on Inheritance Tax and on taxing emissions.

[Torygirl]

I hope someone wipes that smirk off his face.

[Oscar Miller]

It's becoming ever clearer that Brown is not only bad but also mad (that preening grin tells us quite how far gone he is). And judging by the ever more frantic efforts of his friends in the media (the Today programme is a particularly egregious example) - he's dangerous to know as well.

[floating voter turned tory]

It truly was an appalling display of demented preening by Brown, the photo of him in the top right is particularly revealing.

He really is quite mad isn't he!