Monday 28 September 2009

Golden Brown

Senior Labour party figures are furious with the BBC about the interview that Andrew Marr conducted with the Prime Minister at the start of the Labour Party Conference. In the interview Marr asked Brown whether he was using "prescription painkillers and pills" to help him "get through". The PM and Marr then went on to clash over whether this was a fair line of questioning.

Lord Mandelson has criticised the BBC for "personal intrusiveness" and the Labour Party has lodged a formal complaint. Alistair Campbell attacked Marr for repeating rumours that had previously been confined to the blogosphere - they were originally raised by the Conservative blogger Paul Staines aka. Guido Fawkes. Campbell said on his own blog, " It was low stuff. Everyone... has certain areas of their life that they'd prefer not to be asked about on live TV."

The question that no-one appears to have asked is whether it is of concern to the nation that the man with his finger on the nuclear trigger, the man who can take the country to war (or lead the country out of war) is taking mind-altering medication. Furthermore, does it matter that quite a number of people who are dependent on such medication do appear to have a higher than average chance of plunging into debt at some point?

Perhaps not. Many former world leaders have carried on quite ably for years whilst receiving mood, or mind-altering substances. John F. Kennedy and Adolf Hitler are both known to have led their countries whilst taking amphetamines aka speed. They were both extremely powerful men who had at their disposal 'weapons of mass destruction'. And both carried on leading their respective countries 'under the influence' for years rather than just the months - for which most Doctors hope to prescribe such medication.

In fact both were noted for the successful prosecution of complex and 'mind-blowing' confrontations, that showed cunning, bravado and 'determination'... one of which involved the brutal domination of much of Europe, the other that took the world to the brink of thermonuclear war better known as 'the Cuba Missile Crisis'.

37 comments:

  1. Come come, The song Golden Brown had nothing to do with drugs.
    The lyrics were akin to an aural Rorschach test.
    That or marmite

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  2. This rumour has been around for a long time.
    The 'Thick of It' made a thinly veiled reference to it about two years ago, when the attack dog special adviser called Jimmy talked about the (next) PM spending his time feeding the 'black dog' with mind altering pills

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  3. Guido Fawkes has been spreading this story... and of course he is a known supporter of Gordon Brown

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  4. Maybe Damian McBride is working for the Conservatives nowadays. It sounds like one of his smears.

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  5. Mandelson has apparently claimed that it is a right wing smear.
    Didn't the Sunday Times report at the weekend that Mandelson would happily work for the Conservatives if he was asked...?
    ... I'm only asking...

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  6. Guido Fawkes and Damien McBride are two sides of the same coin, if you know what I mean

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  7. At least people have stopped asking troublesome questions about Baroness Scotland

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  8. Alistair Campbell? Hasn't made a living out of talking about his own depression?
    Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere for Gordon.

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  9. As they say, Mr Brown, he is in denial?

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  10. Wish I knew what pills he's taking...
    As they saying... I'll have some of what he's having...

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  11. Struth. Right wing conspiracy?
    Well at least they can't now accuse him of being an ex member of the Bullingdon club

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  12. Actually Matthew Norman published an article about a month ago regarding Brown being on mono-amine oxidase inhibitors.
    Anyone know whether that was before or after Guido Fawkes?

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  13. Maybe it's a left wing smear. Brown is no friend of the left

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  14. Actually Simon Heffer wrote an article in the telegraph before Norman's Indie article.
    But they were both beaten to it by the Fawkes blog.

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  15. What does Campbell mean when he says, "I'm sure Andrew would agree that everyone has certain areas of their life that they'd prefer not to be asked about live on TV."???
    Sounds menacing to me

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  16. Does anyone know whether the PM took the red pill or the blue pill?

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  17. Maybe Andrew Marr is a bad boy for asking a question based on hearsay, but then maybe the nation ought to know these things anyway.
    We effectively employ Brown and we all know that employers have the right to do drug checks on their employees.

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  18. There is a story, not sure whether its true about a congressional candidate who asked his aide to spread a rumour that his opponent was screwing a pig. When the aide protested: "Surely you don't expect people to believe he's screwing a pig." The candidate replied: "No, but we can force him to go around denying it!"

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  19. Black Dog?
    Didn't Churchill suffer from that?

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  20. Surely smears and spin are two sides of the same coin?

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  21. Sounds like it's time to spin those coins...

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  22. Hitler practically invented WMD

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  23. At least Gordon Brown isn't going around defending right wing Latvian groups like the Tories' fat-boy Eric Pickles

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  24. Didn't Cameron do coke?

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  25. I love the smell of crystal meth in the morning

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  26. Cameron might have done coke in the past, but he ain't doing it right now... and he is also not running the country right now.

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  27. Matthew D'Ancona writes in the Standard that Brown could not possibly be taking MAOIs (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors) since it would conflict with his Calvinist principles.
    Religion is the MAOI of the people, then...

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  28. Apparently the left are moving against Brown. MP Alan Simpson laid into him today and called his speech 'Dead Men Walking'

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  29. MAOIs were a favorite of William Burroughs... he took them in the form of ayahuasca - a South American hallucinogen.
    Let's hope that Mr B is not seeing little green lizards everywhere

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  30. Who is taking my name in vain?

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  31. Apparently David Dimbleby was a member of the Bullingdon club.
    The plot thickens

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  32. NB, The attack dog special adviser in Thick of It is called Jamie

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  33. Apparently Mandelson has knocked Brown off the top slot in the Telegraph's most influential leftwingers poll.
    Remarkable for two reasons: First, Brown is the PM and second the idea that Mandelson is a leftwinger.
    Maybe we're all on drugs

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  34. Mandy is a gunslinger... but a leftwing one, that's all

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  35. Brown in spiraling debt, whatever can you mean?

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  36. Ain't Mandelson one of dem ex-Marxist, Neocon, Manchurean types?

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  37. Gordon has two doctors.
    Mandelson is one (spin doctor)
    The other is the guy handing out the pills

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