While Blair was away playing poodle to George Bush, his deputy, John Prescott was sneaking off to play croquet on the lawn of the “grace and favour” (rent free) country house he gets with the job. That’s apart from the rent free town pad he has in Admiralty Arch. Well he needs it as he was thrown out of the rent free London apartment that a trade union allowed him until he voted against their interests. (Notice a theme here?)
From the Mail on Sunday
Astonishing photographs show how Mr Prescott – shamed after a steamy affair with his Whitehall diary secretary – relaxed with aides on the manicured lawns of Dorneywood while officials claimed he was running the country from his Whitehall office.
The pictures were taken on Thursday afternoon, shortly after Mr Blair left Downing Street to fly to the US for a summit with George Bush – leaving the Premiership in the hands of his deputy.
But instead of concentrating on matters of state, Mr Prescott drove straight to his grace-and-favour residence in Buckinghamshire to stroll the 200-acre grounds, take refreshments and enjoy a game of croquet with political aides and civil servants.
The disclosure is certain to add to the pressure on Mr Blair to dismiss Mr Prescott, now seen as a laughing stock and a political liability to an already beleaguered Prime Minister. Labour backbenchers will be horrified that Mr Prescott chose to flaunt his stately home by playing croquet – a game they associate with effete toffs.
(Two shags is the adaptation of his previous nickname “two Jags” after his liking for the cars. He was often seen in the company of his wife and his female “diary secretary”. Unlike Clinton he did “have sexual relations with that woman”. In his office amongst other places. The roles of the civil servants playing croquet with him are not as yet known.)
This appears to be part of an orchestrated campaign this weekend to finally discredit Prescott and force an election for Deputy Leader, as a prelude or pretext for getting rid of Blair. There is even speculation it may be a Blair plot to undermine Brown.
The rumblings of discontent can be evidenced by the Labour leadership feeling it necessary to wheel out Anne Clwyd. She is his main “Saddam was a bad man so we were right to go into Iraq” apologist.
“A small number of individuals are giving the idea there is a big rift in the Labour party,” she told BBC News.
If members wanted Labour’s “very strong programme” to succeed they should unite to give it every support, she added.
“I talk to more people than most in my own party – and they are very angry.
“Very loyal supporters of the Labour Party say, ‘What on earth is happening?
“‘We elected this prime minister. We elected this government. Why don’t they get on with it. And why don’t these other people just go away.'”
While the Mail is hostile to Labour, even the usually loyal Mirror has been joining in the Prezza-bashing. This from Saturday
NEXT week will definitely be a long time in politics – because John Prescott is running the country.
Prezza will take over at the helm when Tony Blair goes on holiday and the whole nation will be praying it’s a quiet seven days.
And from Sunday (sorry links expire quickly on this site so I have not posted them for these two quotes.
JOHN Prescott should be replaced by a woman, a minister demanded yesterday.
Harriet Harman refused to rule herself out as Labour’s next deputy leader when Mr Prescott retires.
Asked if she wants his job, the Solicitor General told an interviewer: “It is a hypothetical so I am not going to say.” But she insisted the job should go to a woman and said: “I think it actually is a necessity.”
She said Labour must have a woman at the top of the party to stop losing female voters to David Cameron’s Tories.
The Indy gives a rather more sober but still damaging assessment.
Photographs of John Pres-cott playing croquet on Thursday at his official country mansion were published last night as it was revealed that Labour MPs aim to force him from office.
The Deputy Prime Minister is to be confronted by a delegation of senior Labour MPs who want him to go, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. Grassroots anger over his extramarital affair and refusal to give up his perks is driving MPs to demand that Mr Prescott quits. One senior backbencher said: “He is making us look like Tories.”
…..
The growing calls for Mr Prescott’s resignation and an early race for the deputy leadership is being viewed with alarm by Gordon Brown’s camp. Until now, Mr Prescott’s position has been assured since neither Mr Blair nor Mr Brown were thought to want a potentially divisive contest for the deputy leadership. Now, however, the Chancellor’s supporters believe some Blairites want to force a deputy leadership race to wreck the “stable and orderly transition” of power between the Downing Street neighbours.
Their suspicions may not be misplaced. One Blair loyalist said: “We need to renew ourselves urgently, and a proper race for deputy leadership in which we can really debate the future of the party would be an excellent way of doing so.”
It is increasingly looking like Blair’s final act of lying treachery will be to abrogate the “Granita Accord” in which he is supposed to have undertaken to stand down in favour of Brown during his second term as Prime Minister. This was said to have taken place at the Granita Resturant (now closed) in Islington before Blair was elected Labour leader. He has already renaged on (what Brown thought was) the promised timetable and could now be abandoning his promise. The discontent in the ranks was of course stirred by Bush’s approval at their joint press conference. These comments were lost in the US media under the weight of the “I must not make cowboy speeches” admission from Bush. Much more publicity was given in the UK to his hope that Blair would be PM as long as he was President. Much groaning and burying of heads in hands in the Blair camp and much gnashing of teeth in the Brown one