Cruddas turns down Brown!

Mike Ion Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:03:56 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

The BBC is reporting that Jon Cruddas has turned down a government job. It is not yet known what role Jon was offered or his reasons for refusing.






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Cruddas turns down Brown! | 31 comments (31 topical)

Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#1)

by swatantra on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:06:29 AM GMT

He's a fool for turning it down. Better to be in govt than out; you can make the difference. Pride comes before a fall.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#2)

by alsoleeds on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:14:47 AM GMT

A very rash judgement Swtantra considering the post and the terms of his taking it are unknown. Jon is championing a number of policy areas such as social housing, workers rights etc which are vital for the improvement of conditions of working people. Would (for example, I have no knowledge of what post it was) being the Under Secretary of State in the Home Office help that agenda or would he be better staying outside of the Goverment to continue to champion the issues he believes in. If he was given a key post and some freedom that is a different matter, but i suspect he wasn't.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#3)

by alsoleeds on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:14:48 AM GMT

A very rash judgement Swtantra considering the post and the terms of his taking it are unknown. Jon is championing a number of policy areas such as social housing, workers rights etc which are vital for the improvement of conditions of working people. Would (for example, I have no knowledge of what post it was) being the Under Secretary of State in the Home Office help that agenda or would he be better staying outside of the Goverment to continue to champion the issues he believes in. If he was given a key post and some freedom that is a different matter, but i suspect he wasn't.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#4)

by Sensible Comrade on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:26:47 AM GMT

I'm surprised by this news. I was looking forward to Cruddas entering government - I wonder when we'll find out what position he was offered?


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#5)

by grimupnorth on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 11:23:10 AM GMT

Good  for  him. No doubt  the post  had  caveats which he couldn't go along with.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#7)

by Glass House on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 01:14:21 PM GMT

What?!

You made a thread dedicated to slagging off Brown for not putting Cruddas in Cabinet ("WHERE'S CRUDDAS"), and now you're praising Cruddas for turning down a job. How can you hold those two opposite opinions?


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#10)

by jkitleft on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 02:38:47 PM GMT

agreed


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#13)

by grimupnorth on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 04:29:32 PM GMT

They  are   not  opposite. I would  have expected Brown to offer Cruddas a job  but presumably  Cruddas  would only  have been interested  in a  job if it addressed  the  issues  he was interested in  ie social housing,  fighting the BNP. I gather this was an unpaid  Party  job ie an insult. So  no wonder he turned it down.
If Brown   was going to honour the support  Cruddas  got from the Party , he should  have offered  Housing MInister or something  similar. But  he's too busy  giving  jobs to Tories.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#15)

by NorthernMonkey on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 05:55:14 PM GMT

Not everybody in Cabinet gets the job that best suits their interests. I wouldn't have said Miliband's number one interest was foreign affairs and I doubt Ruth Kelly's main interest is transport or Peter Hain's work and pensions.

You get the job you're given and if you wish to serve in a Labour government and actually make a difference to the lives of ordinary people, then you accept.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#22)

by Glass House on Sat Jun 30, 2007 at 08:00:15 PM GMT

Some of us might think that it is an honour to be asked to serve your country - we would roll up our sleeves and get on with the job. Not Cruddas. It seems clear that Cruddas think that his position as "leader of the left" (for how long, I wonder) is more important than doing this.

Grim, you've whined and complained endlessly about the lack of leftwingers in Cabinet - I can't believe that your supporting Cruddas in his ego trip. It seems to me that you're more concerned with opposing Brown nowadays that saying or supporting anything remotely constructive. 


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#23)

by Loz on Sat Jun 30, 2007 at 08:03:56 PM GMT

Hey glass house, did you get my email?

(wish we had a PM system on this site) lol.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#24)

by Glass House on Sat Jun 30, 2007 at 08:43:06 PM GMT

replying now...


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#29)

by Loz on Mon Jul 02, 2007 at 10:42:32 PM GMT

Hi, not sure if you've checked your account, but I have since sent you a  reply. ;)


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#30)

by Glass House on Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 12:51:23 PM GMT

Just replied


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#31)

by Loz on Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 04:04:00 PM GMT

Likewise.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#26)

by HenryG on Sun Jul 01, 2007 at 08:48:26 AM GMT

Not everyone wants to be a minister. Of the deputy candidates he was clearly the least interested in securing a Government job.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#11)

by swatantra on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 03:46:37 PM GMT

Now that he's turned it down, Cruddas will become just another footnote in history. Oblivion, just like McDonnell.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#12)

by jkitleft on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 03:52:21 PM GMT

i'm not sure.....


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#14)

by grimupnorth on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 04:32:42 PM GMT

Oh, really. John McDonnell was on World At One today  speaking  out against the appointment  of Sir Digby Jones. And, as Cruddas  is not  in Govt, he will be able to speak  out too. I  think  you'll  find neither  is going anywhere  near oblivion. Indeed,  both their profiles  will be raised significantly  in the months ahead if Brown  carries on along  this appalling right-wing path.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#16)

by NorthernMonkey on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 05:58:50 PM GMT

appalling right-wing path?

Well given he's appointed Malloch-Brown and Denham into the Cabinet as well as making Miliband foreign secretary, I'd say that's a bit of an extreme comment.

Even Claire Short thinks the government has changed enough for her to return, so surely you must see that too?


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#17)

by jkitleft on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 06:00:56 PM GMT

surely if he's offering Cruddas a government appointment, he's turning away from an extreme right-wing path


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#18)

by NorthernMonkey on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 06:02:24 PM GMT

Exactly.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#19)

by grimupnorth on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 06:54:02 PM GMT

Shaun Woodward , Sir Digby Jones, Quentin Davies. John Hutton.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#21)

by NorthernMonkey on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 07:03:01 PM GMT

John Denham, Jon Cruddas (who turned down his job), Mark Malloch-Brown, Claire Short potentially returning, appointing a man who was against Israel's war against the Lebanon as Foreign Secretary...


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#20)

by grimupnorth on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 06:54:36 PM GMT

She  hasn't said that  at all if you read what she said.....


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#27)

by swatantra on Sun Jul 01, 2007 at 01:41:58 PM GMT

He may speak but nobody's going to be there to listen. He hasn't got a platform in govt.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#6)

by liz on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 01:06:06 PM GMT

He is not one of Gordon's cronies and was no doubt offered a job outside his known interests.  Clever Gordon!  Well done to Mr Cruddas - a man of principles and we will no doubt find out in time why the position was unsuitable.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#8)

by liz on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 01:14:47 PM GMT

I have just read on another blog that he was offered an unpaid party job.


Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#9)

by Glass House on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 01:15:22 PM GMT

where?


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#25)

by Peter Kenyon on Sat Jun 30, 2007 at 11:40:54 PM GMT

Luke's blog was running the Vice-Chair story.

Presumably you are aware of this development from later blogs on Labour Hom.

My comment on Luke's blog was:

Dear Luke

If Jon Cruddas was offered a fictious post as a Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, and turned it down, I applaud him.

I blogged about GB outdoing his predecessor with party fiction a week ago here:

http://petergkenyon.typepad.com/peterkenyon/2007/06/party-chair-pos.html

I have no problem with Party leaders wanting to be innovative. But GB can't go blathering on about earning trust and then behaving in a dictatorial fashion as Party Leader. We have just had ten years of that. I am not sure the Party really has much stomach for more of the same.

He needs some very savvy political advice. The sort that protects him from more 75p increases in the pension, or appointing Harriet Harman as Party Chair when she has just won an election as Deputy Leader, or proposing the abolition of contemporary motions at Conference.


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Re: Cruddas turns down Brown! (#28)

by grimupnorth on Sun Jul 01, 2007 at 06:01:45 PM GMT

Hear,  hear Peter.


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Cruddas turns down Brown! | 31 comments (31 topical)