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Reluctant Hero

Chancellor shows his English credentials

How can this not fail to be a boost for the SNP ahead of the elections Very Happy

It is just a shame he said it in January instead of closer to the election

World Cup own goal for chancellor

Chancellor Gordon Brown has provoked a storm by appearing to back England to host and win the football World Cup in 2018 - and not his native Scotland.

Mr Brown said he would like "the host" to win such a competition, adding that "of course, Scotland will do well".

SNP leader Alex Salmond said the comments made Mr Brown look "ridiculous in Scotland and insincere in England".

Later Mr Brown said in a statement: "My ideal scenario is that Scotland play England in the final and Scotland win."

The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath added: "But if we don't qualify, or we go out in an earlier round, then I would transfer my allegiance to the other home nation, England."

Mr Salmond said: "Gordon Brown is fast becoming a figure of fun in these matters.

"First he said that Paul Gasgoine's goal against Scotland in Euro 96 was his favourite football moment, then he supported a British Olympic team and now he seems to have completely lost the plot."

It was reported on Friday that Mr Brown would meet Fifa president Sepp Blatter next month.

The meeting has been set up by Sports Minister Richard Caborn for 28 February with a bid for the World Cup at the top of the agenda.

Mr Brown, who is likely to become prime minister when Tony Blair stands down later this year, has firmly attached himself to an England bid.

The Fifa president's influence will be a major factor in the success of any bid and he said last year he would welcome a bid from England as "the home of football" for 2018.

Mr Brown and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell last year launched a joint feasibility study into a bid.

That study is due to be published shortly and will be strongly supportive of the Football Association bidding to host the 2018 finals.

The chancellor is understood to view a successful World Cup bid as the sort of publicity coup which Mr Blair has enjoyed following London's success in landing the 2012 Olympics.

Questioned in Mumbai by the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, Mr Brown said: "It will be great. Fifty years after we had it before. It is the right time for England to have it.

"It will mean we would have a most magnificent sporting decade with the Olympics in 2012 and the World Cup in 2018.

"All the effort to win England's place for the World Cup is going to happen in the next year or two."

Asked then who he wanted to win the World Cup, Mr Brown replied: "I think the host." When asked "Not Scotland?", the Chancellor replied: "Well, of course, I want Scotland to do well, but let's just see how it all works out."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6280663.stm
garye

Re: Chancellor shows his English credentials

Reluctant Hero wrote:
How can this not fail to be a boost for the SNP ahead of the elections Very Happy

It is just a shame he said it in January instead of closer to the election

World Cup own goal for chancellor

Chancellor Gordon Brown has provoked a storm by appearing to back England to host and win the football World Cup in 2018 - and not his native Scotland.

Mr Brown said he would like "the host" to win such a competition, adding that "of course, Scotland will do well".

SNP leader Alex Salmond said the comments made Mr Brown look "ridiculous in Scotland and insincere in England".

Later Mr Brown said in a statement: "My ideal scenario is that Scotland play England in the final and Scotland win."

The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath added: "But if we don't qualify, or we go out in an earlier round, then I would transfer my allegiance to the other home nation, England."

Mr Salmond said: "Gordon Brown is fast becoming a figure of fun in these matters.

"First he said that Paul Gasgoine's goal against Scotland in Euro 96 was his favourite football moment, then he supported a British Olympic team and now he seems to have completely lost the plot."

It was reported on Friday that Mr Brown would meet Fifa president Sepp Blatter next month.

The meeting has been set up by Sports Minister Richard Caborn for 28 February with a bid for the World Cup at the top of the agenda.

Mr Brown, who is likely to become prime minister when Tony Blair stands down later this year, has firmly attached himself to an England bid.

The Fifa president's influence will be a major factor in the success of any bid and he said last year he would welcome a bid from England as "the home of football" for 2018.

Mr Brown and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell last year launched a joint feasibility study into a bid.

That study is due to be published shortly and will be strongly supportive of the Football Association bidding to host the 2018 finals.

The chancellor is understood to view a successful World Cup bid as the sort of publicity coup which Mr Blair has enjoyed following London's success in landing the 2012 Olympics.

Questioned in Mumbai by the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, Mr Brown said: "It will be great. Fifty years after we had it before. It is the right time for England to have it.

"It will mean we would have a most magnificent sporting decade with the Olympics in 2012 and the World Cup in 2018.

"All the effort to win England's place for the World Cup is going to happen in the next year or two."

Asked then who he wanted to win the World Cup, Mr Brown replied: "I think the host." When asked "Not Scotland?", the Chancellor replied: "Well, of course, I want Scotland to do well, but let's just see how it all works out."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6280663.stm


How's about that for the Scottish cringe, his initial assumption is that we (and by that I mean Scotland, Gordon) wouldn't even be at the races. Broon is enough to make you vomit.
Andy McH

"Bless him"
Avatar

And just to twist the knife into him a bit further...


Quote:
Concerns have been raised that community projects in Scotland could be put at risk because of the rising cost of the London 2012 Olympics.

The director of the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland said using more lottery cash than was intended would have a direct impact on groups in Scotland.

The organisation has said good causes could lose up to £51m because of a funding shortfall.

The government said the benefits of the Olympics would far outstrip the costs.

The price of London's Olympic Park has increased by £900m and extra costs such as additional security measures are also escalating.


The Lottery must not be used as a giant Olympics slush fund
Jo Swinson
Liberal Democrats

The government has admitted it may have to dip into National Lottery funds to plug the shortfall.

Dharmendra Kanani, director of the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland, said the fund wholeheartedly supported the Olympics and accepted that some lottery cash would help pay for it.

But he said taking even more money would have a damaging effect on the many community groups, sports and charities that rely on lottery funding.

The Scottish National Party's spokesman for sport, culture and media, Stewart Maxwell said the cost of the games was "spiralling out of control".

"It is unacceptable that thousands of community projects in Scotland, including those involving grassroots sports groups, face collapse because of the soaring cost of the London Olympics," he said.

"Scotland was assured by the Labour Government that the London Olympics would not affect Lottery spending in Scotland.

Tessa Jowell
Ms Jowell has said public sector funding for the games will increase

"However since they gave that promise we have learned that the estimated costs of the Olympics may have more than doubled from £2.4bn to £5bn."

The west of Scotland MSP pointed out that the cash problems had arisen just as Scotland was bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has warned that public sector funding for the Olympics would have to increase from an originally estimated £2.37bn to about £3.27bn.

Mr Maxwell called on the Westminster and Holyrood administrations to pledge that no more good causes were "raided" in Scotland.

A spokesman for the Department of Media, Culture and Sport said the games, along with the paralympics, would provide a "once in a lifetime opportunity".

'Clear risk'

"We accept that using National Lottery funding for London 2012 represents a loss of income to the non-Olympic good causes," he said.

"However, we remain convinced that the benefits the games will bring will far outstrip any effect created by such a diversion."

He added that the games would regenerate one of the most deprived areas in Britain, inspire youngsters to take up sport and create world class facilities for everyone to use.

But Liberal Democrat Scottish spokeswoman at Westminster, Jo Swinson MP, said: "There is a clear risk that other good causes could lose out on vital lottery money.

"There must be a new, independently audited Olympics budget, with full parliamentary oversight.

"The lottery must not be used as a giant Olympics slush fund."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6279869.stm

I cant see how he can justify the above AND now pushing for England to hold the next World cup. [/quote]
Reluctant Hero

Is Gordon Brown really that out of touch with the Scottish electorate.

Those comments and commitments can only alienate any potential Labour voters in Scotland.

It seems as though he is playing an extremely high risk strategy. He is staking everything on becoming the next PM and assuming that the Scottish elections will look after themselves returning a Labour victory.

I hope he is in for a big surprise come May Very Happy
Scott2006

I don't trust Gordon Brown at all, not even on his ARITHMETIC!
2018 subtract 50 years is not 1966 but 1968...

Who does his sums for him?

Great Briton Gordon Brown will probably get the top job in late June or early July (4th of July maybe!), and then he'll preside over the decline of Labour as the governing party of England as unlike Blair he can't hide his accent or reinvent his origins.

His advancement of the English cause of holding both top World sporting events in the same decade is probably pointless for him... as he'll be out of office by 2010.

The Cameron (as PM) Olympics and World Cup = History seems to remember who was actually around at the time they happen not the bit-players that might have helped make them happen.

Who has GB lined up as his lackey at No.11? Will Brown be remembered as an unpopular Scotsman running Greater England that fatally killed the Union while trying to foist his half-assed Britishness onto an unimpressed public?

Maybe Gordon should consider a transfer to a new constituency in England somewhere if he wants to stay in English politics in the future.

I can only see Brown lasting as leader for 1 election and losing it.
2 or 3 years in the top job and then ditched by his party for a younger English leader.
Aventinian

I don't see much point in everyone being so picky over someone's football allegiances. If he wants to support bloody Afghanistan, so long as his motives are not in question, then I couldn't care less.

"I don't trust Gordon Brown at all, not even on his ARITHMETIC!
2018 subtract 50 years is not 1966 but 1968... "

Ha, good point.

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