31/08/2003

Bush or Prescott - which one the gloopiest?

(From issue 17 of Socialist View)

Last month we contacted George W Bush to inform him we had found a contender for his “Gloopiest Politician” title. In true Texan fashion, Mr Bush replied: “You got someone gloopier? Bring him on.” We here compare the wisdom of President George W. Bush with the acumen of Britain’s deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in order for you to judge for yourself.

Bush

"We had a good Cabinet meeting, talked about a lot of issues. Secretary of State and Defense brought us up to date about our desires to spread freedom and peace around the world." Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2003

"Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003

"Our country puts $1 billion a year up to help feed the hungry. And we're by far the most generous nation in the world when it comes to that, and I'm proud to report that. This isn't a contest of who's the most generous. I'm just telling you as an aside. We're generous. We shouldn't be bragging about it. But we are. We're very generous." Washington, D.C., July 16, 2003

"It's very interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left here to go to America, because of their steadfast and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America." Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003

"You've also got to measure in order to begin to effect change that's just more — when there's more than talk, there's just actual—a paradigm shift." Washington, D.C., July 1, 2003

"Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history—revisionist historians is what I like to call them." Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003

"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods." Dec. 20, 2000

"Anyway, I'm so thankful and so gracious — I'm gracious that my brother Jeb is concerned about the hemisphere as well." June 4, 2001

"It's important for [the United Nations'] words to mean what they say, and as we head into the 21st century, mark, when it comes to our security, we really don't need anybody's permission."—Bush, during a press conference in 2003

Prescott

"Well I've got to be careful what you say about this, to this extent, you remember I sat in the, I was in the Callaghan government, not in the government but in Parliament and we did an agreement with the Liberals because we thought that was in our interest to do so. Liberals want to do one that's in their interests but it's not in ours, you shouldn't do anything like that and I don't believe in it anyway." Breakfast with Frost, 22/10/00

"It's not the sanity of the picket lines that bothers me, it's the sanity of human life!"Quoted in The Guardian 15/11/02
”So yes, concern, uncertainties inevitable in this, we don't know the full implications that can flow from this, but what we have at least is a consensus that we've never had before, of nations who have never come together to unite in a case against globalism and talking about the proper rational response and not only about justice but about social justice, the refugees as well as the terrorists.” BBC One, On the Record, 30/9/01

"The Prime Minister has shown importance of the sustaining conference, Rio 10. I think Kyoto rather dominated Rio 10 and we tried to put our views and the importance of the sustainable conference, about which we discussed from Doha to Monterey and on to Johannesburg, and that is a global framework, we need to bring it back together in a complete frame as indeed it was in Rio." The Guardian, 5/3/02 "I've only said what the Prime Minister has already said. You don't have to talk to me. I'm only acting at the moment while he is on holiday." Today programme, 15/8/02
“On housing and charities you have difficulties about the financing of long-term finances affecting those housing, very real problems and I'm sure that we agree with them." Guardian, 9/1/03

“Some of these decisions may be difficult but it's never meant that this government will not carry out difficult decisions to achieve and do what it said it will do.”BBC One, One the Record, 30/9/01

"You can say the decision was wrong, but I suspect if I'd have been making the same decision then I would have probably made the same decision." Today programme, 31/5/02

"The agreement is taking place. I tell him properly that if his judgement to make a judgement on the public interest and the safety of the community. That is not my judgement, it is the judgement given to the Attorney General." The Guardian, 9/1/2003

"That's the language, we're talk, not walk. That is the kind of language that needs to walk." Breakfast with Frost, 17/11/02