Sep/10
10:56 2
Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh: Tory ministers can “run a piss up in a brewery” after all
Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh was recently in Scrapbook’s guns owing to his bit-part in Nick Clegg’s disastrous children’s centre visit (Greenhalgh was responsible for shutting the facility). However, our most dedicated readers may recall his contribution to the pantheon of idiotic gaffes: the Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader told an event organised by Public Finance magazine last November:
My mates are all in the shadow Cabinet, waiting to get those [ministerial] boxes, being terribly excited. I went to university with them, they haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery. They’re going to get a department of state, in one case running the finances of the nation.
But when challenged on this in a recent interview with Total Politics, Greenhalgh says:
The comment I’ve made is that the shadow cabinet hadn’t run a piss up in a brewery – to paraphrase Obama – “yes they can!” I never said they couldn’t.
Oh, yeah? Though he pleads with interviewer Asa Bennett that ”the context of that is important”, a look back to the original coverage in Public Finance tells a different story. Those present seem clear that Greenhalgh did cast aspersions over the experience of his (then shadow cabinet) colleagues. As he said at the time:
If you’re going to fail, fail running Alabama, fail running Texas, fail running the city of Paris – don’t just take over the country.
Quite.
Aug/10
10:37 274
How the Nick Clegg children’s centre visit turned into a scene from The Thick Of It
DPM Nick Clegg, Tory council leader Stephen Greenhalgh and incensed Labour MP Andy Slaughter
The hapless minister is dispatched to a photo opportunity at a children’s centre, only to be harangued by parents and the local MP because the facility is being closed. The coup-de-grace comes when, retreating to his government Jaguar, he is presented with “save our home” cards created by young children. This may sound like a plot summary from The Thick Of It but that is precisely what happened to Nick Clegg yesterday.
The following package was broadcast on BBC London News after Political Scrapbook scooped the tale of the DPM’s disastrous visit to Shepherd’s Bush Village Hall yesterday afternoon. Keep an eye out for the flummoxed special adviser, incensed local MP and a distinctly uncomfortable council leader:
Further to the icy treatment of the broadcast media (and parents) depicted in the video, Nick Clegg completely stonewalled the local Fulham Chronicle newspaper and was equally purse-lipped with Labour MP, Andy Slaughter, refusing to back the centre he was using for a photo opportunity:
I asked him in a private interview after he had made pizzas with the kids for the cameras, whether he supported the Shepherds Bush Families Project and wanted it to stay open. He wouldn’t answer – Andy Slaughter MP
En-route to his next engagement Scrapbook hopes Clegg took time to read the cards presented to him by two little girls. They read simply:
“Mr Legg [sic], please save our home”.
Aug/10
15:30 120
Exclusive: Red faced Nick Clegg visits community centre he didn’t realise was being axed
Nick Clegg and his staff were left red faced this morning after arranging a visit to a community centre facing the chop due to government cuts. Having not done his homework properly, the DPM arrived at Shepherd’s Bush Village Hall seemingly unaware that the facility was being closed. As the error dawned on Liberal Democrat spinners, his entourage employed “bully boy” tactics in a vain attempt shield him from questions posed by the assembled local press and centre users.
The centre has fallen victim to a policy of asset stripping by Tory-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council dubbed as ideologically driven by opponents. The cuts to a dozen buildings across the borough were supposedly enacted “as a result of the national public spending squeeze”. However council leader Stephen Greenhalgh (who memorably accused the Tory front bench of having never “run a p*ss up in a brewery”) has insisted on pressing forward with electorate-pleasing cuts in council tax despite the claimed difficulties in civic finances.
Scrapbook are currently trying to lay our hands on pictures of the DPM being handed ”Save Our Centre” cards by children on the first floor of the building.
Not really the photo opportunity Cleggover wanted.
Nov/09
19:08 2
Leading Tory council chief: shadow cabinet “haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery”
Stephen Greenhalgh is the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council and was appointed to head the Conservative councils’ innovation unit by David Cameron and Eric Pickles. Hang on a minute, what’s that sound? It’s the noise of a pencil drawing a line through a name on CCHQ’s Christmas card list:
“My mates are all in the shadow Cabinet, waiting to get those [ministerial] boxes, being terribly excited. I went to university with them, they haven’t run a piss-up in a brewery. They’re going to get a department of state, in one case running the finances of the nation.” – Stephen Greenhalgh
Soundbites like this are presumably not what Greenhalgh had in mind when he told ConservativeHome that Tories “need to find the right language, establish Conservative values and develop a new Conservative lexicon”.
Cameron, Osborne et al may not have run a brewery. But our local government hero may not find himself running their local government innovation unit in a few months. But Scrapbook can’t help but feel a bit sorry for Cllr Greenhalgh and his off-the-cuff remarks.
After all, it’s not like an event organised by a well known public sector magazine will have any journalists there(!)
UPDATE: More at The Telegraph, Finanical Times and LabourList.
Advertisement
