Why did Paddy Ashdown need bodyguards in Cambridge yesterday?
Posted by Ellee on Jun 21, 2007 in Uncategorized | 3 commentsDoesn’t Gordon Brown think he has enough talented members in his own party to serve in a Cabinet?
Interestingly, Nick Robinson’s blog on this subject has a comment from a Cambridge blogger about Paddy Ashdown’s visit to the university city yesterday – with bodyguards present. Cantab asks:
“Lord Ashdown was in Cambridge yesterday evening in order to promote his new book. Perhaps surprisingly, it was deemed necessary to have bodyguards present – the same bodyguards as were present when Peter Hain, the current Northern Ireland Secretary, came to Cambridge the week before. Would that kind of fuss ordinarily be afforded to a former Lib Dem leader and former UN High Representative in Bosnia? Despite his protestations to the contrary, might Lord Ashdown have already accepted a post that would justify the security detail?”
Good question, I wonder why it was deemed necessary and the cost to the taxpayer. Surely there wasn’t a problem that he couldn’t deal with, even if he was anticipating a bit of a media scrum.
*It seems Brown’s invitation to Paddy Ashdown didn’t win the approval of Alan Johnson, who is running for the deputy Labour leader. He said this morning that Labour was not interested in a coalition, that the Liberals had not had a seat at the cabinet table for 100 years and it would probably be another 100 until they did again.
Hardly an auspicious start for Brown.
(Republished following technical difficulties today)
Seriously though why does he require body guards? Who is the threat from?
Gosh, did I miss Paddy in Cambridge
Well can’t be everywhere at once
And Seville was just starting to get HOT!
These comments have been copied from the original post.
1. Welshcakes Limoncello says:
June 21st, 2007 at 5:57 pm
A very strange offer to make. When, since WW2, have we had coalition governments?
2 Ellee says:
June 21st, 2007 at 6:12 pm
The bizarre thing is that not even his Labour MPs want this. Alan Johnson, who is running for deputy Labour leader, spoke out about it this morning.
3 Nich Starling says:
June 21st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I think Alan Johnson needs to learn his hostry to track when there were last Liberal in the cabinet. His prediction will be wrong too.