[Mb-civic] Shrimsley on Michael Howard - UK Conservative Party leader

[Alexander Harper]

Michael Howard, still battling at 63
>By Robert Shrimsley
>Published: April 19 2005 14:12 | Last updated: April 19 2005 14:12
>>
Michael Howard, the elderly gentleman plucked from the Number 10 bus to be leader of the Conservative party, held his morning press briefing on Tuesday amid growing signs of dissent over his hardline campaign style. Mr Howard, who has made a point throughout the campaign of reminding people of his age, was clear that there was no need to change his strategy.

"Morning, turned out nice again. They said it would rain on the weather forecast but it's quite bright. I'm 63 you know, still got all me own teeth. What is it with Labour landslides? You can wait 40 years for one then three come at once.

"Where was I, oh yes, immigration. We've got to get a grip on it. There'll be riots, you mark my word. People have to have confidence in the system. I was around for the last ones; Bradford, Oldham, the Gordon Riots. I'm 63 you know, still battling.

"Who knows what might happen if people believe the system is out of control? Remember what Enoch said. They're coming in at three times the normal rate. See that copper who died? He was killed by an immigrant or an asylum seeker? Anyway, same difference. It's time for action, that's what I always say.

"What's that? Tory MPs ringing round criticising the campaign. I'm not bothered by a few young pups who've never seen action before. I've been around. I was with Maggie on Wobbly Thursday; I was there during the poll tax riots; I'm not scared of a whiff of grapeshot. I'm 63, I am; you wouldn't know to look at me, would you? What stops this? We at Downing Street yet.

"I told them when they called up moaning about the strategy. I said: ‘Get out of it, I'm 63, you know. I didn't need to be here. I could be at home with the grandchildren but I'm still battling; battling for Britain’. They said ‘we don't think all this immigration stuff is working’. I said to them ‘never mind what you're thinking, this is what I'm thinking’.

"We've got a strategy and we're going to stick to it. When the Nazis were raining bombs on London every night during the blitz, you didn't find Winston Churchill running out and changing his tax policy. He stuck to his guns. He said £4bn, that's yer lot and this could be our finest hour.

"The young people of today; no backbone at all. I've got backbenchers turning to jelly after only a decade of bad polls. I blame the parents and the schools; no discipline in them anymore that's what I say. Six of the best and a dose of cod liver oil from matron, that's what they need and more police on the streets to give them a clip round the ear when they've had one too many shandies."

"I tell you this. As I have been journeying up and down the country, working long hours - 63 years young and fit as a fiddle - what I see is a population which feels this country has lost the way, where British values are being lost; where the voice of the quiet, silent, hard working majority, is being drowned out by gangsta rap music like Eminem and Boy George. It's all gone wrong. We've got violent criminals let out onto the streets under the early release scheme, free to attack our daughters and dirty our hospitals.

"Have you seen the state of our hospitals? Bloody disgrace. Haven't they heard of soap and water? It's time for some action, I say. I'm 63, still battling.

"Tell you something else, we didn't have binge drinking in the 'eighties when I was with Maggie at the Battle of Orgreave; thousands of miners all around us there were, screaming and yelling. We formed a square - no hang on that was Rorke's Drift.

"Anyway, call me old-fashioned, but did you see that Paula Radcliffe? Tell you what, we didn't go to the toilet in the middle of the road during the London marathon in my day. I'm 63 years old, never once been to the toilet in the middle of the road during the London Marathon. Hard working families don't go to the toilet in the middle of the road during the London Marathon and they are fed up with seeing their taxes wasted on people who do.

"Anyway these young pups. Seem to think they know better how to run a campaign and getting panicked by a few polls. I told them the only poll that matters is the one of May 6 when you start electing a new leader. No wait a minute, that can't be right.

"I told them. Keep it simple. Just five pledges, a programme for action, that's all we need: cleaner hospitals, quieter music, more police, fewer foreigners, no weeing in the London Marathon. We at Downing Street yet."
 
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