Why Doesn't Prescott Shut Up and Move On?

It would appear that Two Jags, Two Jabs, Two Shags, Two Inches, No Job, Full Pay has decided it’s time to talk when the rest of the country has decided it’s time for him to shut up. He has been speaking to the Independent. I’m not sure what he was hoping to achieve here, it looks like an attempt to appease Labour with a call for unity and to have another pop at the Tories who so far aren’t up to their necks in sleaze. Some of the things he is saying just defy logic and remind me that Labour frontbenchers just don’t see the wood for the trees:

“John Prescott warned supporters of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown last night to stop their "war" over the Labour leadership as he hit back at critics who have accused him of freeloading at the taxpayers' expense. “ - If he wants to stop being criticized for freeloading maybe he should stop freeloading rather than make a feeble attempt to restore order when most of the party are blaming him.

"I have learnt my lessons about these matters. I just want to get on and show I can do a job and make a contribution and be a valuable part of the Labour Party and this Government." - I’m still mystified as to the valuable contribution to government that he’s done so far in 8-9 years. What is it? Blair rarely lets go of control long enough for Prescott to have actually deputized the PM’s job. I’m fairly confident though that, given a fair shot at the job, he would have screwed it up royally.

David Cameron, the Tory leader, said his party would ask for answers to "very legitimate questions" that had arisen about Mr Prescott's role since Mr Blair reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday. "He seems to have lost his job but kept his pay and perks," he said. – and yet he still denies freeloading at taxpayers’ expense.

Mr Prescott said it was a myth to suggest he was "stripped" of office. He said he had asked the Prime Minister more than a year ago to allow him to focus on chairing cabinet committees and representing Mr Blair abroad rather than running the department for local government and planning – This I find hard to believe. He asked a year ago to have a new job to coincide with damaging revelations on his private life and blaming the damage on himself. Does this look like a coincidence to you or more like one of those New Labour excuses when you’ve been sacked?

He accused Tory critics such as Lord Heseltine, himself a former deputy prime minister, of "snobbishness" in protesting against his use of Dorneywood, the official country house in Buckinghamshire. He added: "Heseltine already has a big house in the country, and perhaps others in other parts of the world. I have one house [in Hull] and one car [a second-hand Jaguar]." – This I find incredible, ever since these people came into power they’ve blamed the Tories for everything they’ve done wrong, up to and including the foreign deportees debacle. Heseltine has a big house in the country and maybe others. Yes. He’s not asking the tax payer to fund it is he? He has declared directorships and financial interests that pay for most of that. Whereas Prescott £130,000 salary, Domeywood, all the cars, plus the very office he used as a sex parlour are all tax payer funded. We’re not bothered about him having sex outside marriage, having two jags or any of that stuff. We’re bothered about paying for it and not seeing results, a common complaint I have with New Labour.