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Buff Hoon: Out and About...

Posted May 12th, 2005 by ringverse

Buff Hoon surfaced today, in his first outing as 'Leader of the House'.
He came out of the PLP meeting this afternoon, and left the the interviewer on PM gobsmacked when he stuck doggedly to the line Alistair Campbell must have written down for him,

Asked if Tony Blair has become a liability over the issues of Iraq and Trust, and about Bob Wareing's comments on the 'Bliar Factor' on the doorstep during the election campaign, he replied.

I don't know where Bob was in the campaign?

I visited 30 odd constituencies and travelled the country from North to South.
This was not an issue in the election campaign. I'm amazed...

[Interviewer cuts in, gobsmacked]

What, Tony Blair's leadership and Iraq [guffaw], weren't an issue during this election campaign, where were you?!

Hoon retorts:

Not on the doorstep, not talking to Labour voters and supporters I assure you.
It amy have been an issue here in Westminster, and amongst sophisticated political journalists like yourself.
Not out there on the country, not in any of the 30 seats I visited...

Buff Hoon, the face of 'Listening Labour'.

Quoted on the IRNA website today, from an interview he gave a local paper:

Former Defence Secretary Goeff Hoon is denying that 9.5 per cent fall in his vote in his Ashfield constituency, central England, at the last week's general election was due to a backlash against the war.

"I really don't think that change has anything at all do with the war in Iraq," he said. "It may be to do with the national trend or the number of candidates in Ashfield," he was quoted saying by the local weekly, Mansfield Today, Wednesday.

Buff is back, re-defining the concept of denial, his head still buried in that Iraqi sand.