Newsnight - Eric Pickles seems incapable of speaking clearly

[johnfm]

He is a liability to the Tories, no? Every time I have heard him speak he seems unable to clearly articulate his point.

[rfisher]

Methinks he's a little on the chubby side.

Hard to take him seriously due to his obvious nom nom nom nosity.

[colonel c]

Is he still claiming for a second home, even though his constituency is only 20 miles from Westminster.

[ukwill]

rfisher said:

Methinks he's a little on the chubby side.

Hard to take him seriously due to his obvious nom nom nom nosity.

[5unny]

colonel c said:

Is he still claiming for a second home, even though his constituency is only 20 miles from Westminster.

Can never get tired of watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MrFV4c_sVY

[TUS 373]

I had lunch with Eric Pickles, Nick Clegg, George Osbourne and Vince Cable yesterday in Bradford (Mumtaz). Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were very nice guys. Eric, well, a rather large and gritty individual!

[Spiritual_Beggar]

TUS 373 said:

I had lunch with Eric Pickles, Nick Clegg, George Osbourne and Vince Cable yesterday in Bradford (Mumtaz). Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were very nice guys. Eric, well, a rather large and gritty individual!

How is he a member of the conservatives?

If you didn't know the guy, and you only just met him, you'd put him down as one of those 'Bob Crow' Unite types!

[TUS 373]

Yup - I would have. There is a clash between the person and their image!

[anonymous-user]

TUS 373 said:

I had lunch with Eric Pickles, Nick Clegg, George Osbourne and Vince Cable yesterday in Bradford

anything interesting? care to share what they are thinking/what was said if you're at liberty to?

[TUS 373]

If you have any specific questions then fire away. The TV cameras were in for the first 10 minutes so that footage was on last night's Newsnight of course. They then got kicked out and the questions got a little heavier. The thrust of the meeting is that these guys are ready for the business leaders in the private sector to be more empowered as to how (less) public sector should be (best) distributed to get the best bang for buck. The Government is critical of how the RDAs were run (fair dos, as I have partaken of some entertainment by Yorkshire Forward which was more lavish than I may have expected, including getting Sir Alan Sugar in to make a personal appearance at huuuuuge expense), so that can't continue. They were happy to listen to our ideas as well as some CEOs of large businesses in Yorkshire saying how hard it is to free up cash to keep the cogs oiled. The other issue was to distribute money to where it is needed. Politically, the Lake District and Manchester are in the same region - but have massively different needs when it comes to economic development, so how should money be allocated?

[Pesty]

5unny said:

Can never get tired of watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MrFV4c_sVY

, as in what a big fat wkfaced