John Prescott

[Dollie]

Is it time for him to go - how much longer can he carry this charade off ??

[andy-hughes]

Yes, and not too much longer.

He should have had the dignity of his age and position to resign when the 'affair' news broke, now he faces the humiliation of being booted out. The man has no dignity, or shame, or apparently, job!

[lady_p_gold]

Do you know I feel quite angry about it .. as if we are all just being told that he can sit there with all those perks and do exactly what he likes.

[kev100]

Difficult to say Dolly, John Major the then "Prime minister" had sex with another mans wife for four years her name was Edwina Currie, and this was at the time this hypocrite was bleating about "back to basics" In other words the rest of us should get back to decency and a sense of morality while he ***** another mans wife

Under the circumstances I think a mere bartender from Hull should be given a little leeway. Don't you?

[jake-the-peg]

He's the go between deal maker and peace broker between Blair and Brown.

That's his real job, that's why he's still employed.

Bit of an oversized, one-man, political United Nations

[noxlumos]

I frankly couldn't give a toss who any politician sleeps with. People have always had affairs and I don't believe it makes one iota of difference to their ability to do their jobs. However I'm not happy about old Prescott sitting there being paid for doing sweet sod all, but I do think we need to all get off our moral high horses and understand that someone's sex life should be their own business ( yes even if they are a politician).So on the basis that spinless Moany Blair now has him redundantly siting about doing nothing, yes he should go, but not because he had an affair.

[jno]

not only do I not care who he sleeps with, I don't care that he plays croquet. Is there any country other than Britain where sports are ranked according to social class and you can be booed for playing the wrong one?

He should be sacked because his department has failed in its job, not because he holds a mallet or worked on a ship.

[Lonnie]

I'll take odds that he'll still be there at the next General Election.

[gessoo]

I agree jno. A politicians personal life is his own business. However, when a Politician has an affair with a member of his staff then it crosses the line between from personal into public, especially when the member of that team gets 'perks'. So whilst I agree that the croquet is a big fuss about nothing, then I think the affair was serious enough for him to bow out graciously.

But, yes the main reason that he should go is that he messed up in his job and really doesn't have a position any more!

[mike1222]

I absolutely despair! How can people say that they do not care about the morality (ergo honesty) of the politicians who they elect to govern them?
I cannot say enough times that politicians are ALL the same - snouts in the trough, look after themselves, say one thing but do another, lie through their back teeth, take bungs (yes, they really do!), have the morals of alley-cats - and people are still stupid enougfh to vote them into these positions. Just to compound it and make people like me even more frustrated and puzzled, they then come on forums like this and moan about them!! Pathetic!

[brionon]

But this hatred of Prescott started long before the Secretary scandal broke. We've had multi-millionaire Tories and Newspaper owners sneering at ''Two Jags'' as if they weren't dripping with wealth. I've seen him attacked for being Overweight as ignorant and even as a Moron. Could it be that he is just too working class ?

[johnlambert]

He should have been sacked after he punched that chap that was exercising his democratic right to protest at the government by throwing eggs at prescott's bit on the side who was innocently carrying her boss's croquet mallet back to one of his grace and favour houses

[jake-the-peg]

I dont think the morality of who somebody has sex with equates in any way to the morality of say committing perjury or attempting to pervert the course of justice as was the case with Aitken.

Let's not even start with Archer!

Of course if you wrap yourself in the flag of family values as many Tories do that's another story!

Ironically though getting filmed playing croquet could be far more damaging to a labour politician than being caught having an affair and the converse is true.

Anybody want to buy pictures of Boris Johnson on the croquet lawn?

[mike1222]

jake, if you take your marriage vows then just ignore them, is that not akin to perjury? Yes, Iknow it's probably an old fashioned view, but the argument is just as pertinent.

As you may have guessed, I am totally apolitical - again, it may seem old fashioned, but I cannot stand liars (back to perjury and adultery?) so I do not vote, and I have no sympathy for people who do and then whinge and moan about politicians .

I know it's another argument, but your seeming disdain for "family values" says a lot about yourself (sorry if that sounds offensive, but you must realise that that is how you have come across.)

[jno]

no, adultery isn't on the same scale as perjury. One involves breaking a private promise, and Mrs Prescott will doubtless have had her say on it. But perjury is a very serious offence indeed, an attempt to subvert the country's judicial system. (In Aitken's case, as I recall, he persuaded his daughter to do it too.) Morally, as well as in the eyes of the law, it is far worse; and it is shocking to find politicans doing it. Prescott simply isn't in the same league of misbehaviour as Archer, nowhere near it.

[jake-the-peg]

Mike there is nothing seeming about my distain for "family values".

This is because the phrase suggests that there are some set of shared values that anybody in a family naturally accepts - this is clearly blithering nonsense.

There are all sorts of families with all sorts of values.

I think, with all due respect, holding on to a myth of a shared set of universal values tells us a lot about you!

When somebody takes a "marriage vow" they most likely intend to keep it. If they subsequently do not keep to them that is not perjury.

Of course espousing family values whilst having it away with Edwina Curry over the filling cabinets isn't perjury either but it is blatent hypocracy.

[mike1222]

Jake, you obviously have missed the point I make and clearly do not understand meaning of "family values" - how sad for you!

Furthermore you have twisted or, at least, totally misrepresented what I said about perjury and marriage vows - I DID NOT state that anybody not adhering to their marriage vows commits perjury.

The only thing we can agree on, seemingly, is that politicians are hypocrits.

[Marky B]

If he does go,there are already people putting up for deputy PM's job. However,where as I agree with having a deputy PM to fill in King Tony's shoes when he gets a freebie holiday,is it necessary to have a whole department and big mansions for the jub. Why can't,for example (example only) Margaret Beckett still remain Foreign Secretary,but also become Deputy Prime Minster and only use the secondary role in King Tony's absence?

Ta Ta

Marky B