THE LONG JOHNS GANG UP ON ERIC PICKLES

*
Oh the hilarity! I've just heard John Humphrys and John Prescott having a good laugh at the expense of those Tory Toffs on Friday's Today programme, featuring Eric Pickles. The Johns wallowed in working-class nostalgia, then got down to the serious task of bashing the Tories, with a few more jokes to keep the tone light. The I.C.s say it all - 0 for John Prescott, 2.4 for Eric Pickles.
*
Mr Pickles was drily pointing out the irony of this attack, given the poshness/richness of many members of the Labour cabinet, when Humphrys crashed in to force the listener's attention back to where he obviously thought it ought to be - squarely on the Conservative shadow cabinet.
*
The Johns combined to scoff at Eric's figures on the public-school-attendence of these Tory wretches and Humphrys said "never mind, a lot of them went to public school!". (He was not meaning the Labour cabinet (though he could have been)). Prescott then prattled on without interruption, but Eric Pickles was cheerfully snapped at every time he spoke. Humphrys butted in to counter him with a long, mocking quote about Inheritance tax at the Tories' expense from Gordon Brown. Afterwards, he added "It's a serious point wrapped up in that, isn't it?"
*
Prescott went on to attack 'Lord Ashdown', then 'Lord Ashcraft' over his taxes. He mean't Lord Ashcroft, of course. Humphrys pounced on the subject (though not, of course, on Prescott's mistake) and joined Prezza in this new attack: "That's true, we still don't know whether Lord Ashcroft pays tax in this country, do we?" When Mr Pickles pointed out Prescott's inability to remember the name of the man he was so unkindly attacking, Humphrys decided to continue the new line of attack regardless: "Because you (John Prescott) raised it, does he pay tax in this country, Lord Ashcroft, as far as you know Eric Pickles, and if he doesnt...?" and muttered "Well that doesn't answer the question, does it?" to the accompaniment of yet more anti-Tory sniping from Two Jags when Mr Pickles began to answer that Lord Ashcroft had fulfilled all his obligations (and I do mean 'began to answer', given the rapidly of both Johns' interruptions!)
*
Yes, it was fun - but, as John Humphrys would say, "it's a serious point wrapped up in it" - that the Tories are all Toffs and that the tumbrils should start rolling now!!
*
The serious point is that John Humphrys was severely biased here in favour of John Prescott and the Labour Party.
*
Well, blow me down with a feather!