[chippie for pm] hazel's campaign launch

Leader of the pack. See Chris Paul's photo below.

For the benefit of American readers, Chippie will probably be the next Prime Ministerette of England, after Britain is broken into little pieces and Gordo 'Man of Iron' Brown is shown the door. This is her campaign launch, following Iain Dale's multitudinous posts on the dear lady..

My goodness there are some scurrilous things said about Chippie, for example:

Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears was yesterday accused of hypocrisy after joining protests against the closure of the maternity unit of a hospital in her constituency.

She never did. She was filled with compassion for her constituents, that was all. UK Daily Pundit exposes another virulent lie about the delightfully vertically challenged Chippie:

Rather cruelly I thought, Talk Sport's George Galloway referred to Hazel Blears on his Saturday evening phone-in show as "a four foot pile of nothing". He's quite wrong. She's four foot six.

Besides, UKDP, Napoleon was only 9 inches taller [so they say]. Anyway, Chippie appears to have made the wrong move for once. Unusual for her, as she's usually politically smart and unerring:

In August 2005 Blears, while standing in for Home Secretary Charles Clarke (who was on holiday), suggested the 'rebranding' of ethnic minorities in favour of adopting US-style hyphenated titles such as Asian-British-Canadian. That idea was soon firmly squashed by the Clarkean Python foot .

Yes, in throwing her hat into the deputy leadership ring, she's ignoring the call for her to take on the nation's highest elected office. She was allegedly reported as having said: "I have absolutely no aspirations in that direction."

So she's decided on the deputyship instead but Political Opinions are not so sure:

Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser. How preposterous would it be of me to suggest that she is misusing party resources for her own election? Almost as ridiculous as some of the claims that have been flying around at disreputable venues that Peter Hain has been running a dodgy campaign, I suppose. Don't believe any of it for a second.

So let's look at Chippy, the person. Find articles reports that:

The most enthusiastic of the Prime Minister's loyalists, she has been called "Tony Blair's little ray of sunshine" not only for her sunny manner, but because she is brimming with "bold ideas" for Labour's third term.

An example of her constancy, fortitude and staunch loyalty to Tony Blair was reported in the Mirror, the serious newspaper for the thinking workingclass:

Launching her bid to be Gordon Brown's number two, Hazel Blears says that, unlike John Prescott, she would not wallow in the trappings of power like a big fat pig with its greedy snout in the trough.

Not so fast, I hear you say. Surely she was in some sort of portfolio? Well … not exactly. Surely she has policies? Yes, she has some, according to Jim Jay:

Hazel Blears is strongly for ID cards, top up fees, foundation hospitals, war and anti-terror laws.

That's our girl. So jump on the Chippie bandwagon, as I've done here - you'll never regret it.

By the way, if you need any Chippie merchandise, Iain Dale has kindly provided the link.

So see you soon on the campaign trail, all right?

Chippie for PM!