'Thumper' Prescott rewrites Bambi story
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Your support makes all the difference.JOHN PRESCOTT may have made a small footnote to political history on Friday. He may be the first politician in British (perhaps even world) history to use a Walt Disney script as a political speech. At a fund-raising dinner at the Cafe Royal in London he regaled his audience with the story of Bambi, slightly amended to take account of Labour's leadership campaign.
Mr Prescott read from the book itself, so that his speech had more than the usual Prescott ration of grammar, full stops and commas. We reproduce it here, helped by the fact that Mr Prescott left his annotated copy of the book behind. In this discours a clef, the mother is Mo Mowlam, one of Mr Blair's campaign managers; the skunk is thought to be Robin Cook; Mr Prescott himself is Thumper, while Mr Blair is, of course, Bambi.
'One day, as the sun rose (Mr Prescott began), there was great excitement in the forest. A new prince had been born. A little fawn, son of the great Smith. All the animals and birds and press hacks proclaimed the new prince of the forest.
A young rabbit asked 'What is his name?'
'Bambi,' answered Mother Deer, better known as Mo.
'That's nice,' said the rabbit. 'My name's Thumper.'
'And Bambi's friends said: 'This is the future leader of the forest.' Bambi issued a denial.
Suddenly a small black nose poked up out of the flowers. 'Flowers?' asked Bambi.
'No, no,' laughed Thumper. 'That's Robin, a skunk.'
'He can call me 'Flower' if he wants to,' said Robin. Bambi had found another friend, simply by showing love and kindness.
Then came the sound of running feet and the stags burst into the woods shouting 'Beware the Gordon Prince'.
Bambi and his mother trembled with fear as they heard shouts: 'We will not spend more than we can afford. We will not tax unnecessarily'.
'That man,' said Mother Mo, 'carries a soundbite that can kill you. He means danger to all of us in the forest'.
Suddenly Bambi found another deer beside him - a beautiful doe. 'Do you remember me, Bambi?' she asked. 'I'm Faline Margaret.'
And they went down the path, safe in each other's embrace, to start their life together.
The forest was now beautiful, a green and pleasant land at ease with itself. A Christian socialist forest.
Thumper was so pleased that he hung out a red flag. Then he was expelled by the constitutional committee for bringing the forest into disrepute.'
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