The Laddie Vanishes

Tony Wright, chairman of the Commons public administration committee, is probably the only MP in the country who actually wants to see Damian McBride at the moment. He wants McBride to give evidence to the committee which is currently investigating the role of 'special advisers' in UK politics.

The only problem is he can't find him.

Strange as it may seem, for once the timing of this event isn't significant as McBride hasn't been seen in public since Gordo booted him out of no. 10 and, not surprisingly, no one is admitting to having seen him elsewhere either.

So, has he 'done a bunk' or have Gordo's blackshirts been 'cleaning house' Godfather style?

MPs 'seek to trace' aide McBride

Honest guv, it just broke

Scattered amongst the usual rubbish in my mailbox this morning were a number of emails saying the e-petition I mentioned on Friday telling Gordo to 'get lost' was unavailable yesterday.

It's back now but it was an interesting time to have a computer failure don't you think?

With hindsight I suppose I should have expected something like this but I must admit, not being a technically minded person, the thought of what was almost certainly a deliberately induced breakdown simply didn't occur to me.

I have no doubt that Gordo would have simply ignored the e-petition no matter how many people had 'signed' it but a sufficiently large number would have been rather embarrassing to say the least. So by heading off the initial morning surge of people doing 'anything but work' in this way, the number can be kept down as the vast majority simply won't bother trying again.

This suggests that Gordo is getting significantly better advice on 'new media' than he was previously and judging by his past performance, it certainly isn't coming from Damian McBride.

You tell him. No, YOU tell him.

Gordo may be in danger of being hung with his own 'web'-ing if an online e-petition started by Kalvis Jansons is successful. The petition's message is clear and simple.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to resign

I suspect that few if any seriously expect it to have the slightest effect, particularly as the whole e-petitions thing is a part of the same nonsense as LabourList. Not surprisingly, it's proving very popular and in the few hours it's been available, it's gained more than 3000 'signatures' putting it in the top 50 and the front page of the open petitions list.

Yes, I know. A drop in the ocean. But it would be rather ironic if the instrument of Gordo's demise was the very same 'new media' he was so desperate to manipulate and which back-fired so badly costing him one of his most trusted hatchet-men.

Whatever the outcome, the petition's very existence is almost certain to provoke a paroxysm of rage and I fully expect some of his staff will be sporting fresh bruises in the morning.


The Register's original article inviting Gordo to "Pick a Window!" is here or alternatively, you can just go straight to the petition here.

Misapplied Misdirection?

Former UK Independence Party MEP Tom Wise was charged with false accounting and money laundering on Monday following his arrest in June of last year. Tom Wise is the second UKIP MEP to face criminal charges related to his finances in recent years. In September 2007 Ashley Mote, MEP for South East England, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment after being convicted of 21 offences relating to benefit fraud.

However it is the timing of this which is significant and suggests a desperate attempt by Gordo's 'blackshirts' to distract attention away from themselves.

Whether this will actually work is anyone's guess, but it's interesting to compare the UK Independence Party's reaction to financial misconduct with that of our own. Where the labour leadership immediately leapt to the defence of Waccy-Baccy and the Four Lords of the Graft, even - it is alleged - to the extent of Waccy-Baccy ordering the City of London police to drop their investigation into the latter. The UKIP immediately suspended then later expelled both Ashley Mote and Tom Wise.

If Gordo's 'blackshirts' want to be sure of distracting attention then they should throw one of their new labour glove puppets to the wolves. It couldn't possibly cause the party anymore harm than they have already done and it's much safer than throwing a Tory. They would undoubtedly retaliate in kind with fairly predictable consequences.

The Order of the Boot?

The Guido Fawkes Blog is reporting that members of the Finchley and Golders Green CLP are to vote on McBride's expulsion from the party on May 11th with the group's recommendations going to the General Committee on the 27th.

Quite frankly I think they're taking a hell of a risk. McBride is one of Gordo's 'blackshirts' and if recent 'revelations' are anything to go by, anyone supporting a motion to expel him could very well end up as their next target.

Furthermore, even if the CLP were to vote for a recommendation to expel him and the committee accepted that recommendation, it is unlikely to be permanent and could in fact be no more than a token gesture, a 'slap-on-the-wrist' for getting caught.

In any event, this would have little effect as expulsion from the party won't prevent him from giving 'advice' to senior party members or the leadership. However he would not only have to learn the meaning of the word 'discretion', but actually start practising it as well.

Would the last Socialist to leave the party please turn out the lights

I was saddened but not particularly surprised to hear that Alice Mahon had resigned her membership of the Labour Party. For some time now she has been increasing unhappy with the current labour leadership, most of whom are now further to the right than many tories.

Alice Mahon was a long standing member and a genuine 'Leftie', both of which are about as welcome in Peter Mandelson's new labour as the Bubonic Plague would be. So for senior party members to 'privately' call her a traitor and suggest she was just another rat leaving a sinking ship was throughly despicable but pretty much what we've come to expect.

I must admit that while I disagreed with her quite strongly on many things it did make me smile to realise that she had managed to get the last word. This is not the Labour Party which I joined all those years ago either.

A quick trip to the laundry?

I've just received an email pointing me in the direction of this article on a Mirror staff photographer's blog showing Draper in a taxi with his computer in a large stripy shopping bag.

By now he's probably back home with his computer all scrubbed and squeaky clean.

Honest guv, it's nothing to do with us

Iain Hain has a 'leaked' copy of a email to the National Executive Committee from general secretary Ray Collins in which he attempts to distance himself from both Draper and LabourList.

Nice try Ray but I'm sorry, it just won't wash. It's common knowledge both inside and outside the party that the whole thing was your idea in the first place. That you personally recruited Draper to chair the thing and that all of it's meetings were held at party headquarters with senior party members in attendance.

Why not simply be honest about it and say Draper exceeded his mandate? After all that is what happened, isn't it?

By the way, getting the press officers to point everyone to a Tory blog was a bit too bloody obvious. Even a Tory would be able to smell that one a mile off.

Anyone's fault but theirs...

I've been following the Draper/McBride nonsense on and off over the weekend in between doing other things. That they got caught conspiring to smear other politicians in such a fashion does not surprise me. It's not the first time they've done this sort of thing and with neither of them being familiar with the concepts of subtlety or discretion the only surprise is that they didn't get caught sooner.

However to continue trying to blame everyone else for their own stupidity even after they've resigned suggests mental illness rather than simply a stubborn refusal to accept the consequences of their own actions.

That, along the correspondingly stupid remarks made by senior party members who leaped to their defence, only served to provide more ammunition for that right wing toerag Paul Staines, author of the Guido Fawkes Blog.


The following item about Waccy-Baccy seems somewhat anti-climatic by comparison - Blue Plaque.