Monday, December 4, 2006

Iain & Guido’s Christmas Party Drinks

Iain and Guido have not forgotten the promised party for The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze contributors and our friends. We’ve booked this Friday 15th because it clashes with nothing important that we have been invited to and obviously nothing and nobody important in politics would forget to invite either of us…

Invitations for for mulled wine and nibbles will be emailed shortly…

History Repeats Itself

If Dave is the Heir to Blair than Steve Hilton is Mandelson’s progeny. In 2006 his writ runs right across the Tory party as much as Mandy’s did in 1996 across Labour. Given that, according to reports, Steve told his New Labour friends that he last voted for the Green Party it is no surprise that he would ruffle true blue feathers.
In truth some of the Camerlot plays are so clearly out of the Mandelson rebuild-your-party manual as to be plagiarism. Replacing the outdated logo with a softer rose/tree. Projecting the party leader as a young optimistic family-man? Changing the vernacular of the party? Changing the subject from nationalisation/immigration to helping the family/the environment? In 1996 Brown promised to stick to Major’s spending plans, today Osborne is implicitly promising to stick to Gordon’s taxation levels in the interim. The list is endless.

Now, after a year, the negative mutterings from the party’s old guard about Hilton are reaching the papers in the same manner they did a decade ago about Mandelson. The Tories owe Hilton so much for dragging many of them on their knuckles back to the future. Liam Fox, the unamed “senior Tory source” behind some of the off-the-record briefings is an over-inflated idiot who would have led the Tories to annihilation with his flag and faith Neo-Con agenda. That has zero resonance with most voters today – windmills not flags are the way the wind is blowing. Steve gets it, those who are using him as a proxy to attack Dave don’t get it.

Jet Lagged – Back Later

Makes a change from hung-over. Travelling transatlantic with a toddler has a similar after-effect. Come back this afternoon for the latest on Blair getting his collar felt…

Seen Elsewhere

If Dave Were President He’d Have Resigned By Now | Alex Wickham
Loongate: What Happened in the Blue Boar Bar | Simon Walters
Feldman’s Tennis Days With Dave | Telegraph
How Geoffrey Howe Has Lost the Debate | Robin Shepherd
Dave Has Lost Control on Europe | Geoffrey Howe
Lib Dems Should Support EU Referendum | LibDemVoice
Feldman’s Denial | Fraser Nelson
Obama’s Presidency is Imploding | Nile Gardiner
Miliband Could Be a Great PM | Thomas Pascoe
What Are You Really Paying in Income Tax? | TPA
Galloway’s Mad Month | The Commentator


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Tom Harris bemoans the public’s attitude to politicians…

“Mr Oborne echoes the lazy, anti-politics whine we hear so often these days, all based on the absurd notion that politicians were once loved and only fell out of public favour during the expenses scandal. He should take a walk to the Strangers’ Bar. But not to sup with the patrons he seems to despise so much, dearie me, no; he should instead look at the paintings on the corridor outside the bar, which depict the devastating fire which consumed most of the Palace in 1834. And he should reflect on the fact that on that dramatic night, as the Commons went up in flames, a crowd gathered on the South Bank to clap and cheer.”



Focus group time. says:

The thing that Dave needs to work out is which group is more likely to vote Conservative. Mad swivel-eyed loons or mad homosexuals wishing to get married.


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