At the request of readers Guido has been trying to avoid blogging about Draper, so this plug is a bit of a, hopefully forgivable, relapse.  This anecdote is to illustrate the difference in the approach taken by Draper (spin) and the rest of the blogosphere (authenticity).   Do you recall when Guido wrote about the suspension of Dolly’s Twitter account for abuse of the service?  A co-conspirator has just pointed out that at the time Derek’s rapid rebuttal claim was:

“Guido and Iain Dale are upset that I am the most followed political twitterer.”

Mike Power, the long established blogger retorted via Twitter:

In the reality-based part of the blogosphere we know that Draper has a little over 3,000 followers and Boris Johnson a little short of 20,000 followers – none of whom Boris spammed for attention.

Yet another example of the same old Derek, same old spin.

Some of you will be looking forward to the Daily Politics Draper v Guido show next week. It might not be as exciting as you think, the producer is determined that it will not be a personal slagging match and we are to be restricted to the subject of Labour’s approach to blogging.  Guido will be contrasting Prescott’s authenticity with Draper’s artificiality.  Draper’s CV has unfortunately been ruled off the agenda.

As many co-conspirators speculated at the time, the Blockbuster DVD box set gifted by Obama to Gordon is Region 1 DVD locked – meaning it won’t play on UK DVD players.  According to the Telegraph

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem. The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words “wrong region” came up on his screen.

Downing Street is very touchy about DVDs, when Martin Bright reported that they had compiled a DVD of Obama apologies for the Prime Mentalist to learn from, Damian McBride went into overdrive, denying it and even texting Bright to demand a correction.

McBride really should stick to dictating copy to Derek Draper – at least he reprints it.

Just noticed (via the ASI Blog) that David Aaronovitch fears the populist influence of “potty-mouthed right-wing bloggers on some political journalism”.   His Times colleague Daniel Finkelstein credits Guido with helping to focus mainstream media attention on the sleaze and petty corruption of politicians.  The raison d’etre of this blog is to foster an anti-political atmosphere by encouraging popular scepticism about politicians and their client media.  This is because Guido wants to de-politicise more areas of human action, increasing the non-political space in our society and culture, for which a necessary pre-condition is the discrediting of politicians by exposing their venal, self-interested behaviour.  Aaronovitch is right to fear.

He is wrong on one thing, and Polly Toynbee makes this mistake as well, Guido is not the “potty mouthed” author of profanity on the blog.  The readers comments however are a different story, there the anger is allowed to let rip.  If it tells our political masters anything, it tells them they are hated.  It may not be polished prose, but it is genuine anger.  They read it, they know it is real and it stings them.  David Miliband, Peter Hain and Ed Balls will, if you ask them, tell you how much they despise this blog.  Yet they still read it, just as Caesar listened to the baying mob at the circus.  You can’t spin the booing of a crowd.  Politicians should consider the blog’s potty mouthed comments a free and unfiltered focus group.

It seems Nick Clegg is having trouble with the kids, after personally launching the rebranded Liberal Youth movement last year, the kids are now biting the hand that feeds them. Their election for a new chairman has descended into the kind of fight that only student politics can. The incumbent chair, Elaine Bagshaw, is a Labour defector (pictured here raving) who has been compared to Vicky Pollard by Quentin Letts. Opponents say she is playing dirty to secure a second term.

Her libertarian leaning opponent Sara Scarlett (pictured smiling), has resigned from the kids club executive after rounds of furious bitching* chronicled by the Tory Bear blog.  Mind you she managed to slag of the sheer “corporate incompetence” of Cowley Street before she went.  In an illiberal move worthy of Trotskyite splinter group, Bagshaw is now trying to get her opponent kicked out of the party to clear the way for her re-election.

Both candidates for the top job have  called for Liberal Youth the organisation to be scrapped – does that show leadership potential?

*There was a  Downfall spoof video, a must have for any political bitchfight these days, sadly that disappeared after talk of legal action.

Cameron explicitly said at PMQs what Guido thinks, in the “bunker” they are bonkers, barking out orders for schemes that never happen. Gordon actually claimed at one point during PMQs that Germany had “left the mainstream” of economic thinking.  That would be Germany, with the biggest economy in Europe and a centrist coalition government.

Delusional and in denial are inadequate terms to describe Gordon’s state of mind.  He is completely disconnected from the reality of the situation, that makes it impossible for him to get us out of this mess.

Don’t just take Guido’s word for it, Brian Wilson, a former government minister with across the board experience in a number of departments has just written this; “Brown was clearly deluding himself this week with his overblown invocations of Churchillian resolve to counter the turbulent economic times in which we live.” In private more and more Labour people are completely despondent.