Derek Draper disappeared from the face of the earth after his exit in disgrace from LabourList. He was spotted doing a bit of canvassing on election day and was entertained by Gloria De Piero on the Commons terrace a few weeks back. Now it seems old Dolly is trying to make a bit of comeback on the London scene. He was clocked last week at a YouGovStone networking event, the sort where some pay through the nose to mingle. Seeing Draper standing in corner, alone, a co-conspirator saw his moment:

CC: Derek, how are you, big fan…
DD: Oh yeah… cheers… You Labour?
CC: No Tory… obviously.

Needless to say cards were not swapped…

EyeSpy.MP revealed last night that Derek Draper was back in the heart of politics in the company of Gloria de Piero MP. Gloria of course shared the GMTV sofa with Dolly’s missus Kate Garraway before she went into politics.

Last night when first spotted there was some incredulity that he would show his face again in the corridors of power, yet he was later seen enjoying himself on the Commons terrace.

What does the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ pairing signify? Is he giving politico-media advice to Gloria, or readying himself for a return? Guido thinks he deserves a third chance, the Labour Party in opposition is a very dull thing, set to get even duller under the leadership of David Miliband. Dolly’s return would liven things up…

UPDATE: Lest we forget Dolly gave Gloria her first job at his old comms firm Prima.

To celebrate International Women’s Day Guido thought he would share an intimate email exchange between close friends, all devout feminists,  in the run up to last year’s event.  Draper was working away at LabourList and thought he would titillate the boys a little:

From: James Macintyre
To: Roger Liddle; Derek Draper
Sent: Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 14:38:18
Subject: FW: CV

Roger, Derek, this guy is super bright, and Labour, and finishing an internship with NS this week. If you have a place for him..or if there is anyone you might be able to forward to..

From: Derek Draper
Sent: 03 March 2009 15:14
To: James Macintyre; Roger Liddle

is he cute though?

www.labourlist.org
www.flowvideo.co.uk
www.diy-therapy.com
020 7486 ████
MIND Journalist of the Year 2007/8

From: James Macintyre
To: Derek Draper; Roger Liddle
Sent: Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 15:07:35

I knew that would be your response!

From: Derek Draper
Sent: 03 March 2009 15:19
To: James Macintyre; Roger Liddle

what’s the answer, though?

(if you are single you should pop in here on friday morning as we have the delectable rowenna davies here guest editing labourlist for international womens day)

fowrad to a harman led labour party

x

From: James Macintyre
To: Derek Draper; Roger Liddle
Sent: Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 15:15:49

He is very tall, handsome in a bookish sort of way. Very █████ and █████.

I am very much single and in need to remedy that. I ███ █████ ███ ██ Friday – who is this woman? Otherwise will have to try and pull Harman..

x

From: Derek Draper
Sent: 03 March 2009 15:26
To: James Macintyre; Roger Liddle

he sounds like a queer

(she says she’s a freelance journalist, quite lefty, very beautiful)

From: James Macintyre
To: Derek Draper
Sent: Tuesday, 3 March, 2009 15:24:35

well you called her delectable then appeared not to know her – anyway i see she is now v v fit – ridiculously beautiful – why she editing it – so you can look at her?

NO BECAUSE I AM LEADING A RADICAL OONLINE MOVEMENTA ND I HAVE ALWAYS EMBREACED THE FEMINIST CAUSE

thanks for emailing the labour woman – please let me know what her response is however negative – even if she says “i have heard he is a total wanker” as i know she will reply to you. x

OK

No wonder Ms. Davies wasn’t too impressed with her day in the office, she later wrote:  ”When I first met the site’s regular editor Derek Draper and his all-male staff to discuss potential questions for an online survey, he suggested with a grin that I ask “Is domestic violence always wrong?” and then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to set me up with James Purnell.”  Clearly a confused bunch.

Happy Women’s Day everyone…

*Some parts redacted on taste grounds.

Yesterday Labour launched an attack poster laying into Dave. Sadly as they have no cash they couldn’t actually display it anywhere other than the internet. Something about it reminded Guido of an old friend’s negative campaigning strategy. Back in the day Derek Draper set up a fake Twitter account called “David Camera-on“. It was the normal inane lines but most intriguing was the people engaging with the account. It seems some key players, such as Sue MacMillan – Labour’s online chief, Adam Dustagheer a No10/Labour HQ bod and Greg Jackson who works for Tangent Labs – the web company that do all of Labour’s second-rate web stuff, were all in on it.  Funny how Draper’s witty slogan ended up as an official campaign. Guido wonders what other pearls of Draper wisdom Labour will resort to employing as the campaign wears on…

From September 2008:

PR Week can reveal that the Labour Party is exploring plans for an online rapid rebuttal unit, designed to kill off damaging stories circulating in the blogosphere. Former lobbyist Derek Draper will oversee the initiative, having recently been called in by Labour’s general secretary to advise on how the party can communicate its message. Labour strategists are keen to respond to the growing influence of right-wing blogs.

Channel 4 covered the bright new dawn here.  It didn’t quite work out…

Official BACP statement here:

Derek Draper said: “I made clear to the BACP Appeal Panel my deep regret over the political email scandal I was involved in and apologise to my fellow BACP members and the general public for what was, undoubtedly, a stupid mistake. I have given guarantees to BACP that I will never be involved in such controversy again. I will carry out all my activities – inside my consulting room and outside it – in a careful and dignified way that ensures the public’s trust in me as a psychotherapist will not be undermined. In addition, my qualifications and experience will be listed clearly and in detail on my website (see below). BACP was right to respond to the legitimate queries it received but I am glad that the panel, having considered all the evidence, including my regret and these commitments, decided that it was fair and just that I should remain a member of the Association.”

Derek Draper has the following qualifications: An M.A. in Psychology from the American Psychological Association accredited Wright Institute in Berkeley* (2004) and a second M.A. in the Foundations of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Tavistock Centre, London / Essex University (2009). The former was the result of three years full time study, the latter of two years of part-time study. As part of his first M.A. he undertook an extensive clinical training, undertaking over 1500 hours of supervised clinical work with different client populations and therapeutic modalities.

Guido has heard a rumour that Draper intends to write a follow up to his “First Hundred Days“, with the title “New Labour’s Last 100 Days”.  Draper did not return Guido’s calls…

*Guido will eat his blog if shown genuine pictures of Derek at the award ceremony for his Wright Institute M.A.

Peter Mandelson emailed Derek Draper that…

“The thing you need to understand is just how complex Gordon is. We are all complex, of course. But Gordon has developed fewer ways of masking and managing his insecurities. So of course what you say is right. The public personality of a politician is crucial (don’t I know) but you guys have to be careful that you don’t make it worse/more difficult for him to change his public personality by telling him he has got to do so and inundating him with opinions as to how he does it. He is a self-conscious person, physically and emotionally. He is not as comfortable with his own skin as, say, Tony was (is).”

Today was the first day back at school for the boys of Finchley Catholic High School.  Guido popped along early this morning to see one old boy and hardly recognised the middle-aged man strolling slowly across the school playground, stooping occasionally to pick up litter from the ground.  As Guido strode purposefully towards him he turned away entering a building where the staff were assembled for a first day briefing from the headmaster.  For a moment Guido thought the baseball cap disguise had been seen through.

“Damian!” Guido shouted at him, he turned in the doorway startled, “Greetings from Nadine Dorries”.  With a bemused look on his face he accepted the official Court papers, served by yours truly, on behalf of Nadine Dorries> Dorries, you will recall, is the MP he falsely accused of sleeping with another Tory MP in emails to Derek Draper, Kevin Maguire and Charlie Whelan.   Realising suddenly what had just happened he disappeared into the building as teachers and other bemused staff glimpsed across.  Damian never should have spilt that Guinness…

UPDATE : Mrs Draper took the papers on behalf of Dolly from Tory Bear.

When Guido was on his summer holidays in France, Damian McBride gave an interview to the BBC’s Radio 5 Live and  to the Guardian to try and draw a line under his Smeargate demise.

If you listen to the first minute and a half of that BBC interview he says at one point:

“… When I read back the emails I had errr written and I did that when Derek ahhh Draper called me and said that he thought his emails had been hacked into and errr we had a discussion about this, I thought and and he thought that the main issue was some emails that I had sent, err, about racism in the comments in the Guido Fawkes website.”

Now you may recall that Iain Dale and Guido both sent in Freedom of Information requests about the smear campaign directed at us from within Downing Street. Obviously Guido was aware of the existence of the emails (having said as much on Andrew Neil’s Daily Politics).  The emails basically instructed Draper on how to frame and phrase the smear.

Damian has now publicly confirmed that he sent them (in February, when Draper started smearing Dale and Guido as racists).  So why did the Cabinet Office produce some of the emails regarding Dale, but not the ones regarding Guido?  Guido only got emails sent by Draper, not the emails sent by McBride.  Guido has re-submitted an FoI to the Cabinet Office asking again for the emails Damian has now publicly confirmed he sent.

As Guido begins a month at Chateau Fawkes, Damian McBride surfaces to give his first interview. Speaking to the Guardian from a pub, they report

McBride has some unfinished business with “that bloke Fawkes”. “He sent me a text on the day I resigned saying: ‘You started it, I finished it’, he reveals. McBride, however, may not be finished yet.

Charming as ever.

You know Guido can’t be bothered to point to all the self-serving spin in the article. Suffice to say Smeargate wasn’t something put together in a few minutes as he claims, they had many planning meetings, including some at Unite’s HQ with Charlie Whelan in attendance. Lying again, that will be five Hail Marys Damian, what kind of example are you to the boys at Finchley Catholic High School?

Anyway, if Guido was in Damian’s shoes, he’d be more worried about the wrath of Nadine than getting revenge. Now Damian has a job her lawyers will be able to serve her writ at his place of work. They had been unable to locate him, until now…

UPDATE : Interesting that in the Radio 5 interview, Damian refers to the emails to Derek about off colour comments on this blog. When Guido made a Freedom of Information request for those very emails they came back with very little – certainly not the relevant emails.  Guido might have to return to this issue…