Dear Colleagues

Please see below a link to some good advice from Grant Shapps about how to get the best out of Twitter.

http://ow.ly/1FKxcb

For those in doubt, the best advice is to maybe avoid it altogether.

Enjoy the recess,

Stephen Crabb MP
Assistant Government Whip

Sky News would be proud!

The Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst, who once claimed £12,000 on his expenses for the gardening costs of his Essex farmhouse, has excelled himself today. According to PA’s James Tapsfield, as Chairman of the Commons Admin Committee, Haselhurst has has recommended that every MP is “issued with an iPad style tablet device”. Apparently it will save on paper costs in the long run and it’s fine because they can be be bought in bulk.

Guido is sure the public will be very understanding…

Guido imagines that applications will open in about an hour…

It’s rare that a Labour MP actually coughs that their Twitter output is stage managed and censored by the party machine. Step forward gaffe-queen Dianne Abbott, who popped up on LBC this morning to talk about that tweet with Nick Ferrari:

NF: Does anyone have sight of [Tweets] within the Labour Party, does anyone like to see them before they go out, or do you have to run them past anybody?

DA: Oh sure, I mean I always check my tweets with my colleagues, and as I say this morning I tweeted on the very sad fact that the poorest people who need to have healthy diet are actually cutting their expenditure on fruit and vegetables.

NF: So who do you check that with, and that’s a very valid point, but who do you check that with?

DA: We have a system in the Labour Party for clearing this sort of thing.

NF: Oh. Was that bad one cleared then? …

DA: That, that was part of a conversation. …

NF: Ha ha, and just before I go so how does the clearance system work with the Labour Party?

DA: How it works is the Labour Party is very clear on the sorts of policies that you’re supposed to talk about for instance we’re not allowed to commit ourselves to reversing any particular cut, and that has been the position right from the beginning.

And there was Guido think Peter Hain’s inspired spin was heartfelt…

It seems Ed Balls’ most loyal Twitter fan can’t get used to life on the outside, Ellie Gellard used to Tweet relentlessly for Ed Balls when he was running for leader. Having left his entourage to go work for Tetra Strategy, the Twitter foghorn formerly known as BevaniteEllie is now “Head of Digital” for the shady spinmeisters.

And look what a difference it has made to their Twitter feed:

Ed M welcoming Cameron's move (following his) onto attacking "crony capitalism"… says if this becomes battle ground "bring it on"—
Tetra Strategy (@TetraStrategy) January 10, 2012

Tory HQ (unsurprisingly) insist Cameron was correct while Labour HQ send Lord Adonis out to attempt to clarify his 2009 decision. Politics!—
Tetra Strategy (@TetraStrategy) January 11, 2012

Gove now rowing back (!) on suggestions he called for publicly funded Royal yacht.—
Tetra Strategy (@TetraStrategy) January 17, 2012

Compare that to the more neutral offerings put out before she arrived. Though Tetra was set up by former Labour figures, they have been trying to ingratiate themselves with Tories, most notably with their hiring of the disgraced expenses cheat Julie Kirkbride.

Someone better tell the new kid though…

When Ed Miliband was elected in 2010 he said:

“You have put your trust in me and I am determined to repay that trust to you. The first way I need to repay that trust is by uniting our party and taking it forward together.”

He made clear that he wasn’t going to follow the Blairite route of dividing sections of the party against each other with talk of hard choices. Less than two years later he’s had a typo-free change of heart:

Len McCluskey is entitled to his views but he's wrong. Im changing Labour so we can deliver fairness w less money.That means tough decisions—
Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 17, 2012

In a way he has united his party, all wings seem to have it in for him. It won’t stop him taking their money though…

Through the looking glass…

The Telegraph is reporting that the popular reality-based Labour MP Tom Harris has been “forced to resign” after posting a Downfall spoof video that mocked Joan McAlpine MSP, the First Minster’s close friend and adviser. Harris was Labour’s latest Twitter Tsar, though he’s hardly the  most loyal supporter of the leadership, so Guido doesn’t imagine there are many tears being shed on the inside. The video wasn’t even very funny…

Labour are having a spectacularly bad week. Ed finally surfaced today to commiserate the death of TV’s Bob Holness, star of Blockbusters:

A is at the other end of the keyboard from O. A source in Ed’s office was quick to spin that given Kenny Young, the Press Officer Manager with emphasis on the manager, is in charge of the twitter feed, “and not much else”, this is most certainly his handy-work.

We are told that a “relaunch speech” is currently being “desperately cobbled together” for Monday or Tuesday. What could possibly go wrong?

Despite a much touted blitz of speeches and promised new year activity, it’s all quiet on the Miliband front today. This has given the Don’t Unseat Ed Miliband Association plenty of time to get used to their rebranding and reorganisation. However it seems that a rival operation has come out of right-field all of a sudden:

@iainmartin1 @GuidoFawkes I think I have been dragged reluctantly to the chair of the rival UEMA.—
John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) January 03, 2012

Rentoul, and the other wicked traitors like Dan Hodges, will be defeated…