.@EmilyThornberry says she is “fed up” of hearing about anti-semitism in the Labour party and says “we will sort this out” #marr pic.twitter.com/Tu6EedMYsW
— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) April 22, 2018
Did she get them kicked out of the party?
This week 219,877 visitors visited 785,429 times viewing 1,243,870 pages. The top stories in order of popularity were:
- Mission Accomplished: Targeted Strike on Corbyn
- Tory MPs Put On Three Line Whip For Tuesday Afternoon
- May: Labour Took Decision to Destroy Windrush Landing Cards in 2009
- Owen’s Descent Continues
- May Wins Syria Vote 314-36
- FCO and MoD Fury at “Utterly Reckless” Labour Syria Trip
- Top Corbynista MPs Attend Pro-Assad Rally
You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…
Just the two corrections for Carole Cadwalladr this week. First, she has deleted a tweet linking to her Observer article last weekend in which she claimed the Information Commissioner’s Office had launched “legal proceedings” against Leave.EU and Arron Banks. Carole has conceded that she was wrong to say any legal proceedings had been launched:
Update: I have deleted this tweet from the thread. I am happy to clarify that by ‘legal proceedings’, I meant to refer to regulatory action taken by the regulatory body, the ICO, in the form of ‘information notices’. Okay, @arron_banks? @Mishcon_de_Reya pic.twitter.com/3BobQXZeSA
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 19, 2018
Second, Carole claimed in this all caps tweet that a payment from UKIP to Cambridge Analytica was “an EXPENSE” that was “not DECLARED”. “Right here is literally a year of my life”, said Carole.
So, look, have you got this? Because it’s IMPORTANT. Work was DONE. By Cambridge Analytica. On Brexit. We have the INVOICE. Money was PAID. This is an EXPENSE. It was not DECLARED. Apologies for the CAPS. But right here is literally a year of my life… pic.twitter.com/E8OMjpA53e
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 14, 2018
Just one problem. The invoice is dated 14 December 2015. The EU referendum date wasn’t announced until 20 February 2016. The spending limit period didn’t begin until 15 April 2016. So it wasn’t an expense and it didn’t need to be declared. Her story, which she described as “literally a year of my life”, is literally wrong. Is there anyone left who buys this embarrassing nonsense?
A cross-party group of MPs is planning to issue John Bercow with an ultimatum to announce a departure date or face a new move to oust him this year. Tory MPs have approached colleagues in other parties attempting to entice them with offers of extra debates in exchange for not opposing a move against the Speaker. Traditionally Labour MPs have defended Bercow against Tory attempts to unseat him – but the mood is said to have changed following the recent bullying revelations and the emergence of Harriet Harman as a candidate to replace him. So determined are Tory MPs to finally see the last of Bercow that some have let it be known they would prefer Harman to him in the chair. Separately, one well-placed source says Tory candidates have been speaking with CCHQ about the potential availability of his Buckingham seat…
Back in June 2009, when he became Speaker, Bercow promised he would serve “for no more than nine years in total”. 9 years would be June 22 this year, or 63 days from now…
Today, April 20, is ‘Weed Day‘. A day celebrated by stoners around the world. The neo-liberal think tank the Adam Smith Institute is staying true to its libertarian ideals by taking a leaf out of Peter Hitchens’ mocking term for them and embracing the charge that they are the “Adam Spliff Institute”. Now we know how they think the unthinkable. It is a sunny day, why not head out after work this evening into your garden and celebrate the day in a haze of mind altering smoke…
Entries in the comments…
Nick Timothy attempted to come to the aid of his old boss yesterday by revealing that Theresa May was on holiday when the infamous ‘Go Home’ vans were signed off. It is fair to say doubts have been raised about May’s supposed opposition to the vans. Timothy has now deleted his Twitter account…
The descent of Owen Jones this year has been watched through the fingers of journalists and Labour politicians and aides alike. It seems that almost every day Owen is falling out with people who should be his allies, getting involved in nasty Twitter spats with Labour moderates, making uncharacteristically foolish mistakes, starting embarrassing fights and acting like a pro-Corbyn Andrew Adonis. As he seeks to overcompensate for his betrayal of Corbyn before the election, Owen has alienated his Guardian colleagues, probably the majority of Labour MPs, and today he has put a bomb under what was left of his reputation among journalists with the type of ill-thought out moan that has sadly become all too common:
The main thing I’ve learned from working in the British media is that much of it is a cult. Afflicted by a suffocating groupthink, intolerant of critics, hounds internal dissenters, full of people who made it because of connections and/or personal background rather than merit. https://t.co/K9rnYNvCS1
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) April 20, 2018
Cue some harsh but fair takedowns:
Like @janemerrick23, @haynesdeborah and others I went to comprehensive school in Yorkshire and university in Newcastle. Had no friends or family in journalism and worked hard to get this job. But … https://t.co/iGzd5GlPau
— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) April 20, 2018
You may have “worked in media”, but you have never put a deliberate gap between your own opinions and what you write. You are a very effective pamphleteer, not a journalist and that’s why you’re an exception.
— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) April 20, 2018
Owen I’m sorry but you regularly appear on Sky News and other channels – if we, or others, were “intolerant of critics”, then why would we ask you on? Our guest producers work very hard to get diverse guests on air, with a range of views, to create balanced debate.
— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) April 20, 2018
No, that’s what he learned from working at the Guardian. Endless tedious contradictory columns.. and bitter sniping at working hacks. The man couldn’t break a window let alone a story. And the realisation that the Corbyn team will never, ever forgive him seems to be eating him up pic.twitter.com/tzDFHIZgpJ
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) April 20, 2018
This last point seems to be the trigger for Owen’s behaviour. Corbynistas who Guido speaks to freely admit that Jezza’s inner circle will never let him back in after what he did to them last year. He does not seem to be taking that well, to put it mildly. The sad demise of someone who was once the rising star of the left…
This morning’s Mail reveals that the man who stars in Labour’s new election broadcast rather unfortunately previously referred to “evil Jews“. Turns out it’s not just the people who appear in Labour PPBs that have dodgy views, it’s the people that make them as well…
The film in question was produced by filmmaker Jake Bowers. A look through his tweets finds that, in a discussion with a UKIP MEP about gypsies who voted for Brexit, Bowers wrote “I suppose even the Nazis required Jewish Kapos to sell the idea of walled ghettos”.
Bowers also shared approvingly a Facebook video of the notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan:
Where do Labour find these people?
We were warned before the referendum by George Osborne, economists, think tanks, the IMF, OECD and investment banks that business confidence would collapse and investment would dry up if Britain voted to Brexit. Last year, the first full year when investors knew Britain would be Brexiting, saw tech investment hit a record with €7.1 billion* raised, a 115% year-on-year increase in investment in the high-tech industries and firms of the future. That is more than France and Germany combined…
Source: a report by technology investment firm GP Bullhound.
The unions representing teachers have come together to write to the Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds, with some constructive suggestions. Guido has a constructive suggestion for them. When writing to someone it is also wise to spell their name correctly…
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to congratulate the state of Israel on the 70th anniversary of its foundation. Corbyn tweeted last year about the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, yet yesterday his social media accounts were silent on Israel’s big day.
Must be some sort of oversight…
Emily Thornberry: I don’t accept the Russians are blocking the chemical weapons inspectors. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/k0kZh5kWc4
— Ben (@Jamin2g) April 19, 2018
Thornberry has been listening to Seumas again. The audience wasn’t impressed…
Good luck to Dale on his debut…
In 2004 Theresa May said “I find it extraordinary that a Minister isn’t willing just to step up to the plate and take responsibility… I’m actually sick and tired of Government Ministers who simply blame other people when something goes wrong”.
I agree. pic.twitter.com/zv2Dlx6Q8B
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) 19 April 2018
An old clip has surfaced of Theresa May calling for Labour immigration minister Beverley Hughes to resign: she quit Tony Blair’s government in 2004 after a visa scam scandal. May says:
“We’ve made it absolutely clear and I agree, I do think that Beverely should resign as minister on this particular issue… she blamed officials in her department for this decision being taken, I find it extraordinary that a minister isn’t willing just to step up to the plate and take the responsibility.”
After a dire month for Labour on anti-semitism, Russia and Syria, the Tories somehow manage to shoot themselves in the foot with Windrush…
A former Labour council leader who was jailed for cheating a charity is out on the doorstep campaigning for the party in the local elections. David Cartwright (circled), from Redditch, admitted theft and deception charges to an amount of £80,000 in 2009 while he ran Step Out Drop In, a charity for homeless young people. He was jailed for three years and was nicknmed “dodgy Dave.” According to Redditch Advertiser reports, Cartwright was spotted canvassing for Labour alongside councillors and candidates. A party spokesman refused to comment except to say: “We don’t comment on individuals’ membership status.” Labour: taking wrong’uns to the next level…
Anti-Brexit bias runs like a spinal cord through the bloated body of civil servants and ex-mandarins that make up Whitehall. This group of metropolitan remainers – whose fat pensions are funded by the taxpayer – are an influence network which has been regularly accused of trying to hamper Brexit. Many of them have seats in the House of Lords. Last night every living former Cabinet Secretary voted against the government on the customs union. A Guido probe reveals the extent to which former top civil servants share anti-Brexit views…
Let’s start with Lord David Hannay, formerly Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the European Economic Community. He tarred all Leave voters with the same brush, calling them “feckless” during a Parliamentary debate last year. That’s 17,410,742 voters dismissed…
Lord Robin Butler – Cabinet Secretary for a decade under Thatcher, Major and Blair, loudly and publicly opposes Brexit. He claims leaving the EU:
“Strikes a dagger to my soul… The United Kingdom being motivated by an illusory quest for independence, in a world which becomes more interdependent day by day, is a painful prospect.”
Sir John Kerr – former Permanent Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office (a particular hotbed of remain sentiment) – wants Article 50 reversed and believes the UK should accept a subordinate position to the EU:
“At any stage we can change our minds if we want to… we can remember that an Article 50 notification can always be withdrawn… in the end, we will basically come to heel.”
Lord Sir Nick MacPherson, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury for more than a decade, suggested stopping Article 50, even if it demands a change of government:
“Lord Kerr drafted Art. 50 and entirely right that Brexit can be halted at any time. Odds are against but all governments’ lives are finite.”
Lord Ricketts, former Permanent Under Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, denied that the EU intends to create its own army despite evidence to the contrary:
“I think we can be completely relaxed about the prospect of a European army; it is never going to happen.”
Former Head of the Civil Service Lord Kerslake – often deployed by Corbynistas as a policy ally – says there is “no upside” to Brexit:
“The challenge here, and I’ll be very direct about this – from my perspective there is no upside [to Brexit]. This is about damage limitation. And we’re working in a situation where policy has not been properly settled.”
Sir Martin Donnelly – Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade until last year, prefers a food analogy. He compared leaving the Customs Union to sign trade deals with other countries to:
“Giving up a three-course meal now in favour of the promise of a packet of crisps”
And let’s not forget Lord Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary from 2005-2015, who publicly campaigned for ‘remain’. Faced with the legacy of this gang of Brussels-loving Sir Humprheys, no wonder Brexiteers think Whitehall is working against them…
Yesterday Guido revealed Labour’s new parliamentary candidate in South Thanet Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt runs a ‘think tank’ which defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of Jewish MPs. Well, the think tank’s website – registered by Gordon-Nesbitt – has now been taken offline, and its Twitter account which sent the offending tweets has been deleted.
The internet never forgets – you can still see the tweets here.
No comment from either Gordon-Nesbitt or Labour. Tell us again how you’re taking anti-Semitism seriously…
Michael Dugher shot straight back at Owen Jones after the Corbynista commentator criticised the former Labour MP for swearing on Twitter. Jones accused Dugher of “online abuse” – somewhat ironic since the discussion was about Jones’s Angela Smith pile-on.
Speaking of online abuse, here is former Labour MP turned @UK_Music CEO @MichaelDugher! pic.twitter.com/dIyJHQVzfY
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) April 18, 2018
Yes. You’re quite right. I apologise unreservedly for swearing. You tedious sanctimonious fucker 🐈 https://t.co/A6md3HbXcr
— Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) April 18, 2018
Owen was triggered:
I am so embarrassed these sad inadequate thugs once ran the Labour Party and it will never, ever be allowed to happen again. https://t.co/zoiQQrcaN6
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) April 18, 2018
Labour used to be ruled by a gangster like clique who parachuted each other into constituencies they’d never heard of before, who thought the membership and trade unions were an embarrassment, who called anyone more leftwing than Genghis Khan a “Trot”, who now pose as victims.
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) April 18, 2018
Dugher speaking for most Labour MPs there…
The talk of the tearoom during and after the Syria debate was John Bercow’s repeated order to unruly MPs to take a “medicament” to calm them down. Tory MPs say this is another example of his bullying tone – watch his bad-tempered, finger-wagging treatment of Alec Shelbrooke above.[…] Read the rest
