DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

i don't feel sorry for him at all, the only way to win is not to play the game

but y'know, beyond that, for fuck's sake don't play a game you're completely rubbish at

yes. I suspect David Miliband (and probably other candidates) would have put the boot in much more effectively.

If the revelations slow down a bit, I wonder if it could delay the summer recess? I only care because the last day is coincidentally when they announce whether they close the RAF base here.

Re EdMill, Wasn't this the classic "let someone inconseq run the party for a while until we look like we might win an election, at which point we'll all throw our hats in" as done in the name of Haig, DunkSmith and Howard?

i don't feel that at all, i'm always mystified by that kinda personal angle on those guys. who cares? even if you feel that warring-siblings angle, i'd imagine most of us are in favour of it being a meritocracy, of there being a diversity of choice, of the significance of a difference between a hardcore new labourite like d-mili & someone else coming along with slightly different priorities. maybe it seems machiavellian that he counselled the guy not to run but- like even in that realm i can't imagine cackling, devious ed plotting his easy walk to victory - i think he probably just did counsel the guy that way at the time. it was symbolic + neat that ed won; he didn't have the same money and wasn't a heir apparent.

watching e-mili get creamed by kirsty on newsnight right now, incidentally.

the meetings between rusbidger/telegraph and cameron's people were all before the election, so it's not like they were seeing clegg so he'd pass the message on, but i think they're supposed to have told clegg the same stuff in a similar meeting.

Good point, forgot that.

But Cameron emplyoed Coulson post election, by which time maybe Clegg might have said something (unless he deliberately forgot...)

the meetings between rusbidger/telegraph and cameron's people were all before the election, so it's not like they were seeing clegg so he'd pass the message on, but i think they're supposed to have told clegg the same stuff in a similar meeting.

rusbridger went through this on newsnight; that he told an aide of cameron, and told clegg, though w/the caveat as above that he wasn't expecting to be involved. KW asked, so did cameron know?, AR: oh yes.

also, y'know, that he wasn't the only guy on fleet street doing so

maybe he did say something? but it's not like he was telling cameron stuff he didn't already know, so i think difficult to blame clegg for this. (although obviously it's his fault that cameron is pm in the first place.)

lol. sucks to be culpable for everything DC does.

it is pretty shocking how totally inept emili has been. this moment in particular has to send a message to the rest of the party: this guy is not right for the job. last night should have been the easiest slamdunk in the world. "look at these guys: the press, david cameron, the tories - they're all in it together"

clegg could have refused to work in a coalition with coulson in downing st. it's one thing to be a party political spinner, another to be official spokesman for the PM. he's implicated.

matt dc otm that clegg is probably quite happy to stay totally silent on this now it's on

it is pretty shocking how totally inept emili has been.

well, it's bad, but it's not shocking

Re EdMill, Wasn't this the classic "let someone inconseq run the party for a while until we look like we might win an election, at which point we'll all throw our hats in" as done in the name of Haig, DunkSmith and Howard?

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/British_Front/War%20Illustrated%20Dluxe%20-%20vol%204%20Douglas%20Haig.jpg

yeah one of the few things that the LDs can say with a straight face is that they were never in bed with News International. walk away is the best option

i feel like this is the kind of thing that could be the beginning of the end of a government if labour didn't have e mill as leader.

yeah exactly.

actually i am possibly more shocked by the fact that emili has apparently had a cold for the last four years and never stumped up for some decongestant. even just a little vicks vapo-rub might help.

more on why it's called operation weeting: the other inquiry into payments to police is called operation elveden, after another town in norfolk. who was chief constable of norfolk police before coming to the met? andy hayman, who carried out the first botched investigation into phone hacking and subsequently took a columnist's job at news international. i think there's a message there.

But Cameron emplyoed Coulson post election, by which time maybe Clegg might have said something (unless he deliberately forgot...)

wasn't coulson on cameron's staff during, if not long before, the campaign?

yes

while i'm being fair there are nearly 11 million people who i blame for everything Cameron does before I'd blame Clegg.

EMil certainly isn't gonna help this situation but i think there are other issues that might stop it being the end of a government anyway - too close to last election, vacuum in opposition not wholly down to EMil, LibDems too implicated in the last 12 months to be effective kingmakers at the moment, electorate still confused and shocked by collapse of the economy.

I dunno, like i said before, this is all deckchair-shuffling in the big scheme of things, tho it's always nice to have a chance to burn all the blue deckchairs.

xp worked for him since summer 2007 i think

yeah but PM's official spokesman is a different taxpayer funded job, it's not an automatic transfer.

Anyone see this - not Cameron's statement, fuck that bumwad - I mean the press questions afterwards? Fucking sweet! All his little chuckling jokey asides, which usually work well with such a sympathetic audience, fell embarrassingly flat. He was poking his finger so hard in to the lectern he musta poked a hole in it and he was gulping so much water between questions his bladder must have been the size of a football by the time he waddled off at the end. He found time to shoehorn some little digs at THE LAST LABOUR GOVERNMENT, along the lines of "I might have hired a lying crook against the advice of absolutely everyone, but at least I didn't, uh, start a war or, uh, accept money for tobacco sponsorship (remember that one?)... and this aforesaid lying crook did a really good job, when I was paying him with your money, at least he didn't sex up any dossiers, eh?" This fell flatter than his jokes. What fun!

xp

Yes, what I was saying is that before the election it's reasonable that Clegg wouldn't have passed on a message, but afterwards, you might have though he would.

the leader of the opposition is a small-time policy wonk who'd be happier sat in the library all day

Would probably consider voting for dude if this was actually true. Sigh.

Also, what is it with shitty Labour leaders and them having my name as a nickname to highlight their shitness? Bah.

Met official - "We have arrested a 43 year old man, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more...if you want any more details you know what to do..."

Anyone see this - not Cameron's statement, fuck that bumwad - I mean the press questions afterwards? Fucking sweet!

I also liked the "taking full responsibility" as if that were the enbd of the matter.

PCC finally getting its jotters is no bad thing. A more pathetic and spineless apology for a self-regulator there hasn't been in a long time.

Met official - "We have arrested a 43 year old man, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more...if you want any more details you know what to do..."

Tap his phonemailbox?

Didn't see Little EMil on Newsnight, was QTing it last night, but I think he's done OK so far on this issue (apart from that "My wife said to me..." thing which was 0_0) and that seems to be the consensus in the 'Westminster Village'.

"OK" is woefully inadequate at this juncture

Well, better than OK then

As in, I don't think he's done badly

To be honest, while the bombshells are going off, it's better to keep out until you can be sure the kicking to be applied is going into the right places.

yeah i am kinda w/you there, & don't really see what the missed opportunity is, totally? (this could of course all be relative, in respect to the edbot thing, after which only looking moderately computer-operated and only simmeringly intense are both pluses). i think that he's explicitly voiced opposition to murdoch in the commons has been v well received. i wonder if what maybe means he hasn't gone for the one sentence bumper sticker association of the tories/the press/DC, as above, is just that on further interrogation labour are obviously complicit. kirsty walk pursued this last night, paralysing ed, asking why some deputy had sent out a gross e-mail to lab back benchers asking that they refrain from going to town on NI, and associating bskyb w/hacking, why ed hadn't been quicker or cornered murdoch at a party, etc.
xp @tomd

See, Yesterday we were all expecting "actions", but nothing really happened.

Until the newspaper closedown.

i think that he's explicitly voiced opposition to murdoch in the commons

Which no Labour leader has done since Neil Kinnock btw... according to Andrew Neil on This Week

kirsty walk pursued this last night, paralysing ed, asking why some deputy had sent out a gross e-mail to lab back benchers asking that they refrain from going to town on NI, and associating bskyb w/hacking, why ed hadn't been quicker or cornered murdoch at a party, etc.

yes, and i think any sort of politician better than "OK" could have turned these questions around quite easily instead of looking like a shifty-faced weasel caught out in a lie.

a shifty-faced weasel caught out in a lie

In OED under 'politician'

arggh you know what was killing me was that he kept repeating that he'd "learned lessons" and i just wanted k. wark to say "WHAT LESSONS DID YOU LEARN"

He said we've all learned lessons

well that can't be denied.

What lessons have we all learned?

I didn't see this, so maybe my opinion would be different if I had, given that Kirsty Wark is just a slighly upmarket Lorraine Kelly i'd be worried if she gave any interviewee any problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQdSwFgSec