Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm guessing everyone is by now aware of the fun and frolics that Damian McBride resigned over last weekend.

Is smearing par for the course in party politics? Is this only really an issue because they've been caught doing it, whilst everyone knows there are people in every party doing their utmost to paint the opposition MPs in as poor a light as possible.

Is there any way to stop party employees focussing more on keeping their party in power than working to effectively manage the country?

Out of interest, has anywhere published what these smears involved?

Cocaine & Whores?

I don't think we'll ever see the back of this sort of behavior tbh.

No* . Politics is a dirty game. 'House of Cards' has an excellent sequence where Urquhart smears all the possible leadership candidates.


* [EDIT or do I mean, 'agreed' . Silly negatives]

The News of the World published some of them, I think. Guido Fawkes' blog, also.



There is a difference between suggesting (i) (falsely) that Tory MPs have been having shaggings with prozzies and that their wives are depressives and (ii) that their voting record is shit, they've taken jobs with vested interest companies, they're soft on terrorism because they don't support killing brown babies etc. One's smearing, and is very not par for the course, and the other is "painting in as poor light as possible", and very much is.



Special advisers are employed specifically for the former. The MPs and the civil service do the latter.

It is nice to know that those people who accidentally send emails to the wrong people and can't set up fake blogs properly are in charge of overseeing the ID database.

Smearing the other side has always and will always be part of politics, there is no getting round it. McBride and his pals real sin (and completely unforgivable given their positions) was getting caught even before they started the process painting them as complete incompetants.

Or course, they've also learned the hard way that the likes of Guido Fawkes (who I've followed for years - though not necessarily agreed with) have a fair bit of power.

Blogs like Order Order are an illustration of just how cosy the media is with Westminster. I'm not going to go on a right wing rant peppered with words like ZanuLieBore, but things like the Labour Party being bankrupt (and therefore illegitimate as a political party), the various expenses stuff and even the emails "encouraging" Congress staffers to see Gordon Browns speech in Congress (and therefore make the chamber appear full) should have been picked up years ago.

Well, they aren't literally the same people. Thankfully. Does reflect very badly on Brown for hiring these scumbags.


What? That's pushing the truth a bit, but, hey, Guido is a Tory propagandist - political parties can't be legally 'bankrupt' like individuals can. (However, it is a sign that the Labour leadership are stupidly out of touch with their natural supporters if they are having problems maintaining subscribers and donors.)

Someone else was saying the same thing a while back. Presumably 'bankrupt' in party context means they don't have the funds to stand at election.

They owe vast sums of money which has to be paid back, as a large number of donations were "loans". They are balance sheet insolvent.

It was my mate Geoff who did the investigating and tipped Guido off on that one.

Edit: From memory, a fair bit more than "simply owing to donors". They couldn't afford to pay the mortgages and had some fairly complicated accounting arrangements. They need money not to fight elections, but to actually pay the bills.

Oh, so actually bankrupt, then. Quick, someone force an election.

Or state funding.

Complete state funding, you mean?

I prefer the idea of forcing parties to make themselves mass-appeal organisations again, so they have to live off subscribers fees, not businessmen...

Me too. If they can't get the support they deserve to wither and die. But I have this ongoing feeling that one day both parties will start funding themselves 'for the good of our democracy' of course.

Oh, and I'm against parties being wholy state-funded as that would destroy the Labour trade union link. (Not that the New Labour lot would mind too much, but it's essential for Labour to be a working people's party.)

I don't think that you can really argue for trade unions being able to give donations but not private individuals or businesses. Money buys policies, no matter whence it comes, I guess.

Also, I agree with the idea of there being a 'working people's party' about as much as I agree with there being a 'rich toff's party'.

Why haven't the unions asked for a refund then?

OK - money tries to buy policies.

So is caring about the working people.

Zing!

How's that a zing? I agree with you. The sooner these amoral party-hijacking New Labour types fuck off the better IMO.

He was possibly zinging the Labour Party. There will be an email smear campaign against him soon enough, mark my words. They have a whole department who monitor forums, too.

Probably. I forget. There was mostly headache and tiredness and "never drinking again"ing today.

Not the first to spot this, but amusing nonetheless:

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8002085.stm

Ha! Brilliant.

Why do politicians and fat cats always get to "resign"?