Monday, March 05, 2007

Lady T's Mark Twain Moment

Just after midnight my feed reader alerted me to THIS post on Recess Monkey, announcing the death of Lady Thatcher. Call me naive, but I just couldn't believe Alex Hilton would post something like that without him being confident it is true. I phoned News 24 to check it out, thus sending them into a blind panic. Word spread on the net, with the PoliticalBetting.com site readers wanting more info. I rang Alex but he didn't answer. I've texted him and I have emailed him. It's 10.30am and he hasn't responded. The comments on his thread show what his readers think of him. They are not alone.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it April Fools' Day already ??

Perhaps the old girl wants a chance to read her Obituary Notices, and have a stiff word with the editors of those papers who have got aspects of her reign wrong, or aren't sycophantic enough.

Or perhaps it is an attempt by the police to flush out the Class War people who want to have a celebration march after the Old Dear has popped her clogs...

Jonathan Sheppard said...

Plainly distasteful. I can understand when bloggers get it wrong. But perhaps the key is to stop digging - and putting up posts about - ooops she is just old doesn't quite do it!

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Alex Hilton is a C£$T.

What other kind of sad fuck does that?

I hope you remove him from your links and I hope he is removed from whatever positions of authority he has in the Labour Party.

Anonymous said...

http://www.londonclasswar.org/newswire_partythatcher.php

She ain't gone yet, folks...

Anonymous said...

Crikey ! Can you imagine being in the News 24 centre and thinking 'Ohmigod, the old bird has gone on my watch..!'

Palpable relief no doubt. What next from the blogosphere..the Queen has checked out ?

Anonymous said...

They can't hack that she was more popular than they were.

"So, shall we have lower income taxes or mass nationalisation?"

Any doubters reading this thread - read Labour's 1983 manifesto.

Praguetory said...

I'm calling you naive. You should sue him for the damage caused by his negligence.

Anonymous said...

Iain, like you I could not believe that Recess Monkey would post this news without being absolutely sure of his facts. To use the death of Mrs Thatcher as a joke, and then leave it all night without being refuted was pathetic.
His correction this morning did not scrape the barrel but crawled under it!
"if you’re coming here for well-researched news from a well-resourced news team, I can only suggest you start maybe at bbc.co.uk."
The irony of that comment coming from Labour's premier blogger was not lost on me.

Anonymous said...

The fact that "Labours leading blogger" was prepared to post such a story then retire to bed with his "mixed emoions" without even trying to verify the source, indicates why Labour bloggers are not taken seriously nor attract the traffic of the leading right of centre blogs.

Anonymous said...

Iain.
Further to conspiracy theorem is it possible Comrade Hilton thought the Sun was going to publish the Downing Street e-mails and thought some news management was in order.

A new take on "bury" bad news

JH

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Hilton (failed Labour candidate) is now rather lamely (some time after the event)claiming he was the subject of a hoax message from a journalist friend.

He is lying of course to try and save his skin. Nobody with any intelligence would publish a story of that gravity without making very sure of the facts.

He goes into the same box of flakes reserved for Sion Simon and Tom Watson.

God help Hilary Benn if he has twats like that working on his leadership campaign.

Anonymous said...

If AH died would anyone notice, or give a f*ck?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if it disgusts tories enough to stop taking money from Hilton by running his MessageSpace ads.

Thought not...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Iain... surely it's time you reviewed your dealings with Alex Hilton's MessageSpace?

Anonymous said...

chatterbox said...: "if you’re coming here for well-researched news from a well-resourced news team, I can only suggest you start maybe at bbc.co.uk."
The irony of that comment coming from Labour's premier blogger was not lost on me.


Yes - it's nice to see that both Iain Dale and Alex Hilton default to the BBC when they want the facts straight.

Anonymous said...

They are all still there are they not! Old Labour Old Hatreds Old Ideas and very bitter.

However you dress New Labour up its still the same sad sorry bunch of bitter and twisted losers.

Twats one and all!!

Anonymous said...

At least people care in Mrs Thatcher's case.In Socialism's case everyone clapped and then went home.- Of course they left some folks behind with sharpened stakes just in case of a lightning strike or a wicked coven.

Anonymous said...

Hear, Hear,

In the spirit of human kindness is there no-one who supports the Monkey's innocence in this matter?............No?.....I thought not.

Are we a bunch of saddos or what?

Newmania said...

I am reading the Saintly Maggie`s memoirs at the moment and what a fund of sense and , suprisingly , humour , it is . She actually has nice line in self deprecating bon mots that have been a treat so far.

On the other hand how little time she has for the maudlin ,self indulgent and theatrical gestures she sometimes comes across.

I couldn`t care less about this and nor could she . I quite enjoy unpleasant exchanges and would have said much the same thing . In fact I may do just that .

Do stop turning her into Lady Di please .I have always like the tale of Palmerston on his death bed declining the Good Book and the weeping relatives and asking if someone would read the Belgian Treaty , his greatest achievement ,in his eyes.

Any way I have her in the 'dead pool' so I have mixed feelings .

Anonymous said...

Alex Hilton is an idiot.
Alex and current class of decitful and incompetent NuLab politicians from top to bottom are not fit to be considered in the same breath as her.

Unknown said...

The sanctimony on show here is quite nauseating. You lot certainly know how to turn on the waterworks when it suits you.

Anonymous said...

You mean the old bag isn't dead?

That's another bottle of Krug the hoaxers have cost me. And who's going to pick up the cost of all the cheap Latvian hookers I had round last night to celebrate?

Anonymous said...

Bloggers For Vapour-Judge the tree by its fruit?-What is the tree that produced the hairy clump straight from the Devil's backside that we have at the moment?

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Bloggers4Losers (1.37): You don't get it do you?

This is not the first time that the last few rats on a very sinky ship have resorted to puerile pranks.

I know that it is all you poor sods have left, because all your arguments are in tatters.

This isn't sanctimony, it is disgust, and your attempts to salvage anything from this tawdry affair are as bankrupt as the party funds.

Go away and take a look at the party that promised to be whiter than white, the man who said "This may be the generation that does not send its children to war"

Go to your constituencies and prepare for defeat.

Unknown said...

Hmm, I'm supposed to be humbled by a moral policeman whose first post on this thread contains "Alex Hilton is a C**T." and tries to deny his freedom of speech?

Would you like to tell me exactly what you're disgusted by, or is this just a miasma of moral outrage? This certainly bears all the hallmarks of a tabloid witch-hunt.

BTW, I'm rather glad our "children did go to war" to rid the world of a couple of dictators, in defiance of the Tory apologists.

Anonymous said...

I've been told that Alex Hilton has a guy helping him with LabourHome who is a PR

About time his spin doctor came to the rescue?

Ralph said...

bloggers4labour, your wonderful mix of faux indignation, false claims about free speech, and historical illiteracy are amazing.

When ‘Labours leading blogger’ does something so crass as this the response you should have is to criticise not defend.

Gavin said...

Ha ha, let the poor little Labour milksops have their bit of fun while they can, I say. The headline "Lady Thatcher dies" is bound to come at some point, and no doubt it will give joy to socialist scum like RM.
But it will be as nothing compared to the glee and satisfaction which the majority of the country will feel, upon reading the headlines which hopefully await NuLabour very soon....

Sir-C4' said...

I sense that this man will be paying Mr. Hilton a surprise visit in the near future

http://conservativemindblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/rip-alex-recess-monkey-hilton.html

Anonymous said...

PragueTory: I'm calling you naive. You should sue him for the damage caused by his negligence.

No court would find that a reasonable person would ever believe anything pushed out by Hilton. Legal action thus fails.

All hail Maggie - another assassination attempt foiled.

Unknown said...

When ‘Labours leading blogger’ does something so crass as this the response you should have is to criticise not defend."

I might criticise it in rational company, but given the nature of the attacks, I'm obliged to back him up.

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I'm delighted to learn that this was a false alarm.

I agree with a lot of what Margaret Thatcher did and I also disagree with a lot of it too. On balance she got rather more right than she got wrong - and that's surely the best balance that you can hope for in any Prime Minister isn't it?

One aspect of her legacy really struck me last night though.

I really is to her immense credit that she was able to reform and rebuild this country to such an extent that the eager anticipation of her death is the one last remaining political pleasure left available to the less gracious amongst her detractors - such as this Hilton character.

Anonymous said...

I think this is a bit if a storm in a teacup. We all know RM is an idiot, he's a lefty ffs. The guy was an idiot for not checking his source, but again, he's a lefty, they are all idiots. Where's the surprise.

Its a win - win scenario as far as I'm concerned ~ the great Mrs T is still with us, and we have flushed out a few cockroaches.

Finally, it has given rise to B4L making some of the daftest statements ever, which only adds to his image as an even bigger idiot, another plus.

All well worth the initial shock caused by the story, if you ask me!

Anonymous said...

Having witnessed first hand Mr Hilton's ability to make things up to try and discredit his opponents, this story is of no surprise to me.

I can recall during the 2005 election, when Alex Hilton caused the labour vote in Canterbury to go into free fall, an incident when he accused the Conservative incumbant, Julian Brazier, of being a member of the Ku Klux Clan, even the Lib Dem candidate jumped to Brazier's defence.

Ralph said...

'I might criticise it in rational company, but given the nature of the attacks, I'm obliged to back him up.'

No you're not.

Your party might not have ended up in the mess it is if you hadn't tried to defend and spin everything.

Anonymous said...

"BTW, I'm rather glad our "children did go to war" to rid the world of a couple of dictators, in defiance of the Tory apologists."

And what about the Labour opponents of the war? Forgotten them have we? The Tories mostly voted in favour, you should thank them.

Miles Barter said...

Iain
The working class are ALREADY celebrating Thatcher's death!
Read all about it at Action-without-theory