Tuesday, February 12, 2008

James "No Mates" Purnell's Dodgy Letters

Last week, one of James Purnell's assistants, Mike Doherty, was caught writing letters to the press under a false address to the Tameside Advertiser. No Mottram Bypass, a local anti bypass blog has found more letters from the past in their latest article. Barbara Chalesworth, one of the writers of the letters, is Purnell's assistant. Her husband is the political assistant to Tameside Council leader Roy Oldham.

Another of James Purnell's little friends is also doing his best to help. "Tameside Ted" is a regular commenter on the Manchester Evening News website and has just been exposed by Tameside Eye as none other than Labour Councillor Sean Parker-Perry, who .... cue drumroll... is also an assistant to James Purnell! It's a small world, isn't it?

Can it really be that these three people just happened to think to themselves: "Let's write in supporting dear old James"? Or was James Purnell so hard up for support that he dragooned his staff into writing these letters? Purnell's new nickname should be Jimmy No Mates.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

okay Iain - a bit of honesty then - do you know who the sock puppets who post on here are? Always wondered.

Old BE said...

As Jim Royle might say "rising star my arse!"

Anonymous said...

Purnell is so creepy; he has no blink rate! I can almsot imagine him eating live mice or something. Is it just me do you think Purnell is creepy? Or is it just me that thinks Purnell is very, very creepy? Not a patch on Milliband bot though!

Anonymous said...

Iain, did you write in the press when you were working for David Davis?

Anonymous said...

Takes one to know one dearie

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous 5.20. No I didn't. I gave up the blog and any kind of public profile for the duration of the leadership campaign. I only started writing again once it was all over.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 5.20 and 5.22

You are James Purnell and I claim the £5.

Anonymous said...

His letters aren't the only dodgy thing about James Purnell. Apart from his delusion that he looks like Steve McQueen - honest, apparently he actually thinks that - there's his creative accountancy as regards his London home.

Bought London home whilst living and working in London. Became MP - claimed thousands in Additional Costs Allowance by saying this same home was his "second home".
Then sold home - whilst still living and working in London, of course - telling the Inland Revenue it was actually his "main home" and thus saved even more thousands in Capital Gains Tax.

Apparently this is all legal.........

And they wonder why politicians are regarded as greedy spongers!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

It always amazes me how many letter writers are not on the electoral register. I wonder why the press never check?

Anonymous said...

Jacqui Smith's husband has also been spotted writing letters to local papers in Reditch, without pointing out his link to La Smith.

Unsworth said...

Anonymous 9:41 PM

The press never check because it's not their business. The game is selling newspapers, not seeking the truth. Or maybe you didn't understand that bit?

Anonymous said...

Every follower of Tony Blair should have a catchy slogan and here is James Purnell's. "Work makes you happy," he keeps saying. Of course, this would not be connected in any way with the old Nazi slogan, displayed in wrought-iron above the concentration camp gates "Arbeit macht Frei" or "Work sets you free".

http://wuhudo.com/comment/2008/03/james-purnell-is-this-the-best-new-labour-can-muster.html