I have been out all day on a TOTAL POLITICS away day - fun, eh? So I have missed all the fun surrounding the resignation of Labour whip Siobhain McDonagh. Nick Robinson will be eating his words, after telling us this morning that Brown had survived his leadership woes. Perhaps Ms M made her move as a direct result. Who knows?
Those who know her (and I don't) tell me she is not someone who is a plotter. She has called for Brown to go for genuine reasons, and is prepared for the onslaught which will now be launched by Team Brown. And it has already started.
Guido seems to have been spun a line by the Brown camp that this sort of thing is to be expected. Contrary to his story, she didn't sign any nomination papers last year let alone spoil any. A source very close to McDonagh tells me it's absolute "bollocks" and that the Brown people are purposely smearing her. Well it isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last.
MPs weren't actually sent out nomination papers; instead they had to traipse along to the Parliamentary Labour Party Resource Centre at the House of Commons and ask for a paper, then fill it out there and then. Siobhain McDonagh did not attend, let alone fill out a paper. Also, the papers weren't numbered, simply because MPs had to write their names on them so that the identity of the person doing the nominating could be identified.
If she really had written on it what Guido alleges, would she really have been appointed a government whip? I hardly think so.
It will now be interesting to see if McDonagh now has more followers than Charles Clarke.
17 comments:
One thing I don't get about all this is who leaked her name to the press.
She admits to asking for nomination papers - but she denies she wanted any publicity.
Which means that someone else did put her name into the public domain.
Who was it? and what is their motive?
Saw her on Channel 4 news. She isn't backing down. I agree with the analysis that McDonagh has innocently - if naively - tried to start a leadership debate (prompted in part by her constituents) and has been stamped upon, rather than this being some sort of Blairite plot. This will backfire horribly. Oh what fun!!!
Good post Iain. You're actually telling the facts, rather than Guido who appears to have made up most of his story!
I have to say the line attributed to McDonagh did seem oddly familiar:
http://www.order-order.com/2008/04/come-back-thatcher.html
Dale camp smear Brown camp.
Yah boo
Flip flop time. Just realised she is sister of the toxic Margaret McDonagh. This has the fingerprints of a certain section of the Blairite/Scottish West Coast/Catholic McMafia all over it.
Those links.
TOTAL POLITICS
Nick Robinson
Guido alleges
I hear Labour rules mean nomination papers should be sent out each year. Perhaps they should be sent under the rules and see what happens.
It was forecast in early August that an attempt would be made in early September. That time it was Trades Unions and the left who were threatening - the Johnson/Cruddas ticket. She is not likely to be acting spontaneously.
Scottish mafia hits back iain. If you dont know the deepest darkest labour politics then i wouldnt bother commenting - you look silly
Smears by Brown??
He lied through bhis teeth yesterday nwhen saying 'pensioners' would get free insulation.
Pathetic though this policy is its doubly so when we now learn that its only pensioners over 70.
This is either a blatant Brown lie - I believe it was a deliberate bit of dissembling by him - or total incompetence. He should resign. Can ANYONE really take a blind (no pun intended) word he says seriously.
This woman whoever she is at least is showing she is living in the real world.
Well Nick Robinson has certainly shown how out of touch he is with what's really going on on the Labour party.
He's trying to make a joke out of it with this 'Robinson's curse' rubbish but the truth is he has failed to do his job properly.
"It will now be interesting to see if McDonagh now has more followers than Charles Clarke."
Well, McDonagh is, marginally more attractive than Clarke, I think.
Better chest, anyway.
Jake said. Robinson was not doing his job properly!
IS it his job to speculate or to report? Surely once a story has broken he should then report it factually. To embellish it betrays the impartiality the BBC should portray at all times.
He has shown himself to be far too close to Brown and Co for too long and we should be demanding the BBC starts factual reporting, and not the endless speculation and damned lies they spew out daily!
is the 'all pensioners to get free insulation' quote another one from the pen of a 'junior official'and not the dear leader ?
Non story, though good to see you questioning the gossip instead of rushing into "print".
Clarke, McDonagh and Stringer. Sounds like a powerbase, not.
Gordon Brown fails to take Government advice on insulation
By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 5:01pm BST 12/09/2008
Despite having declared that people should lag their lofts to beat soaring fuel bills, Gordon Brown has not yet made his own home energy efficient.
why is no one suprised ?
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