MSM
Sunday Times - Isabel Oakeshott has details of the emails
Sunday Telegraph - Melissa Kite report
Sunday Telegraph - Iain Dale on blogging
Sunday Telegraph: Matthew D'Ancona: McBride shows Labour is nearing the end
The Observer - Gaby Hinsliff: Questions for Watson
Mail on Sunday - Simon Walters report
Mail on Sunday - Iain Dale on Brown & Nixon
BLOGS
Guido - McBride and Draper are lying to the bitter end
Nadine Dorries - 3 blogposts on her weird day in the spotlight
John Redwood - McBride & the power of the blogs
Sadie's Tavern - It's all the Tories' fault (very funny post, actually)
James Forsyth - McBride was Brown's Billy Bremner
Hopi Sen - It reeks of hypocrisy
Bagehot - Damian II
Sunder Katwala - We don't need a Red Guido
Matthew D'Ancona - The poison remains
Chris Paul - Draper's position is now vulnerable
Mars Hill - Draper must be ousted
LabourHome - Draper: Please go
Donal Blaney - How long before Draper goes?
Donal Blaney - Ten Questions for Number Ten
Jane Merrick - It's Guido's scalp
Martin Bright - Surely Charlie Whelan couldn't be involved...
NHS Blog Doctor - Why would McBride smear the Vera Lynn of political blogging? (Me!)
Plato Says - Rolling commentary
Tony Sharp - Translation of the McBride resignation statement
Samizdata - The day bloggers landed their first punch
I'll be updating this throughout the evening...
And as a bit of fun, watch Derek Draper dig himself deeper, and deeper, and deeper...
We all owe Guido a drink for this
ReplyDelete"former Labour activist Paul Staines"
ReplyDeleteCan you tip The Observer off on errors BEFORE it goes into print?
If you think about it the press has had alot of articles building up Sarah Brown about Twitter, the hiring of clothes, sarah Brown being part of the Brown campaign at the next election etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat "better" for such a campaign than to smear the wives of your opponents! Brown is in this upto his neck! He is the mastermind as his wife is being wheeled out as an electoral prop, meanwhile the substitutes are being smeared by a pack of lies. Vey Nasty politics!
Labour Labour Labour - Out Out Out!
Jim W - Done! Gaby is most grateful!
ReplyDeleteI have been searching around, and am genuinely surprised at how many foreign language newspapers are picking up on this story.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Labour leaning comentators try to write this issue off as just a "spat between bloggers", the international press seems to be covering the story in some depth.
I might understand overseas bloggers picking up on the story as an example of a "blog victory", but these are all serious newswires covering the story.
They don't think it is a mere blogger spat, and neither should the UK press.
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/04/11/internacional/1239471398.html
http://lta.reuters.com/article/topNews/idLTASIE53A0EK20090411
http://www.antena3noticias.com/PortalA3N/noticia/internacional/Dimite-asesor-Brown-por-una-campana-difamaciones-contra-oposicion/5578744
http://aeiou.expresso.pt/reino-unido-conselheiro-de-gordon-brown-demite-se-apos-escandalo-sobre-e-mails=f508315
http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/internacional,conselheiro-de-brown-renuncia-apos-escandalo-de-e-mails,353291,0.htm
http://www.agi.it/estero/notizie/200904111922-est-rt11121-gb_mail_diffamatorie_da_staff_gordon_brown_bufera_su_governo
http://unionesarda.ilsole24ore.com/Articoli/News/115798
http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Mondo/2009/04/brown-McBride.shtml?uuid=9055de86-2686-11de-80d8-4c17f3fd37a9&DocRulesView=Libero
20:15 The Mirror - Woman mauled by bear!
ReplyDeleteI'm about to do a 3rd blog on it on www.therightstudent.com highlighting how undignified his resegnation statement was.
ReplyDeleteEveryone thinks I'm mad but I'm sure Mandelson has got to be involved somewhere. Surely all of this wouldn't have happened without him?
ReplyDeleteDavid T Breaker
Guido has certainly been a young Tory, a fifth columnist collaborator with fascists, an SDP member, and of course there's Libertas too. Has he really never been a Labourite?
ReplyDeleteDid you see Stephen Pound?
ReplyDeleteScumbag.
Schadenfreude needs to be redefined especially for McBride and Draper. I have been enjoying this all day.
ReplyDeleteNothing from John Prescott, but his target this week, Daniel Hannan has an EU slant on it.
ReplyDeleteI've run out of popcorn now, onto a rather nice bottle of Shiraz and Doritos.
wv mentsall - we're all going as such. :-)
@ martin day @ 8:14
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I think you're right. That is really nasty by Labour.
The fact that strikes me is if they indeed have the domain bought and ready to go then that seems to me a prima facie case of of
ReplyDelete1, misconduct in pubic office
2, conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office
If the email content is as good as we are told, then there will be a full scale police investigation.
Tom Harris famous letter to Blair
ReplyDeleteslightly modified
I love bank holidays like this- we should do it more often
ReplyDeleteObserver:
ReplyDelete'friends of Draper believe his computer may have been hacked into.'
Hahaha, yeah it was those tory nerds in Area 51. Shocking!
This story is going to be talked about in our blogsphere for a long time to come.....this is history....savour it well
ReplyDelete@ Chris Paul
ReplyDeleteBe very careful. How about your own interesting previous history, eh?
Conrad:
ReplyDelete'friends of Draper believe his computer may have been hacked into.'
Hahaha, yeah it was those tory nerds in Area 51. Shocking!
========================
More to the point; Draper has friends?
Iain, why not add my blog post http://www.irfanahmed.org/2009/04/mcbride-sacked-from-number-10.html
ReplyDeleteLabour are a sleaze ridden bunch of intellectual pygmies and bully boys. Brown is head boy.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be the party pooper BUT am I the only one here who thinks SO WHAT?
ReplyDeleteThe only bad part is that there are plenty of diehard Blairites who are happier about McBride's downfall than we are.
ReplyDeleteNah, I actually find that quite funny too. :D
OK, now the Observer has dragged Samantha Cameron into it.
ReplyDeleteAs Hopi Sen noted: "No stories were spread, no smears were made. It didn’t happen. The only reason we know about it is because someone published private emails because they wanted to pour ordure on Damian McBride and Derek Draper."
All this pain can pinned on Paul Staines.
So, what is the exact process of laying down a motion along the following lines?
ReplyDelete"This house no longer has confidence in the Right Honorable Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath."
Let's get the show on the road now. That lot has forfeited whatever rights they had of managing this country.
Even if such a motion was not carried, the debate leading up to such a vote must be had to show the full bankruptcy of Brown's Regime.
When he says hacking does he mean actual hacking or just some guessing his username and password? (dolly and iamacompletetwat btw)
ReplyDelete"I'm about to do a 3rd blog on it on www.therightstudent.com "
ReplyDeleteIs that all? Iain's done nine today already. Typical slacker student.
"All this pain can pinned on Paul Staines."
ReplyDeleteShooting the messenger much?
"Sorry to be the party pooper BUT am I the only one here who thinks SO WHAT?"
ReplyDeleteYou sound like one of those people with a life outside the internet. You wouldn't understand. This is the biggest thing that's ever happened.
@Jimmy : That made me laugh out loud. Thank you!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6078529.ece
ReplyDeleteSome of the details.
Nope. Seen C4 News, Sky & BBC and still have no idea what the fuss is about?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the papers will finally reveal.
Iain - according to a report in the Guardian, tomorrows Observer is claiming that Samantha Cameron was a smear target. Any idea if McBride and Draper really had stooped to that despicable level? The implications for Brown and Labour if that is true are horrendous - and frankly deservedly so.
ReplyDelete@ Simon Garder
ReplyDelete"still have no idea what the fuss is about"
Yep, we already knew that, so?
Paul, your link wouldn’t work for me. So try this one.
ReplyDeleteApril 11, 2009 9:14 PM , Blogger Paul Halsall
ReplyDelete"No stories were spread, no smears were made. It didn’t happen."
Guy Fawkes didn't actually blow up the houses of parliament, Hitler didn't acutally invade England, and our foreign visitors didn't actually blow up Manchester this Easter.
What we will see tomorrow is the dastardly nature of what our little group were planning!!!
Simon, it just worked for me. Try this
ReplyDeleteThe e-mails, seen by The Sunday Times, expose how Gordon Brown’s head of strategy and planning wrote to a Labour spin doctor proposing a campaign of unfounded personal slurs against senior Tories. The smears, many of a sexual nature, were planned as part of a strategy to “destabilise” the opposition in the run-up to the general election.
The operation was designed to target David Cameron, the Conservative leader, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, and three other Tory MPs. The messages from Damian McBride, a long-standing Labour aide, were sent from an official No 10 e-mail address. The unfounded smears suggested: “Putting the fear of God” into Osborne by spreading rumours that he took drugs and had sex with a prostitute. Spreading rumours about the mental health of Osborne’s wife. Challenging Cameron to reveal details of an “embarrassing illness”. Accusing a gay Tory MP of promoting his partner’s business interests in the Commons.
It's all up in Times frontpage now.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteA splendid tweet from The Thick Of It's Armando Iannucci:
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/AIannucci/status/1498194989
Guido does appear at least to have grasped the flaw in his plan. No-one has ever heard of McBride before and n a month's time all anyone will remember is Dorries bunk-up and Osborne's line with the hooker, and if either want to do anything about it they have to sue the publisher, meaning the Dirt Digger or an undischarged bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's on our side after all
The ST accounts are lurid, in a very naff way. I mean it would be possible to do more in Chariots in Shoreditch in 20 minutes than these emails suggest for many years of sin. In fact I suspect I did once back in 1998.
ReplyDeleteStill, McBride should indeed have resigned, Draper be banished and Paul Staines feel dirty inside for having ruined some families' Easter Sundays.
After today, I think this blog should be renamed the Daley Draper. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI go away to work, and I come back to discover that McBride's quit his job. I always end up being unable to get online at the worst of times! I had a look at the Telegraph this morning, but got the idea this was being over-egged a lot. Reading the coverage now, I don't think that anymore.
Now let's see Guido going after the REAL culprit in No 10 Downing Street with vigour.
http://therightstudent.com/?p=1400
ReplyDeleteTranslation on Damian's resignation speech
Keep up man. Iain's up to 12 now.
ReplyDeleteSorry, 13.
ReplyDeleteAh the joy of a labour election lost....
ReplyDeleteAnd the thrice mentioned 'hacking into personal e-mails' meme from Draper is obviously lost on him as to its irony. In this week, of all weeks.
ReplyDeleteDelicious.
@ Jimmy
ReplyDelete"Maybe he's on our side after all"
And whose side is that?
@ Paul Halsall
ReplyDelete"....and Paul Staines feel dirty inside for having ruined some families' Easter Sundays"
Why? Nobody makes people read his blog, do they? It's their choice, same as picking up the mags from the top shelf.
Don't like it? Don't go there.
I'm a busy mother with little time to read the newspapers(!), but, who needs the tiny details? one could be blind and almost deaf and still have come to the same conclusion over this latest fiasco: I will NEVER vote Labour again!! And I thought the world of school gate mums was a petty one... www.frustratedstay-at-homemum.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete