Monday, November 23, 2009

Those Pesky Track Changes


I remember when I was working for David Davis we got a letter from the Home Secretary's office in which the track changes hadn't been deleted from the final version. The same letter had been sent to Mark Oaten's office. DD wouldn't make political capital out of it, and we rang Charles Clarke's office to tell them what had happened. Mark Oaten, who was the LibDem Home Affairs spokesman at the time and he had no such reservations. He got into the papers but suffered the consequences. Clarke sent Oaten to Coventry.

But it seems Labour haven't learned very much for the experience. In advance of George Osborne's speech on environmental taxation tomorrow, Labour's press office have given political journalists a helpful list of questions they should put to the Conservatives. Sadly, they forgot to delete the track changes. There's no great scandal in what they've deleted, even on Question 4, but it indicates a level of incompetence which seems to permeate through Labour's spin operation. At least that's what the journalist who passed this to me reckons. I'd say it's another sub-conscious sign they've given up.

16 comments:

Tom said...

I had no idea parties did this. If they're getting their questions fed to them what on earth is the point of journalists?!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like more tory deceits, surely.

Hardly original.

And why was former Young Tory Chair Nick Robinson plastered all over the 10 O clock News with Osborne when there was News?

A sign of the BBC being run by tory trolls I guess . . .

Tapestry said...

But while The Failure still sits in the bunker, and the suicide pills are not yet taken, the few remaining minions will be sent to the front line to hold a trench line against Cameron's advancing tanks.

Only The Failure and The Propaganda Minister still believe in the cause. But soon they will destroy the country that failed them, the Treasury completely denuded.

Britons will live on grass and tree bark while Osborne looks around for a way to pay for vital supplies. All the gold is gone.

Women will be available for a bar of chocolate. Men will starve.

The Blairs meanwhile have salted away their millions and are safely lodged in a security guarded paradise. The final results of socialism and the supposed 'fair society' are now there for all to see.

Unknown said...

Oh for Pete's sake: can't someone, anyone, in the Conservative party put a summation of the CRU emails in front of George Osborne before he makes his speech? We're being conned on green taxes! And why isn't the CRU in the news?

Roger Thornhill said...

Haha I have been faux "track changing" polly, the BBC and others for some time. Nice to see a real one.

javelin said...

I think Lord Lawson called for a public enquiry about the emails from East Anglia. I think this was a mature and necessary reaction.

It is clear the University of East Anglia (UofEA) is one of number of institutions who's researchers are letting their personal convictions skew the science.

Anybody involved in academic work will tell you it is more bitchy, back-biting and defensive than any political party. Think of Karl Popper's philosophy of science and his theory of Paradigm shifts. The young over turning the old's theories. How do you think that works - it works through Machevellian defence and revolution.

Again Lord Lawson's call for an Independent Enquiry is a mature and necessary response - given so many billions are being spent on Global Warming we really need to know what is going on with these emotionally driven, bitchy and defensive climate scientists.

The University of East Anglia has shown itself to be a liablity to good science rather than to promote it.

Bob said...

save as pdf would solve that.

hardly rocket science.

Will Dean said...

Iain,

'Track' in this context is a verb not an adjective. The control in Word is an instruction to Word that it should track changes to the document, not that it should show you the 'track changes'.

OldSlaughter said...

Said it before and I shall gladly repeat.

David Davis = Balls & Integrity.

Top man. Must of been good working for him Iain. Or at least I hope it was.

Twig said...

Is this man made climate thing still current?

I thought it had been discredited, because the whole solar system has warmed and the so called scientists had be caught fiddling the statistics.

Nick Drew said...

and what about that spelling mistake, eh ? who do they recruit these days ?

thy've given up the ghost alright !

cassandra said...

It appears the Tories are behind the curve yet again, they are fully committed to a 'green' agenda of high taxes, state intervention and the destruction of our industrial base by targeting a completely harmless trace gas called CO2.
I can only wonder why the conservative high command are silent about the gathering scandal of fraud and forgery within the very institutions that have been the main contributors of the 'science' behind much of the IPCC evidence, bearing in mind that much of this evidence is now highly suspect doesnt it follow that the conservatives should be calling for a full public inquiry, quality control assessment and review of the data and evidence of AAM?
There is a great deal at stake for the UK alone, many hundreds of billions of pounds is being staked on the tainted conclusions of the IPCC and the future of our entire industrial society is at stake, the issue could ruin a Tory administration completely in a first term.
If the Cameron makes the wrong choices now and it becomes clear that the evidence for man made global warming is fake and false after he has directed his government to enact hugely damaging policies then the consequences could be disastrous.

Anonymous said...

Did not the only British manufacturer of wind turbines close down?

The top ten companies by installed capacity worldwide in 2007 (wiki)
1. Vestas (Denmark) 4,500 MW
2. GE Energy (United States) 3,300 MW
3. Gamesa (Spain) 3,050 MW
4. Enercon (Germany) 2,700 MW
5. Suzlon (India) 2,000 MW
6. Siemens (Denmark / Germany) 1,400 MW
7. Acciona (Spain) 870 MW
8. Goldwind (China - PRC) 830 MW
9. Nordex (Germany) 670 MW
10. Sinovel (China - PRC) 670 MW

Just how is installing turbines helping the British economy. Can anyone name a British turbine company of any significance?

Presumably Brown is spending money literally supporting work offshore.
Denmark perhaps?
The Danes need the work seeing as how wind power has been such a disaster for them.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmwelaf/876/876we14.htm

" .... "In green terms windmills are a mistake and economically they make no sense," says Niels Gram of the Danish Federation of Industries. "Many of us thought wind was the 100% solution for the future but we were wrong. In fact, taking all energy needs into account, it's only a 3% solution."

Danish experts admit that wind power has not worked out very well.

"In just a few years we've gone from some of the cheapest electricity in Europe to some of the most costly," says Jytte Kaad Jensen, chief economist for Eltra, Denmark's biggest electricity distributor.

Aase Madsen, an MP who chairs energy policy in the Danish parliament, is emphatic: "For our industry it has been a terribly expensive disaster." ... "

Unknown said...

Always, always send everything out as pdf's. It looks more professional and they have much less stuff hidden away in them than word processor docs.

Stephen Folan said...

maybe they're auditioning for 'In The Thick of It'

Unsworth said...

It's not just incompetence, it's also blind arogance. If they were in the slightest concerned about public reaction this would have been checked multiple times before sending. And it's damn idleness, too.