In an interview on 18 Doughty Street's One to One programme last night, Lance Price, former Downing Street spin doctor, has sensationally claimed that Tony Blair himself was the source of quotes describing Gordon Brown as having “psychological flaws”.Price continues to say he was told by a figure very close to the Chancellor that Alastair Campbell “took the rap” to allow the Prime Minister to escape blame. Below is a transcript of the passage in question...
Iain Dale: ...This kind of behaviour from the Chancellor - is that why Alastair Campbell talked about psychological flaws, or we assume it was Alastair Campbell that said that…
Lance Price: I don’t know that it was Alastair Campbell
Iain Dale: Yes you do, yes you do
Lance Price: Well no, I don’t know, I don’t know for a fact it was Alastair Campbell. I’ll tell you what somebody…somebody very close to the Chancellor who was having this discussion, many people had this discussion obviously, said to me; “By the way everyone says it was Alastair, it wasn’t Alastair”. He said it was Tony Blair. It was Tony Blair who said it. It was completely unacceptable for the news to be out there that this was what the Prime Minister said about the Chancellor so therefore Alastair took the rap and Alastair’s been the lightning conductor ever since. Now I have no idea whether that’s true but people very close to the Chancellor believe its true and maybe even the Chancellor himself believes it was true and if you look in Andrew Rawnsley’s book where the quote first appeared, he said, I think he described it as somebody with a better claim than anyone else to know the Prime Minister’s mind. Well, the only person with a better claim to know the Prime Minister’s mind than Alistair Campbell is, possibly Cherie, is the Prime Minister himself.
Iain Dale: Another thing is that Andrew Rawnsley has said that once Tony Blair ceases to be Prime Minister, he will reveal all. That would add fuel to the fire.
Lance Price: Maybe Iain you heard it here first.
You can see the clip HERE. The full programme is HERE.
Everyone has psychological flaws. So what? The reasons not to want Brown as PM are the reasons where he agrees with Blair and Price: Iraq, ID cards, PFIs/PPPs, ninety-day detention, &c.
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened to the 18 Doughty Street web site? No blogs RSS feeds etc. Can you help.
ReplyDeleteHoward, a new website will be launched in a few days. It was supposed to go live on Monday but out website builder badly let us down.
ReplyDeleteWords I never thought I'd write : I completely agree with Tony Blair.
ReplyDeleteGood scoop Iain!
Why are you giving a platform to David Lindsay? He is the prophet, apostle and high priest of paleo-Labour, with its Old Labour means to High Tory ends. He is the statist, syndicalist, nationalist and theoconservative voice of the provinces. He is a reactionary Catholic and a Little Briton masquerading as a Socialist. He is a pan-Slavist, a pan-Arabist and a Bolivarian. He is the Peter Hitchens of the pseudo-Left. He is a ghastly throwback to the days when Constituency Labour Parties were run by union closed shops full of Catholic fundamentalists and working-class Tories. At least he isn't actually an MP or a newspaper columnist. Please, please, please stop helping him to become either or both.
ReplyDeleteI never knew Blair said anuthing that wasn't scripted by Campbell - I thought that was how ventriloquists worked
ReplyDeleteNow, if only Lance Price hadn't said, "Now I have no idea whether that’s true" your story would read so much better :-)
ReplyDeleteGood scoop Iain. I think you have to seperate the planning, purpose and perception.
ReplyDeleteDid he plan to say this, or was this just an off the cuff comment? Who is he hoping will benefit from this?. Has Lance realised that a Gordon PM will be damaging to the country?
For my penn'th if Gordon is psychologically flawed it's that he runs away from difficult questions, and if the buck stops with him it becomes a political flaw as well.
So... the EXCLUSIVE is that someone with an axe to grind who makes a career out of being a 'former insider' who wasn't there at the time has been told by someone else... (a figure close to the Chancellor? Come offit, Price, if you're going to kiss and tell, then at least have the gonads to actually tell).
ReplyDeleteNot unlike his book, in fact, reviewed in The Times as being written by a nonentity (not so much the pox doctor as the pox doctor's assistant) and "the secret revelations of Adrian Mole, age 40 and three quarters."
Some scoop this!
Does David Lindsay have a blog? Sounds fun....
ReplyDeleteHmm - takes one to know one I guess.
ReplyDeleteGreat story which I'm sure will be followed up, but Price really should be ashamed of himself for the way he is dishing the dirt on his former employers. It's not often I have a good word to say about Alastair Campbell, but at least he knows the meaning of the word loyalty.
ReplyDeleteFucking ace scoop "!!!!! This has made my morning /11/1/!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a pirty I STILL can't get any joy with that bloody video link to Doughty street.
Anyone who goes or wants to go into politics must be psychologically flawed anyway!
ReplyDeleteNot as psychologically flawed as someone who supports West Ham though.
Never thought I'd utter this but Bob Piper is spot on. 'Sources close to the Chancellor suspect Blair of spreading nasties'. Piper is also accurate about the nature of Price's book.
ReplyDeleteWOW ! Great stuff Iain.
ReplyDeleteWell done Iain, impressive to see that you interviewing technique is getting the goods. Certainly a reason to watch.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the website goes I feel for you. Web designers can be such a pain in the arse when it comes to deadlines.
I was unable to watch the programme live because of my shoddy broadband connection but nice work Iain.
ReplyDeleteCan I be your sock-puppet?
ed - surely 'shoddy new website / media player which 'fixed' something that wasn't actually broken' ??
ReplyDeleteA doctor writes:
ReplyDeleteBrown's psychological flaws are plain for all to see: multiple neuroses, cowardice, control freakery, bullying, pathological jealousy, sexual confusion, obsessive compulsive disorder, mood swings from triumphalism to depression.
John Hutton was right: " He would make a f***ing awful Prime Minister in my opinion"
And in mine!
William Norton, not only have I a blog (http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.com), but there also exist at least two anti-Lindsay blogs (davidlindsaywatch.blogspot.com and socialists-against-lindsay.blogspot.com), as well as the terribly flatterring (if rather embarrassing) david-lindsay-for-prime-minister.blogspot.com, and at least two people who maintain Blogger accounts purely in order to post hostile comments on my blog.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I am indeed available to write for newspapers, magazines, &c (radio/television as well, I might add) - davidaslindsay@hotmail.com, from which a phone number is also available to serious enquirers. I wouldn't quite phrase my views as Anonymous 3:00 (Three o'clock in the morning!) does, but I know what he means, and he's basically right, more or less. But I have soem very original takes on each and every aspect of waht he says...