Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Jack Straw Gives it the Business

I've just been flicking through Private Eye and happened upon this little snippet...
Every Thursday in the Commons, at 11.30am, Tory frontbencher Theresa May -
she of the snazzy shoes - asks the Leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw,
about the coming week's agenda. The exact formula May uses is: "I wonder if the
Leader of the House can give me the business." Give me the business? It's a
brave woman who says that to raffish Jack!

What can it all mean?

32 comments:

  1. Iain, that is unworthy. Your post is clearly referencing an unsourced rumour well known to anyone in politics, and just inviting nasty speculation in the comments. I can't think of anything you could post which would offer better support to Tim Ireland's accusation against you and Guido.

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  3. Jack and Theresa ? Hmm..Can't see it myself. Fantastic shoes, however.

    Then again you could always 'google' Teresa May, and see what you get..

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  4. 'Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac'.

    Discuss.

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  5. It's difficult to comment on an issue such as this on a day when H.M. Govt. is so involved with Valentine's Day greetings, and they worked so hard to warn us about how idiotic WE were!

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  6. I dont know

    Presumably someone anonymous can come along and provide a statement or link that would be libellous.

    Otherwise you'd have to openly smear/accuse Jack Straw of something yourself Iain.

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  8. I like the one about the newspaper editors answers on their youthful drug experiences.(No answers of course)

    I wonder if Iain Dale Parliamentary hopeful and future cabinet minister would like to answer the question " Have you ever taken illegal drugs ?"

    I can , YES, see ,tis easy

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  9. "'Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac'. Discuss"

    Surely the Deputy PM proves this statement. Were he not deputy PM I doubt anyone, his wife included, would shag him...

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  10. Newmania, I am probably one of the few people in the country never to have experimented with any sort of drug. Never. OK?

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  11. "I am probably one of the few people in the country never to have experimented with any sort of drug. Never."

    Never touched asprin, alcohol, nicotine or caffiene, Iain? What a saint you are - or maybe a closet muslim?

    If you actually mean "illegal drug", I can join you in a smug little gang of 2. I'm just waiting for some leftie, drug-addled troll to come along and acuse us of being racists because we refuse to participate in illegal substances.

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  12. So you would say most people have tried drugs Iain?

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  13. Why does Mr Straw call himself Jack anyway? Something wrong with his real name?

    Same reason that Anthony uses "call me Tony"?

    They are the People's Politicians.

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  14. Don't drink coffee either, don't get headaches! Smoked a whole packet of fags one after the other when I was 18 and it put me off for life.

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  15. IAIN-Sorry that read wrongly , I meant I can answer that question about me...not you.... Clunk...

    Yes you must be one of the very few but given your known aversion to enhancing chemicals of all sorts I`m not suprised.

    Bewildered , but not suprised

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  16. http://lindyloosmuze.blogspot.com/2007/02/in-pink-or-not-with-lembit-and-steve.html

    More trouble with Lib Dem diversity and Mr Sh** chin their ambassador for BME funding.

    "He responded that he was the best person for the job, despite that assertion not having been tested in open competition, and that to have appointed a BME or woman candidate would have been merely "tokenism" . I have to say I found that deeply insulting, as I did being addressed as "luv", a clear attempt to put me down in front of others."

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  17. Iain, you seem to be in rather an unpleasant mood today, if you don't mind my saying so. What's the matter, chuck, didn't diddums get any Valentine cards ? There, there..

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  19. The post is about Private Eye referencing an unsourced rumour.

    Frankly, I don't have any interest, myself, in whether a politician is playing away from home, but I don't think, either, that they have any right to expect that it won't be discussed. All of our actions are open to discussion, private citizen or public figures, so long as illegal means are not used to get the information that is later discussed.

    What you do is a part of you and other people have a legitimate interest in it. I don't think that the government should be tracking everyone down, storing and distributing information about them, etc, but private citizens have every right to do so, so long as the information is true and legally obtained. If not, there are already laws for dealing with that.

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  20. Iain smoking "fags"?

    Is he outing himself on his blog?

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  21. from:
    http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/05/labott.condistraw/index.html

    "On the overnight flight to Baghdad, Rice offered her guest the bed in her personal cabin. Straw awoke in horror to learn the secretary of state had slept on the floor in the aisle outside the cabin."

    During their preceding 5-day tour of Blackburn The News and Star reported
    "that Straw was "dreamily besotted" with Rice and "fawning" over her during her protest-plagued visit to his home town of Blackburn.

    In a completely unconnected move, one month late Mr Straw was demoted from his Foreign Secretary job to Leader of the House.

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  22. Anonymous said "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

    When one Labour MP was quoted this phrase during the Prescott revelations, he quipped,
    "Yes, but it is not Rohypnol!"

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  23. David Boothroyd's comment (12.11pm) reminds me of the QC's remark in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case "Would you want your servant to read this?" In other words, the "rumour well known to anyone in politics" should be kept away from mere hoi polloi. This is the attitiude which prevailed at the time of the Jeremy Thorpe scandal - more recently the MSM kept remarkably quiet about John Prescott's extra-marital behaviour, and only bloggers let us ordinary voters know about it.
    Look at: driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1363815.ece
    a very moving account by the widower of the late Fiona Jones. And look carefully at it, because in it he names the cabinet minister who propositioned her. It's done extremely well - so well that no libel lawyer could possibly stop it.
    David - Iain's post is not unworthy. What is unworthy is the attempt by those such as yourself who try to cover up these misdemeanours.

    PeterH

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  24. PeterH - what on earth do you mean? The John Prescott story, which had practically no relevance to politics, was actually broken by Sunday newspapers largely on the old chequebook journalism principle.

    The second half of your post is utterly disreputable. Iain, I expect you to remove it.

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  25. David, what's your point? I have reprinted something from Private Eye. So what?

    On the post above, I have read the article he refers to and I can't see what he is referring to. Why is it disreputable? I thought it was a very moving article.

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  26. Disingenuousness does not become you. You know perfectly well to what I am referring.

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  27. Well by that comment I think you have rather made the point about the Duke and the Butler above, don't you?

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  28. The only conclusion to be drawn from your remark is that you do indeed know what is being referred to (NB PeterH's description of the Times piece he links to is materially inaccurate). I note you edited the original post once, but you leave the comments be. Tim Ireland is proved correct.

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  29. The John Prescott story had every relevance to politics as does the story in the Private Eye. A Labour Party member summed it up perfectly on Jane Griffiths blog:

    "Why should the bloody party talk about respecting women when this man treats them like 18th century serving wenches? Why does he not face the press? Or why is the so-called free press prepared to shop a Fariah Allum but too cowardly to expose someone just because he is a Cabinet Minister?"

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  30. Frightfully interesting. Ordinary nous and Jack's own name ensure silence.

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