oooh, such goings on

a story in the Mail on Sunday this weekend about terrible goings on on MPs' "junkets", drinking contests and so on. What interested me was the sources for the story rather than the people written about. Someone called Lawrie Cunliffe (who?) has been briefing the MoS rather extensively it seems. You'd have to ask why. Who would be served by fellow MPs being dished? Cui bono? Etc etc. Geraldine Smith, Labour MP for Morecambe, featured prominently in the story, but it was not against her. This happens a lot. She is rather close to a member of a senior Labour dynasty, in fact very close indeed, could that have anything to do with it? Geraldine probably has the classiest hair in the Commons, and she refuses to get naked with fellow members of the Council of Europe delegation, to my certain knowledge. There are others who have no such inhibitions. Oh and in case you were wondering who the Lothario of the delegation is, Mike Hancock, LibDem MP for Portsmsouth South, is your man.

bully pulpit

former Cllr John Howarth (prop. Public Impact Ltd, remember "Your Better Off With Labour"?) has revamped his website, just a little, and updated it, just a little, to include the following gem on the subject of workplace bullying in the public sector:

Managers are expected to be tolerant to the last, to watch employees who take liberties with taxpayers’ money and who fail to do their jobs and carry on as if it doesn’t matter. Managers appointed to turn around services that are failing, which often requires pruning the roses somewhat, have their positions undermined and the key card that is played is that of ‘workplace bullying’. I’ve seen it happen in both the Councils on which I served where senior management have folded in the face of accusations that would be considered pathetic in most private businesses. Nothing changes and the public loses every time.

would be interesting to know who he is referring to. Not shamed former chief executive of Reading Borough Council Trish Haines, I imagine. And it does seem a bit, well, er, for a former chair of Reading Labour Party to come over all pious about bullying. Doesn't it?

boys! boys! come back!

here I am in the coffee bar at St Pancras station, early for my Eurostar, the place has free Wifi (why doesn't everywhere?) and from what I see around me the restrictions on what sites people can access here are hardly stringent - but look what response I got:

Access Denied

Access to this URL is currently restricted due to a blocking rule.

URL: www.readinglabour.org.uk/

The URL you are attempting to access has been blocked. Usage policy does not allow access to this activity.

oooh er, is it just me?

where does he find them?

the Sartorialist I mean, how cool is this New Yorker?something about the scarf and the detail at the wrists - and the hat shouldn't work but does.

the barely literate Geordie loser

that is former Cllr John Howarth (prop. Public Impact Ltd, remember "Your better off with Labour"?) has decided to write something on his website about the "reality TV" programme "Tower Block of Commons", which I have not seen. You can read it here. He shows predictable misogyny in saying that the girl is not up to being on TV (he means Nadine Dorries MP), but we knew that about him. What is gratifying though is that Mr Howarth appears to have developed a sense of humour and a strain of self-mockery, which is welcome. He knows he cannot write in English (so why does he keep trying to do it then?), but he has put in some deliberate errors, such as spelling "deprivation" "depravation", spelling the surname of Tim Loughton MP "Laughton" as if he was Charles, and, marvellously, referring to "cheep heroine". Splendid stuff. Where he lets himself down though is in the sneering tone in which he refers to the working-class people who actually live in the tower blocks concerned all the time. We hear this tone a lot from Guardian-reading Labour and it is a matter of sadness to me that we do. A little light fisking for the last couple of paragraphs:

But what on earth was Labour thinking? what gave you the idea that the MPs who participated in this programme did so at the behest of the party or the whips? bizarre notion. self-aggrandisement is why they did it.Austin Mitchell was clearly not up to it. There were several MPs who could have carried it off and been a credit to their party. so this is how parties get votes these days, by sending people on to reality TV shows? I do not think so John, not even on the wilder fringes of the Reading GC.John Mann, the Bassetlaw MP, once lived in a council flat considerably more squalid than those featured so? quite a few MPs have lived in council flats in their time, does not qualify you to be a "credit to your party" on a reality TV show, Martin Salter in Reading West ah, the boyfriend! the one you wasted your political career in Reading trying to protect from himself, the one who was a director of your company and never declared it, the one you talk to naked every morning is a man who can manage without creature comforts how would anyone know that? he never has, he is a middle-class Jewish boy from Surrey and lives in leafy Tilehurst in some comfort, having previously claimed £40K for a non-existent London property and Don Valley’s Caroline Flint may have misjudged her exit from the Government, no she didn't, she was right but has definitely tolerated at least one Labour Party Young Socialists Summer Camp as part of a tiny minority of non-Trotskyites back before the expulsion of Militant so? - if you can survive torture a Tower block is a doddle. how patronising is that? Labour MPs forced to mingle with working-class people, we can't have THAT now can we?
I’m sure there are others equally capable. And this, I’m afraid, sums up Labour’s problem going into a close election, the political and media judgement of the party’s organisation has repeatedly been found wanting on the most basic of fronts. Be patient John, the call will come one day, they will come crawling to you and ask you to save them with your unrivalled media management skills. Just remember the triumph of the one-way IDR. I know the party leadership does. It is this that has let a Conservative Party that has still failed to date to convince the merge 40%+ needed for what passes as a mandate in this country hold a near winning lead. is this sentence in Albanian?
Despite the manifest failings of the politicians, there were moments that showed that there is still hope. When the 30 or so Dagenham tenants got together at Mark Oaten’s instigation to kick off a campaign to have their blocks demolished they gave short shrift to the BNP councillor who gate crashed their event. Omigod! Working-class people behaving decently and not in a racist way! Unheard of! Some of these oiks do not even read the Guardian! Have a care John, these proletarian johnnies are Not Like Us. You had to cheer. Huzzah! Jolly good show! Carry on, people of Dagenham, and we might just let you vote for us, don't you know!

how very dare she?

this received today by email from a person purporting to be T. Pearce. I do of course apologise to T. Pearce unreservedly. Spelling her name with a superfluous h as I did in my previous post is unforgivable. I see that the author of this piece says that the gossip sent to me is untrue, and anyway it didn't happen when my correspondent said it did. Hmmm. Pity one K.. Maguire is not subject to the same discipline when he publishes lies about various people and gets away with it. Anyway, T. Pearce, or whoever you are, if you really are standing for Parliament you had better get used to people saying horrid things about you. I promise you they will do it. And even being looked after by the great and the good in the Labour Party did not stop Little Miss Justice Minister (as she is now) Claire Ward, Labour MP for Watford, seeing herself all over the News of the World with headlines like "Woman on Top". So be warned, Ms Pearce. If there is a Cap'n Andy in your past he will find you. Baby baby it's a wild world.

Anyway, Ms Pearce, or whoever this is, wanted to have her say, so here she is having it. Can't say fairer than that eh Tessie?

Dear Ms Griffiths

I am writing to you as the author of the “Jane Is The One” blog, hosted by Blogspot.com.

It has been brought to my attention that a blog entry posted by “Jane” at 09.03 on Thursday 11 February 2010 entitled “Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead” contains a report from “a correspondent” which includes inaccurate and defamatory comments about me. Please can you confirm that you are the “Jane” who has posted this blog?

None of the appalling allegations made in the paragraph beginning “Pearce shared…”, are true, save the fact that my husband and I are divorced. I should point out however, that this occurred in 1990 and not in the period 1992-97 as implied.

On the basis that you are the author of this blog entry, and in any event are in overall control of the “Jane Is The One” blog, I ask that you remove this entry from your blog in its entirety immediately. It follows that the five comments about the blog entry should also be removed. If the entry and comments are not removed by 10am tomorrow morning (Wednesday 17 February) I will, regrettably, have to take further steps as soon as possible. I hope that will not be necessary.

If you are unwilling to remove this blog entry please confirm this by return together with your reasons for not doing so.

Yours sincerely

Teresa Pearce

on the carpet

speculation is mounting about what the whips have done to Mr Salter since his "bloke in a dress" remarks about His Holiness Pope Benedict. He hasn't blogged since last week, nor has he voted in the House, and as the Home Affairs Committee is not on a visit anywhere he has no reason to be absent. My source tells me that he has been sent back to the constituency (Reading West we hope) and told to keep a low profile until the fuss dies down. Labour MPs are out for his blood, especially in the west of Scotland where the Catholic vote is significant, but not only there, as he is a vice-chair of the Labour Party and thus was deemed to be speaking for the party when he made his savage personal attack on His Holiness, who will be visiting the UK this year. He wasn't at the last PLP meeting either, having found out that there were members ready to tear him limb from limb and brief the media afterwards.

Even the usually mild-mannered Reading Chronicle has weighed in, with an editorial titled "Handcart for Mr Salter". The Reading Evening Post is doing its best to protect him, but with very limited success so far.