Monday, January 21, 2008

Andrew Gilligan: Is He BoJo's Right Hand Man?


According to Chris Gale in Comments at Tom Watson's blog the famous journalist Andrew Gilligan, who has been using the festering and diseased organ that is the London Evening Standard to attack Ken Livingstone, is deeply implicated in Boris Johnson's campaign. "Right hand man" even. And there was the world thinking Gilligan was an anti-war lefty.

15 comments:

Francesca Preece said...

That's news to me too.

I guess that Gilligan had to have some right blood running through his veins - he is after all working at the Evening Standard, part of DMG.

Plus, it goes without saying that the Standard would be quite keen to push Boris into the Mayoral office - remember the little scuffle with Red Ken and his Nazi taunts at a journalist who happened to be employed at the Standard?

Anonymous said...

When's this piss-poor blog eventually going to fall apart.

You're quoting Tom Watson's blog for negative comment while forgetting to mention that you are also contributing yourself the negative comment to TW.

A piece of shite like yourself is the very reason why the days of this Labour government are numbered.

David Boothroyd said...

I was at university with Andrew Gilligan in 1992-94 when he was Secretary of Cambridge Labour Students. He was definitely not a member of the left faction then. When I met him in 1998 he claimed to have left the Labour Party because he was too left-wing for it, but at the time he was Defence Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph so I took that claim with a pinch of salt.

The first job Andrew Gilligan got after leaving the BBC was as Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent on the Spectator, edited by Boris Johnson.

Anonymous said...

I suspect Gilligans employment at the Spectator was a payment for the hatchet job Gilligan tried on Tony Blair.

I am no fan of Livingstone, or the chums he surounded himself with, but I would not hang a dog on the word of the "Evening Standard"

Chris Paul said...

The Oliver wotsit case of course had a very amusing feature which hasn't been made much of. That is that the version of the recording submitted to the court and the version of the transcript to the court of that recording had an exision of approximately five seconds length.

The Standard refused to produce an unedited copy of the tape or the transcript leading the judge to surmise that it included some extremely unappealling content generated by the nasty jobsworth himself. Which the Standard denied in a rather hollow kind of way, offering no alternative explanation for the missing moments.

Anonymous said...

Gillain is just another one of those bitter over the hill Journos with a contorted face.

Claim to be righteous, good and holier than thou, but just a twisted hack with a grudge.

The Standards anti Ken campaign is very sad for several reasons. Firstly they cannot sell Bozzer to London so have decided to attack Ken. And to think that less then 6 months ago Right wing bloggers and the Standard heaped praise on Boz as their saviour; now they cannot bring themselves to endorse him.

Anyway check out Cambo and the Not Smoking link on Sky, very funny. He has been seen puffing away. I have also heard that several news papers have pictures of him puffing away.

http://video.news.sky.com/skynews/video/?&videoSourceID=1301613&flashURL=/feeds/skynews/latest/flash/hague_210108_1343.flv

Chris Paul said...

Cheers monkey ... will check out the Buller bluffer on his puffer.

London will continue to back Ken the anti-hero. The Bright piece was actually rather dim and as he admitted at the end itcould be seen as being just as much about the structures as any individual who happened to be in the job.

May blog about it later, but have been in a busy couple of days. Still ongoing.

Anonymous said...

Now I have seen several Tory Bloggers discussing Cambos Smoking antics. One commended that this means nothing and in fact gave him an edge.

Errr No I don’t think so. It means he is a lying phoney.

People who have an addiction, who then deny that addiction are very bad liars. It gives an insight to the persons psyche.

For all we know Cambo is still having the odd toke on a spliff or even the occasional line. Not exactly PM material.

Anonymous said...

This is how untrue rumours start!

Next, you'll be telling us that Ken isn't giving Six figure Jobs to his Lovers and relatives!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
This is how untrue rumours start!

Oh really !!!!

Please expalin why the Telegraph has run an article on the story.

Why Adam Boulton pressed him on the issue at a press conferance on the 15th.

And why Nicky Campbell failed to get a Yes or a No from Cambo on radio five live.

Or why there are many reported sighting of Cambo disappearing for a few mins at outtings. In fact his fag breaks are what has caused the speculation in the first place

Newmania said...

I see , sticking with Ken are you , well I think you will regret that . We had Margaret Hodge in Islington and she behaved in quite a similiar way. She was able to do so because over half the Borough is in Social Housing an70% of them are on benefits. Large parts of London are similiarly extreme and especially it has a population likely to supprt an anti National candidate.There is little affection for this country in such places as Lambeth , ( the miracle , as you say , of immigration). We had the same faux foreign Policy , a red flag over the Town Hall...the loony left thing. Not only was it poison in London but elsewhere too. What you have here is what you had in Liverpool and the number of jounalists who scent a river of City hall sleaze stories cannot be denied

In the end Margaret Hodge was kicked out by an unholy alliance under the supposed banner of the Liberals and the mention of the name is enough to send would be Labour voters running for the hills . I predict it will be the same with Livingstone and if he wins he will salt the earth of London for Labour for a very long time .

Labour never wanted him and they can`t control him and his cronies. You will , I assume , have been pointing out his bizarre history when he ran against Labour.



Cut your losses Chris . He`s bad news. Brown detests him and the only good thing for you lot is that he reminds people that the main Labour Party have at least changed a lot from the bad old days Livingstone lives in.

Hazel Blear...why not ? Livingstone ...crackers

The Dead Sheep of Quentin Davies said...

Gilligan is a disgrace to his profession. The lies he told about Tony Blair 'sexing up' the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction did an enormous amount to destroy the respect in which the masses previously held Labour politicians. The damage that man Gilligan did to this country was immense.

Chris Paul said...

Thanks all for your contributions

Very true dead sheep, Gilligan had something about him once, but the question is whether he is actually in Boris Johnson's league of gentlemen and players as well as taking the Standard's shilling.

And Newmania, all very interesting but whatever you or I may think of Ken as we aren't Labour Party members in London we had no say in his selection. You are going to back Bozzer, who you may have helped select for all I know, and I will be backing the chosen candidate of the London Labour Party.

The thought of Boris at the controls is horrendous.

As to whether Dave has a nicotine habit or not ... that's fun and games and the first to get the picture could make a few bob I'd have thought.

But the main question:

Is Gilligan formally on Boris' team?

Supplementary:

Has Bright also taken the shilling?

Chris Paul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Er Who is the "KAPO" I think Livingstones coment were not only acuract but apt.

Nice to see that Boris and Himmler are on the same wave length.

If its a choice between Ken and Boris - Well thats a no brainer.

BTW In view of the past, well documented, history of the Liberals attacking homosexual candidates for elected office why are they proposing Paddick ?

Its not queer bashing, its asking a pertinant question .