Sunday AM: Thatcher Unrepentant, George and Guido Puddled

Didn't see AM with Andrew Marr this morning. Apparently the show had the nauseating double whammy combo of the floundering George GOO-ey Osborne calling for deep and deeper Public Services cuts and Ms Carol Thatcher justifying herself for saying a tennis player (who once had an afro) "always reminds me of a Golliwog! ... a froggy Golliwog! ... a golly gosh Frolliwog! ... Phwoar!" (whatever, I lose patience with the detail sometimes).

Truly this is the Conservative Future we really ought to be organising against. These two muppets could represent the party of government for goodness sake! You can watch or re-watch these two invigorating items and also GOO "autism" Osborne on political correctness and Darling telling us a secret "2009 could be a difficult year" HERE.

As alert readers will remember this sunny Sunday morning this squiffy outburst caused poor Carol's services to no longer be required for some exceedingly crappy television programme, for Iain Dale and other Tories to somethingly defend her, for Derek Draper to name and shame or "smear" Dale as an apologist for racism, Iain Dale Should Be Ashamed of Himself" gate and for Dale to then actually smear Draper by claiming he was called racist, rather than apologist for the same.

LOL meanwhile bravely ran several pictures of Robertsons Golliwogs and Royston Vasey blackface artists and linked to a very sensible analysis from Darryl Pinckney of Thatchergate as de nada, being as Gollywogs have lost their JuJu, and also to the delicious "Iain Dale is not a racist, but ..." from Stephen Newton.

But this "attack" on Dale, and a parallel attack on Guido for allowing nasty, racist, sexist, homophobic, mentalist comments, now universally known as McBridivism - is said by Guido to have caused him to take McBride and Draper out of the game.

Because, if he had not been "smeared" in this way of course Guido would have kept the leaked emails to himself. Naturally. Honour among thieves and all that. "It was being branded a racist that prompted me to expose the vicious smear operation at the heart of Downing Street" says the standfirst. That's on an article for which Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes aka Mister GuFf has not claimed he wasn't paid, as he has for the substantive story he's commenting on, even though he was touting it around for £20,000. Following so far?

Anyways, as the alert reader out there will recall, one of the main apologias for Ms Thatcher was that she uttered her drunk-naive-at-best, bile-hateful-at-worst utterances (we think drunk-naive) to just a handful of tender souls who had no right to say they'd never work with her again unless she apologised and promised to "play nice". Whereas McBride's (far worse) outpourings (drunk-naive-bile-hateful) were - as far as we know for certain - uttered to a similar number of people. And sadly they did not complain.

In fact one "Shrinkboy" thought it was "brilliant".

Though, as it goes, someone who was in earshot digitally speaking was offended and looking for a responsible way of settling things, did tell Guido. Possibly almost instantaneously. It may have been as late as 1 April or so when the emails were finally handed over. Derek Big Feet treading on some impossibly long toes, again perhaps? Or the "He Must be Stopped" feelings reaching such fever pitch that only a "talking cure" would do? Or money changing hands? Apparently not so.

Too much on this already. Guido's Part the Second is it seems nothing more or less than a dirty smear - on the evidence so far. Nothing to link Ray Collins or Kevin Maguire to the drunken laddio smearisms of McBride-Draper. Just a discussion between the sponsor Unite, who went on to support Labour List, about the future of Labour blogging. Hard to imagine isn't it now isn't it, but Draper Was that Future Once, a safe pair of hands and all.

And, if that discussion included a combination of a solid "thoughtful" blog Labour List, designed to counter Conservative Home, and an attack blog red Rag, designed to be an antidote to Guido and the Tory rat pack, so what?

It ought to be obvious to anyone with sense (not Draper, not Mcbride, not Whelan then) that parachuting in new blogs controlled and backed by a dirgiste centre is unlikely to be any more popular with democratic grassroots than parachuting in favoured candidates as PPCs.

Too much on this already I said didn't I?

The other news, going back to George GOOey Osborne and his Public Services slashing agenda is that the thoughtful Tory blog Conservative Home has launched a new "Slashing Public Services" section which they're calling The Starchamber, in still more reference to the Fawkes-Cromwell era.

What is it with political bloggers and all this cavalier and roundheads malarkey?

It is edited by the darter Phil "the Power" Taylor (left), showing an unusual combination of outlets for his multifarious talents.