Libdemologists: Appropriation of Kate Winslet Image Rights

According to the BBC News 24 paper review one of the Nationals is running with a story about the Lib Dems doctoring pictures. 'Twas The Independent on Sunday.

Apparently associating themselves with the Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet by doctoring a picture of her at the Golden Globes to suggest she is connected to their silly party. Sorry, didn't catch which paper.

Clearly Kate's people are - v e r y - u p s e t -. She is not in fact a silly person. And if she were to be connected to a political party she wouldn't want it to be this one. Which is silly. There'll no doubt be more come the midnight hour. Pictures and all. And we've no doubt that doctoring pictures with become a thing of the past for these shameless charlatans.

UPDATE 00:15: Main picture and story credit added.

BREAKING NEWS: Morgan Tsvangirai Has Now Left Zimbabwe

Was it something about Robert's bedside manner. Hat tip: BNO Twitter.

Hello! Ding Dong!: Get your Tweets Out For The Boys!

Success for Laydeez Man Derek Draper as his "Dolly's Dollies" theme day attracts the attention of ding dong Guardian angel Gaby Hinsliff. Applauding his celebrated Get Your Tweets Out For The Boyz day over at Labour List. On Monday! For one day only!

Guest Editor for this International Ladies' Day special, the blonde pouting knock out Rowenna Davis, has already escaped from the kitchen sink long enough to lay down the riot grrrl act in a provocation to all full-blooded Labour bulls. They'll see Red I tell you Rowenna! Take your put upon strident diesel fem tokenism away, there's a dear.

Harpies all - Jen Pufky, Laura Penny, Stella Creasy and Eduard Bernstein - have already burned their virtual brassieres.

"Or what have you" these days, I'll have to say. And that was mostly on Friday!

That's Man Friday girls! Still one of our designated 364 International Men's Days last time I looked.

Don't think we didn't notice! We're not completely thick you know! Not all of us! The Lib Dems and Tories don't get this "Women's Lib Nonsense" at all.

But we Labour Men know we need some babes for show. Showgirls even! Whoops, sorry loves! Shouldn't really have said that.

FIRST NOBLE LORD: "Hello! Ding dong! Some wine spritzers over here for these l-o-v-er-ly ladies, "Derek's Dollies" I'll call 'em!"
FIRST SHOWGIRL: "Oooh, Sir! What lovely teeth you have!"
SECOND NOBLE LORD: "Oooh, I say! You gorgeous little actress-model-showgirl-minx you! Not hiding your lights under a bushel now are you!"
SECOND SHOWGIRL: "Oooh, you are awful! But I like you!"
FIRST SHOWGIRL: "What time do I knock off? Sir! What would the Baroness say?"
FIRST NOBLE LORD: My wife? Mother of my children? Breadwinner? Doesn't understand me!"
ALL: [Action/CGI FX Wink, leer, wink, nudge nudge.]

Hat tip for our main pic of Labour Lords Davies of Coity and Brookman getting into the spirit: Guardian diarist Hugh Muir. Peter Luff MP etc at ACP event HERE.

Lib Dems In Harrogate: Renew Weasel Words on Tuition Fees

Saturday 7 March 2009, about 12:20, Harrogate: Lib Dems claim they are "continuing" to "oppose" "Tuition Fees".

NB: it's Tuition Fees, not Top Up Fees. And there's no sensible scheme apparent to cover this or any other budget commitment.

MEANWHILE a quick Google search brings up: Leaving Door Open in THE | MSPs in Scotland | Williams squirming in Bristol. Following this last one through could be particularly fruitful I feel. Lib Dems are FIBBING chancers is what they are.

Macmillan Recall Marr Tome: As Sales of Valium Hit Freefall

Guido reports that Macmillan have recalled Andrew Marr's latest tedious bloackbuster tome "for legal reasons". No-one seems to have the slightest idea what any complainant could have found therein that is potentially actionable. Remembering of course that post-Mosley "invasion of privacy" may be the plat du jour, rather than the all-our-yesterdays that was defamation.

It/he/she/they must have been persuasive however as Macmillan wouldn't normally recall a publication for pulping and/or incineration and/or tape wiping and/or ROM smashing unless it were a very serious matter indeed.

Or otherwise Macmillan are seeking to drive (a) an immediate sales boost via tardier not-quite-moving-like-lightning booksellers i.e. most of 'em; (b) lots of speculation from diarists, bloggers and perhaps some serious literati; and (c) sales and re-sales of the re-published tome for "spot the difference" activities.

Might have been better to, ahem, "let it lie" as we say down the assizes. Though for now Marr (right) is in the shit and prepared for inclement weather.

Luke's Blog: Council By-Election Results

Luke Akehurst continues his excellent by-election results service. And great to see BNP stymied in several places where they, and other miserablists, were talking up their chances. Though they still did too well. Luke's Council By-Election Results.

BREAKING: Susan Tsvangirai Dies Following Car Crash

Just a day or so ago Iain Dale was questioning Tom Harris MP's timing in discussing South Asian politics - just ahead of the attack on Sri Lanka cricketers and match officials in Pakistan. But yesterday he himself ridiculously lost an argument before it had started by calling in the Mugabe brand in relation to UK economics. Now it is his turn for "bad timing".

Susan Tsvangirai has now died, though the BBC page has not been updated at the time of writing, according to agency reports. Morgan Tsvangirai is in hospital but is not thought to be in immediate danger.

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Drunkagain Calling Himself Ashton Andy

At this post here, a nasty piece of work calling themselves Ashton Andy has been uttering libel after libel, revealing by their words they they are almost certainly ... Paul Rowen's under final written warning agent and nasty piece of work David Hennigan. Remembering that this is a Friday afternoon and the pubs in Rochdale, never mind the Polish Club and the like, have been open for almost six hours, we offer the following pictures of Dave Hennigan (top) and "Ashton Andy" (bottom).

Luckily Paul Rowen has recently used tax payers' money to employ another ruthless idiot boy political campaigner, name of IanDave Swarbrick. So when he follows through on his threat to sack hennigan over any further drunken outbursts, malicious emailing, detected smearage and below the belt behaviour he's got someone lined up.




What makes this even more serious for the Rochdale Lib Dem drunkard Hennigan is that he's launched his attack on a post which also draws attention to his old mucker John Leech's pensioner nobbling fundraising techniques. John won't be at all happy to be associated with Hennigan's drunken attacks.

There has always been a bit of a suspicion in Manchester political circles that Hennigan's departure - allegedly to join a Male Voice Choir in Wales - actually had a lot to do with his despicable tactics. Coupled with the old "There ain't room in this town for the both of us" meme. Sparks did fly.

UPDATE 22:54: "Ashton Andy" is belying all the tells with scarcely credible claims that he is not Dave Hennigan. Unconvincing. Even Paul Rowen has been taken in.

Sarah Palin Regrets: Too Left-Wing For Tory Cornerstone?

It seems that Sarah Palin uber-moralist and matriarch of a clan of feckless but church going single moms has returned polite regrets to the Cornerstone group. Iain Dale hits the spot with a gag about her not being able to find a suitable uniform. As the one commenter asks - surprisingly getting past moderation - WTF were the group asking Palin to tea for anyway?

Prezza on Mandy: And Adam Boulton Needs Self Awareness

John Prescott manages to keep a sorta straight face is deadly serious as he declares that though he's a prat Baron Mandelson did not deserve that. Meanwhile Adam "They Don't Like It Up 'Em" Boulton shows that without doubt he himself cannot take a joke. Humourless, self aggrandising pillock that he is. Responding to this minor provocation which quite simply registered amazement at Boulton's unique down on a successful Brown speech.

Here's projectional Adam, not liking it up him:

No Requests Viral: It Ain't Funny We Ain't Got No Money

I'm kinda liking this viral from Tim and Barry TV aka No Requests.

Thatcher and Reagan and Bush and Cheney are to blame. Which by the way is how Barack Obama is able to say "WE" got it wrong - meaning USA under Bush and Cheney - whereas, much as all this tracks back to Thatcher - as Cameron himself acknowledged at Davos - Gordon Brown just cannot and should not use "WE" in the same way.

It did start getting out of control in the USA, this greed thing. With Reagan and Thatcher's Money's Too Tight (did the earth move for you Nancy) moments at the root of all evil. Which hasn't stopped The Libertarian Alliance featuring it.

Still waiting for that Thatcher apology from the spamming conservatives, who, having borrowed a smart digi-meme from Democrats in America attacking Rush Limburgh and the Republican muppetry, without any acknowledgement, added the illegal spamming operation. Hat tip to Guido for the USA steal dirt.

Breaking News: Lord Mandelson Has Been Sludged

Apparently it's green custard and not the proverbial. What you might call "bird strike over Heathrow" from Ms Leila Deen who calmly walked away?

Sky News tell us: Lord Mandelson dismissed the incident, which raises questions about his personal security, as an "adolescent protest".

Meanwhile Derek Draper twittered: Protester throws green sludge over peter mandelson - this looks dangerous, frightening and is inexcusable.

Hat tip: Several tweets, Derek was third I think. Very short looped video from first link above:

Quantitative Tightening: The KLF, The Million, Cousins, Piering

In the course of expounding Paul's Law under which reference to Robert Mugabe or ZaNuPF as an analogue for opponents automatically loses an argument - cf Godwin's Law referencing Nazis/Hitler - LOL referred to the KLF and their exceedingly famous Quantitative Tightening measures of 23 August 1994.

It seems only right to feature the AV record of that great moment in the history of economics.

Have never quite worked out where exactly the conceit(s) were in this art work. Was this real money? Yes, almost certainly. Was it however "scrap money" already destined for destruction? Destroyed in close liaison with the Bank of England? Therefore really not at the artist's expense? Or was it "non scrap money" that actually belonged to Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond?

TRIVIA: One of the artists that I managed way back in the mists of time were known as Distant Cousins and had very considerable Radio success in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, including incredibly strong play on Radio 1 for a band that didn't ever chart in the top 75 never mind the top 40. This included a Radio One single of the week for our single You Used To (1989), almost repeating the feat on a non-Indy re-release by Virgin (1991). Our national radio plugger was Scott Piering - the Voice of the Mu - and this led us to be in the same stable as the Smiths and the KLF as his proteges.

Scott eventually died in 2000, of the fairly non-Rock-n-Roll on the face of it cause of cancer. Though there had been rather frequent and obviously, as it turned out, untrue stories of his death throughout the 1990s.

Sadly Scott (nor Mariella, nor Mike) never got us to Number 1, and even Number 47 eluded us, but we did have a great time whenever Scott was with us on promotional tours. We even taught him several word games that he in turn taught many of his charges. A very strange TV gig in Belfast, where we appeared, bizarrely alongside Mrs Victoria Gillick, also involving a midnight flit to Dublin for a too early connection to Manchester to indulge a band member, springs to mind.

Another time perhaps.

Godwin's Law: Downfall Redeems Hitler, Mugabe Now the One

Back when we still had a debate on Manchester's Transport Innovation Fund the most hostile ultras on the NO side produced nasty videos and nasty posters too. One of these (below right) was saying in lieu of an argument and as a dog whistle that Robert Mugabe would vote yes. The Far Right, including Tory elements, have been prone to calling Labour "ZaNuLabour" in reference to Mugabe's so called political party. And now Iain Dale is calling "Quantitative Easing" - which used to be called "increasing the Money Supply" - he's calling it Mugabanomics.

In Zimbabwe of course the local currency inflation rate runs in thousands of percent per week, even per day. Mugabe is quite literally printing money like it's going out of fashion. And shovelling gold and hard currency in his own direction constantly too. Here we have inflation right now of between 0% and 3% depending what measure we use. And £75 Billion over months and months is quite frankly trivial.

The Zimbabwe experience is not what's going on in our economy just now. And nor is it what's been going on here and in other economies, including those run by Tory-spectrum governments, for many many years. "Quantitative Tightening" - decreasing the money supply "M" - is the other side of the coin as it were. And that's a standard instrument too.

QE and QT are now conventionally carried out by changing interest rates rather than boosting production or burning at De la Rue or KLF. But just now, as in certain other ultra low interest economies that's, at least conceptually, difficult. Minus 2% interest rates anyone? What would that actually mean? Would that flush out the loan capital from the banks? I don't actually think so. meaning that it would not do the business that QE is intended to do. Keeping or getting things moving.

Under the fundamental Godwin's Law Mike Godwin stated in 1990 that the longer a Usenet discussion went on the more and more likely Nazi or Hitler was likely to come up as an analogy. Stalin similar perhaps, but not directly cited along these lines, amazingly until 2008*. And the corollary was and is that the first person to cite Nazi or Hitler had automatically LOST THE ARGUMENT.

Hitler has been rather rehabilitated as a reference through the passage of time and through the Downfall meme. The AV equivalent of imagining the diabolical dictator, and those he stands in for, perched on the loo.

President Robert Mugabe is now "the one" if you ask me. The first resource and recourse of the lazy scoundrel who has run out of arguments.

Paul's Law states that the longer an electronic discourse proceeds by blog, by tweet, by f-book, or the more direct legacies of Usenet i.e. electronic discussion lists the more likely ZaNuPF and/or Mugabe are to appear. And, of course, the person introducing them is the loser of that particular argument. So, Iain Dale is the first official loser under this new Law, ever.

* According to the Godwin Wiki's last paragraph: "On October 20, 2008, Rachel Maddow, on The Rachel Maddow Show, proposed a corollary to Godwin's law that as the time a liberal candidate is believed to be winning an election or argument increases, the probability that they will be labeled communist or socialist approaches one.[19] In a Christmas Day review of The Spirit, New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott suggested that "a similar axiom" to Godwin's Law, "applied to Hollywood, would stipulate that every movie star must eventually dress up in a German military uniform."[citation needed]"

Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!: Spam Ineffable Spam! Wonderful Spam!

Should you receive any Tory spam along the lines of calling on Maggie Thatcher (above by Marcus/Fluck&Law) to finally apologise for wrecking the nation, or similar. Gordon perhaps? Something like that I think, you will find the means to complain right here.

The guidance includes:

Unsolicited marketing material by electronic mail (this includes email, text and picture messaging) should only be sent if the individual has consented to receive them, unless the individual's details were obtained in the context of a commercial relationship and the marketing is for similar products or services. The individual should always be given the opportunity to opt out in every message.

The man responsible for busting this very clear guidance with willy nilly snowballing spamming activity at the Conservatives is one Alan Mabbutt.

He is Secretary of the Conservative Councillors Association. Although he's happy to let random Tory idiots each spam - and divulge emails of - up to four others a time he has it seems forgotten to put his non-postal contact details on his non-paper campaigning material. A small omission. Easily corrected. Mr Mabbutt can be both contacted and visually identified thusly:

SECRETARY OF THE CCA

Alan Mabbutt
Head of Local Government
CCA, CCHQ
30 Millbank
London
SW1P 4DP

Telephone: 020 7984 8147
Email: alan.mabbutt@conservatives.com

And no we've not added that moustache. That's real that is. Please to be sure that you do not under any circumstances spam Alan or any other Conservative. But letting him know he's breaking the rules, and that you don't like that one little bit, and that you are complaining would be just fine. Particularly no spam for osborneg@parliament.uk who is "busy doing nothing". But once again you could just let him know what's what. Hat tip: clawsfour.

"Tim Kinsella" Is A Wanker: John Leech's Right Hand Man

When I blogged about Lib Dems being all over the place I'd no idea John Leech MP would take such an interest. His right-hand sock puppet known as "Tim Kinsella" has been and visited and they've left some nasty yellow bile. John is clearly mortified. And his right-hand sock puppet is inevitably spluttering jerkily, more used to wankery than to making any kind of sense.

"Tim Kinsella", a commenter who only ever seems to appear on Manchester blogs resisting exposés of his master's guile, and whose namesake Tim Kinsella (above) is serendipitously a musician with "Make Believe", now clear of his prior drug problems, suggests that by drawing attention to Leech's "chugging" of then LD Cllr Angela Gallagher, a retired head teacher, for a total £23,000 towards his infamous 2005 election campaign, £23,000 that she could in many people's view ill afford, I am somehow patronising older people. Far from it "Tim". What I am doing is more akin to blaming the con men and con women who prey on our citizens in artifice burglaries aka "distraction burglars", "bogus callers", "hoax good causes" etc in which they trick their way into people's homes and take advantage, rather than blaming those who are robbed as a result.

I believe, and I have previously blogged, that personal donations of this kind, whether from pensioners or otherwise, should require independent professional advice. They should also require signed written agreements so there can be no confusion over gift or loan, restricted and unrestricted funds, purpose, repayment if any. The whole thing should be covered with clear contractual arrangements. Such pro formas for this purpose could also record electoral roll number, eligibility to vote, unique tax reference and whatever authorities need to clear them.

John Leech, as a man who is forever warning against "bogus charities", has behaved abominably towards Angela Gallagher and her family in my personal view. And the fact that what's he's done may well be legal doesn't make it right.

He's a festering, dissembling knob and a poor MP now isn't he?

"Tim Kinsella" also suggests that I am patronising disabled people by drawing attention to the experiences of a feisty Rochdale woman, who is by her own disclosure on Paul Rowen MP's brand spanking new website a registered disabled person, but who have bravely reported scandalous-if-true preying activity of a different kind from a Rochdale Lib Dem activist.



Once again it is the alleged filthy creep that I'm critical of "Tim". Not the victim of their underhand attentions. Meanwhile, thanks to advances in forensic science and tip offs, I can eliminate some of the Heywood Lib Dem crew from further inquiries. For the time being. Please see graphic above. The alleged Lib Dem mauler is not Cllr Peter Rush. And the alleged Lib Dem mauler is also not a woman. More anon.

UPDATE 15:26PM: Comment suggests "none of the above" but rather a "conviction politician" who either believes in something and/or has at least one criminal conviction. Given the tone I'd say the latter. The "Heywood and Middleton Six" can stand by to be exonerated. Oh, and "Tim" says he's chuffed.

UPDATE 19:53PM: Anonymous comment identified as from obsessed Tory. So called "conviction politician" specialised in younger victims, according to his record, he won't be the one. I'm told Sir Cyril Smith let on that he was an expert in such matters and told the man - a LD Cllr to this day - to defend that case. Guilty as charged. I wonder how Sir Cyril will advise the alleged filthy liberty taker in this case? Of course the one (Rochdale LD Cllr) who flashed his porn to a WPC recently got away with very little sanction. "Boys will be boys" span the ridiculously seedy Rochdale Lib Dems.

UPDATE Fri 09:06: Apparently Heyworth (the so called "conviction politician") who pleaded guilty despite Cyril's advice to tough it out - which had worked for him when a well worked up case of arse smacking and scrotum fiddling evaporated in mysterious circumstances - is no longer a councillor. Chances of him being "the one" in this case seem fairly slim. The other miscreant is Cllr Whittle who will it seems not be standing again but is still a Lib Dem councillor despite his porn flashing activities. To a Woman Police Constable. Not-Nice-But-Dim.

UPDATE Fri 16:23: An anonymous commenter using the name Ashton Andy has been gradually exposing himself as in fact being Dave Hennigan. With more and more nasty defamatory statements and ultimately the threat that an opponent's wife will be getting used by Hennigan in further attempts at smearage. And what's this? Someone, myself, has outed Dave as the libeller, and given him some back. If you were going through a divorce that had so far not been blogged or used in any way by opponents you'd think you'd have some self control over smearing and attacking them? Particularly if you were a drunk to the nth degree and had been warned to behave by your employer.

Still, perhaps new recruit Swarbrick is being lined up to take your place Dave? Was looking for a pay rise from Elwyn now wasn't he? Rowen can afford more as he's robbing the public pot to pay his political munchkins ... according to Rochdale Lib Dems' own accounts.

Below (top) Dave Hennigan; below (bottom) "Ashton Andy".

Feckless Harris Up the Blog: Pramful of Bouncing Generalisations

What's this? I never knew. Scarcely showed. Though of course with hindsight there were signs. Coal for breakfast on the terrace? Should've known. Nine months or so after that first frantic fumble over the web-book keyboard ... can't get caught first time, a quick fisk won't do any harm ... But those great Labour pains having increased in frequency and power, particularly after being sacked, now it's clear, for being "up the blog", and Tom Harris MP has given been rushed to a local branch of Mothercare to pick up his goody bag. Make that Harvey Nicks, Edinburgh. Once there, the feckless mite has given way to a great gut emptying. It's a provocation sure enough. Midwife Field has declared that the twin blog sprogs - Morality and Anecdote - have scored 10/10 on the Apgar scale, and similar on the Richter, well 8+ anyway:

Great earthquake. Can cause serious damage in areas several hundred kilometers across.

It's hard to know who to blame? I'm sure Tom'll cope alright with his pram full of bouncing generalisations, even if the neo-natal advice of midwife Frank Field may not be quite what the Ministry ordered, again. Those post-natal blues have kicked in quickly with a kind of listlessness that is ultimately completely negative, illiberal, conservative, patronising and aprés le deluge empty. With some pretty ugly stretch marks to boot.

I'm sensing I may be back to this shortly. The "WTF?" post more-or-less writes itself.

But meanwhile, suffice to wag a finger and say: if only feckless Tommy had listened to Annie, you'd never catch her blogging unprotected behind the bike sheds: “I do support the abstinence policy. If everyone had always followed the Church’s teaching, which is chastity before and fidelity within marriage, we wouldn’t have AIDS or any sexual diseases”.

UPDATE 15:29: Liberal Conspiracy's Don Paskini has committed WTF? response to blog.

UPDATE 20:46: A few pig ignorant comments have been garnered. Hurrah!

Private Eye Rotten Boroughs: Booming Heckers Rochdale Escapism

Rochdale has once again caught the Eye. This time for letting town centre redevelopment tenders without due care and attention.

Booming heck

As the recession loomed, Rochdale Council had a brilliant idea to fix the town's economic problems: move the bus station 12 yards, build a new one for £12 million and call it a "transport interchange". Central to the plan was a £250 million town centre redevelopment and a new tram link to Manchester.

Alas, Rochdale Development Agency (RDA), having bought and demolished a swathe of iconic Victorian buildings, has so far failed to convince anyone that "Rochdale is booming" - not least Manchester, which has decided not to extend its Metrolink tram there after all.

Meanwhile, the wheels seem to be falling off the town centre redevelopment. In January 2008, John Hudson, chief executive of RDA, praised its public consultation process. "We are delighted," he declared, "by the responses we have had for the developers' proposals." Alan Black of planning consultants DTZ, said its work was "one of the most thorough and robust developer selection competitions I have been involved in". No mean feat, given that only 130 people in a town of 200,000 bothered to comment on the "exciting" plans. Rochdale now has to re-run the entire tendering process at a cost of £200,000.

Roll on the new "transport interchange". At least when it's built people will be able to leave more quickly!

Greater Manchester Lib Dems: All Over The Place on Addresses

Sticking with the MPs address vote for just one more post. Two things. I'm liking the at a glance "slab view" of voting provided by MySociety through publicwhip.org.uk (above, for this vote). I'm also interested in the fact that Mark Hunter MP (LD, Cheadle) was absent, unusually among the Lib Dems who mostly attended and mostly voted against. And that Paul Rowen MP and Andrew Stunnell MP voted in favour of confidentiality.


As I've noted before John Leech MP voted for openness. Pretty rich coming from a man who has a gentleman's hobby society laundering his printing/printing money for him, who pretends he's moving house into his constituency but having got the column inches in the local press fails to do actually walk the talk, who clearly spent very considerably over the limit when elected in 2005, and who persuaded a vulnerable retired person to part with their life savings.

That was £23,000 in all in what they seem to have thought was wholly or partially or contingently by way of a loan. It was in fact treated by Leech as a free gift, though re repaid money to his mother and declared that repayment, although the apparent donation hadn't been registered.

Honest John Leech MP - the open book parliamentarian.

LIB DEM OPENNESS FOOTNOTE: There is news in my mailbox of another Lib Dem activist or councillor in Heywood, Rochdale, an associate of what-shall-we-do-with-the-drunken-agent Dave Hennigan's landlord Cllr Peter Rush, who has been publically alleged without naming AFAIK - on Rochdale Online's community discussion boards - to have offered-a-lift-to, more-or-less kidnapped-to-their-house, invited-to-tea, and made-a-pass-at a vulnerable, disabled constituent. They have identified themself as registered disabled in a previous post. Perhaps the alleged "hands on" creep Lib Dem is among this little rogue's gallery?



LOL are now seeking out names and corroboration. Please send any information via the email address at the head of the blog, unless it is non-contentious in which case comment away. The webpost has as I say been taken down but we do have a copy of these Rochdale Online allegations. Presumably removed on instructions from WSWDWTDA Dave Hennigan (below).

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells: Hoist By Own Petard

Further to Iain's tantrums about MP address confidentiality, which I covered right here, the great man himself was on, Sadly being a bit too pissy for his own good. But still, in these "commenter crunch" days it was good to have some company. Benchill Tory also most welcome, naturally.

1. When I called Iain "Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells" here at my blog I made a grevious error of which I am very ashamed indeed.


2. Tonbridge, as in T Wells, is in fact spelled Tunbridge. I should like to apologise to all Tunbridge Wellians and what's more Tonbridgians for this calamitous error and do hope that no postal misdirections or failures to find their way home afflict the same.

[Turns out Tunbridge Wells was so spelled because it was named after Tonbridge. Tonbridge used to be spelled like that, Tunbridge. Here we have Iain at Tonbridge, long before he became station master. Interesting facts and video about Iain's country seat.]

3. Iain was right about this, though sadly he avoided answering a straight question about Sir Fred Goodwin's home address, relevance of, which he had spuriously introduced in his post as some kind of relational dog whistle. Labour = hide MPs addresses, allow Thatcherite greed double whammy. Strangely enough Tories voted 2-1 in favour of confidentiality, LDs most against, Labour close to 50:50. Interesting. Presumably Iain thinks that like MPs Sir Fred should have 2am visits, unspeakable through letterbox, horses heads in bed etc?

4. Instead he went offensive with some assertions about Company Directors addresses - I don't know whether SFG is a Director or not - but which are clearly not true.

5. I knew myself already that Directors could get this information removed from most company search facilities simply by asking and showing good cause. I knew that this autumn confidentiality at Companies House itself would be easier to obtain. And I knew that it could already be obtained.

6. I did however suggest that a Court Order was needed.

7. In fact as Barrack Room Lawyer has pointed out, with references, the Secretary of State can grant confidentality to vulnerable Directors who give an address for service of their choosing, and a court is only needed if Mandy or predecessors refused unreasonably. That particular guidance came in on 2 April 2002.

Poor Iain's only gone and apologised or more accurately self-justified at Tom Harris' blog for a comment being allowed to stand. That comment was in fact on someone else's blog. Tom Harris' blog! This reminded me of a song I once knew through my sister endlessly blasting it out at the old joanna, by the spurned Carly Simon.

Iain asks Tom how he could ever think that Iain would allow such a thing. Actually that would because nasty comments do get left standing from time to time. Including a repeated use of a nasty profile picture involving Derek Draper by a loathsome sock puppet. Iain's been asked to turf him off, on Sunday last, but hasn't been bothered.

Tom Harris MP incidentally is not quite with the programme on Company Director's actual and increasing options for confidentiality.

There's No Place Like Home: I Know Where You Live

Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells is at it again. On his high horse. With knickers in a twist. About MPs having the option, though no compulsion, to keep their private address(es) private. There are of course anomalies here - candidates who are not MPs but could win seats will need to declare their precise address, or possibly that of their agent come to think of it. (Or are there such anomalies?, see UPDATE for this one). And finding out how closely one of the candidates fits one's "local fetish" will prove more difficult where MPs do put a X in the no publicity box.

Tom Harris has already ripped the piss out of Holier Than Thou of Tonbridge Wells, and now plays a trump card. Though "trump" is not the half of it.

Don't think the result of this vote is particularly shocking.

Can't get that excited about it either way. MPs will be able to volunteer their "private" addresses if they choose to do so.

And it is not beyond the wit of the media or the electorate to find out how "local" an MP may be without needing to know their exact private address.

Iain ends his post with some spurious remark about Sir Fred Goodwin being able to use the same arguments Tom employs. In short that MPs of all ranks and their families can get harrassed, threatened, pestered unreasonably.

So could Fred's. But his address does not have to be in the public domain does it Iain? What is your point?

For the record:

Lib Dem MP John Leech has gone to great lengths to place press stories saying he is moving (back) into the constituency he represents.

But he hasn't done so. He has massaged his real location into a district it's not in. And then massaged it back when he got found out.

He didn't live in the council ward he represented at any point. In fact on the old boundaries he was probably a mile from the nearest point. Oo-er, that'd stop you doing the job wouldn't it?!

After the boundary changes with the next GE he will still not live in his constituency but he will change. Leech's people have a terrible fetish about localism. Tales of addresses of convenience abound. They also run with the old "family man" code when it suits them.

Meanwhile Tony Lloyd MP has lived in the original boundaries of his constituency, actually at the heart of the new one, and a short distance outside it at various times.

But as he doesn't have a fetish with his exact address and he certainly doesn't send out hoax press releases - resulting in press coverage, though sadly suppressed from the online record but I'll scan it one of these days - saying he's re-locating, for purposes of authenticity.

And finally:

The fact that John Leech does not live in and never as an MP has lived in his constituency is not what makes him a piss poor MP. But he is one.

UPDATE 19:43: Division - in interesting new slab view from those resourceful people at MySociety - shows Lloyd voted with majority while Leech did not. Contrary to the other candidates having to disclose point ... doesn't seem to be correct. All candidates get the option.

LabourList: Kerry on Post, Lucy on Pubs, Mark on E-Marketing

Kerry McCarthy MP has written a champion long post about the post here and Lucy Powell, our PPC, has mused at some length about local pubs here.

Almost inevitably I suppose I spent some time as a student doing Christmas postal rounds. In and around Hartcliffe, Bristol as it goes. Not far from Kerry's patch in fact. And a good number of my teammates and clubmates at Salford Harriers are posties. Kerry's post is a big of a head empty and doesn't quite reach a conclusion. But while it rightly questions whether Mandy's proposal is the only way to achieve modernisation I'd say it's tramping round the houses to the yes lobby on the Hooper proposals.

Almost inevitably I suppose I spent some time as a student responsible for running bars, and also for drinking several of them dry down the years. I've already blogged about the Tory and Industry campaigns to "save our pubs". The one an exercise in dog whistling about tax in general and collecting signatures, the other a front for multinational capital.

While their supposed central concerns are saving pubs, with some mention of addressing binge drinking and loss leading supermarkets ... they actually do no such thing.

Sharp intake of breath. I think the SNP proposals in Scotland are far more rigorous and far more targeted than either the escalating beer tax from the Treasury or the booze industries campaigns, whether via Tories or CAMRA.

The alcohol industry's excess profits and the greedy business models that drive these - including aggressive discounting to the grocery and off trade, pricing cartels, excessive rents, unfair tying deals pushing up the price for the A3 trade, are the greatest problems we face in saving community pubs.

Of course the stepped tax may be the last straw for some pubs. But it's not the sea to drink. It's relatively trivial. And faced with an overburdened camel - famously able to go for days without drinking - we could and should take other parts of the beast's burden away.

Labour and the Trade Unions should start our own pub campaign. Mark Hanson, also writing on Labour List, compared and contrasted the candidate/party owned Obama web 2.0 effort, with the government owned Number 10 petition site. Labour - locally, regionally, nationally and across the whole union - should be collecting contacts as a generality, and identified by their interests, including saving pubs and post offices:

We know from Obama's campaign that all of their success was derived from the fact that they put capturing email at the centre of everything they did and then using these email addresses wisely to drive both fundraising and mobilisation. For example, their promise to let people who gave them mobile phone numbers know their VP choice first (and the fact that they carried out this promise by sending a text message at 2am because it was in danger of leaking to CNN first).

Compare this with the No10 petitions site - done on a Government platform when it could so easily have been done as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party on a Party platform. 8 million email addresses are now sitting in Downing Street that can't be touched by us (and indeed aren't being used effectively by them) and, worse still, will be handed over to the Tories when they next get into power.

Surveillance Society: Aaronovitch, D Surveils CCTV Mythology

David Aaronowitch (? freudian reference to Da Fink's Pottery conspiracy ? I'll leave it) snoops and snoops and snoops until he busts the origin of a 300-CCTV-captures per day meme based on contrived fr'instance. Good stuff.

Parliamentary Challenge: John Mann MP Challenges Sir Shred

John Mann MP has written to Fred the Golden Shred (right, click to enlarge) asking him why he misled MPs over the "normality" and "universality" of his pension arrangements. Most people leaving early and drawing down pensions early - even within the category of pensioners in which Sir Fred resides - do not see the pot increased, and certainly do not see their pension drawings increase or even in most cases stay the same. Sir Shred seems to pretend that his arrangements are bog standard. They are not. Harriet Harman has suggested that the differences between these arrangements and the norm make the extra here to be a "severance package" rather than an unfair pension boost as such. She also said this was not acceptable in the court of public opinion. But what do we do about this? Populism over the Law, or precedent, or principled leadership? Hat tip: Labour List.

Public Relation Week: Labour's Building on Draper's Labour List

David Singleton of PR Week, who launched the original "Draper Rapid Rebuttal" story in September, has summarised the Labour Net 2.0 conference from NuLab ginger group Progress.

Blog Power Stymies Trimble: Corpus Canned, Scumbag Manks Win

And what's more Tweet4Labour seems to have the scoop. Fortunately not a spolling bee.

UPDATE 18:32: E24 announce this decision. Reporter twice calls Manchester University "Manchester United".

Guido O'GuF: Announces Gordon Brown Global Warming Cure

There are surprises and there are surprises. Today Guido O'GuF is giving Gordon Brown credit for successfully moving beyond his fiscal specialities and saving the world from Global Warming. Starting with Washington DC. There is hope for Mother Earth after all.

"University" Challenge: Manchester Scumbags Gracious on Grimble

Guardian front page story accepts University of Manchester's gracious contentment having got it all wrong in the Obbie yesterday. A re-match makes no senses at all. If Corpus broke the rules - whether knowingly or accidentally - they should be removed. Manchester should play and trounce the winners of a repêchage or en Anglais re-fishing between Gail Trimble's previous conquests ... Exeter and St John's Cambridge.

TRIVIA: University Challenge and Heart of the Matter producer Peter Gwyn was part of the City Life film review squad, along with the BBC's Mark Kermode (under a previous monicker), and UoM's history man Dr Steve Rigby.

Conservative Home Centre Right: Thoughts on Draper's List

Tim Montgomerie is celebrating Man U's season as the Reds head towards sextuplets in the trophy cabinet. But he feels that we Reds are very, very unlikely to be in government after the next general election. With that in mind he gives Derek Draper's progress the once over. Pretty generous, pretty accurate, essentially still welcoming the competition.

Comments are often more hostile. Including good old Donal Blaney calling Derek "barmy", several Redwoodistas on the pimp, and some plain old fashioned air turning blue tribalists. Some of them just don't like the man. Why ever is that?

Meanwhile Iain Dale is yet to remove one of the viler sock puppets in the business "Jonathan Cook" with his unattractive anatomical Draper diagram profile picture. It must be 12 hours or more since I requested action. Perhaps Blogger will act first?

Gail Trimble: Who's Clever Now? Fails to Spot Imposter

The Observer reckon there's been a demand for a re-match from University of Manchester - it's in their standfirst. They found and quoted one of the Manchester team who admitted to being keen on a rematch. However captain Matthew Yeo didn't tell the Observer that, perhaps he said the opposite. He was certainly on R5L today, recognising that they'd been involved, and finally been thumped, in one of the most exciting finals in the history of UC brain-grading.

There are comments suggesting that Manchester should simply be awarded the title. But there's certainly more logic in chucking Corpus Christi out and letting their defeated quarter and semi-final opponents play off. With the winner thereafter getting mashed by Manchester University who gave Corpus by far and away their closest run thing. Rather than in letting Corpus play again without their ringer. That would be preposterous.

Sam Kay (left) actually worked for PwC in Reading throughout the last three rounds. One can only assume that the fourth member of the team also had a dark secret day job. But they had the sense to stay away from the photo shoot with Brainy Trimble. It's not rocket science Gail. When it says "University" Challenge it, er, refers to various Higher Education Institutions. It does not refer to major Professional Services firms.

WHEN I WERE A LAD: Manchester were still in purdah over the infamous Aaronovitch crew and their clever and life-changing protests, as described in the UC Wiki:

The fact that the universities of Oxford and Cambridge can each enter up to five of their colleges as separate teams despite these colleges not being universities in the conventional sense was the ostensible inspiration for an unusual 1975 protest. A team from the University of Manchester (which included David Aaronovitch) who were appearing on the show answered every question "Che Guevara", "Marx", "Trotsky" or "Lenin", possibly in the hope of making the resulting show unbroadcastable. It did, however, get broadcast, although only portions of the episode still exist in the archives of Granada TV.

Towards the end of the undergraduate end of my sojourn, 1979 I'd guess - with the future Scumbag College "Drama Society" crew often in the same corner of the Coffee Bar as the true intellectuals as we clustered round the driving game and the pinball, later updated with Invaders and Tank Battle and Asteroids and finally the acme that is Pacman - we did have some half-hearted auditions/trials in the MDH (Main Debating Hall). Now often known as Academy 2. Still the scene of (occasional, rather than weekly) General Meeting Stand Offs. The quality of which - on recent visits - has appeared piss poor. When the dodgy geezer from the BNP speaking, rather bravely I'd say, against the No Platform policy, makes the most coherent contribution you can sense the trouble they're in.

Anyways, the whole thing seemed rigged in advance for certain scumbag union hacks to be picked. It appeared they'd already been picked in fact. Presumably because half of them already had their PMH Desmonds and Douglases in the bag, proving their distinguished calibre? One of these days names will be named. The wages of sin are of of course crashing and burning in round one. That'll teach 'em. Now they're mostly MPs, bankers, civil servants, journalists.

Truth About Harry Potter: Iranian TV Speak Their Brains

Bluff, double bluff, treble bluff. Hilariously - assuming there has been no Downfall style meddling with the captions, and no Teheran equivalent of April Fool's Day (John Leech MP's birthday, lest we forget, though wiki now say 11th), or indeed some kind of Brass Eye effort - Iranian TV, employers via Press TV of the likes of the wizard-manqué Andrew Gilligan, wizard-cassé George Galloway, and wizard-bloggé Iain Dale really have excelled themselves.

The Harry Potter franchise is a Zionist Conspiracy is all. Most hilariously of all they interpret the strong anti-master-race narrative as being pro-master-race, which they conflate with pro-Zionist. If you're going to go there chaps I think you'll find that the racists are "the other". The "Other" that Harry Potter and his chums are trying to confound.

HEALTH WARNING: Unlike Harry Potter and his chums MEMRI - the translators may be a Zionist propaganda organisation! Fancy that! MEMRI TV the translators, is a USA-based operation with 501(c)3 non-profit status. Here's what they say about themselves.

LOL estimate that of the 14,008 minutes (c 233 hours) translated and published since 2001 only about 14,003 minutes were selected by this non-partisan non-profit organisation to show Islamic Culture and Ideas in a bad light. Their sampling rate, assuming just one single 24/7 channel - whereas they actually monitor and select from quite a number of channels - is approximately 0.005 of output (half a percent).

Random fact: There are 752 Google links for a search MEMRI plus "Dean Godson", a dark artist of the darkest arts if ever there was one. From a long line of Death Eaters to boot.

None of which prevents the above example of their collective work being jolly amusing. Uplifting even. Wingardium leviosa!

LISTEN CAREFULLY: I shall say this only once. The arguably Zionist Conspirators and certainly feckwitted propagandists at MEMRI in Washington DC want the paranoid of the western world to believe that the powers that be in Teheran, and indeed, why not?, the whole worldwide Muslim Conspiracy and every Muslim, actually believe that Harry Potter and his zany crew are Zionist race supremacist conspiracists, still with me?, and not in fact free spirits facing down the really and truly supremacist followers of the Dark Lord.

For the avoidance of doubt the Harry Potter series is - assuming you are not a unicorn, a goblin, or a house elf - a culturally fairly neutral tale of the ancient struggle between pure goodness and absolute evil. And whereas most religion doesn't let on about the magic and the fiction and the suspended disbelief JK Rowling let's on about the whole house of cards, godless communist that she is*.

* Speculation, sorry Jacks. Via Dizzy Thinks, itself via Da Dark Lord Fink. LOL Graphics did produce a treble bluff graphic to go with all this hilarity. But we'll leave it on the desktop for now. Likely to be misconstrued by all sides. Might be a badge of honour, but we're nervous, sorry.

UPDATE 20:23: I have posted a comment at Da Fink's linking to this post, and pointing out the appalling reputation of MEMRI TV for cherry picking and mis-translation. I'll post it here perhaps if it doesn't make it past the censors.

Tom Harris vs John Redwood: Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Tom Harris MP is right I think to suggest that Tories ain't the party of regulation, whatever John Redwood may bleat today, and indeed like a broken record since Maggie Thatcher's untrammeled greed and freedom (tm David Cameron at Davos) came home to roost.

The real Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test proof for all this of course is in the tasting. In the experience, man. Check your inhibitions at the doors of perception. At the cloakroom of the mind.

How did the Merry Pranksters of the Tory Alternative World actually get on on their parallel universe tripping? What happened in all the real countries with real Tory-type governments and real regulation (or not). Far better to look at those than to speculate about what might have happened here.

George W Bush's USA anyone? Tory Iceland? Tory Japan? Tory anywhere? Did any Tory style government anywhere do substantially better or at all better than any third way (essentially mediated Toryism in econo-political terms) government? Never mind the World Saving Gordon Brown. And while we're looking at real life instead of speculating ... how about socialist or in this era of compromise more socialist economies?

FASCINATING TRIP: Down memory lane, for those who weren't there.

Derek Draper's LabourList: Adds Weekly List to the Mix

Have asked Iain Dale politely to refuse to do business with a blogger boasting an anatomical drawing and Draper-sex-fantasy as his profile picture. Should be kept private that. Meanwhile, LabourList has built on the DailyList with the first Weekly List. Which is a good thing and a further step in the right direction.

Oh Brother!: Unite to Defend Worker From Capitalist Smears!

Oh dear me. I'm no fan of the way Brother Derek Simpson - above protesting at proposals to cut his wages - has conducted himself in his campaign for one more year at the coal face. Ballots close on Friday this week. But further smear stories in the right wing press?

We really must all stick up for Brother Derek against this unfair onslaught. As six, count 'em, comrades did against The Times in letters to the "Election Special" Unite Comic.

He's no monk of course. But nothing is too good for the workers. It would be quite ridiculous if bonafide working women and men represented their sisters and brothers against the fat cats of capitalism. Ridiculous. Authenticity is vastly over-rated in such matters. I am quite sure that there are perfectly sensible reasons for his stays at the Waldorf Hotel. The Mail on Sunday are being sooooo unreasonable, and inevitably the GuFster is jumping to harsh conclusions and not giving Delboy the benefit of the doubt.

MADCAP MAYHEM with the UK's Clumsiest Monk.

Iain Dale and Donal Blaney = Liberals: God Hates Cigarettes

Ho, ho, ho. Donal Blaney and Iain Dale will be impressed to be called "Liberals" by some transatlantic rightist name of Ryan in comments here. They are Tories, Conservatives Ryan. And not exactly on the Tory left. At least not in most issues. See Iain's post for an exception.

Krohn's oration was vacuous tub thumping and arm waving.

He didn't actually say anything much. Just a book plug. Dog whistles by the politically deranged for the politically deranged. Iain Dale tells an anecdote at the link involving his best Paddington Bear gimlet stare to force one of these homophobic whackos - at the same CPAC rally (2008) as Krohn's rabble rousing (2009) - to shake his hand politely.

HERE is a good jump post, from one Simon Jones, who is an Englishman abroad (and possibly at the thoughtful/sinner end of Christian Right Talibanism himself, just for some American churchian loons (also above, in anti smoking protest?) in video action.

Precocious Right-Winger (13): Needs Slap Say Donal, Iain

This is the allegedly precocious Jonathan Krohn (13). He is a "Conservative" by only some of the definitions the term may conjure up in many poor deluded simpleton adults. Particularly USA Fundies I'll be bound. They were baffled into a standing ovation. Donal Blaney is attacking the arrogant pipsqueak from the left which tells us something; and he claims that Iain Dale has misrepresented poor JK by neglecting to point out the British, or English, Conservatives of the same stripe. Ooooh, like Nadine Dorries. Though she's not precocious as such.

William Hague's conference speech as a 16-year-old was far more coherent and showed far greater potential than this serial happy slap victim in waiting. With Donal having first dibs. And Iain Dale possibly close behind. Krohn will go the way of kutchie kutchie Musical Youth and long-haired Little Jimmy Osmond.