Exclusive - Labour PPC Abandons Front for Online War

Yes TB knows he is meant to be packing but a nice little scoop to leave on. This has come from a couple of places but people are being very cagey...

They are promising a "shock and awe" rejigging of their online activities in the new year, and tonight TB understands that the not entirely unattractive

Claire Hazelgrove

, 21, the PPC for Skipton and Ripon has been drafted in to jointly organise social media campaigning for the Labour Party. The prolific twitterer is so down with the kids that she even has a

Myspace page

! Other reasons for her employment seem to be she is on twitter and she votes Labour and she isn't as batshit crazy as Kerry.

TB understands that a handful of jobs have been offered and that the new Victoria St employees will be reporting directly to Sue Macmillan, Labour's... wait for it... "New Media Campaigns Taskforce Leader" and supporter of such brilliant campaigns like "

David Camera-on

" a Draper fake twitter account that was err mysteriously silenced, and redesigned. TB is still working on finding out who the other new recruits are.

Three things immediately come to mind about Hazelgrove's appointment. Firstly TB hopes that she has a better grasp of electoral law than she

once had

. She has been in

hot water

for attempting to send money raised in the UK to aid Barack Obama's election campaign, contravening election rules on both sides of the pond. Her flippant attitude at the time did her no favours. TB heard that Claire's involvement with the Obama campaign was a big plus for her getting the job. Though as far as he can tell she had little experience of running anything online and instead spent her time answering phones and

photocopying

in Virgina.

Secondly TB hopes Claire has sorted out her contact book. She was responsible for quite the blunder the other day that sent the labour net-roots into fits of ecstasy when she announced proudly that her sources at ComRes suggested a narrowing of the poll lead to just three points. The poll was announced later that night with a tory lead of 17%. Wounder.

Thirdly what do the voters of Skipton and Ripon feel about their PPC abandoning her campaign to join the party machine? Hazelgrove has been a part time PPC already after leaving university to move to London and her twitter page rarely mentions any reports from the front line.

An early Christmas present for

Julian Smith

then?

Claire Hazelgrove was unavailable for comment.

So Long, Farewell

TB is off the Caribbean until New Year's Eve. He won't be replying to emails, or twitter or unless Brown resigns, his phone. Ever the caring compassionate type he won't be abandoning you completely though. Instead for the next week a dozen or so of the bear's favourite posts, some serious, some very silly, from the last twenty months will be auto-posted.

Enjoy.

Nick Brown Abuses Taxpayer

Congratulations to Labour's Chief Whip and uber-chump Nick Brown for diverting taxpayer funded civil service resources in attempts to see off challengers in his own constituency. Guido

report last week

that the government officially monitored his Wednesday PMQs live chat rooms. The great thing with Labour is they can't even bother to be subtle. Funnily enough the first, and as far as TB can see the only victim of this has been Brown's Lib Dem opponent oop north Greg Stone. Look what they've done here, it's well clever:

Nick Brown's researchers flag up comments. Brown phones leftist hack David Hencke, formerly of the Guardian, now clearly bored at Tribune as he is freelancing and doing Labour's dirty work

in The Telegraph

. A further briefing was given to the

local press

. Subtle Nick, subtle!

It is not known if Labour whip Kerry McCarthy has been involved in these dirty tricks but it gives you a good insight into the office she reports to. Labour grassroots and net loons have the audacity to accuse the Tories of playing dirty by attempting to unofficially fund raise for a candidate. Let's not forget who has been the polluters online this year eh guys? From the grassroots right up to Downing St and the Whips office Labour is tired, cornered and aiming below the belt. Interesting piece on

LeftWatch

this afternoon reminding us just what it was Brown promised when he began his ill-fated premiership - "no spin, no briefing, no secrets, and respect for Parliament".

Fail.

A Televisual Feast!

The role Sky News played in achieving these leadership debates should not be forgotten. Adam Boulton will no doubt be toasting his success having aggressively got the ball rolling with this. As TB is feeling lazy and festive he thought he would rehash a post from back when the leadership debates were first mooted. A look as some classic moments. Will these debates be election game changers? Probably not. Will the blogosphere be the place for the fact checking, rabid rebuttal and quicker than you can say Nick Robinson post match analysis? Probably. Should Nick Clegg be given such undeserved publicity? Absolutely not.

There is lots of tonight about the fact that this is a big risk for Dave. TB disagrees. Cameron has been up and down the country facing the public for months and months at Cameron Direct town hall events. He has taken and tackled pretty much every conceivable question that could be thrown at him, from cuts and spending to aliens and cocaine. Clegg has been on a desperate "me too" tour but frankly no one cares what the Lib Dems think and letting a schoolboy play with the big boys in these debates isn't going to change a thing. In the mean time Brown has been cowering in his bunker, is crap on television and all it will take is few of those paedo grins, a few "Can I I I I I er er er finish Adam" lines and a snap of temper and it's a sealed deal. As long as Cameron remains the cool, calm and articulate debater he is known to be then there is very little to worry about these debates. He is easily the most telegenic, expressive and emotive of the three and that will be conveyed.

TB thinks the expression he is after is "Game On!"

Unless they are careful, the UK debates could turn into nothing more than soundbyte ping-pong. These are moments we want to see:











Who's got some good put downs for Dave to use?

Pandora's Box

Apologies for the radio silence. TB braved Selfridges, a surprisingly civilised affair after a trip to the champagne bar. He is winding down for Christmas and will be lying on a beach in forty eight hours. The blackberry is probably staying at home.TB hears that Labour have wound themselves into a right little panic about

#kerryout

and he understands there will be some personal retaliation on TB. No doubt this will be done while he is away and uncontactable. These are socialists he is up against after all.

In the mean time he was most intrigued to be sent a link to

beatballs.co.uk

today. It is clear that TB is leading the Kerry charge (Note Labour bods that the fact "Tory Bear" is in the RSS feed of the site and why not checkout whose credit card was used to buy the domain.) However this one is a little out of TB's geekdom. It's a countdown to what TB estimates is 1st Feb:

This one could go massive...

#KerryOut Hits £1000

In just three days the #KerryOut campaign, before it has even launched properly has raised over a grand for

Adeela Shafi's Bristol East war chest

.

The Lib Dems have rather hilariously tried to weasel their way in on the act by suggesting that if you want to beat the Kerry "two beds" McCarthy then the money should be sent their way. Well sorry chaps, you're wrong. Although they did come second in 2005 there have been boundary changes that that have reduced McCarthy's majority and put the Tories in second place. Lib Dems lying here again.

That being said the campaign, which will get going properly with more aggressive tactics has had support from Tories, Lib Dems, UKIP and the Libertarians. Money raised in small donations is the key to success for grassroots campaigns like this that are independent of party strategy or even the candidate. TB hasn't even spoken to Adeela yet but hopes she is already planning ways to put the money to good use in the new year.

Keep it coming

and check back to

kerryout.net

in the new year for updates on how you can directly get involved.

Mandy4Mayor

The rumour mill is in full swing in today's Screws. Fraser Nelson

speculates

that Mandy is desperately scrambling for a way to maintain power when the HMS New Labour finally sinks. Ruling out a defection or a job in Europe, Fraser suggests that Mandy has his eye on Boris's job.

TB doesn't agree with that Boris won't seek a second term. If he really does want to be PM, and TB is sure he does, he has to be seen as a fighter and to turn his back on another four years in power would shatter any reputation he has built for a future leadership bid. The Olympics will also be just after the next London elections so why after four years of preparation would Boris not want to be there to run the games?

So a Mandy vs. Boris fight could be on the cards. There has been much speculation about who Labour will put up to fight Boris, and it wasn't long ago that comment pages were talking about Alan Sugar in very much the same way. Mandy is poison and commands little respect outside of the village, it wouldn't be hard to run a Mandy style hatchet job on him. TB is inclined to say bring it on...

The Shining City on the Hill

There is no denying that Labour are dancing to the Tories tune, and have been for over a year in terms of stealing policy, changing direction and accepting inevitable cuts.

Today's Mail reports

:

The Tory leader will go on to a General Election war footing in the New Year with a sunnier message that there is 'light at the end of the tunnel' after the economic crisis. Mr Cameron will launch a campaign blitz in January with three or more trips a week to marginal constituencies to promote new policies that will form the cornerstones of his election manifesto. He will be studying a draft of the manifesto over Christmas. Senior Tories believe they have won the economic argument with Labour with their calls for austerity measures to slash the deficit.

Good news indeed. It must not be forgotten that the person with the most positive message wins the day. Yes there is over a trillion pound deficit but aspiration that one day this rotten government will be gone, one day the British people won't be punished for being successful and wanting to enable the very best for their children, without the meddling hand of the state butting in, must be the key theme.

Cameron has a golden opportunity to change this country forever, to undo the poison Labour have dripped into every walk of life in the last twelve years. He has the chance to reform from Whitehall to town hall and must, must, make it clear to the public in the new year that he is the man to bite the bullet. We need to see him breaking away from what is popular with focus groups stuffed full of people that probably wouldn't vote Conservative anyway, and making clear the message that decisions will be made for the country, rather than the public sector workers, even if it hurts.

Every Labour government collapses into chaos in the end and requires a heavy dose of conservatism to fix it. This doesn't have to be prophecies of doom and gloom though, the message of conservative remedies must ring out proudly. Look at Obama - he stood and won on a policy of refusing to raise taxes during a recession. Didn't do him any harm.

It should never be forgotten that aspiration is a very very powerful message.

James Macintyre Wins a Pulitzer

Exclusive!

he screamed out, but once again one of James Macintyre's stories has unravelled quicker than he could say "I didn't have sex with Derek Draper." Real grown up journo Macintyre is a little bit chuffed that he got hold of an advance copy of the menu choices that were emailed to attendees of last week's tory bloggers lunch that TB covered here. Sadly for the thirsty hack that was about the closest he got to a bit of detail.

Where to start? Well there certainly weren't thirty people there, Pickles definitely wasn't as TB would have had to hide under the table if he had been. Oh sod it - Shane and Keep Right Online have both said it all already. See their comprehensive rebuttals

here

and

here

. And if that wasn't enough checkout the comments underneath Macintyre's

original piece

from Tory Rascal, Louise Bagshaw, Donal Blaney and CCHQ's Sam Coates - all of whom were there.

Lastly a confession - Membersnet was mentioned, by TB. He was taking the piss out of it to the person sitting to his left.

Quote(s) of the Day - SNP in Trouble

“I have already looked into the matter as far as my group is concerned and I am satisfied that no SNP councillor has been involved.”

-SNP Council Leader for Dumfries Rob Davidson expressing his “shock and dismay” at the Universality of Cheese blog on 1st December.

“Yes. Clearly that has not been accurate.”

-SNP Council Leader for Dumfries Rob Davidson acknowledging he lied over his involvement in the blog on 18th December.

For the record and your amusmant, check out just how far he was

involved

through his emails sent on 21st November:

“I wonder if you might like to draw attention on your blog to the fact that Scottish Labour’s general secretary (Councillor Colin Smyth) was expelled from full council for offensive conduct and refusing to respect the chair. It might also be a good one for ‘black ops’ to note the fact that no women present voted any other way than to exclude him. This one needs you to work your magic – I can’t go that far myself.”

No doubt Kevin Pringle will be drafting

another

resignation in the morning.

H/T:

SNP TV

We're Closing In #KerryOut

The left seem to have been caught somewhat off guard by #kerryout. They started with scorn but they shut up and have come back in scream mode now they are seeing the money pouring in. In just a matter of hours well over £300 quid has been raised. The fun and games are only just beginning comrades. Keep and eye on

kerryout.net

:

Launching on the 4th Jan.

In the mean time keep

donating

.

#KerryOut

As you may have noticed yesterday, TB put a new widget on the right hand side column of the site. It allows you to donate to Adeela Shafi in Bristol East and track her progress through

MyConservatives

. TB bunged her £20 yesterday and strongly encourages you all to do the same. The campaign is gaining

traction across the blogs

.

Kerry McCarthy,

expenses fiddler

and general embarrassment, not only to the Labour Party but to all MPs, especially those on her own side who cringe at her omnishamble existence, needs to go.

Cue kicking, screaming, toys out of prams and no doubt she will call us all sexists or maybe even racists again. Either way TB will keeping the

#KerryOut

campaign going.

There will be a surprise escalation in the new year - keep an eye out for details of how you can get involved.

Simple Simon's Sister Scandal

Sion Simon who you may remember from making-a-twat-of-yourself-on-teh-interweb fame has admitted he is a troughing thief and is attempting to get away with just paying back the £21k he stole in order to pay his sister in rent out of his ACA.

How he has the barefaced cheek to remain in government beggars belief. What ever happened to a little dignity in power eh? The only reason he is paying the money back is due to the fact The Telegraph were about to

out him tomorrow

.

He should be sacked immediately.

Save Bellamy's Bar

Many a disgruntled bagcarrier has got in touch with TB today to vent their spleen at the prospect of Bellamy's Bar being replaced by the Speaker's nursery. Bet Bercow wouldn't have got rid of a bar when he was still trying to hit on drunk chicks. Researchers take their gin seriously and won't be deprived of a subsidised watering hole without a fight. As the official campaign states:

"The Speaker is planning to replace the newly refurbished Bellamy's Bar with a nursery. Join this group to suggest the Speaker looks elsewhere - his own expansive House has much nicer views and access to a lawn for the kids to play on, for example."

Voice your concern at the pint sized one taking away pints

here

.

Gordon's Out of the Closet

TB had some fun this morning with Gordon's latest special moment:



What a twat.

Cameron Braces Himself

As TB reported the other day, Jo Johnson, younger brother of Boris, has been selected to fight the safe seat of Orpington. Their father Stanley stood unsuccessfully in 2005 and is still seeking a safe seat to contest this time round. What struck TB as mighty odd is the fact that team Cameron directly intervened in the Wycombe selection process a few months back. Stanley Johnson was the front runner to become the PPC, when at the last minute a CCHQ selection list was imposed upon the association. It is commonly accepted that the last thing Cameron wants is a cheer leader for his future leadership rival in the Commons, and the chance for Boris to easily maneuver his way back into the House in either 2012 or 2016 through a safe seat that Stanley was keeping warm.

There is no way that Jo Johnson's candidacy could have gone through Cameron's office without some nod of approval, or at least the chance to scupper it being turned down. Why has Dave personally ended the prospect of Stanley Johnson MP but allowed Jo Johnson to fight a very safe seat? Unless he is more worried about Boris than anyone has yet thought?

Put yourself in Cameron's shoes for a moment, what would you do? Make even more of an enemy of a family, or smile as you damn with your embrace? Boris is clearly popular with the grassroots and has already notched up arguably more executive experience than Dave will have if he walks through the door of Number 10 in a matter of months. He is the natural contender to the crown when things start to run out of steam four or so years into a potential premiership. Where better to have the rival than twiddling his thumbs in local government while actively encouraging a rival to your rival in the House. Bringing Jo Johnson in to the picture is an extremely canny move by Cameron. If he was to be fast-tracked up the ministerial ladder he would split the "Boris" factor that is so clearly part a key plank of Boris's appeal. Allowing the "Boris" factor to become broad church rather than a one man show severely weakens Boris.

Jo Johnson could never challenge Prime Minister Cameron, but he could potentially make it hard for his brother Boris to do so. If come a by-election in 2016 Boris returns triumphant, Cross Rail open, the Olympics a roaring success, London's budget balanced, the city onside he could create quite a storm. Who would be the biggest rival, an outgoing PM or the high flying, equally ambitious sibling?

There is definitely more to the Orpington selection than first meets the eye.

Copenhagen Collapses

Great news out of Scandinavia - further proof that the left can't organise a piss-up in a brewery. The Copenhagen Climate Summit has descended into chaos with toys being thrown out of prams left right and centre and well needed spanners being thrown into the huge overexcited hysterical cogs. The hippies are closing in, putting the entire centre

under lockdown

and TB believes there have been several sightings of man-bear-pig himself. The champagne and canapes have been replaced with rows and dramas. Looks like the world might not send their economies back a hundred years or so after all.

If Gordon even dares try claim he has saved the world again when some cock-a-hoop deal is spun as a historical moment, don't let the left get away with it. This conference has been a farce and the radical union that it's supporters wish for it to achieve has failed spectacularly.

Shame.

The Perfect Gift...

...for that elected representative in your life. Is your uncle a Labour Peer? Want to see some changes to those pesky laws? Then head over to the

Chocolate Library

:

TB definitely didn't get bribed with free chocolate.

Who Could They Mean?

The season finale of the

Thick of It

set things up nicely for some election specials. Particularly amusing was the great modernising reformer vs aggressive "Fucker", to rhyme with Tucker, who made an appearance in the opposition camp in the closing scenes.

Black suit, white shirt? Aggressive tabloid style? Who could they have had in mind??

The Morning After the Night Before

Apologies for the radio silence, TB has been nursing his aching limbs and battered paws this morning after last night's blog wars. What better way to see off the pain than a lunch with right-wing bloggers. A little too easily, they shook of their independence and gathered in the central lobby for a rather tasty session. CCHQ's online team and a few others, plus several of the top right-wing blogger types and twitterati got together for some game pie and as

KRO

put it, game chat.

Jeremy Hunt was keen to chat through the state of the current British blogosphere, what the Tories can learn from the US, and some err interesting ideas about how the righties online will progress after the next election if the Tories are in power. TB wonders whether such an optimistic outlook on how long the bloggers will toe the line is really realistic. On an aside Henry Macrory is seemingly a very modest chap as he failed to mention it was his birthday. Happy belated Birthday.

It was a session well worth having. While Labour bloggers and tweeters take their lines from Victoria Street, and if they are really lucky Downing Street, the organic growth of the right-wing blogosphere has meant it has been a much more disjointed growth. It was very useful to sit down for a rare and constructive chat. The closest the bloggers have come until now was Shane Greer's wedding.

TB is also rather chuffed with the miniature sellotape dispenser he got in his cracker, but that's beside the point.