When is a briefing not a briefing?
When it's a drinks party. TB sadly had to curtail his attendance early at the CCHQ bloggers meet and greet drinks party last night. He was there long enough to hear a vintage Pickles and drink his fair share of the copious amounts of free booze. He hears it went on till three am with some epic karaoke.
He was most amused then this morning to have a phone call from Will Straw who was on the trail of a hot lead. He put some questions to TB about whether Eric Pickles had told bloggers they would now be receiving 7am briefing notes on the lines to blog and tweet about. Utter tosh of course.
"Evidence based" blog Left Foot Forward
have run
an anonymous email from someone who clearly wasn't at the event last night. Needless to say they have been pummelled in the comments section. Where is the evidence there? And TB was sure Left Foot Forward "don't do attack"? Of course as soon as emails were forwarded to the likes of the over excitable, near hysterical Sunny Hundal, the left were is spasms of joy
. Finally the Tory bloggers were seemingly just like them, willing to puppet lines. Well sorry to disappoint chaps, the whole story is bullshit:- No memo.
- No briefing.
- No evidence.
- No substance.
Ironically Pickles attacked Labour's central control online and mentioned rebbuting Labour's lies and spin and misinformation that they are so willing to peddle. Frankly the fact that almost everyone who was in the room last night was willing to defend what was said and dispuite such blatent lies from Left Foot Forward and Liberal Conspiracy is not evidence of a coordinated attack but evidence of how far wide of the mark these made up allegations are.
It is no surprise that this sort of thing has happened again. After a Christmas lunch for some online folk organised by the party, James Macintyre of the New Statesman made up similar ridiculous spin about the event. TB is surprised he has not waded into today's fun and games. Has this merchent of lies finally decided to turn over a new leaf after getting so badly burnt last time?
A poor day for the lefty bloggers, jealousy does such terrible things to people's judgement. They have exposed how in sync they are on attack lines and higlighted just how little evidence or infomation they need to spin out a nonsense attack. Will should stick to reprinting data sent to him from above in graph form and Sunny should stick to what he is best at.. ummm. Well not this clearly.
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20 comments:
Hold on a second. We didn't accuse Eric Pickles of offering 7am emails we just reproduced the anonymous email and then the quotes from you and Shane Greer.
Indeed, we were careful to say: "Shane Greer, who was at the event, denied that bloggers were offered morning emails."
Our headline says: "Key role for Tory bloggers in rebutting Labour" which was corroborated by you and Shane Greer.
So our evidence-based approach included:
1) Copying the text of the anonymous email
2) Outlining that some of the content was questioned by another source (ie Shane Greer)
3) Offering two quotes (from you and Shane) about rebuttal
4) Linking to Lazy Hyena's "accurate" account of what Pickles said to corroborate your account.
The story as we reported still stands so please be careful what you assert.
Will Straw: political nepotism at its best.
You did accuse him. You even put it in bold
I wasn't at the party but was invited, sadly couldn't make it, but from all the accounts I have heard from people who were there not a single one mentioned email briefings. Indeed I've not heard anyone except Leftist bloggers refer to the gathering as a "briefing" - it was a drinks reception and kareoke!
What Will and Sunny forget is "evidence based journalism" is not a case of reprinting anonymous emails, in a context that implies they are truthful, even if denied, but instead a case of checking that evidence is true.
The Left just love conspiracy theories I guess.
David
Popcorn time.
TB you seem to have glossed over the fact that you tweeted
"Pickles on form. To bloggers: "This is going to be a very dirty election. That's where you come in... (Pause) ...for rebuttal""
Tories planning to make this a dirty election, eh?
I know you are new to all this Richard but maybe consider taking your head out of your own arse before engaging. Read what I said in that tweet, and the quote I gave to Will, and what I just put in that post.
At all times I have made it clear that it was a joke. We were encouraged to rebut labour lies and that is exactly what is going on here. There was no briefing and there will be no memos. This election will be dirty because of the desperation of Labour, the point that anyone with half a brain cell would realise Pickles was making. So yeah, keep trying.
Good Lord the idea of 7am briefings fills one with absolute dread. However the idea that CCHQ would suggest such a thing to a room full of bloggers makes one chuckle so much that the feeling of dread subsides.
Will and Sunny, do follow Pickles' example though. Sit down and have a doughnut, and reconsider your position.
"we just reproduced the anonymous email"
Will, a relative of mine died in a plane crash in West Africa leaving $25 million in a bank in Lagos. If you are willing to help me free this money from corrupt officials, I will willingly share it with you and help you spend it on time shares in the Balearics.
"reprinting data sent to him from above in graph form"
WTF?
It's called research. The data we use isn't sent to us "from above".
If you wanna publish graphs to back up your stories, try this website you might have heard of called Google, then use a little programme called Excel.
It ain't rocket science; anyone can do it.
Who pays for your bloomberg data Shamik?
TB and here's you talking about the "Labour machine" yet as soon as LFF mentions your little coterie the entire Tory bloggersphere drops in to rebut, almost as if General Pickles had issued orders to the faithful.
As to me being "new to this", well, yeah, perhaps under this sobriquet, but I am grateful for your paternalism.
Did you even read the post i wrote or just what you wanted to see?
"rankly the fact that almost everyone who was in the room last night was willing to defend what was said and dispuite such blatent lies from Left Foot Forward and Liberal Conspiracy is not evidence of a coordinated attack but evidence of how far wide of the mark these made up allegations are."
"...such blatent [sic] lies from Left Foot Forward and Liberal Conspiracy..."
From where I am sitting, all Sunny and Will did was reproduce an email, the details of which they openly said were subject to dispute. So, to be clear, what blatant lies are we talking about here? What untruths did Will and Sunny actually tell? Or have you just smeared them as liars for no reason? Is it your claim, perhaps, that there was no such email sent to them? That they made the whole thing up? That is certainly what is implied by this line:
"It is no surprise that this sort of thing has happened again. After a Christmas lunch for some online folk organised by the party, James Macintyre of the New Statesman made up similar ridiculous spin about the event."
I'm sure we'd all appreciate clarification as to precisely what it is that you are alleging.
@Soho_Political: Well, I have here an anonymous email that says that you f**k pigs.
I trust that you have no problems with me quoting said email, along with a statement that - as of going to press - Soho "Pig F**ker" Political has not yet denied the allegations, although they might not be true, along with context quotes from a religious leader condemning sin and a butcher claiming that it spoils the taste of the meat.
After all, there'd be nothing false in my post - I'm just reproducing the content of an email and I'm even questioning its veracity...
Good to see that investigative journalism is at the forefront of LLF....
"we just reproduced the anonymous email"
TB - I've just sent you an anoymous e-mail confirming Will & Sunny are fuckwits
"Hey hey hey, I didn't write it, I just chose to publish it without corroboration"
That is as weak a defence as Jack Straw employed in front of Chilcott.
I am wondering what I would have to anonymously write for Will Straw to publish it.
Perhaps if I sent the Times an anonymous story they would just run it through the presses and claim it was nout to do with them.
Oh dear - you Tories really get needled easily don't you?
This blog would of course never publish any unsubstantiated gossip nor ask any questions eh? People in glass houses Harry?
LC and LFF only asked the question - it's the Tories who started frothing at the mouth and suddenly all turned up minutes after, professing your independence.
I think that says it all really.
Hold on a second. We didn't accuse Eric Pickles of offering 7am emails we just reproduced the anonymous email...
So, it doesn't matter if you publish a lie, Mr Straw, so long as you were not the person who made it up?
You do realise that, as a legal defence, that argument hold no water?
What makes me laugh is how they think that the very next day after such an event we would all go and follow our orders from Chairman Pickles. Surely, if we had the organisation they are crediting us with we would not have blown our cover so early on.
Secondly, I laugh because the thought of a blogger being awake at 7am for their email briefing is absurd to even fathom
Oh, and that this was some kind of nefarious event. If that were the case why did we hold it in a room next door to an event that Michael White and Alex Hilton were both at. Michael White even popped his head around the door early on... A few hours before leaving the hotel wearing a pink beret and complimenting a young man on his shoes.
Oh dear, what has Will Straw been smoking?
His argument would mean that it would be ok to say "Will Straw, son of hapless Cabinet Minister Jack Straw, denied that he sold drugs to others" and then to put that in bold and claim that he sold drugs to others (which he has clearly denied doing).
When you get something as factually wrong as this, best to fess up and move on. A bit like lying to the electorate about WMD like the then Foreign Secretary did (I wonder who THAT was...)!