The Party's Over

The story of Steven Purcell has ended with a tragic twist and shocking attempt at a cover up. From high flyer to rock bottom, Purcell has fled Scotland and gone into hiding, possibly in Australia. Once again Paul Hutcheon, with the help of Tom Gordon, proves why he is one of the finest investigative journalists around with

this forensic write up

. Guido has a

summary

too.

Still nothing but silence from Number 10 about the fall of their ally.

Quote(s) of the Day

In a less than subtle dig at his opponent in Buckingham Nigel Farage, John Bercow said today:

“Simple rabid personal abuse frankly shouldn’t have a place in parliamentary politics - it is low grade, it is unworthy.”

Speaking

in 2005 while campaigning against David Cameron, John Bercow said:

"Eton, hunting, shooting and lunch at Whites" made David Cameron the wrong man for the job.

The outgoing Speaker should be careful not to make his fear of losing turn him into any more of a hypocrite.

Smirk

Good spot from Gordon's visit to Afghanistan yesterday by

Old Holborn

.

The Enemy are Rattled

That The Guardian would chose to use their

front page

and a whole subsequent

news page

to attempt to have a dig at the

Young Britons' Foundation

shows the organisation is working.The lazy article assembled from a few blog posts, some stock photos and a sprinkle of Hannanphobia is some fantastic free press for YBF. TB understands that on the back of this article alone the 10 grand was donated earlier today to continue to the fight against the leftist establishment.

You can tell a non-story as soon as you hit the quote from John Prescott. The article itself ends up turning into a press release about the success and as a graduate of some of the fantastic YBF training, TB was particuarly chuffed with the last few lines:

 The YBF claims to have trained 2,500 party activists and sources familiar with Conservative central office said there is an informal understanding that the YBF is the main provider of training for young Conservative activists.

But most significantly, at least 11 Tory parliamentary candidates have either been delegates or speakers at its courses since 2003. With many in winnable seats, it seems the graduates of the "Conservative madrasa" could be about to take power.

As for Comrade Blaney? Well his views are well known, he has rightly never been afraid to express them, but to suggest that YBF is some sort in indoctrination brain washer is ridiculous. Just a cursory glance over the list of speakers from last weeks event shows that there was a mixture of painfully party line stuff and some more interesting ideological suggestions from the right. The range of PPCs and journalist YBF has helped, again shows the broad-church of conservative thought nurtured by such a vital organisation. There was even some orange-bookers at the event last week.

Donal has done a fantastic job with YBF and to be so sloppy to suggest that one man's personal opinions on a handful of issues must therefore be reflected by everyone he has ever helped shows just how lazy The Guardian piece is. Well done also too CF's press officer Michelle Donelan for handling what was quite clearly an attempted hatchet job with ease.

Right, must dash, TB has got to practice his water-boarding skills.

You can donate to YBF

here

.

Lefty News on Purcell

TB is a big fan of lefty-stirrer 

Political Scrabook

, but this did make him crack up:

You can say that again.

Please Please Please Stop

The election hasn't even been called but for the record TB would just like to say at this point he is already sick to the back teeth of having to listen to constant references to the following terms:

"The internet election..." as in "this is like totally the internet election" - Yes it will be important but not that important.

"Obama-style fund-raising"  as in "we have no money but lets make it sound good when someone gives us a fiver" - The UK is at least five years behind getting anywhere close to even a minor senate campaign. Get a grip. If anything it should be called "Dean-style" fund-raising.  PPCs can only spend 40k from now onward on seats, Ron Paul raised a million in one day.

"Twitter engagement"  as in "we like totally get social media engagement" - Well done, you are talking to 10,000 politically active people. Less than a quarter of one constituency. Go knock on some doors.

"Car Crash TV" as in "OMG you see that reasonably competent, but idealogical differing from my own view, television performance? That guy got like totally #PWNED. #FAIL #GAMEON" - Just because you disagree with someone doesn't make it a bad performance. Though this line can genuinely apply to Prescott, J. and Devine, J.

Feel free to include your own ideas below and TB will update any good ones.

Enough.

This whole weeks news agenda didnt have to happen like this. Though Ashcroft has not broken any laws, why didn't he just say he was a non-dom? There is nothing wrong with it, why should money he has earned abroad be taxed here? He pays tax on his British earnings. Sorted. But why also let such an easy hit happen? It's now clear why he bought ConservativeHome, a little protection no?

Labour's tantrums have been utterly shameful though, especially today's Business Questions. Get a grip, people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones, however much they want to distract from Brown's Chilcot appearance tomorrow. Not only do they have millions of pounds of union support but they also have their own non-dom backers who are much much more controversial than Ashcroft. See this weeks Guy News for a little digging TB and co have been doing on Lord Paul. And to have the audacity to use Mandy to spearhead the charge is laughable. Who the hell is he to criticise any Lords appointment? The man should be in the political graveyard having resigned twice from the cabinet, lied to try save his arse and line his pockets on the EU gravy train.

 Jog on.

Blair's Book Cover

Tip of the hat to

KeepRightOnline.

Chemical Dependency

Well you read it on TB first but the BBC have finally caught up with the fact Steve Purcell has a coke problem. Even the council staff wanted to release a "

chemical dependecy

" press release.

No wonder he retained his own spokesman.

Free Hogan

Pub land lord Nick Hogan has been been jailed in one of the countries most violent prisons for flouting the smoking ban. Please donate to get him out next Tuesday

here

.

Quote of the Day

"There is no magic button we can press, no sword we can pull out of the stone to bring back all those thousands of people who voted for us in the 80's and 90's. We can't. They're all dead."

Eric Pickles to YBF Parliament Rally

The Ministry of Sound

TB is off the Westminster for the Young Britons' Foundation Parliamentary Rally 2010.

Check out their new website too

. Very nice. Seems there is a very sound list of speakers about to kick off in Committee Room 10:

Kindly hosted by Greg Hands MP

2.00pm Douglas Carswell MP (Harwich & Clacton)
2.15pm Alex Deane (Big Brother Watch)
2.30pm Gerald Howarth MP (Shadow Defence Minister)
2.45pm Jonathan Isaby (ConservativeHome)
3.00pm Andrew Rosindell MP (Shadow Home Office Minister)
3.15pm Raheem Kassam (Student Rights)
3.30pm Mark Wallace (The TaxPayers’ Alliance)
3.45pm James Delingpole (Author & Polemicist)
4.00pm Shane Greer (Total Politics)
4.15pm Simon Richards (The Freedom Association)
4.30pm Harry Cole (Sunlight Centre for Open Politics)
4.45pm Dr Liam Fox MP (Shadow Defence Secretary)
5.00pm Eric Pickles MP (Conservative Party Chairman)
5.15pm Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes)
5.30pm Iain Dale (Blogger & Publisher)
5.45pm Samuel Coates (CCHQ)
5.55pm Michael Rock (Conservative Future)

See you there. Hashtag is apparently #ybfpr10.

Purcell Leaves Rehab

TB got a fair bit of flack for his alluding to exactly why Steven Purcell quit as leader of Glasgow Council. The

usual hysterics

came from the usual places last night to suggest that TB was wrong. Well the BBC are now

confirming

that Purcell this morning left a drug rehabilitation clinic south of Edinburgh.

TB wishes no ill toward Mr Purcell but sees no reason why he even bothered trying to cover it up by retaining a man who claims to be "Scotland's Max Clifford" to handle the crisis. It's always the lying that makes the story...

Obama Caught Lip-Syncing

Brilliant.

Sniffing Around the Purcell Story

Further to the post below, TB understands that former Scottish Labour rising star Steven Purcell was as happy as larry on Friday morning yet mysteriously cleared his diary by the afternoon and went into crisis meetings before bringing out the "stress" press release and resigning last night. Could this be a little white lie?

What could have made him react so suddenly? What story did someone discover and put to him?

Sniff sniff.

Purcell Intrigue

TB's nose started to twitch as soon as he heard the news breaking last night that up-and-coming Scottish Labour star Steven Purcell was quitting.  After an apparent breakdown he has walked away from his role in charge of Glasgow Council. But there's more to the story than that...

He narrowly missed out being an MP in last years Glasgow by-election and many wondered why he wasn't selected as the Labour candidate. If Purcell really did want to get away from politics for a while why then has he retained PR man Jack Irvine from the 

Media House

 PR firm?

Mr Irving is a crisis manager, but TB hears perhaps Mr Purcell better find a relationship councillor too.


UPDATE: Seems Purcell needs more than just relationship help. Developing...

What Does Robbo Know?

Intriguing headline for a

story

that contained no reference to polling day. What was he planning on writing?

I Want Gets

CCHQ just sent out a good little release:

May 2007
David Cameron first backed a TV debate between the party leaders:

‘I hope in the next few days Gordon Brown will make clear that once he's actually the Labour leader and Prime Minister he'll take part in proper TV debates that could really help bring politics to life.’ (BBC News Online, 19 May 2007)

6 September 2007
David Cameron called for a televised debate:

‘Any time, anywhere. I will even pay for the taxi to take him to the studio. In fact, I'll even drive the cab!’ (David Cameron, The Sun, 6 September 2007)

27 February 2008
David Cameron used Prime Minister’s Questions to call once again for televised debates:
‘I want to put to the Prime Minister one other point that could help to restore some invigoration in our politics. It is this: there is no doubt that one of the reasons why the American elections have caught people’s imagination is that night after night the contenders debate in live television debates. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the time for such live television debates at general election times has now come? Will he agree to hold television debates with the leaders of the main political parties so that people can see us discuss the issues, the policies and the challenges for the future of this country?’ (David Cameron, Hansard, 27 February 2008, column 1084)

26 April 2009
David Cameron repeated the call for televised debates in an interview with The Sunday Times:

‘Let’s have one. Let’s have several…Any time, any place, anywhere.’ (The Sunday Times, 26 April 2009)

19 July 2009
David Cameron reiterated his support for the debates:

“On the issue of a TV debate, I am in favour of it and the interesting thing is I’ve been in favour of it whether I'm ahead in the polls, behind in the polls, whether it’s just after being made leader of the Conservative Party or whether it’s right now. I think our democracy would benefit from elections where the party leaders debated against each other and I really hope that this time, because I'm in favour of it and want to have it and frankly, will sign up to any reasonable set of rules about how many debates and where and who with and all the rest of it, I really want this to happen, it would be good for our democracy, good for elections, good to help get people fired up and enthused in politics, and also we should test out these ideas through the modern media which for many people is television. So I hope that we can do it this time, but the Prime Minister seems to think that half an hour in the House of Commons every now and again is enough. It just isn’t.” (Adam Boulton Show, Sky News, 19 July 2009)

29 July 2009
David Cameron wrote to Gordon Brown asking him to clarify his position on holding a televised leaders’ debate:

‘Five months ago, when I challenged you at Prime Minister’s Questions to a televised studio debate, you refused. This morning, Lord Mandelson said you were open to the idea. But within an hour, a Downing Street spokesperson back-tracked, saying this was not the case.

‘The Government seems to have a number of positions on this. I’ve only ever had one: a prime time televised debate is just what our political system needs.’ (Conservative Party Press Release, 29 July 2009)

4 October 2009
ANDREW MARR: Well okay. Gordon Brown has said apparently that he is prepared to go head to head in television debates, but they'd like those debates to start now. In effect the great conversation, the great national argument is happening now and he'd like to get on with it. Will you pick up that challenge?

DAVID CAMERON: Yes, I'd be delighted. I mean I'm in favour … I asked Gordon Brown first I think back in, I think it was May 2007, over two years ago, challenged him to TV debates. I think they're a good idea. I think they will help enliven interest in our politics. So, yes, I'd be delighted to take part in television debates. Obviously we've got to get some of the rules straight and also we've got to have them during the election. And I do …

ANDREW MARR: But now now, not now?

DAVID CAMERON: Oh both, I'm happy. (Andrew Marr Show, BBC)

10 January 2010
ANDREW MARR: Let's come onto the next few months of election campaigning. How important are these debates going to be to you?

DAVID CAMERON: I think they'll be very important. I mean I'm delighted they're happening because I mean there is a danger right now that if all this election is about is the sort of production of competitive dossiers, we're going to bore the public to tears, and we've got to get across …

ANDREW MARR: Can the debates be interesting?

DAVID CAMERON: I hope so. And the main thing I'd say is the politicians have got to recognise this is not our campaign, this is not our election. This is the public's election, this is your election, and we have got to open it up. And we're going to try all sorts of ways, including using lots of innovative stuff on the Internet, of getting people involved and making sure it's their priorities. (Andrew Marr Show, BBC)

Brown is apparently "relishing the opportunity." Yeeesss...

Mann Down

There is no denying that Nicolas Winterton is an idiot who the Tories can't be rid of soon enough. However TB was sure there was something wiffy about the attacks from Labour rent-a-thug John Mann. He said "second class seats are just as good as first class seats". "It is total nonsense that MPs, particularly in a recession, should regard themselves as a different kind of species,"

he told the BBC.

"MPs need to get out of this mindset that, somehow, we are above the general public, that we are special. Travelling second class keeps you in touch with the general public. It seems to me actually it helps MPs doing their job better." Fair enough.

However John Mann's constituency is Bassetlaw. The London connection is Gainsborough. A standard class return ticket from London, booked a day in advance, costs £127. So why do Mann's

expenses

show repeated claims for train fares between £230 and £260?

An open first class return costs £230.

A Weekend at the Seaside

When the news of the two point lead in the polls broke on Saturday evening, it was to a Brighton hotel full of people drunk on Azerbaijani hospitality. No one could quite believe it, pondered it, and then went back to the drinking. By the time TB surfaced today the chat had moved on to what was expected, and turned out, to be some vintage Dave. Polls always close as the election gets closer, but this is getting tight.

As ever when Cameron is on the ropes he is at his best. A lot of chatter has been how once again he pulled a blinder out of the bag without notes or autocue, and while yes this is extremely effective, the content of the speech was also top notch. Nice to hear the sharpening of that axe is still on message. The four question structure dealing with the who where what why of Cameron's conservatives should be a constant referal point for those who ask what Project Dave stands for.

Spring forum is no conference, the energy and buzz that builds up to a leaders speech after a few days wasn't quite the same and there were lots of faces missing. Especially given that any PPC with a good crack at being an MP in matter of weeks didn't want to lose 48 hours of delivering and door-knocking and rightly so. Not much in the way of gossip, so far, but it was nice to be back at the seaside though.

Much is made of the atmosphere and tension at these sort of things. It was nice of Sky News to choose such representative geriatrics to interview about the speeches. More than the odd grumble about direction and polls was an overwhelming senses of exhaustion at the weird state of electoral limbo everyone is in. The problem with the last few months has been everything is dressed up and ready to go, just there's no barn dance yet. There was more talk about fixed term Parliaments in the last two days than TB has ever heard before.

Talking of polls and strategy though, it was certainly interesting to see Lynton Crosby pressing the flesh. Hannan's Tea Party on Saturday afternoon was a good bash, the overfill room was overspilling and a great performance from the main man.

TB spent the train journey home just a couple of seats from Andy Coulson which was certainly an exprience. Ever a man of discretion, there were no incidents when the ticket inspector came round and the only thing TB managed to overhear was a phonecall ending "well done."

Can't think who that might have been with, and well deserved.