"The European Commission has signed a $1bn (£602m) development pact with Nigeria"
reports the BBC
. Oh come on, they can't really have fallen for that? Everyone gets spam emails from "Nigerians" begging for money, but only the European Union could be collectively dumb enough to fall for that trick.
Jess the Dog
exclusively reveals the email that sealed the deal:
Dear Your Excellency Development Commissioner of the European Union,
I am writing this mail to you with tears and sorrow from my heart. With due respect trust and humanity, I appeal to you to exercise a little patience and read through my letter.
My father was former Nigerian Peace and Human Rights Minister. He has been exile in prison house arrest in Abuja under many guards and tortures. He is not live long even if they release. But he has Swiss bank account with one trillion million dollars that is pledged for peace, security and human rights.
My friend, I know you love peace even though I not know you. I know you believe in human rights and want to see the dream of my father come into the world. But the bank in Swiss will not release one trillion million dollars without special deposit. If you will send me the sum of one billion dollars as special deposit then bank will release one trillion million dollars for peace, security and human rights.
I trust you, my friend, to respond urgent.
XXX
They will be using European taxpayers' money to buy counterfeit viagra and prescription pills next.
If the Tories move to place the police under local control there will be resignations,
says top copper
Sir Hughly important Orde:
"We must be operationally independent in terms of how we deliver policing. We should not be influenced by anyone who has any potential or suggestion for a political basis."
News reaches TB though that on December 5th the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth will be focusing entirely on the war in Afghanistan from the warmth and comfort of several Coventry pubs and bars along with Superintendent Deborah Harrod from West Midlands Police. Debs recently missed out on the top job in the West Midlands force and is also understood to be eying up a promotion in one of the London forces. Being seen with a cabinet minister must have its perks...
The visit has caused a furore for a number of reasons:
Bob Ainsworth says he's totally focused on Afghanistan and yet can find time to trawl bars in search of insurgent binge drinkers... They must get a lot of those in Afghanistan for it to be worth of the Defence Secretary's attention,
The visit is not in Bob's constituency - the neighbouring Coventry South constituency is thirsty Jim Cunningham's. Perhaps the police were worried Jim might become part of the problem after a few.
The visit features exclusively Labour politicians who do not represent the area in a city that is Conservative-controlled and in a ward that is all-Conservative. It's been seen as a politically provocative move from the police.
Is this the freedom from political influence and bias Hugh Orde means?
James Macintyre, sage of the New Statesman, has shown
once again
how on the ball he is with his shrewd analysis and foresight. If you are ever in doubt of who is the greatest hack of them all, just look what he published yesterday:
TB is on the move but news is breaking that Harman is to be charged for driving offences. At the time she was reported to haver said to witnesses "I'm Harriet Harman, you know where to find me." Well it seems they found her.
In days of yore politicians would resign for much less.
. Gordon has u-turned on what he thinks about X-Factor uber-freaks Jedward. This is especially embarrassing after Labour's botched attempts to have a dig at Cameron and Osborne with a disasterous online
poster campaign
.
Labour's online team haven't really had the best of weeks really.
Ok ok, TB promises he will change the record soon, but one final comment on that god awful PEB from the Labour Party last night (See previous postings.) Much fuss was made that they were listening to their grassroots when in reality they are broke, and rehashing stock footage and slipping the Hovis guy a twenty for the voice over was cheaper than making a whole new campaign. If Labour really cared about their grassroots they could have done a lot worse than follow up this video:
Instead of lies and clips of Obama, a PEB on similar style to that effort. It was made by grassroots activists, for grassroots activists, when Labour was at the lowest low point back at the beginning of the summer. The quality is rubbish, it was knocked together on Blackberries, but that doesn't matter. The message behind it is far, far more powerful then anything that has come from the top. Hell even TB was moved by the determination of the core. He may well disagree with everything this deluded bunch stand for but damn you got to respect their commitment and a great way to communicate their message. Who can hate a bit of Journey. Here's to the fighters, not the glory seeking twitteres, but the ones actually putting the work in.
Do not collect anymore deliberately pilfered taxpayer money.
Fantastic news
in this morning's Telegraph -It seems that the Met is closing in on the worst troughers. As suspected, it seems the scummiest offenders have been Labour's Chaytor, Morely and Devine.
More than likely, you don't know who I am, and are wondering why I'm emailing you. I’m not a politician, I’m an ordinary Labour Party member.
A few weeks ago I started a campaign to get this video released as Labour's PPB
And guess what - tonight it's going to be shown on TV. On BBC 2 at 5.55pm and BBC 1 and ITV 1 at 6.55pm.
I saw it for the first time at Labour Party Conference this year and it actually made me cry. It reminded me why I joined this Party, why I campaign for this Party and why I will always fight for this Party.
But here's the interesting thing - I started to show it to people who weren't members, people who weren't even sure they were going to vote Labour this time round - and they loved it too and said it made them more likely to vote for us.
The video outlines the measures announced in the Queen’s Speech – like free personal care for those in need as a step towards the creation of a National Care Service – and sets them in the context of Labour achievements like the Minimum Wage and the creation of the NHS.
It’s called "Fighters and Believers" - you'll see why when you watch it - and in honour of this, this weekend the Labour Party is holding a "Fighters Weekend".
If you list an event that you're organising for this weekend on Membersnet by the end of the day the Labour Party will send you a batch of special limited edition "Fighters and Believers" badges for your CLP
This is the story of Britain and of our Party - people fighting to achieve change, people fighting to secure fairness and opportunity for those in middle and modest circumstances and people fighting for the country as a whole.
And the lesson we should all carry with us in the coming months? When we fight we win.
If you have ever wanted anyone you know who’s undecided about how they might vote at the next election to understand why you’re Labour get them to watch this video
Best wishes,
Ellie Gellard
PS – If you can’t campaign for Labour this weekend but want to join the fight – you can donate to Labour now and make a massive difference. Every penny you donate will be spent on our fight.
She may "always fight for this Party" but that is the very problem with Labour and this government, they fight for themselves and not for the country.
to be their man. Scott has a fantastic record as a councillor and did wonders running some fantastic events at Conference, such as the highly successful Party for Change. He would make a great MP.
Quite unbelievably the error strewn Against the Odds video is err still error strewn, inaccurate and stomach churning, ready for its TV debut tonight. See TB's earlier post.
Millionaire Labour donor JK Rowling plug gone though, unsurprisingly.
UPDATE: A brilliant spot by the
Angry Walrus
. At 1.40 there are shots of the city and some banks. Here we can see the true legacy of this Labour government:
"Mortgage approvals slump to record lows" "Economy to slow this year despite rate cuts" "weak pound aggravating inflation pressures" Red faces at
Labour know that none of these Bills will pass, and thus makes the whole thing even more political. As TB's buddy Strathclyde said, there are only thirty odd legislative days left in the upper house and it would be a failure on the part of the Lords if they did not conduct proper scrutiny. The ever plugged in Kevin Maguire just let slip the entire Labour strategy on Sky moments ago. There won't be time to get these through, but it sows the seeds for the election campaign, which started officially about two hours ago it seem at Mandy's Victoria Street briefing. Kevin clearly stated that these Bills will be put to Cameron to accept in the campaign. Labour are fighting like an desperate opposition, the government is trying to make the opposition dance to their tune, a sign of how far they have sunk. They know the game is up. They are exhausted, they have no real new ideas.
Dizzy looks
at each measure in his ever erudite style. Cameron must stay strong and not play their game.
Fingers crossed that the Telegraph's Andrew Pierce is right. His repsonse to Maguire was to suggest this will be the last Labour Queen's Speech for a "very very long time."
OK so not really, but the day has arrived commie friends. This is the moment we have been waiting for proles and dolls. When we fight, we win!
That's right, today is the the day the inaccurate socialist lies will be peddled on national television. After the
absolute pasting
the Against the Odds video has received by an army of freelance fact checkers online, across the political spectrum, it is of no surprise it had to be sent back to the editing room before it could be aired tonight.
TB predicts the Bevin/Bevan epic cock up will be gone, as will JK "Give us a mill"Rowling and probably the outrageous claim to have freed Mandela. TB gave the vid his two cents here but for a more comprehensive savaging, check out this
no holds barred fisk
:
"“They said that working people were not fit to govern - so we formed the Labour Party” A party where the intellect, stimulus and money was supplied by the decidedly middle-class Fabians and their friends.
“They said that women didn’t deserve the vote” This glosses carefully over the fact that Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the main suffragette movement, WSPU, was refused membership of the Independent Labour Party after she was encouraged to do so by her friend Keir Hardie. The refusal was on account of her gender. Several years before her death, Emmaline became concerned by socialism and joined the Conservative Party. We are of course still waiting for a woman to be elected leader of the Labour party, let alone become a Labour Prime Minister. The legislation to extend an equal franchise to women was brought in by Baldwin’s Conservative government in 1928."
Etc.
TB's favourite comment so far has to be one of the ones left on youtube:
"After toppling apartheid, building the NHS, bringing peace to Northern Ireland and winning the second world war.. isn't it hard to stifle a giggle when Gordon Brown suddenly pops up @1.24 with... (drum roll)... Sure Start :-)
But I mock, GB is clearly a great man - just look! he walks with Barack Obama, at 2:12."
The
Labour PR machine
has gone into overdrive over this nonsense. "LOOK AT US WE LISTEN TO ONLINE TYPES!" It's weird to think that if the party is that broke, to the extent they have to recycle their amateurish videos to broadcast on TV, how/why are they paying for private polling about it? Kerry let the cat out of the bag on that one:
Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s strategists had noted the campaign. It’s clear the video appeals to Labour supporters, but then they tested it in focus groups of swing voters and it was going down well. And so the decision to update it and run it as the Queen’s Speech PPB was taken.
This decision is a victory for Labour’s thriving online community. It’s a victory for everyone who understands the power that new forms of communication are now giving us. And it’s a victory for the Labour Party who should be congratulated for acting so quickly to embrace the opportunity here.
Ugh, pass the trough. The left are rattled and they are shoring up their core base, simple as. This isn't about engagement online this is about clocking that some over excited kiddies gurgled and clapped their hands a lot when they saw something they liked. We are still months from an election and already Labour are being made to dance a merry tune by their out of touch and amateur membership, in a desperate bid to shore up votes. Role on 17.55 BBC 2.
TB will have a spring in his step and whistle on his lips this morning.
could be set to make moves against Gordon. In a sure sign that No10 is somewhat rattled by this, just look at their aggressive reaction to the news:
Criticism of Brown's leadership will anger No 10 as it seeks to build on small progress in the opinion polls and a strong byelection performance in Glasgow North East. It insists that the 4,000-strong Compass has little traction in the parliamentary party.
Senior figures in Compass, however, point to a database of 30,000 supporters. They think they could back the home secretary in return for a pledge from him that a referendum on electoral reform would be held, possibly on the day of the general election, or the foreign secretary in exchange for movement on measures to tackle inequality.
A shift to the left would be the final nail in the coffin, and while might firm up some of the Labour core, it would seal the deal for Cameron as the sensible floating voters come to the blue camp in terrified droves. Why did Labour change in the first place?
If Compass do start operations this could get bloody very quickly.
the other day about the Labour council candidate who described the Queen as vermin in a foul treasonous diatribe. Well WTC has managed to dig out a photo of said traitor and guess who is posing happily with him:
TB has a full on day but will be back later. He also had a rather sore head thanks to those nice people at ComRes. Their charity awards bash was great fun though sadly Ed Balls did a runner before TB could get a photo. No doubt he clocked his opponent Antony Calvert in the audience.
Quote the evening had to come from Nick Hurd while presenting an award:
"Such a pleasure to be here presenting Campaigner of the Year, and following on from Ken Livingstone, who clearly wasn't."
TB laughed a little too loudly as the rest of the room had a sharp intake of breath.
TB lost a drunken bet with Kerry McCarthy last night that the Against the Odds vid would never get an airing on TV. Ironically Sister Bear has a
piece in today's Standard
that made TB chuckle - it's all about hasty tweeting. Ben Bradshaw and darling Kerry come under particular scrutiny...
Late-night or ill-thought-out tweets are the cyber equivalent of drunken dialling.
Despite the inherent risk, the Labour party now has a "twitter tsar", Kerry McCarthy MP.
Her tag denotes the seriousness with which politicians have embraced Twitter's 24/7 opportunity to listen the sound of their own tweets and engage with voters.
Over at the Tory party, The Spectator's diary of a Notting Hill nobody, the satirical diary of a Conservative minion, reports that all MPs are supposed to spend three hours a day on Facebook and a further three on Twitter.
Parties might want us to see their tweeting members as spontaneous and modern, but the freedom allowed by constant tweeting can be disastrous.
McCarthy reacted to news that the Sun would be supporting Cameron with the following tweet: "Labour doesn't need The Sun. We've got Twitter ..." only to backtrack furiously.
The most regretted tweet of all made a front-page political row. Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw gave a kneejerk twitter response to David Cameron's conference speech.
Within minutes he tweeted about his attack on "big government", seeming to imply that Cameron and his family had big government to thank for the care their late son Ivan received in the hands of the NHS.
The times of Bradshaw's tweets, too (a veritable dawn chorus), are extraordinary. He regularly tweets at midnight, one, two and five, from his mobile.
The two problems TB has with yoof politics is the lack of accountability and a lack of humour - TB intends to kill, or at least wound these two birds with one stone. editor@torybear.com
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