Friday, 11 September 2009

Is Simon Lewis up to the job?

The Guardian
is reporting the chaos surrounding No10 communications and the lies they pumped out about a phone call between Obama and Gordon. Essentially the spin put out in the evening was directly contradicted by Simon Lewis - head spinner, and brother of the Telegraph editor Will, the next morning. What is possibly the cruelest thing a journo could suggest about No10 spokesman?

"It sounds pernickety, it might even sound rough – but unless Lewis insists on being in on those conversations with Obama and Brown, he's not in the loop."

Ouch! Malcolm Tucker would have replied with "I am the fucking loop"...

...but it seems Mr Lewis is no Malcolm Tucker.

Quote of the Day - Ed Vaizey

It seems Ed Vaizey is still rather chuffed with his poll posistion in TB's sexy politican list. According to this month's Tatler:

"I'm not a great one for winning awards... so you can imagine how chuffed I was to be voted Britain's sexiest male politician by, um, a website called Tory Bear. Now the word 'bear' has many connotations, but I am assured the list was compiled by a woman. It's a site for 'young people' so I assume Bear means something for them."

TB was wondering when someone was going to mention the bear thang.

Never Forget

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Shock: NUS criticise Labour

In other news pigs have been seen flying, hell has frozen over and Labour are on course to win the next election.

What's Francis Maude up to?

Something tells TB that Francis Maude is circling for a kill. The ghosts of Wheelen, Draper and McBride will haunt Brown's government to the very end but it is a mystery to why Maude asked these specific two questions in the House yesterday:

"
Mr. Maude
: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on what date he last met Mr. Damian McBride in the course of his official duties. [287404]

Joan Ruddock: There have been no such meetings."


And:

"
Mr. Maude
: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when the Secretary of State last (a) met and (b) communicated with (i) Mr Derek Draper and (ii) Mr Charlie Whelan in the course of his official duties. [287350]

Mr. McFadden: My noble Friend the Secretary of State met Mr. Charlie Whelan on 15 January in the course of his official duties."


Nice dodge on the Draper question.

Bercow running scared?

First it was his own private spinner, now according to W4MP, John Bercow is looking for a caseworker for his Buckingham constituency. Nothing to do with the pending challenge by Nigel Farage though.Course not guv.

Tip of the cap to Dizzy for the spot. He has more details
here
.

Best date ever?

Hattie Garlick
is reporting that dinner with Sarah Palin is up for grabs on Ebay. TB isn't sure what is on the menu but would hope Sarah would have killed or caught it herself.
Bidding is
open
, can anyone front TB $40k?

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Funny you should mention it...

Funny Tara Hamilton-Miller should mention tory karaoke in

The Telegraph today
. Just keep the late evening of the Monday of conference free. TB will post the full details tomorrow, but let's just say that MPs, bloggers, staffers and members of HM's Lobby Press are already signed up for a sing song...

Would Gabby and Caroline like to join?

Congratulations to Elaine Bagshaw...

...On the twentieth resignation from her executive! In the two years the Liberal Youth Chairman has presided over the ridiculous organisation it seems no one, bar her most loyal apparatchiks, can stand her.

However do the membership even know about this? It happened last week, or does TB have to be their news wire now?

"Yeah, Dan Snowden resigned as VC Finance a while back. Not that anyone outside the exec has heard the news, because the silencing of the LY forums has made sure that things LY members ought to know aren't getting to them. Not through the usual channels, anyway. Elaine's clampdown on free speech could backfire horribly."

The plot thickens.

Politician of the Year?

There are mutterings afoot about why George Osborne was crowned politician of the year last night by GQ. While he may take a lot of mud from the likes of Mandy and the increasingly desperate reds, let's not forget the significance of Osborne to where the Conservatives are now.

Some people
may object to him being given the top crown but you nobody can deny the fact he gave the speech of the year last November:



Congratulations to George.

George Foulkes disgraces himself, again.

TB has apparently been the centre of a "defamation row" with Lord George Foulkes before. It's the first he has heard of it described as that, but then that isn't the only blatant inaccuracy in

this piece
from yesterday's Scotsman. See if you can spot the glaringly obvious first one. He is therefore going to tread very carefully with this one... but...

Some people just don't know when to stop. This bullying, authoritarian, expeneses apologist boozer should have drifted into obscurity years ago, instead every time he raises his ugly mug above the parapet, it is to hurl mud. If you think TB is being too harsh, read to the end of this piece. This massive scotch-soaked hypocrite had the audacity to come out with this gem:

“I think with any public expenditure, with taxpayers’ money being spent, the taxpayer should know what it is being spent on.”

Well yes, but wow, just wow - coming from the man who claims expenses both at Westminster and Holyrood - claiming some £45k to stay at a house he inherited and another £54k on top of that in Lord's expenses. Coming from teh man who, in the middle of the expenses scandal, attacked the a BBC news presenter saying she was paid "to come on TV and sneer at democracy and undermine democracy. The vast majority of MPs are being undermined by you". He wen on to accuse the Telegraph expose of being some sort of public school boy jape. The guy is a joke.

Jess The Dog
is very very angry, TB will let him take it from here:

The years of binge drinking - culminating in his arrest for drunken assault - must have really softened his brain.

The Telegraph reports
that the MoD has responded to Foulkes's pathetic attempt to smear General Sir Richard Dannatt. Foulkes submitted a series of Parliamentary Questions to dig out details of the generals use of helicopters and cost of entertaining and accommodation.

This backfired when General Dannatt released details of his own expenses independently, evidence of a far-from-lavish lifestyle and in fact commendable economy.

However, Foulkes is still trying to make mischief.

“I think in particular the use of helicopters for non-operational engagements was something that raised my eyebrows at a time when he has commented on the lack of helicopters in Afghanistan.”

What a load of absolute drivel. The helicopters used by Dannatt will be of a certain type and model (most likely Squirrels, used as training aircraft) also used by a range of senior officers, civil servants and VIPs including politicians. The helicopters that British troops need - to save lives that are being lost weekly - are medium to heavy lift helicopters, in particular the Chinook. Two Chinooks have been lost recently in Afghanistan - the airframes destroyed on the ground - so the need is even more urgent. Training and civilian helicopters are utterly useless for troop transport. There's also the small matter of the combat-ready aircrew to fly the aircraft (including the two loadmasters to get the troops and equipment on and off), the groundcrew to service the aircraft....all cut back over a decade of Labour underfunding and cutbacks.

Foulkes is beneath contempt - he is using the lives of dead soldiers to score a pathetic political point through an utterly misleading comparison, in order to further his own class war agenda and a Labour regime in terminal decline.


TB couldn't agree more. One day, and it's coming soon, this country will be rid of this bunch of dispicable smearing thugs and we can begin the long process of rebuilding a political system based on respect and adherence to the people who lay down their lives to defend it.

This Labour government, represented by Foulkes, is not worth one drop of soldiers blood.

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

UKIP if you want to...

TB understands that UKIP youth vice-chairman Yasin Akgun, right, has defected to the Conservatives. Good news. He campaigned heavily for UKIP in the Norwich North by-election but TB can't find much else about him other than this article on the
Young Conservative blog
in May.

Seems he has seen the light though.

What are Liberal Youth hiding?

So three grand and a few years later the new

Liberal Youth website
was finally relaunched last night. It's alright, but to be fair it could have been made for free by a committed member.
Cough
. However the launch has been shrouded in controversy due to the fact that the Lib Dem forums are down and currently do not feature in the new website.

The LY membership have
gone mental
, especially given their executive were busted lying. They said the forum couldn't be restored elsewhere, yet two techno savvy members managed to do just that. A source reports what happened next:

"Then after some threatening phone calls from Elaine and massive fights within the Exec the two individuals in question have had to take the "not the liberal youth" forums down. Legal threats were said to have been screamed down the phone. Elaine has deliberately censored the history of the forums and purposely stifled debate."

What could she have wanted to hide?

Well TB has a pretty good idea this posting would have been pretty high up the list:

Images were playing up, now fixed here:
1
,
2
,
3
,
4


Enlarge to have a read. Fascinating stuff from the former staff member responsible for Liberal Youth.

No wonder they can't find a replacement.

This is why he will win...

"Cutting the perks, cutting the bureaucracy.

In total the proposals I have announced today will save taxpayers as much as £120 million a year.

That figure may seem trifling when we have a budget deficit of £175 billion.
But this is about more than the money.

It’s about the message. And the message is this. This country is in a debt crisis.

We must all now come together, play our part, carry our burden and pay our fair share.

And that starts at the very top –with politicians cutting the cost of politics.

I sincerely believe our country will be able to cope with and come through the tough times ahead...
....but only if we tell people the truth about what’s happening.

Gordon Brown just cannot be straight with people.

He’s come back from his break but it like he’s never been away.

He’s still sticking to the same old myth that we can spend, spend and spend.
The only party that is being straight with the British people today is the Conservatives.

We understand the scale of the problem.

We have said spending must be cut.

And we’re determined to lead the country by powerful example and cut the cost of politics.

That’s because if we stick together, and all play our part, our best days will lie ahead of us.”


Spot on.

The Secret Formula

Newspapers hacks are always desperate to show they "get blogging" and all dat web 2.0 jazz. Some do, others really don't.

Paul Waugh
of the Evening Standard knows exactly what he is doing:
He has clearly worked out the mythical balance between politicking, scoops and totty.

Monday, 7 September 2009

TB serves Derek Draper

It wasn't just

McBride that was served
this morning, Tory Bear went along to pay his old friend Dolly a visit. Sadly Derek was out, but he handed the court papers on behalf of Nadine Dorries MP, to Mrs Draper, whose smile faded somewhat when TB explained who the letter was from...



Love the smell of justice in the morning...

A gentle reminder...

Still no comment about this.

Where's Wally?



It's the place to be...

Anton Howes set up the very sound
Social Liberalist Party
in 2008. The Telegraph
described
it as a "Facebook party" in March and Alex Singleton went on to say:
"Often school pupils who are interested in politics are overweight and socially inept, but Mr Howes is just a normal teenager, albeit a particularly eloquent one. As he spoke, I saw someone who the Tories ought to be wooing. That he hasn’t joined Mr Cameron’s party suggests that the Tories still have a way to go to get the votes of the young, many of whom prefer to stay at home rather than visit the ballot box."

Well some good news reaches TBHQ via
Mr Howe's Twitter feed
:

Good man.

Laughing at John Prescott, again.

The combination of John "ham-fisted" Prescott and The Grauniad was never

going to go well
, however it seems that global warming like thing is going to have an extremely profound effect upon the world's population:
Not sure that's what Prescott meant when he ordered "lots of Chinese" either.