Category Archives: Conservative Party

Nadine Dorries accidentally tweets DM accusing Osborne of “bullying”

10:18am Mon May 14th
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Tory insurgent Nadine Dorries has accused George Osborne of orchestrating a “bullying operation” against her. In a twitter message apparently intended as a DM and quickly deleted, the Bedfordshire MP references an incident in which a backbencher was seen leaving the Chancellor’s office – shortly before a number of colleagues viciously attacked her in a party meeting.

Hours after leaving Osborne’s office, Kris Hopkins led the attacks on Dorries in the backbench 1922 Committee, in which she faced cries of “treason”, “shameful” and “disgusting” — with one MP even saying she ”should be shot” for her disloyalty.

Directing her followers to the source in a Sunday newspaper, however, perhaps this was more “accidental” than accidental.

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Latest data shows recession worsen after Tory HQ attempt to spin figures

1:45pm Fri May 11th
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Revised figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed that the recession was worse than first feared — the morning after Tory HQ attempted to spin figures to deny the “double dip”.

As poor construction output figures dragged down GDP from -0.2 to -0.3 percent for the first quarter, Tory HQ attempted to use figures published by economic think tank NISER to contradict the ONS data – despite the dates for the data being off by a whole month.

In embarrassing scenes, the director of the NISER demanded that they issue a retraction:

This is a shoo-in to be raised at Treasury questions.

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Rebekah Brooks: David Cameron signed his texts to me “LOL”

12:14pm Fri May 11th
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Rebekah Brooks tells Leveson:

“Occasionally he would sign them off ‘LOL’, meaning ‘lots of love’. But I had to explain it meant ‘laugh our loud’.”

ROFL.

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Tories deny there’s a recession – by pretending it’s the wrong month

6:14pm Thu May 10th
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Despite official figures showing two quarters of negative growth, the Conservative Party have attempted to cast doubt on the reality of a UK recession – by pretending it’s the wrong month.

In confusion redolent of Theresa May ‘not knowing what day it was’ over Abu Qatada’s extradition, Tory spinners attempted to claim we’re not in recession by confusing the first quarter of 2012 with rolling three-month measure.

Figures from think tank NISER showing 0.1% growth in the last three months, February to April, but these were spun as contradicting official figures from January to March.

But a spokesman from NISER told Scrapbook:

“We’re not challenging ONS Q1 figures at all. The very first sentence of our press release makes clear we’re incorporating the ONS data for Q1.”

Someone needs to order a calendar to Millbank.

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Hypocrite Tory MP promotes company – after £5,000 donation

4:49pm Thu May 10th
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The so-called Trade Union Reform Campaign (TURC) — run by Nazi-partying Tory MP Aidan Burley — have expended much effort fulminating that Labour MPs should declare trade union donations to their constituency parties when speaking about employment issues in parliament.

A member of TURC’s grand-sounding Parliamentary Council is Staffordshire MP Karen Bradley, who had this to say about heavy equipment manufacturer JCB at business questions today:

“the success or otherwise of JCB has a great impact on the economy in Staffordshire Moorlands because of the number of people employed by JCB and the number of local businesses that supply JCB. It was great news to learn of last year’s record results — the best in the business’s 66-year history.”

Perhaps TURC’s piety on declarations would be more believable if they extended the principle to themselves. The register of members’ interests shows that Karen Bradley’s local party has received no less than £5,000 from JCB:

Name of donor: JCB Research
Address of donor: Lakeside Works, Rocester, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £5,000

Scrapbook thought tractor production statistics were the territory of the far left.

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Boris met with Sun editors – the day after Rebekah Brooks was arrested

1:25pm Thu May 10th
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Boris Johnson met with senior editors from The Sun in March — just one day after Rebekah Brooks was arrested in a dawn raid, Political Scrapbook can reveal. The news comes after sustained criticism of his closeness to NewsCorp while his police force were investigating hacking and his outgoing PR chief being courted for a senior role with Rupert Murdoch.

Perhaps the meeting with editor Dominic Mohan and political editor Tom Newton Dunn goes some way to explaining his botched cover-up when asked about planned News International sponsorship — ranting to a TV camera that questions on the issue were “fucking bollocks”.

Doubtless there is relief in some quarters that this didn’t leak during the election.

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New Boris deputy quits as councillor after appointment cock-up

9:19am Thu May 10th
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In the first cock-up of Boris’ new term, leading Tory Stephen Greenhalgh has been forced to quit as a councillor in west London to to become deputy mayor for policing – despite claims from council authorities and the Evening Standard that he could continue in both roles.

As highlighted by Scrapbook on Tuesday, City Hall rules ban advisers to the mayor from being “politically active” unless they are members of the London Assembly.

You read it here first.

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Luke Bozier: Cameron should give people like my business partner a job

4:02pm Wed May 9th
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Having worked “closely” with Tony Blair [cough], Luke Bozier has taken time out from his career as a “digital politics and government innovator” to give some unsolicited advice to David Cameron.

Bozier — who recently formed a company with Louise Mensch — writes on MSN that the prime minister “must lead his government by carrying out a decisive reshuffle”:

“Younger Tory faces should be brought into government for the first time”

We wonder to whom he could be referring!

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