Tag Archives: conservativehome

ConservativeHome plagiarise Eric Pickles press release

1:52pm Mon August 1st

Right wing bloggers like to pretend their lefty counterparts receive their scoops directly “from the Labour Party press office”. It was therefore with some amusement that Scrapbook spotted a word-for-word copy of a government press release masquerading as original content on ConservativeHome.

Without bothering to change the title, the otherwise unassailable organ of the Tory grassroots has copy and pasted a media notice on the scintillating topic of, erm, town centre parking.

“Centrally imposed limits on town centre parking spaces will be scrapped helping to provide a big boost to struggling high streets, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today.”

Last year, ConHome’s local government editor and Associated Newspapers director Harry Phibbs described an Independent article critical of his own Hammersmith and Fulham as:

“not so much a piece of journalism as a regurgitation of dishonest Labour press releases.”

How ironic that Phibbs should now adopt this approach.

UPDATE: Allister Hayman of the Local Government Chronicle has tweeted us two further examples of blatant churnalism from the redoubtable Cllr Harry Phibbs (originals here and here).

Meanwhile, a comment from Eskimo Nell has drawn our attention to Eric Pickles’s recently published list of media meetings, which shows a semi-regular monthly liaison with ConservativeHome editor Tim Montgomerie. It turns out the secretary of state has met Montgomerie a total of seven times since June of last year, significantly more than any other media representative — no wonder ConHome has such a cosy relationship with the DCLG press office.

Sexist quote of the day: women can't mow lawns edition

9:04am Fri February 11th

16 comments

That EU-funded feminism claptrap has clearly been vanquished over at ConservativeHome, where LGiU wonk Glyn Gaskarth outlines the division of labour in the Big Society:

A healthy male can mow a lawn or clear a drive. A healthy female could form a neighbourhood watch; volunteer to assist at a local school, help at the local library or begin to run a youth group for local children etc.

Next week: how to install white picket fencing while your wife is afflicted by female hysteria.

ConservativeHome's bizarre Ken Livingstone conspiracy theories

3:31pm Mon February 7th

15 comments

It’s tin foil hat time over at ConservativeHome, which on Friday claimed that Ken Livingstone’s press officer is moonlighting for the rail/tube union RMT.

Labour-RMT relations were sour even prior to the union being booted out of the party for supporting Tommy Sheridan’s Scottish Socialists way back in 2004. Suggestions that Livingstone’s staff were also working for the RMT were literally greeted with laughter by union sources this afternoon.

The basis for the erroneous post is a forwarded email from an RMT regional office in which Livingstone’s press officer, Joe Derrett, is listed as a contact for a press call with Labour’s London transport spokesperson. It is unclear how details of the event found their way to the RMT, however the email was not sent to the union by Derrett, nor does he work for them.

Our editor forwarded ConservativeHome’s daily email to a friend this morning …

… so does the affable Tim Montgomerie now write for Political Scrapbook?

ConHome depicts Cameron "surrendering" in underpants

9:01am Fri October 29th

9 comments

Tim Montgomerie must be popular in Number 10 this morning:

Is it any wonder CCHQ is so paranoid about ConservativeHome?

The site’s position as the guardian of the activists does not pass unchallenged: one CCHQ employee demanded I refer to Montgomerie as “the self-appointed voice of the grassroots” … party staff worry about ConservativeHome’s ability to whip up outrage in the rightwing press. One former senior party press officer said “the Mail used to ring 100 constituency chairmen if they didn’t like what we were doing, and they’d get a story out of that. You know, ‘hard-working activists outraged’ stuff. Now they just need to ring Tim. The old ‘Tory splits’ stock story just got that much easier.”
The site could also act as a platform for rebels. One front-bench MP described its likely future role as a “serial harbourer of fugitives. I would expect Tim to back MPs who stand up to the whips in pursuit of the ConservativeHome agenda. God only knows what that means for our policies on climate change, Europe, on immigration or on defence.”

In the finest traditions of the party, it’s good to see the Tories having an, erm, vigorous debate about Europe again.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

David Cameron's election lies over frontline cuts

1:39pm Wed October 20th

10 comments

Hats off to Sunder Katwala for highlighting the astonishing chasm between the Tories’ pre- and post-election rhetoric on cuts. While Tim Montgomerie implored ConservativeHome readers this week “Don’t believe the right-wing commentators who say this isn’t going to hurt”, what was the line to take a few days before the election?

David Cameron told Andrew Marr on 2 May:

Any cabinet minister … if we win the election, who comes to me and says, “Here are my plans” and they involve frontline reductions, they’ll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again. – David Cameron

How, then, is it possible to square these claims with the precipitous cuts announced this afternoon?

Perhaps it is all Danny Alexander’s fault?

ConservativeHome: on message for coalition harmony

6:46pm Sun August 22nd

6 comments

Here’s a good spot from Left Outside. One wonders whether the continued presence of a butchered Liberal Democrat bird logo on ConservativeHome’s famous shields is a deliberate editorial decision:

Didn’t Tim Montgomerie get that memo?

Former Kensington and Chelsea Mayor resigns over emails "sexualising children"

3:21pm Tue July 6th

10 comments

On October 2008 ConservativeHome published an article entitled “How to be a good Mayor” by Barry Phelps, the former Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea. Likening the role of a civic figurehead to that of the Queen, Phelps observes:

“While Mayor you can do no wrong with Council Standing Orders always starting: The decision of the Mayor shall be final”

The former Mayor may today find himself hankering for the immunity previously afforded him by local government’s high office. Phelps and his Conservative colleague Cllr Mark Daley handed in their resignations yesterday before an official complaint could reach the borough’s Standards Committee on Wednesday.

The Kensington and Chelsea Chronicle reports:

Barry Phelps fired off a series of emails to Councillor Mark Daley, displaying black and white images of young boys with sexually suggestive captions added by Mr Phelps. Both handed in their resignations on Monday. The emails were reported to the council by Justin Downes, leader of the Residents First campaign group, who had been alerted by a concerned resident. ”These were innocent images and Councillor Phelps has created sexual overtones to them,” Mr Downes said.

One assumes ConservativeHome won’t be offering a repeat performance of Phelps’ lecture on conduct in local government.

Ashcroft hires team for Tory viral attack videos

10:08pm Wed September 23rd

5 comments

Lord Ashcroft’s £1.3m takeover of ConservativeHome and PoliticsHome will go down as one of the most significant events in the development of online campaigning in the UK. As the political web reacts to this move some of the most incisive analysis comes from Mark Hanson and Jag Singh, who both spotlight the probability that the Tories are about to go on the offensive with viral video.

The defunct 18 Doughty Street was incorporated into the PoliticsHome startup by Stephan Shakespeare. With this acquisition tax dodging Ashcroft now controls a setup with, as Jag Singh points out, previous form in the video arena.

But Scrapbook now understands that Ashcroft has not only got his hands on the mothballed TV production kit for 18 Doughty Street but has also hired a staff of four video-only creatives to produce hard hitting American-style attack videos. This is the most concrete indicator of Ashcroft’s intentions in this direction.

The Vote Different viral caused one of the first serious wobbles in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The team around ConservativeHome have already experimented with similar content with high production values:

Tim Montgomerie and James Bethell were also behind this rather brilliant anti-BNP attack:

It may come to pass that CCHQ will have polished attack videos spewing out of every orifice for the next eight months. But we would be wrong to think that – without a Belizean billionaire throwing money at anything with a pulse – Labour’s online effort is doomed.

This week Labourites would all do well to remember the only YouTube video which has actually claimed a British political scalp and that the simplest recipes are often the most effective:

Ingredients: one camera, one millionaire MP, one video activist.

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