Mar/10
21:12 6
Brave Sir Donal ran away!
Ladies and gentlemen, Donal Blaney has left the building! The credentials of the UK’s #11 Conservative blogger as a freedom-to-offend commentator in the Rush Limbaugh mould were left in tatters yesterday after he pulled his blog at the behest of CCHQ. Visitors craving for the stylings of this p*** poor Richard Littlejohn are now greeted with the following:
So, why will those looking for bile about gays, muslims and immigrants now need to look elsewhere? The Young Briton’s Foundation (chief executive D. Blaney) has provided ideological and campaign training to 2,500 Conservative Party activists, including 11 Westminster candidates. Today’s Grauniad has done a number on the YBF, exposing the group – which aims to indoctrinate young Tories with a virulently right-wing agenda – as electoral kryptonite. Policies espoused by the YBF leadership include scrapping the NHS, the use of waterboarding by security services and a US-style liberal firearms regime. Anyone familiar with Blaney’s writing will be unsurprised to discover that many of the most damaging elements of the article were sourced from his blog.
This could be dismissed as a non-story were it not for the fact that “there is an informal understanding that the YBF is the main provider of training for young Conservative activists”. To compound the embarrassment, the latest gathering of the YBF was addressed this week by none other than Eric Pickles and Liam Fox, who number among six Tory frontbenchers to have spoken at group conferences since 2003. Blaney’s personal blog, resplendent in it’s ’Nasty Party’ worldview, also features endoresments from Daniel Hannan, Michael Gove and Douglas Carswell.
Sunder Katwala has done a brilliant job of setting YBF in the context of a ”long tradition of ’so right-wing you probably think we’re joking’ wing-nuttery” in Conservative youth circles:
“Contrast Norman Tebbit closing down the Federation of Conservative Students for being too right-wing in 1982 with the extent to which the ProgCons engage and champion this Maggie’s Militants rump today … I doubt anybody could believe they are so ill-informed or lazy enough not to know about YBF’s right-wing “radicalisation” mission – which was causing CCHQ disquiet when IDS was leader – and exactly where they are coming from”.
The removal of his blog is some climbdown for Blaney, who has revelled in his image as a champion of (right wing) free speech and a bête noire to the left. Those wishing to crow express their feelings on the matter through the medium of song may find the following appropriate (video below so you can sing along):
Brave Sir Donal ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When danger reared it’s ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Donal turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Donal!
“He’s buggered off!”
“So he has, he’s scarpered!”
Nov/09
09:28 1
The political dictionary: “cast iron guarantee”
Some say he is the love child of Trinny and Susannah. Others that he was sired by the forbidden coupling of a minotaur and a unicorn. All we know is he’s a all for ancient Greek democracy… Yes, Gav Trait is back with another cartooney thing!
Nov/09
12:23 1
David Cameron’s Militant Tendency? ConservativeHome threatens civil war over Europe
UPDATE 13:22 Paul Waugh reports Cameron has just issued a non-denial denial on the “manifesto mandate” for EU renegotiation.
When Tim Montgomerie told a conference fringe event that ConservetiveHome would be “more disciplined” in the run up to the next general election, what he actually mean was that he’d be threatening civil war if he doesn’t get his own way on Europe:
“The effort to renegotiate must be real and all necessary guerilla tactics used to get our way out of arrangements that the British people have never okayed … If Britain’s relationship with the EU is fundamentally the same after five years of Conservative government the internal divisions that ended the last Tory period in government will look like a tea party in comparison” – Tim Montgomerie
As smug cheerleaders for a strident, anti-European conservatism, the left love to hate Hannan et al, who are viewed with schadenfreude as a political liability for Cameron. But, as Left Foot Forward reports, the consequences of Tory isolationism on Europe would be catastrophic if proposed renegotiation culminated in an opt out from the social chapter.
With the Conservatives – more than any time in the last fifteen years – looking poised to grasp power, it’s simply astonishing to see prominent figures queueing up to topple the apple cart.
More at Next Left, Left Foot Forward and Liberal Conspiracy with Montgomerie’s article here.
Oct/09
23:50 2
(Selective) quote of the day: Conservative conference edition
Scrapbook apparently has one thing in common with Daniel Hannan:
Daniel Hannan “seems as though he’s programmed from birth to make life difficult for Conservative leaders” – Gary Gibbon
Ring, ring! Bring out your gaffes!
Oct/09
17:05 4
Daniel Hannan: arrives in Manchester, goes off message
Daniel Hannan on why an MP’s status as a millionaire has no relevance to the character of their expense claims:
“If we are going to pay people according to their needs this was a system practised in certain states between 1918 and 1989.”
Give this man a keynote speech!
Hat tip: Manchester blogger Grace Fletcher-Hackwood
Sep/09
18:08 3
Eric Pickles’ T-shirt competition: what didn’t win
Eric Pickles announced a Conservative campaign T-shirt competition on the Blue Blog at the end of August. CCHQ staffers have whittled the entries down and a selection are now open for a public vote. Shockingly, the creation below from The W*nk Rag did not make it through to the final shortlist:
In other Hannan related developments, our favourite MEP is a panelist at the Conservative conference ‘Twinge‘ (Twitter fringe) event.
He should practice squeezing gaffes into 140 characters.
Sep/09
14:44 2
He just can’t help it: Daniel Hannan on Obama’s “exotic background”
When David Cameron promoted Daniel Hannan as the party’s law spokesperson in the European Parliament he must have hoped it would bring an end to damaging gaffes about abolishing the NHS and how great Enoch Powell is. But apparently not.
“Barack Obama has an exotic background, and it would be odd if some people weren’t unsettled by it.” – Daniel Hannan
He continues on his blog:
During the campaign, he made a virtue of his unusual upbringing. He was at once from the middle of the country (Kansas) and from its remotest edge (Hawaii). He was both black and white. He was a Protestant brought up among Muslims. He seemed to have family on every continent. Like St Paul, he made a virtue of being all things to all men. On one level, the strategy worked brilliantly. But it could hardly fail to leave a chunk of people feeling that Obama wasn’t exactly a regular guy.
Hannan isn’t thick. He is well aware that the parties, journalists and the blogosphere are watching him like a hawk and the reaction that praising Enoch Powell will receive. There must be a genuine fear within CCHQ that – sooner or later – Hannan may do something that will really damage the ‘detoxified’ Conservative brand.
Here’s hoping for a well-timed general election gaffe!
Hat tip: LabourList
Sep/09
12:03 4
Quote of the day: ECR edition
“Be careful what you wish for, Hannan! You wanted your new group, and look at you now! Ha!” – a German MEP
Quick, let’s jump into bed with some crazies!
Sep/09
15:01 8
NHS patients complain because waiting lists are too short. No, really.
For those who have been living in a cave at the bottom of the Irish Sea with earmuffs on for the last two months, Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has been touring American TV studios with a misinformation campaign about the British health system. The lies start with NHS waiting lists:
“The most striking thing about it is that very often you are sent to the back of the queue. You turn up with an ailment and you’re told ‘okay, how about October of next year?’” – Daniel Hannan
Those not living in a timewarp – it’s 2009 no 1989 – know that this is a scaremongering bunch of crap. In fact, waiting times at the NHS Queen’s Hospital in Burton have fallen so much that some patients are saying their operations are being scheduled too quickly:
“Incredibly enough, some patients now say it’s too quick and want time to think and plan. People still believe that if they need something like a hip operation, it’s going to be months.” Figures show Queen’s saw 94.6 per cent of admitted patients within the 18-week referral to treatment time, well over the 90 per cent target.
Here it comes:
“The funding that the NHS has had over the last few years has made it possible because we’ve been able to expand our capacity and see patients more quickly.” – Paula Clark, chief executive, Queen’s Hospital, Burton
Perhaps someone should tell Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck?
Sep/09
15:50 3
Daniel Hannan given plum European role by Cameron
After attacks on the NHS and other gaffes which saw CCHQ scrambling to defend their de-toxified brand the Tories have now promoted Daniel Hannan to their European front bench as spokesman for legal affairs. Andy Burnham is leading the charge:
“Will the real David Cameron please stand up?”
He goes on:
David Cameron is happy to deride Tory MEP Daniel Hannan in front of the cameras and claim that his views are not the true face of the Tory Party. But privately Cameron rewards Hannan for his attacks on the NHS with a plum job on his frontbench in the European Parliament.
This presumably puts an end to his little holidays pandering to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the American right wing media.
Have the Cameroons moved to gag Hannan with a new job?
Palin-O-Meter
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