Those independent bloggers will publish any old muck (just ask Nick Robinson or Andew Marr). So for a reliable, double-sourced take on developments in the Phil Woolas saga, Scrapbook headed to the Financial Times, where their Westminster Blog reports on the “mutiny” that took place during Monday’s regular meeting of the PLP:
I’m told there was “real anger” at the event, with a lot of “shouting” from enraged MPs. Among those to have spoken out in support of Woolas was John Mann, a close friend of his.
Unfortunately for the FT this is isn’t exactly true – unless Committee Room 14 has a satellite uplink to North America.
John Mann has been in Canada for the last four days.
Hat-tip: Mark Ferguson
Mark says:
The MPs who visited Canada returned this morning. Perfectly possible for this to be true. Silly.
Jim Pickard says:
Am relieved that my exact quote said that Mann was “among those to have spoken out in support” – I didn’t actually say he was in the room.
Luckily I have updated http://www.ft.com/westminster with three names of Labour MPs who were actually there and did speak out in support of Woolas.
Jim Pickard says:
I should make absolutely clear that yes Mann has spoken out in support of Woolas, so you are being ever so slightly teeny bit pedantic.
William Campbell says:
No, Jim, the way you wrote it gave a misleading impression.
Had you written ‘is John Mann’ not ‘was John Mann’, then your sentence would have been more accurate, but that wouldn’t have conveyed the impression you wanted to give, which is that you had a source (or two?) who told you what happened in the meeting.