What a fuss about nothing. If the Conservatives had taken money from a British company (legal) as a conduit for money from an overseas resident (illegal) that would have been an interesting story and a complex web to untangle. Fortunately we learn they showed judgement and took no such donation.
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October 22, 2008
I heard about this on the way home on Radio 4's PM. Heseltine dismissed this with such ease (using your line of reasoning) that Eddie Mayer was a bit taken aback. I am sure there was a brief 1 or 2 second silence as Mayer had to collect his thoughts. Then I thought:
(1) No money was taken so there was no real story.
(2) Why is Rothchild being so tenacious in pushing this? If he doesn't like how George used information garnered from conersations at one of his (Rothy's) party's then just don't invite him again.
(3) Has George upset any political opponents recently by revealling the details of their private conversations in such a way as to embarrass those opponents?
(4) Do Rothchild and George have any mutual acquaintances.
(5) Is Peter Mandelson still an EU Trade Commissioner? No relevance to the above obviously but I was just wondering.
Obviously re (3) above I could think of no one so I have happily abandoned this line of thought.
…. Oh and yeah there was a number (5) – just who is Robert Peston and does he infact work for the Labour party or what???? He just seemed so desperate to prove George had done some wrong on PM last night regardless of his impartiality brief. When Mayer put it to him that no crime had actually been committed so what was the problem Peston paused and then babbled on about "Well justice must be seen to be done …"
Reply: Lord Mandelson resigned as Trade Commissioner in order to become a Cabinet Minister.
October 22, 2008
What must be of concern to you, John and other Conservatives, is how the BBC is reporting this story with such ill-disguised glee. Scrutiny of Mandelson in this story is being ignored. Nick Robinson on the Today programme has virtually admitted the BBC resisted the story until it involved the Conservatives.
Robert Peston has also been running this with unrestrained enthusiasm as well, despite being the Business editor not the political one. Not sure if it's connected with George Osborne requesting a FSA investigation into Peston regarding his bail-out story.
Despite being a non-story, this could do some damage to the Conservatives, especially as the BBC have been particularly keen in the last couple of months in reporting Labour in a favourable light the the Conservatives not so.
October 22, 2008
I had wondered about that. All interest is focused on Osy. And yet the involvement of any leading Labour personnel with this Russian billionaire is being virtually ignored or seems to get only a minor mention.
Meanwhile Brown has virtually run the economy into the ground, is about to drown us all in a sea of record breaking public sector debt which is likley to have to be extensively monetised which could inturn potentially bring us closer to hyperinflation and seems to be hell bent acting out clause 4 wherever possible. But does any of that matter? No way. The BBC would much rather spend all their time scewering the Tories.
October 22, 2008
The BBC isn't going to let this rest. As with Aitken, Mates, Hamilton, and all the others whom I 've forgotten the names of, (going right back to King Edward V11, one of whose nick-names was the "King of the Jews"), they simply will not allow people to know the difference between supping with a long spoon and selling one's soul. (old example left out) Now here we go again, and the fact that PM was staying for a week on the yacht, while GO only visited out of natural curiosity, isn't gong to spoil this powerfully spun story. Actually, I should have said it was the duty of the Shadow Chancellor to take a close look at what PM, Clinton's oligarchs, the Rothschilds, and the Russian billionnaire were all getting up to on their hols while the banks were crashing, if he had the chance, and that DC is very lucky to have him and not to have to do it himself.
October 22, 2008
The Conservatives should complain about the conduct of the bbc and its 'reporters'. All their reporters jump on the smallest bandwagon againt the Tories, then make it a big thing about it. Meanwhile the government are getting away with murdering the country.
October 23, 2008
The blogosphere predicted the return of spin would coincide with the return of Mandleson. They weren't wrong.
Other notible instances include the newspapers revealing taht John Denham MP was going to stop local government officers prosecuting traders for selling fruit and veg in imperial measures. No press release on the Department for Universities and Skills website, no change in law, just popularist spin. Will this apply to the suprmarkets too? Will Tesco be allowed to use un-callibrated weighing equipment on the deli counter?
Then there was the rant against the immigrants. Any change in law? Any proposed change in law? Not that I can see and our borders will continue to remain open to anyone with an EU passport.
Of course, the Mandleson/Obsorne/Rothschild story is the juiciest morsel for the press to get their teeth into. From what the papers and blogs say it goes something like this.
George meets Peter and Nathaniel on a yacht. Peter disses Gordon to George. George tells tales on Peter for dissing Gordon, Peter phones Tony, Tony Phones Nathaniel, Nathaniel write to the Times telling tales on George. George denies it.
And they wonder why half of us don't bother to vote?
October 23, 2008
It's reassuring to know that George Osborne takes the chief Tory fundraiser with him to a meeting with a stinkingly wealthy Russian oligarch and are able to refrain from asking for a donation.
Me, I think Norman Tebbit got it just about spot on.
October 23, 2008
The BBC are in the vanguard with this story; doing the Labour spin doctors' dirty work for them.
So, has this story and the State Broadcaster's role in it, convinced you and your Conservative colleagues that something must be done about the disgracefully biased BBC after the next election?
If not, what more does the BBC have to do?