Wrong stories in the press

 

I have just been sent an odd story that appeared on the Express website. It says ” Senior Tories on the Right of the party, including former Minister John Redwood are understood to have met Mr Cameron this week and agreed that loyalty and unity are the priorities over the next twelve months”.

This is entirely untrue. There was no meeting  with the Prime Minister last week or this. MPs on the so called “Right” did not  see the need to hold a meeting with the PM to discuss inward looking matters like party unity when we were in the middle of important election campaigns and did not do so. If the Express had bothered to check this with me I could have helped them avoid such an embarrassment.

16 Comments

  1. zorro
    May 22, 2014

    Oh dear…. ”agreed that loyalty and unity are the priorities over the next twelve months”….. I suspect that the brown stuff is hitting the fan tomorrow morning (written at 2338hrs)……Now whose interest is it in putting out a story like that! It sounds supremely SPAD like induced. Someone sounds rather worried and I don’t think it’s JR…..

    zorro

    1. zorro
      May 22, 2014

      Sunderland = OMG 25+% = This will be interesting….. What will this mean for the voting system if they don’t get councillors?

      zorro

  2. John E
    May 22, 2014

    The Press does seem to have gone into a downwards tailspin. Low morale, low pay, low standards – even the FT online is riddled with annoying errors, never mind the rubbish in the tabloids.

  3. JoeSoap
    May 23, 2014

    That having been said, you will need all the loyalty and unity you can manage to muster!

    In London you will need to counter the multi-culti brigade who will vote Labour just in case you might deal with UKIP and outside London the Tories are anywhere between under pressure from UKIP and a dead duck.

  4. margaret brandreth-j
    May 23, 2014

    It is annoying that papers fantasize and then publish their fantasies,yet I would not think that any party would not agree that unity and loyalty to the ‘party’ are not important aspects of keeping the team together. As usual people are putting one and one together and getting three.

  5. margaret brandreth-j
    May 23, 2014

    Apologies an extra ” not” has crept into the text. “and loyalty to the ‘party’ are important aspects of keeping the team together.”

    1. margaret brandreth-j
      May 23, 2014

      OH dear I am getting myself in a Knot with this grammar . Back to the original. Are you in John at Wokingham ?
      I find it disgusting that a person with an English Degree cannot sort out the negatives from the positives.

  6. APL
    May 23, 2014

    JR: “This is entirely untrue.”

    I have no doubt.

    But the interesting aspect of this non story is that it is considered the ‘right’ of the party that goes ‘cap in hand’ to Cameron to express contrition.

    It’s never Ken Clarke, Michael Hestletine* et al, that go to the party leader to express there desire for loyalty and party unity. Ken Clarke for example, would rather consort with the then leader of the opposing governing party – Tony Blair, than support his own party leader and policy.

    If there was a ounce of truth in this story, we should be asking ourselves why if the Tory party is apparently so ideologically to the right, would the Express concoct this story, rather than the story where Ken Clarke and the ‘wets’ are seeking a meeting with the leader of the Tory party to stress their loyalty.

    *Yet both these two have been the most disruptive of party unity and electoral success during the last thirty years. Westland, the destruction of a legitimate successful party leader, and consorting with the leader of the opposing party.

  7. Narrow shoulders
    May 23, 2014

    Have you written to said paper? I always enjoy reading letters of clarification from the wronged

    Reply The Express has published a correction today

  8. Brian Tomkinson
    May 23, 2014

    Another “wrong” story? Just like the one I brought to your attention from Benedict Brogan on 14 May and we discussed under your “Solomon Binding and the Pfizer/Astra debate” heading? That was another meeting where you were said to have “urged Mr Shapps and his colleagues to hold the line, keep their heads”. Then you told me: ” Yes it was a very misleading account of the meeting and I have lodged a complaint with the Chairman of the party who I expect will take it further.” I don’t suppose you heard any more about that and, as before, I suggest that your problem lies closer to home than with the press.

  9. Lifelogic
    May 23, 2014

    Loyalty to a Captain using a broken compass (on nearly every issue) and clearly steering directly for the rocks would be a rather misguided loyalty. The only lights at the end of this tunnel are the complete uselessness of Miliband and the fact that UKIP are now taking votes off Labour too and the collapse of the Greens & Libdems (with their Cameron type of policies).

    A UKIP deal of some sort is the only hope. Cameron cannot promise anything with any credibility at all on the EU or anything else.

    Vote Tory they are nearly but no not quite as crap as Miliband is not a very good sales line for the next election. We ratted on the EU last time and on IHT and on the 80%/20% non cuts and made 299+ tax increases but trust us this time!

    Where is he going to find this token, “Cameron/BBC think” woman for the BBC any luck so far?

  10. Lindsay McDougall
    May 23, 2014

    Either they were trying to cause YOU embarrassment or 10 Downing Street planted the story.

  11. formula57
    May 23, 2014

    I see! So can we now look forward to tomorrow’s Express carrying a story that you thought it best not to meet the PM and accordingly have failed to renew any pledges of loyalty and unity? Is this the end for Dave?

    Reply The Express has published a correction.

  12. Robert Taggart
    May 23, 2014

    Perhaps you did not Johnny, but, should you not do so ? – soon ?? !

  13. alan jutson,
    May 24, 2014

    Just wait until you start to make Eurosceptic comments about our position with the EU should you get the chance after the election next year (Referendum debate if ever held)

    Guarantee you and your fellow EU Sceptic MP’s who hold similar views will get all sorts of insults from the Europhiles, and some very biased reporting from the media.
    The pending smear and misinformation campaign will be far, far worse that what UKIP have suffered these lsat few weeks.

    The comments from many of the political Parties since yesterday, that “we get it” just shows how out of touch they still are.

    Cannot wait until the EU results tomorrow, to see if they get that as well !

    Its all very well saying you get it, but if you then do nothing about it, you do not deserve to be in a position of power.

    Existing MP’s are now on a 12 month notice.

  14. Kenneth R Moore
    May 25, 2014

    I would hope that Professor Redwood would put the truth and the best interests of the Country before loyalty to whatever unhinged policy/soundbite/line to take issued by No.10.
    The Europhile toady loyalists need to remember that the Conservatives were made un-electable NOT by being disunited .They brought their unpopularity about by making very bad policy decisions under the doggedly pro EU leadership of John Major that hurt alot of people .
    Hope they won’t repeat this mistake again in..but oh they have as a great many Conservative Mp’s follow the Europhile agenda in the voting lobby.

    http://www.brugesgroup.com/mpwatch/index.live?mp=0&division=5

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