Labour’s Smearing Group

October 29, 2009 — admin

It is good news that Nadine Dorries has been paid an undisclosed damages by Damian McBride for the disgusting smears that he tried to perpetrate against her. It’s a bit surprising to me that it hasn’t attracted more media attention but they probably want to give it a wide berth for fear of accidentally repeating the libel.

Nadine, who is great to follow on Twitter as @NadineDorriesMP, has two more cases against McBride, who also resigned as editor of the ever-optimistic LabourList website. It’s also fair to say that other Labour figures, some of them involved in the online world, were “in on the joke” as well and it gives an idea of just how hollow the “no more spin” mantra from the PM was.

The truth is that Labour is spinning more and more heavily as the PM gets more and more desperate. Mandelson, Whelan, Draper, Campbell and Blair are all back on the scene – differences put aside – as the see the end of the tracks up ahead. Privately, all apart from Brown probably believe the situation is hopeless; and that’s fine as they all have plenty of other things to do. But that one last challenge – to keep DC and the Tories out – is irresistable. If they fail, that will only be as expected and if they succeed, they will have pulled off the greatest political escape act in British history.

The process of trying to achieve that goal is going to include some heavy hitting from Labour, backed by the government machine and a compliant BBC that fears being pulled apart by the Conservatives as the price of 15 years cosying up to Labour. There’s going to be a lot of dirt, a lot of scheming and a fight to the end. And that’s before you put the Liberal Democrats into the equation.

Election 2010 will be the most keenly fought, bare-knuckled political slug-out certainly since 1992 and probably ever. Technology has made the process of electioneering as underhand and sly as the art of hacking itself. The disgraceful smearing of Nadine, George Osborne and DC was just the beginning and I hope that Tory high command is ready for the onslaught.

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Pragmatism not principle

October 21, 2009 — admin
Nadine Dorries - I'm a big fan but she's wrong on AWS

Nadine Dorries - I'm a big fan but she's wrong on AWS

I have had a number of discussions with Conservatives about all women shortlists and I seem to be about the only person welcoming DC’s words yesterday.

Look, I don’t like the idea of AWS. Like everyone else, I think it smacks of discrimination. But people like Nadine Dorries, arguing on ConHome that AWS leads to “two-tier” female MPs and Jonathan Sheppard of Tory Radio, with whom I had a good discussion on Twitter yesterday, are missing the point.

Nadine argues that she got in without the need for AWS and that with only 30% of applications from women, only 30% wanted to be MPs. Not only is this statistically complete nonsense, it is also a judgement she is hardly in a position to make. I’m a big fan of hers but on this one she’s wrong.

Moreover, even if we were happy with 30% of the parliamentary party being female (that would do for a start!) we currently have nine percent and with only around 25% of candidates female we are not even selecting the proportion of those applying.

Jonathan and others believe the answer is to encourage more women to apply. Agreed. But that still doesn’ t solve the problem of them being selected by association members – male and female - which itself is probably linked to why they don’t apply in the first place. They think the Conservative Party is a male-dominated environment. They think their chances of selection in a winnable seat are small and they think that even if successful, they will have a small number of female colleagues. Look at the evidence – is this an unreasonable view?

So if we want women to apply to the party, we have to show that we are prepared to select them in winnable areas. We have to show that we are looking to provide a more women-friendly environment and we have to show that in parliament, successful candidates will have a proportional mix of people with whom to work. By saying that our paucity of females in Parliament is the fault of women themselves for not applying is a grotesque abdication of the reality.

AWS is the unfortunate consequence of years of inaction on this issue. We can all pull out exceptions to the rule – Baroness Thatcher etc – but I’m surprised that Nadine Dorries believes that pulling up the ladder to others just because she managed to clamber aboard benefits women or the Conservative Party.

Why is it we are bothered about women “only getting the job because they are a woman”? Does it not occur to people that many, many male MPs only got selected because they went to the right school or university, worked at the right companies, were central office wonks, advisors or former leaders of local authorities? We tolerate this discreet favouritism yet condemn positive action. It’s dreadful and sexist.

The fact is that the party needs its talented women in Parliament and if local associations won’t select them their hands need to be forced. As ever, the AWS women in Parliament will need to work twice as hard to prove themselves. But how condescending for us just to assume that they are not up to it.

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Writs all round

September 7, 2009 — simonashall

Thank goodness that Nadine Dorries (left) has finally served libel writs on Damian McBride and Derek Draper for the scurrilous, nasty filth that they were bandying about for their Red Rag project.

The Grauniad reports authoritatively (along with a suitably unflattering photo) that Gordon Brown was not aware of the emails and was “furious” when he found out that they had been sent. One is inclined to be cynical about this kind of thing but I have to say I don’t believe such slanders are Brown’s style and for once am willing to take something other than a job ad at face value in the Grauniad .

Nadine Dorries is a canny individual though – she knows that the timing of her writs is likely to mean court hearings in around, say, six months or so when Gordon Brown needs them the least. I could drum through the Defamation Act 1996 but suffice it to speculate that even if they feel they were treated unfairly, McBride and Draper will come under some pressure to settle and avoid a courtroom soap opera in the press.

Whether they accede to that pressure remains to be seen but at least the writs have been served on the twits…

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Meritocracy or madness?

August 3, 2009 — simonashall

There’s been a bit of a stir in Conservative ranks since the party launched its new selection guidelines for 2010, which included the stipulation that shortlists for selection must contain a 50:50 male/female balance. This is the process that we are following in Woking to select Humfrey’s successor.

A ConservativeHome poll suggests that 91% of party members are against this with just six percent in favour. Count me as among the six percent.

Discrimination of any kind, be it against the minority or the majority, goes against everything I stand for. But at the moment, 91% of the parliamentary party is male (the same number as those opposing the new rules) and there are just 17 female Tory MPs. This is despite DC’s “modernisation” and everything the party has been through since 1997 – we have just four more female MPs elected in the two elections since then.

I think that the Conservative Women’s Organisation and Women2Win are vital to the party’s future and a few of the naysayers would do well to visit the websites. There is no magic solution to the gender imbalance within the Conservative Parliamentary Party but there are compelling reasons why something needs to be done.

First of all, credibility. Unless the party increases the number of women elected, it will simply not be taken seriously, especially by the women voters so vital to success. There is also a trust implication here – we have promised to modernise the party and this is a significant benchmark – to fail here is akin to a broken promise.

Then there is simple natural justice. It is intolerable that such a large proportion of our representatives are taken from such a small pool – however distinguished that pool may be. I don’t care if we have old Etonians splashing around; but I want to see some more people like Nadine Dorries, Justine Greening and Anne Widdecombe who can truly claim to represent a broad spectrum of people.

Thirdly, it will be beneficial to the party and the country to have a more prominent female input into policy and the administration of policy. It will also demonstrate to some of the more resolute grandees that progress is here and they need to get used to it. It’s about time that we dragged this party into the 21st century and if that means balanced shortlists, fine.

I know that I’m probably the only member of the panel in Woking in favour of the 50:50 rule. But the party as a whole has demonstrably and catagorically failed in this area for 30 years – the past 10 years of which have been spent saying that something would be done. Now something is being done and those who don’t like the method can’t say they weren’t warned.

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