Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for nine years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Kevin MaGuire has an interesting piece here in The New Statesman. If you go to Iain Dale's blogsite and use the search facility for Lord Ashcroft you come up with a string of grovelling and glowing pieces about the good Lord. Presumably, in the interests of openness and transparency that Iain is so fond of, any future references will refer to the bungs oops, sorry, funding, his project has from the absentee Lord. It certainly exposes Iain's defence that he is not a Tory Party stooge.
Are there any other Tory bloggers getting a 'subsidy' from Ashcroft? (No, not you, newmania... he wouldn't be that daft)... for instance is that other 'independent free spirit Paul Staines also in receipt of Ashcroft gold? As MaGuire says... just exactly how big a hole does this blow in the claim that Total Ashcroft will be politically neutral?
"The fact that someone like Michael Ashcroft is interested in investing in a business like this says a lot for our business plan. The magazine will be politically neutral. Just because somebody is investing in a magazine doesn't mean they will influence the editorial line."
And whenever I visit Dale's site, the banner is always for one of the noble Lord's books. Somebody is bankrolling the Tory bloggers.
Bearwood Bruiser said:
March 13, 2008 10:54 PM | permalink
Watson family snouts-in-the-trough.The total annual cost to the taxpayer of the Watson family's five is in excess of £300,000.
Last year Tom Watson MP pocketed his £60,000 salary and his parliamentary expenses amounted to £150,000-plus – bringing his total package to £211,000 - making him the 73rd highest claiming MP out of 646 MPs. Quite an achievement for an MP not claiming for travel to and from Scotland. He employs his wife Siobhan at the public's expense, his brother, Dan, is constituency director to Euro MP Michael Cashman, Dan Watson's wife, Joanna, has no fewer than three jobs. Like her husband, she also works for Mr. Cashman and for Wolverhampton Labour MP Pat McFadden, yet still finds time to be a Labour councilor in Sandwell. Amy Watson, cousin of Tom and Dan, works for Birmingham Northfield Labour MP Richard Burden. The West Midlands constituency Labour Party offices are packed with Watsons.
Wow! Scoop Bruiser is hot on the tails of an exclusive here.
Well, he would be if he hadn't just cut and paste it straight of a dozen other right wing blogs who repeated the same thing two weeks ago. (What a plonker)
So, what does it say? Tom Watson employs his wife and he doesn't employ any other relatives.
Yes... and the story is... what, precisely? Other than a right wing troll trying to deflect attention from Ashcroft's shenanigans.
newmania said:
March 14, 2008 12:32 AM | permalink
Jesus Watson really does suck the Lemon dry though does he not. How else could a mediocre gossip make that soprt of money ?
I must admit I have chuckled about dales golden shower..I wonder of he will print my comment which ..takes the piss some what.
I sometimes wonder if I am the only perosn in the world that has to work all day every day at an ordinary job.
newmania said:
March 14, 2008 12:34 AM | permalink
Somebody is bankrolling the Tory bloggers.
I wish they were but I know for a fact they are not bankrolling Dizzy , DK , Croydonian Slicker ...I feel a bit as if we are being kicked out of our own game
The idea that Ashcroft bankrolls tory bloggers is ridiculous.
To suggest that Iain's magazine will be warped by an Ashcroft investment is also ridiculous, seeing as his editorial and production team is full of Lefties.
So the Watson family have different jobs in politics. How desperate are you lot? Where's the corruption? Where's the sleaze?
There isn't any, apart from your attempts to smear an MP and his family purely because he disagrees. Amy may yet be a councillor in Birmingham - and she'll be a good one, too. BTW, Tom's expenses won't go into his pocket - they fund his offices, travel, etc. Perhaps we should just disqualify family members from being involved in politics.
If newmania works "all day every day at an ordinary job" how does he have so much free time to leave long and tedious comments all over the place? My excuse is semi-retirement...
March 13, 2008 4:04 PM | permalink
I did as you suggest with the search. I particularly liked this scoop:
"Lord Ashcrofts campaign to save the Caribbean Whales."
That's the kind of cutting edge political coverage we can look forward to.