In terms of interest, I don't think that accidentally emailing personal details to a local radio station is in the same league as:

(a) a Prime Minister losing control of his party and the voters, which Iain complained about the left-wing bloggers ignoring;

(b) the government losing the personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants.

I checked all the papers this morning and there was barely a mention of this story. No editor, not even the Guardian, are talking this story up.

I really cannot understand Iain's continued harping on about how allegedly crap the left-wing blogosphere is. I find it doubly baffling because I seem to recall that in the early days of his blog, he was extremely complimentary about some of the Labour-leaning blogs, including yours, mine and Paul Burgin's.
What happened?

I don't think any of the people you have named pretend to blog on everything that happens in national, let alone local politics, any more than any of your ideological colleagues do. Still less are they in a position to speak for the Conservative party.

The e-mailing of the radio station is something that certainly merits an apology, and that has been made. Meanwhile it is also under investigation by the Information Commissioner, and who knows what will come from that.

Bob, I am at work and have been flitting in and out of meetings. You will see however that I have actually posted on it. In fact, just before I published it I asked someone to proof read it, and they then told me you had a pop at me for not posting yet.

You will notice that I don't go in for the 'why is X not posting about this' line (at least I cannot recall when I have) and that is precisely because, like sending out data, it is moronic. For all you know the person you attack might be in hospital or had a car crash. Sometimes real life gets in the way.

But please, don't make out there is some sort of deliberate conspiracy of silence. You sound like Tim when you do that.

dizzy, croydonian, I don't actually think Tory blogs are rubbish, nor would I expect them to write about every item in the news. I was simply using it as a device to point out how pathetic Iain sounded when he did it because bloggers hadn't felt obliged to get out of bed and listen to Brown drone on in response to Andy Marr's soft questioning.

LFaT... try here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/22/crewebyelection08.conservatives

Left wing, right wing? They're all rubbish aren't they?

The problem with Iain Dale is his blatant hypocrisy. He writes: "Eleven days ago I asked a question about Phil Hendren, aka Dizzy Thinks. I said "Why hasn't a newspaper signed him up yet?" Less than a fortnight later, Phil makes his debut in The Times comment section tomorrow with an excellent piece on the government's latest big brother plans. Dear oh dear, another blogger signed up by the MSM. Will it ever end"?

Bob, this is a really small scale story and you making much of a deal of it is it seems to me Labour desperately scratching around for an angle to attack the Tories.

I think you'll find that when the good people of C&N exercise the franchise today this story does not influence them as much as, for example, millions of the poorest being made worse off by a Labour Government's tax bungling, followed by its attempts to deny there was a problem, and then underestimate the cost of the problem, and then botch the remedy as the IFS have pinpointed. The 10p is not just hurting Labour now it's got a lot of mileage yet!

Actually Steve, I don't think it is a very big story, although I might have a diffrent view if they had leaked my private data to a radio station. But the real story is about Tory hypocrisy.

They make a gigantic fuss over Harriet Harman's donations being declared late... and then ne'er a squeak when wee Gideon Osborne is found guilty of a similar offence. Cameron thinks it is a resigning matter for the Chancellor when a civil servant loses information, and we hear the sound of silence when the Tories give away private information to the bloody media!

On your second point, Steven, I don't think anyone would dispute the 10p tax rate was a fiasco.

One point to consider though. Cameron and Gideon claim to have been objecting about this for 12 months... and no-one paid them a blind bit of attention. It was only when Labour MPs, primarily Frank Field, starting raising the issue that we saw a proper opposition.

That's how poor the Tory opposition had been. The reality is that on this day 12 months ago, Cameron was busier trying to save his own skin by backtracking on grammar schools than he was in trying to look out for the low paid. He wasn't basking in the sunshine then, he was being described as the worst Tory Leader since Anthony Eden.

Reflect on this: 12 months can be an eternity in politics.

Actually Bob I think your time line is too long. I reckon the next 12 days might seem an eternity for Gordon. I may be wrong but I subscribe to the view that C&N will be a landslide and will trigger a covert or overt leadership challenge. My money is on Charles Clarke setting the hares running this weekend.

One point to consider though. Cameron and Gideon claim to have been objecting about this for 12 months... and no-one paid them a blind bit of attention. It was only when Labour MPs, primarily Frank Field, starting raising the issue that we saw a proper opposition

Can't fault you there Bob. To tell you the truth hardly anyone was interested until the penny literally dropped. As soon as Brown announced it in his budget I could see straight away how this would hit the low paid. I mentioned this on several Blogs but there was not much interest. Friends and relatives who were going to be affected felt much the same.

It may be that Cameron was waiting until people were hit for real in their pockets before kicking up a fuss and creating the maximum damage to Brown but I have to agree he said very little about it until that point.

I do not believe for one minute that Brown did NOT know how this would affect the low paid who are not able to or not inclined to collect his tax credits. I am disappointed that Field is not fighting for the million or so who are still out of pocket and is not publicly insisting that the emergency budget was not a one off. What Brown's motive was, we will perhaps never know, I tend to go along with the concencus that it was a 20p basic Tax headline for an Autumn 2007 general election.

Steve, I've got the money to match it if you want!

Have you noticed Bob how the Tories are sounding evasive on this one? Apparently Manx Radio is a local radio station; well, yes, it is to the Isle of Man, but not to the Crewe and Nantwich by election. So why, having received an unsolicited email which was clogging up his inbox with its attachments, did the Manx journalist immediately send it to someone on the local paper in Crewe?

That makes no sense to me, but when I hear tories dismissing it as just leak to a local radio station I hear damage control going on.

Steady Bob, this is not Political Betting you know!

By the way, I agree with you absolutely regarding the poster who mixed up Wellington and Nelson. I bet he did not go to a Grammar School!

"http://evanprice.blogspot.com/2007/03/stalin-do-i-mean-stolen-tax-cuts.html"

Have a look at this link and you will see that in March last year, I blogged about the tax increasing for the poorest in our community.

I seem to remember that I was far from the only one ...