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Damian McBride and those emails - the full details revealed


After yesterday's events of high drama, today sees the News of the World finally publishing the full details of the emails which were set to smear top Conservative politicians.

Whilst Damian McBride has fallen on his sword, his departure has only intensified speculation regarding the degree to which others in No 10 Downing St knew about this smear campaign.

There is an increasing stink of desperation around this government and its supporters, in which 'attack' seems to be the only strategy available to the Labour Party.

You only have to look at the new Aneurin Glyndwr website to see this trend growing in Wales - devoid of any ideas or policies and focusing solely on attacking other parties through gossip and character assassination.

It shows how far a once great political movement has fallen.

More on this tomorrow.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dylan

Aneurin Glyndwr will never pull its punches, we aim to lead the fight in the debates that matter.

We will expose hypocrisy, opportunism and errors by the Tories, Plaid, and Lib Dem politicians. And we will never tire of challenging the racism and fascism of the BNP.

However, Aneurin Glyndwr is not mired in the pettiness and nastiness of many right-wing blogs in Wales and elsewhere.
April 12, 2009 7:37 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
David

"Aneurin Glyndwr will never pull its punches, we aim to lead the fight in the debates that matter".

A debate is not just a one-sided series of articles. If you had the courage to open a comments section to your entries, then we may be able to get a debate going but that ain't going to happen, is it.

"We will expose hypocrisy, opportunism and errors by the Tories, Plaid, and Lib Dem politicians".

Do you mean the same hypocrisy and opportunism which saw Alun Davies shamelessly speaking before the FE protests in the Bay whilst voting for cutting FE budgets?

"And we will never tire of challenging the racism and fascism of the BNP."

But nor will any of the other parties, so that hardly makes you unique.

"However, Aneurin Glyndwr is not mired in the pettiness and nastiness of many right-wing blogs in Wales and elsewhere".

You have got to be kidding - 'Toff Dave' anyone.

Say no more.
April 12, 2009 8:19 am
Anonymous said…
Jonathan Isaby sums it up perfectly on Conservative Home.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2009/04/damian-mcbrides-emails-are-symptomatic-of-this-labour-administrations-poisonous-penchant-for-charact.html

Aneurin Glyndwr is a throwback to a type of spin and innuendo that no-one wants anymore.
April 12, 2009 9:51 am
Dave said…
As Tom Harris, the Labour MP, says

"But this isn’t about positioning or spinning or misdirection or whatever. This is about standards of political activity, standards which have fallen far, far below what is remotely acceptable, especially for someone working at the very heart of government.

We screwed up, big time. We have no-one — absolutely no-one at all — to blame for this but ourselves. The damage the Labour Party and the government have sustained this last 24 hours has been entirely self-inflicted".

Take note Mr Taylor
April 12, 2009 11:16 am
Anonymous said…
We will expose hypocrisy, opportunism and errors by the Tories, Plaid, and Lib Dem politicians.

By misquoting people for example?

As for debate, please!

You're a boil-in-the bag-version of Draper, David; and that's all you'll ever be.
April 12, 2009 11:48 am
Smiling Carcass said…
I wonder, since these emails were from one person to another and presumably intended to be private wheteher the data protection act or some similar legislation has been breached?
April 12, 2009 11:59 am
Doc said…
No SC, no breach as the emails were intended to be published anyway, albeit under a different method and not directly by McBride. Valid question though :)
April 12, 2009 12:13 pm
Tommy Farr said…
If David Taypor really represents all that the Labour Party has to offer in the battle of the blogs the Tories and others have nothing to fear. His comment would be described in boxing as leading with your chin. When you do that you normally end up on the canvas I'm afraid.
April 12, 2009 3:58 pm
Anonymous said…
and some has a go at me for being nasty to DT awwww come on
April 12, 2009 8:53 pm
Anonymous said…
Dylan (and everyone else), I think you are being offesensive to DT (sorry) for suggesting that Aneurin Glyndwr is in the same vein as what Draper/McBride were doing.

What you are all insinuating is totally unfair. Yes, AG is an attack blog, but its general political knock-about stuff, nowhere near the level of what the RedRag was going to be.

By drawing comparasons, you are infact yourself smearing.

Its like me saying something like: "I disagree mostly with the policies of The Tories and the BNP" - implying they are somehow connected.
April 13, 2009 7:07 am
Anonymous said…
We think David Taylor and other perpetrators of aneuringlyndwr blog should publicly apologise same as Derek Draper has done.
April 13, 2009 8:34 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
I am not insinuating anything but telling it as it is.

I, and millions of others, are just sick and tired of innuendo and gossip replacing political debate in this country.

According to Draper, his stuff was just a bit of fun between two mates as well but we saw how that accelerated into a completely different scenario.

It is a very thin line between 'knockabout politics' and 'smear' as I know from being on the receiving end of some of this.

I don't want any apologies from Labour's webmeisters for their site.

What I want is a serious debate on policy and if this is to happen, then Labour should open up the Aneurin Glyndwr website to comment.

What are they scared of - a proper debate on issues such as the funding of further education perhaps?
April 13, 2009 10:52 am
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