Some pictures from the PBC party
January 22nd, 2006Sorry for the delay but here are some pictures from last weekend’s PBC party. If people could identify who is who in the comments I will fill in the gaps.
Picture one- Iain Dale, David Davis’s chief of staff and owner of Politicos with, behind the beer glass, Guido.
Picture two
Picture three ? left and David Kendrick right
Picture four - ??, Valerie and Tom Thumb
Picture five Anthony Wells with Guido still trying to protect his identity!!
Picture six ??, Paul Maggs and Peter Cuthbertson
Mike Smithson
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Picture 3 shows Peter Cuthbertson on the left.
Guido is the guy who broke the Mark Oaten story in a podcast and rubbished the lives of his wife and children in order to publicize his blog. I am no longer a fan.
2. Listening to the podcast Guido doesn’t actually explicitly break the story about Oaten, him and Recess Monkey just insult the bloke a lot - and nothing as far as I can remember to do with Oaten having an affair.
I recognise Peter Cuthbertson from his avatar on the LDYS forum. He runs ConCom doesn’t he?
2 - Isn’t it the right of the people of Winchester to know the truth about their MP?
The odds on Charles Kennedy “To Be Home Affairs Spokesman Under New Party Leaders” have not budged from 5/4 since before the Oaten story broke.
There is now a vacancy for this position, and it is unlikely that Alasdair Carmichael will fill it permanently.
It looked a long shot before, but may be worth a punt now. Kennedy has six weeks more to sort himself out before then.
5. I don’t see the rush for Kennedy to get back into mainstream politics. A break from it all would be good for him, thereby sorting everything out. In the meantime he can sit in the backbenches and orchestrate some sphere of influence.
His return to the Lib Dem front bench should be billed by the Lib Dems as a real coup but a delay in his return would be best as it would build up a sense of anticipation of a ‘big beast’ returning rather than the mere return of a recently departed ex-leader.
Agreed - I can’t see a return for him soon either; I just thought the betting odds should have shifted to reflect the vacancy. Cable will stay at the Treasury; Clegg will be foreign affairs, (and this is the one that would most interest CK).
Ex-leaders usually do very little - can’t think of any returning to front-line politics for any party since Alec Douglas-Home (oh -apart from Billy Hague).
7. I think there is a certain age factor involved with ex-leaders - Kennedy is still remarkably young for someone with over 20 years experience in Westminster. Therefore a return in the future wouldn’t surprise me; on the otherhand he could go off and get a plum job i.e in the U.N.
Can’t see the UN really, or NATO. He’s a bright lad, but not really statemanlike like Paddy, or Owen (remember David Owen, the Balkan years?). Trouble is, from the age of 23 he has only ever done politics. I would guess he’ll do some TV, write a book and potter about as a back bench MP for the next few years. That’s what Billy Hague did.
I know who two of those ??’s are. Don’t know if they were attempting to hide their identities - but the first sometimes contributes very good articles to the Apollo Project blog.
I wold have thought the obvious replacement for MO would be SH.
Heath would have returned to the Cabinet if Thatcher had offered him a job.
Arthur Balfour, had a long careere after ceasing to be PM
OFF TOPIC BUT IMPORTANT:
There will be a story tomorrow to be broken in the Mirror, Times and Guardian that the DWP apparently will be offshoring paperwork.
Does anyone know anymore?
Is that important? I think most taxpayers would be delighted that their hard-earned cash will be spent on the cheap wages of Indian bureaucrats rather than expensive British ones.
It’s important because it may incite large-scale industrial action. Indian Summer of discontent, anyone?
Of course, it could be a very clever ruse if Blair is prepared to fall on his sword: TB prepares to outsource huge numbers of public-sector jobs, Cameron agrees. TB becomes unpopular. GB promises to restore things as before, takes over. GE called. Cameron is left swinging. Comfortable GB win.
Of course Tony wouldn’t agree to it, I’m sure.
interesting interview with rupert murdoch on cameron & brown. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/fivelive/weekendbusiness/weekendbusiness_20050122-1900_40_st.mp3 doesn’t sound like the sun’s ready to switch until at least sussing out a brown premiership first
First, apologies to all for not posting for a while. I’ve spent much of the past week laid up with the flu. I was quite ill last weekend and was in no state to attend the Party but it looks as though a good time was had by all.
Last Sunday morning, wracked with fever, I got up and staggered down to the TV at about 9.30am. What I heard went something like this:
MARR: So, David Cameron, how do you respond to charges you are completely re-writing Conservative policy on the environment?
CAMERON: Not at all, Andrew. I’ve appointed a Commission to look at the environment. It includes Zak Goldsmith – he’s cool and hip like me. Young, trendy and electable – just like me.
MARR: He’s also against nuclear power.
CAMERON: Yes, the Conservatives oppose nuclear power.
MARR: But I thought you supported nuclear power.
CAMERON: Yes, we do.
MARR: I don’t understand.
CAMERON: Well, we’ve got a Commission to look at nuclear power – it’s got Zak Goldsmith, Bob Geldof and the one from “Girls Aloud” everyone fancies. They’re young, cool and trendy like me – we’re the new Tories. No more old squares like Michael Howard, just hip, cool cats like William Hague and me.
MARR: Yes, yes. So you are both for and against nuclear power?
CAMERON: This is the new Tory Party, Andrew. We’ve recognised the problem is and always has been the policies. This is why we’ve lost three successive elections and why I’m determined to sort out policy.
MARR: How?
CAMERON: By having policies on every issue that people can support. On nuclear power we’re both for and against it and for those who aren’t sure, we’ve set up a Commission to look at it. Did I mention we’ve got Zak Goldsmith?
MARR: Yes, yes.
CAMERON: I’ve realised the Conservatives need more policies, not less so on every issue we’ll have policies to suit everyone. If you want tax cuts, you can support us – if you don’t want tax cuts, you can support us too. If you want a Commission to look at tax cuts, we’ll have one of those with Zak Goldsmith, Richard Willis and Marcus Wood. I’ve learnt that successful parties like the SDP couldn’t have enough policies so I’m branding the Conservatives as the “new SDP”
MARR: After the 1983 election, the SDP said they had won no seats but a great victory.
CAMERON: I think that’s realistic for the Tories in 2009.
MARR: Do you have ANY firm policies – you must decide for yourself what shirt or socks to wear?
CAMERON: The Shirt Commission and the Sock Commission are already up and running – they have the support of my wife, Zak Goldsmith and Alistair Matlock as well as Wayne Rooney.
MARR: Do you seriously think the British public will vote for you if you parade “D” list celebrities as supporting your policies?
CAMERON: It worked for Tony Blair.
MARR: David Cameron, thank you very much.
After that, I had to go back to bed and suffer.
On the LD leadership, well, I’ll leave that until tomorrow
[17]
17 -
:lol:
The Shirt and Sock Commission is no sinecure either! Have you seen the selection between Turnbull’s and TM Lewin? Decisions, decisions….
Very funny, Stodge.
“CAMERON: I’ve realised the Conservatives need more policies, not less so on every issue we’ll have policies to suit everyone. If you want tax cuts, you can support us – if you don’t want tax cuts, you can support us too.”
So instead of nicking NuLab policies they’ve decided to go for Lib Dem ones!!
Best Oaten joke so far: Oaten’s given up trying to be leader but he’s still keen on the no. 2 position.
17: lol Stodge! Look forward to hearing your take on ‘the Oaten interview-coming out in the open.’
3: Sure he only hints at it - but then he titles his next post “Its The Pod What Did It” and describes himself as “smirking” at the consequences.
I don’t know what he’s got to be so smug about - picture five clearly shows he has more chins than Oaten…
Stodge must be LD.
Both TB and DC (or any other potential PM) will have to decide the mix of wind farms, nuclear and imported gas to produce electicity.
As the LDs will never be in govt, their views may be amusing (or even useful, for one of the main parties to implement). They will never be very important.
24. More chins than Oaten? That’s because I have a tastier diet.
Since everyone is raining sh*t down on me about this Oaten Affair can I just say, the podcast in question did allude to a bigger scandal. The libel laws are very tough and we have been circumspect, probably too circumspect for anyone who doesn’t already know about the matter to understand.
26. Well it’s difficult to gauge what could allude to a bigger scandal as most of the podcast is libellous.
As the LDs will never be in govt, their views may be amusing (or even useful, for one of the main parties to implement). They will never be very important.
Don’t know what that says about UKIP then David!
I think I spy Cicero in the photos!
T M Lewin was fantastic for shirts at Eton high st.
but one had to go to Jermyn St for Turnbull & A’s fittings.
Also T M Lewin had and still has good sale reductions.
Turnbull shirts look like Hastings deck chair material, the wide stripes may be seen from the space station.
God its fun having these deep Boris type chats !