No Confidence Vote Could Bring Down Brown

Pressure on Beleaguered Brown is mounting with calls to apologise for 'Smeargate' from both Tories and New Labour ranks. A commons 'no confidence' vote would purge the lies, deceit and spin eating away at the heart of a rotten government.

Furious Cameron is demanding a personal apology from Brown. Members of the decent Labour Party have rounded on the corrupt Downing Street black ops spin machine. Any shred of credibility left in ministers and their band of cronies has been destroyed.

The Tory leader is said to be "absolutely furious" after more details were revealed today of a disgraceful Tory sex smear campaign at the heart of Number Ten which led to one of Brown's closest aides being forced to quit.

A leading back-bench Labour MP today added his voice of disgust at the dirty tricks outrage, placing Brown as Party leader in a precarious position.

A personal apology is the least the Tory leader should expect. But that should be made to the house of commons. A vote of confidence would have to follow.

Cameron is calling on Brown to give a guarantee that such messages will not be sent again. Anyone who thinks this will end New Labour spin is living in fool's paradise.

Blair's spin doctor Campbell is in regular contact with Brown. Whelan, now head of press at the union Unite, is back in the fold and was copied in emails between McPoison and New Labour's Dolly Draper.

With spinmaster Mandleson lurking in the shadows, that can only lead to more dirty tricks and dark ops in the weeks to come. To argue that Brown knew nothing is laughable.

During his time in Downing Street, Brown's attack dog McBride did the job he was expected to do. Brown may not have been in on the detail but certainly he would be aware of the broad outline of the cunning pre-election plan. After all, that is why taxpayer-funded toe-rags like civil servant McBride are hired.

The smear campaign has been spun by Number Ten as a "juvenile and inappropriate" prank by two blokes. A pathetic attempt at damage limitation to play down the seriousness of the spin operation at the heart of the fag-end of a rancid government spinning out of control.

The dirty tricks campaign to smear top Tories, including Cameron, was exposed by top political blogger, Paul Staines, author of the Guido Fawkes blog. But it's not just the Tories who are furious. The rank and file Labour Party has had to suffer the lies and spin of the New Labour brand for over a decade.

Labour backbench MP, John McDonnell, today called on Brown to launch an independent inquiry into who was involved: "Smear tactics like this are not the Labour way ... They drag the Labour Party into the gutter." LibDems too are up in arms.

Deluded Brown stands alone. His cover has been blown. He would do well to remember the unpopular Callaghan government's defeat on 28 March 1979. Then the commons passed a motion of 'no confidence' by one vote — 311-310 — which forced Callaghan to call a general election, ushering in the Thatcher years.

Only last June, Brown escaped the 42 days vote by the skin of his political teeth in a mixture of pork-barrel politics and support of Northern Ireland's DUP when the government scraped through by just nine votes - exactly the number of MPs from Northern Ireland who voted for the draconian measures.

With a united front of Tory, LibDem and back-bench Labour MPs, a 'no confidence' vote would place the Brown's government on a knife edge.

The full blown political row has dealt a bitter blow for Brown, after one of his most senior aides, Damian McBride, dubbed McPoison, was fingered by Staines over emails discussing possible smear stories about Tory MPs, sent to New Labour blogger, Derek Draper to be used on a scurrilous New Labour pre-election website, 'Red Rag'.

Once again, the spinner became the story and McBride was toast. The more they spun, the deeper the hole.

Brown famously forced his way into Number 10 in 2007 declaring an end to the culture of spin that had dogged the Blair years. No-one believed him then as McPoison followed closely behind. No-one believes him now. A slow drip of poison will continue under a horse with a different colour.

All political parties have their attack dogs. All get up to dirty tricks of one sort or another. That's politics. And all do their upmost to shield their boss from any damage.

Now a general election is round the corner. For the first time in the UK, political bloggers will be a powerful and influential force.

Trying to beef up existing New Labour-supporting blogs and launch new ones are part and parcel of that phoney war campaign.

But New Labour ministers and cronies cannot get it into their arrogant skulls just why so many blogs seem to be 'Tory supporting'.

The Orange Party, a relative new kid on the political blogging block, certainly isn't Tory supporting per se, its politics are left-leaning. But like so many voters it is just fed up to the back teeth with a decade of the discredited New Labour brand and the arrogance of lies, spin and deceit.

That raises the issue of confidence among the voters and that should raise the issue of confidence in Brown in the house of commons.

Throw in the toxic scandal of ministers' second homes fiddles and Brown and his fag-end of a government is doomed, however long New Labour tries to cling onto power.

Picture: What did Brown know and when did he know it? McPoison and the Supreme Leader in happier spinning days

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A Rotten Government Spinning Out Of Control

More details are due to be revealed tomorrow of a disgraceful Tory smear campaign at the heart of Number Ten which has led to one of Brown's closest aides forced to quit a rotten government spinning out of control.

The Downing Street dirty tricks campaign to smear top Tories, including leader David Cameron, was exposed by one of the country's top political bloggers, Paul Staines, author of the Guido Fawkes political blog.

The smear campaign has been spun by Number Ten as a "juvenile and inappropriate" prank by two blokes in a pathetic attempt at damage limitation and to play down the seriousness of the spin operation at the heart of a fag-end of a government.

But a full blown political row dealt a bitter blow for Brown, when one of his most senior aides, Damian McBride, was fingered by Staines over emails discussing possible smear stories about Tory MPs, sent to New Labour blogger, Derek Draper to be used on a scurrilous New Labour pre-election website, 'Red Rag'.

Staines had alleged a Downing Street operation, co-ordinated by McBride tried to smear Conservative MPs, including lurid and totally unfounded allegations about the private lives of David Cameron and George Osborne.

Some of the smears, due to be published in tomorrow's News of the World, are revealed here by the Sunday Times. The Tories have already confirmed that David Cameron and his wife Samantha, George Osborne and MP Nadine Dorries, are among the targets.

But in a toxic mixture of deceit and spin, Downing Street today tried to play down 'Smeargate' as spinners tried on the tactic of a political battle between 'left' and 'right' when it's nothing of the sort.

Claims on Guido Fawkes and Twitter also point the finger at minister for digital engagement, Tom Watson, who denied involvement. SpAds and spinners are one thing, a government minister, quite another.

A Downing Street spokesman said it was Brown's view there was "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind."

But that's rich coming from the man who promised a new era of politics and vowed to put an end to the spin and SpAd culture which had dogged Blair and discredited the New Labour brand.

The allegations, which detail a smear campaign against various Tory politicians, were due to be exposed by one of the Sunday newspapers.

But, in what appears to be a spoiler and pre-emptive strike, the claims featured on the front page of today's Daily Telegraph.

Downing Street initially tried to hold the line and issued a statement saying McBride has apologised but the writing was on the wall as Downing Street's rapid rebuttal unit worked overtime.

The BBC pushed the Brown and the Downing Street line playing up the apology and playing down the seriousness of the affair with the toe-rag McBride being given the oxygen of air-time to drip more McPoison.

To spin this as some kind of 'juvenile and inappropriate' prank by one person in Downing Street is bollocks.

Spinners also tried the tactic of accusing Guido of money grabbing, claims which he strenuously denies: "Not a penny is changing hands. This is for pleasure, not profit."

McBride, dubbed McPoison, who has worked for Brown for many years, is well-known for downright devious briefings to journalists.

At the heart too is a long-running cyber-spat between Guido and Draper, a former spin doctor to the spinmaster Mandelson, who runs a weedy apology for a political blog Labourlist, as part of the 'Go Forth And Multiply' New Labour gang.

What is highly embarrassing for Number 10 is that its spinners and plumbers are spending their time obsessing about how they can smear the opposition with the politics of character assassination, rather than doing the job they are paid to do by the taxpayers. And that is trying to advise ministers on how best to run the country.

No political party of whatever colour is whiter than white when it comes to the dark arts of political dirty tricks, from Richard 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon in the US through to the Campbell and Mandleson spin of the Blair years.

But these sordid smears do reveal the increasing significance of the political blogsphere which is becoming a powerful political voice and the main forum for political debate, as is already the case in the US.

Once again, the problem comes when the spinner becomes the story. McBride is toast, Draper must surely follow. The more they spin, the deeper the hole.

The healthy UK blogsphere will become more important in the run-up to the general election as Downing Street spinners are all too well aware.

The Orange Party has pointed out before this arrogant bunch of chancers don't like it up 'em, and expects more of their dirty tricks, lies and downright deceit in the weeks to come.

Staines aka Guido has done a magnificent job exposing this particular New Labour brand of nastiness at the heart of a rotten government - but he should be careful about going for long walks alone in the woods.

Picture: Happier spinning days - McBride (left) and Draper (right)

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Expenses Mole Hunt Is Spinning Smokescreen

A senior New Labour MP, at the centre of a row over lobbists links to parliament, is also at the centre of a planted smokescreen in a pathetic attempt to spin away minister's shameful expenses. 

The spin machine is working overtime today trying to dig Brown and Smith out of a hole, putting up the smokescreen with a spurious 'expenses for sale' mole hunt whipped up by the BBC, with Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell in the thick of it. 

The mole hunt, which has been topping the news, is a blatant attempt to manipulate the news agenda away from the beleaguered home secretary and the whole sordid scandal of MPs' expenses. 

The BBC placed the mole hunt up top, throughout the morning, after Bell popped up on BBC Newsnight with allegations of an 'expenses for sales' scandal: "All of the receipts of 650-odd MPs, redacted and unredacted, are for sale at a price of £300,000, so I am told."

But what is not reported by the BBC is that only few months ago, Bell was at the centre of a row over lobbyists' links in parliament, accused of failing to fully disclose their connections to business.

Sir Stuart, one of Blair's political knights for "services to parliament", was among three MPs accused by campaign group, Spinwatch, of withholding information from the electorate and parliament about their business activities, reported by the Guardian in January. 

The MPs denied they had broken any rules and it was not suggested they had. But Spenview was listed in Bell's register of members interests only on February 11, 2009 and the website is now password-protected. 

Spenview, before password-protection, was described as "a private boutique of companies" including Spenview Communications, a consultancy firm claiming to "have represented multinational banks, accountancy firms, PR companies, property companies as well as private clients from the Arabian Gulf, UK, Russia and France".

It also claimed to "offer exciting insights into government thinking on a broad range of legislative and regulatory topics covering all aspects of commerce and business". 

Bell said at the time: "None of the people have anything to do with parliament or lobbying. This is a private family business." But he declined to give any more information.

All that came after the day when two homes secretary Smith was up to her neck in her expenses fiddle with some at Westminster calling for her scalp. The Orange Party sensed a mood that some MPs were looking for someone to be thrown to the wolves to assuage voters and unpopular and ridiculed Smith could be that fall-guy. 

Of course there's a mole. That's all part and parcel of investigative journalism. The Orange Party along with some quick kids off the political block saw that yesterday - and chose to flag it up as just part of  Smith's  sorry story. After all the outrage and anger is over the expenses scandal, not the mole: 

"That's prompting some to ask if there's a mole at work, leaking juicy titbits ahead of publication." 

Commons officials began the hunt for moley after MPs were left looking over their shoulders of parliamentary perks, forcing Brown to defend his home secretary after she claimed for hubby's penchant for taxpayer porn.

But one person's mole is another person's whistleblower. The home office is a powerful place, as Damien Green and the ONS have found. It comes as no surprise that Downing Street and the home office would stoop to spin and media manipulation. 

Meanwhile damage limitation continued over at the  Independent with a sad deflection piece by Steve Richards: 

"Believe it or not British politics is relatively clean. MPs are not especially well paid or generously resourced compared to their counterparts in equivalent democracies. Most of them work hard. They are not all in it for themselves."

Only Richards then goes on to highlight ministers who are high up on the shame-o-meter of sleaze and their whopping expenses claims, including employment minister Tony McNulty, Brown's favourite cabinet couple Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper and home secretary Jacqui Smith.  

Up there also are 'Mr and Mrs Expenses', Labour MP couple Alan and Ann Keen, and Labour left-winger Harry Cohen who claimed every penny of his maximum £104,701 allowance. For the Tories there's Carol Spelman, Derek Conway and Sir Nicholas and Anne Winterton.

Blissfully ignorant of the MPs' expenses scandal everyone is talking about and what other newspapers were screaming from their headlines, the Independent splashed on a 'magic pill' for the heart - only those pills are as old as the hills. Bless.

 

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Queen Used As Pawn In Chess Game Spin

Her Maj has been thrust into the spotlight, in a move which smacks of breathtaking spinning, as Beleaguered Brown fights for his political survival and the headlines get worse for him by the day. The Orange Party is usually happy to go along for a spin on happy fridays but this really takes the right royal biscuit.

King is running the economy, the Queen is running the State and the prime minister is just running around.

So today of all days it's revealed Brown and the Palace have discussed plans to change the rules of succession to the throne, including giving royal women equal rights.

Some MPs today launched a bid to bring in changes by reforming the 1701 Act of Settlement but the government has said time and again it would not support this particular MPs’ move, though the prime minister wants “progress” on the issue.

Back in 2005, with an election round the corner, that very issue of the monarchy was raised.

Then Downing Street told the BBC: "We don't believe in any change to the present system and this is not an issue that has been raised in any significant form during our National Policy Forum consultation process or during The Big Conversation."

Nothing much has changed, so why the big deal now? Could it be anything to do with drawing attention away from the Brown mess and his pointless trip to South America?

The tactics worked a treat. Brown's Brazillian briefing, that he's had talks with the Queen, neatly diverted the baying press hounds from savaging his deluded Save The World tour.

Meanwhile more troops are poised to be sent to the hopeless new Vietnam war in Afghanistan. There's further signs today the economy is in ruins and Brown's G20 vanity summit is turning into a pointless, expensive and increasingly dangerous charade.

There is a huge debate to be had over constitutional issues and indeed the whole future of the monarchy.

Politicians on all sides should be free to debate, particularly as some believe it is an anachronism in a modern, democratic society.

But most MPs don't want to stick their head above the parapet right now, with an election around the corner and an eye on their constituents and their seats.

There is a time to get it out in the open and have a proper discussion about a modern monarchy but now is neither the time nor the place.

Stick it in the manifesto and see how that plays out with voters.

Picture: Private Eye 1998

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Stats Office Squares Up To Spinners

While it wasn't only the sea bass being grilled in the commons, served with lashings of Brown sauce, the row brewing at Westminster is how that reckless lot at the ONS had the cheek to publish clear, accurate and relevant jobs and immigrant figures, without letting Downing Street spinners get their grubby little paws on the press release. 

Yesterday's ONS release has left ministers "fizzing with anger" about the publication of numbers showing how many UK jobs go to immigrants.

The figures show the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27 million. Not good news for ministers still smarting from the BJ4BW protest. 

Such a release would have been unthinkable during the Campbell/Blair years and indeed up until very recently. But that was before home secretary Smith's political advisor was slammed by a commons watchdog after ordering the release of misleading knife crime figures. 

Then ministers and Downing Street spinners were blasted for 'corroding public trust'  using 'selective' figures to claim they are winning the war on the streets as ONS officials tried in vain to stop the government's 'reckless' release. 

The ONS is desperate to prove its independence and restore public confidence but juggling with any figures within a tight and highly skewed criteria set by the government has made a complete mockery of any government statistics, which no-one believes anymore, anyway. But well done guys for trying. 

Playing the numbers game has been a low point of the powerful Downing Street spin machine with obsessive control over what, where and when any information is released. 

Now it seems the spinning top had no idea what is coming out of the Office of National Statistics, as it fearlessly goes its own way. 

As usual, Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting puts his finger on the issue: "Isn’t this also a measure of the decline of Labour’s power? Whitehall has a strong sense that the game is up and bodies like the UK Statistics Authority can launch moves without fear."

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