Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Draper admits to setting up Red Rag site?

There has been a little bit of talk today about where the registration of the Red Rag website came from, with the Times running a piece noting that the House of Commons was given as an address. However, also in the Times and the Guardian, Derek Draper appears to have admitted he set the site up saying (my emphasis),
"I honestly cannot remember whose idea it was to set up Red Rag. It took five minutes to grab the name. It was a good name, but almost all my energy was devoted to making LabourList work."
Draper also reckoned in the Guardian that it was the first he heard of it when McBride emailed him. According to Draper, McBride's emails in January "came out of the blue".

Funny, the site was registered in November, some three months previously. Out of the blue my arse.

18 comments:

Oldrightie said...

It was a good name,

Yup, like the NZ site.

Macheath said...

Draper may think it a good one, but am I alone in initially misreading the domain name?

theredrag.co.uk - for all your transvestite location needs

Joking aside, isn't selective amnesia a wonderful thing? I suspect we'll see a virulent outbreak of it in No 10 over the next few days.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it is relevant but there used be a magazine,in the 70s/80s known as Red Rag.It was a lefty feminist effort attatched to what was known as the Broad Lefti.e.communist party/labour party activists.

kinglear said...

Oh, so he "honestly" can't remember whose idea it was. That means it was someone else who TOLD Darper to set it up.
Assuming he is being honest...

Demetrius said...

All this is at the inward looking London end of things and very absorbing but beyond there are some very real problems arising for some of the most vulnerable who are having to pay the price, just take a look.

Tom FD said...

I think you're being generous by describing it as an admission, Dizzy. This is in fact a claim by Draper. We already know he's a liar, in fact you've just caught him lying in the same breath, for all we know his "admission" is just part of Operation: Protect Tom Watson.

Unknown said...

I saw the quote and realised the potential meaning, but I'm not sure that Draper actually meant that.

The quote can be equally construed to mean "It only took five minutes to think of a good name".

It's hardly proof (unlike McScum's emails...)

kinglear said...

Andrew. Can't help but assume "grab" the name means just that - register it. And if Draper is telling the truth ( sic) SOMEONE ELSE came up with the idea and/or name and TOLD him to do it. Actually, I think Draper is doing his best to attract as much lightning as he possibly can. A bit like during Watergate - Nixon's henchman went to jail rather than incriminate his boss....

Macheath said...

kinglear/Tom FD - re honesty and lies, it's all an updated version of the Cretan Paradox:

'I am a Special Advisor. All Special Advisors are liars.' Consider.

Dino Fancellu said...

And just as importantly, who/what paid for it?

Time 4 A New Government said...

Draper and his lot are revolting. They do nothing but slander and then stand back when caught and say that 'they can't remember' and 'it was only a joke'. Disgusting.

T'old 'un said...

Red Rag to a Bull ingdon was how I saw it at first.

talwin said...

So Draper remebers it took five minutes to get the name for Red Rag but can't remember whose idea it was.

OK. So who else MIGHT it have been? It can only be one of a small number. In the Guardian article Draper says he only 'had one previous converstaion with McBride about Labours web strategy, along with Charlie Whelan'. This sounds like a meeting; was it this one? If so, perhaps McBride or Whelan can remember whose idea Red Rag was. (Or, given that he's already in the shit, perhaps McBride will have it taken into consideration!)

Anonymous said...

Draper and his lot are the scum, and this includes Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister and Brown's henchman who is being eerily silent. Tom Watson has his podgy finger in many pies, including Oxfam. Labour Councillor Antonia Bance who is also deputy director of Oxfam's UK poverty programme dances to his tune, if you read her blog...There is something rather fishy about a Government minister agreeing with every recommendation that Oxfam is asking the Government to act on in its campaign report, and something even fishier that this report is being given high billing in Tom Watson's blog. Welcome to the cosy world of Antonia Bance of Oxfam and Tom Watson of the Cabinet Office. If you read carefully the congratulatory messages Bance and Watson send each on their blogs, you will no doubt notice that these 2 valiant souls are fighting not just the Tories, but their more immediate enemies: the Blairites.

Anonymous said...

Red Rag may have its own URL
http://theredrag.co.uk/

but go to its login page: http://theredrag.co.uk/wp-login.php? and it redirects to
http://aredrag.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?

ie this site is hosted not on its own servers, but on WordPress' own servers

Dizzy, youre an IT guy - any ideas how more info can be found?

Perhaps there's an interesting paper/email trail at WodPress HQ

Gareth said...

All those so far fingered in this episode were on the invite list to Labour's New Media Breakfast last December.

Draper is seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut. I cannot imagine he would get through that little get together without discussing matters.

The Red Rag was registered on 4th November. The automatic first comment happened at 4.24 PM. The graphic at the top was uploaded to the internet at 4.51 PM. There was an earlier red flag uploaded at 4.38 PM.(According to the file data recovered using a download manager at any rate...)

Anonymous said...

Mandelson may rue the day when he made a grab for Nominet's business. He personally rubbed Bob Gilbert up the wrong way.

http://smeggys.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7690

Gilbert is the person at Nominet who has the power to reveal the all important email address of Ollie Cromwell.

Gareth said...

Would Downing Street computers record whether anyone there had accessed The Red Rag in the last 5 months?

If so it'd be terrible for them if that could be disclosed by a FOI request.