Smeargate is back! Way back in March, Guido went on the Daily Politics and said that there was evidence of Damian McBride advising Derek Draper on how to smear Iain Dale and Guido. At the time certain quarters of the blogosphere on the Left effectively accused Dale and Guido of making the whole thing up. They were accused of conspiracy theorising for their own self-interest and promotion.
Iain Dale, having been told that this had been going on in Downing Street submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out what was actually said about him and Guido. Now obviously FoIs take time, during which the baying about how Iain was peddling lies in the media continued.
Well now it seems the truth is out and there were no lies. McBride, did use Downing Street email infrastructure to advise Draper on how to smear Dale and Guido. I doubt though that it will be enough evidence for some. Interestingly, the response from the Cabinet Office also brings up more questions about who else might have been involved.
The full letter from the Cabinet Office can be read here.
10 comments:
It doesn't *prove* that their was a smear campaign, merely that there were emails referring to Dale & Fawkes, but let's say it is highly consistent with the possibility that there was a smear campaign.
I would say its proves there was a concerted effort to smear Dale and create a narrative about him on the matter of race. "Campaign" of course is something else.
Not the standard of proof that you would expect say in a court of law. Without seeing the full emails, a decent barrister could convince a jury that this was just two political hacks involved in putting together a website passing information on the activities of their opponents.
More importantly, I would be very surprised if the press thought it was sufficient "proof" to justify a story.
There were two emails from McBride re Dale and Carol Thatcher / Golliwogs. There was one about Guido's "racist" comments. We have not been given them in full or in my case even in part. Draper belatedly admitted in writing on LabourList that he had received them. Why hasn't the Cabinet Office given us them in full?
What nonsense, Dizzy! This proves, as I can see, that there was no smear at all. McBride/Draper etc clearly genuinely believe that Guido supports racist comments through his blog and that Dale acted disgracefully over the Carol Thatcher incident. Now, they may be mistaken on that but they certainly believed it. Can it really be said to be a smear campaign, or 'creating a narrative', if they believed (however foolishly or wrongly) what they were saying?
As for 'creating a narrative', I think that might more accurately describe what you, Dale and Guido have been doing. I find it interesting, Dizzy, that you should have made a rare appearance over at Dale's today commenting on this, and that Guido has chipped in here. Smells like collusion.
"As for 'creating a narrative', I think that might more accurately describe what you, Dale and Guido have been doing. I find it interesting, Dizzy, that you should have made a rare appearance over at Dale's today commenting on this, and that Guido has chipped in here. Smells like collusion."
:rollseyes:
:rollseyes: ... but doesn't respond. I wonder why...
Funny tweet about that bloggerhead prick, Dizzy! Mind you, for once I think he has a point about Dale - the more I see how he operates, the less I like it.
Its called an emoticon you fool and indicates an exasperated expression of incredulity. The reason I said nothing other than that has been displayed in your response. That being that whatever I say won't satisfy the conspiratorial charge.
Regarding the tweet, I'm not sure what you are referring too. It relates to a meeting I had this afternoon.
You really must think I'm a fool with that response. Come clean on the tweet, it's genuinely funny! And I don't like 'manic' any more than you do.
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