The continued fall-out

Iain Dale reports—contrary to Dolly Draper's continued assertions—that McBride's anti-Tory sleaze allegations were out in the semi-public domain...

We keep being told the McBride/Draper emails were never meant to see the light of day. Bollocks. I couldn't mention this before, but since Nadine Dorries has talked about it on TV this morning, I now can.

Some time ago I received a tearful phone call from Nadine. She had just been rung by a leading political editor who put two horrendous allegations to her. It is now clear where he got the tip-off from. The RedRag website may not have physically existed, but its content was being maliciously spread around by its putative creators. Nadine thinks that the site was planned because the newspapers wouldn't run the stories. I strongly suspect that the allegations relating to Osborne and Cameron had been doing the rounds too.

This is, of course, all hearsay and may or may not be true—although your humble Devil believes that it probably is—but it seems that the one-eyed Scots git's letter of apology is being widely hailed as totally fucking inadequate.

One of the more amusing facts of the case is Guido being consistently described as...

... the "author of the "anti-politics" Guido Fawkes blog...

Given that EUReferendum seem to be somewhat worried, of late, that the BNP are securing the "anti-politics" vote, perhaps Guido has enough traction to start an anti-politics political party to take votes away from the BNP...? Erm... Maybe not.

In any case, this very sharp article by Stuart Sharpe describes why the Tories should be wary of Guido too.

As the congratulations are passed around the blogosphere after Guido’s victory over Damian McBride and Derek Draper, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is not a victory of the Conservative Party over Labour. This is a victory of People over Politics. And it’s a victory which should make all politicians, not just Labour ones, buck up their habits and start fearing the blogs.

Despite the claims of many observers, Guido Fawkes is not a Conservative blogger. He is a trouble maker, and he doesn’t care who he causes trouble for. His politics have a right-wing bias, but his tactics are not partisan. Guido goes after Labour because he wants impact. Ministers and their Special Advisers hold positions of far greater importance and responsibility than opposition MPs. Their conduct ought to be impeccable, their independence unquestionable. They should be beyond reproach – “whiter than white”, according to the promises of one Mr Anthony Blair.

In short, ministers make rather excellent targets.
...

The Conservative Party shouldn’t expect any special favours. In government they will receive no easy ride nor free pass from the blogs. Certainly not from Guido or Devil’s Kitchen or any of the other supposedly ‘right-leaning’ sites. These bloggers are not on the side of the Conservative Party; they’re emphatically not, as some left-wingers still seem to think – backed or endorsed by the Tories.
...

This will all be put to the test soon. I don’t see how Gordon Brown could win an election at this point, and if David Cameron becomes Prime Minister he’ll be met with a whole new problem – he’ll find that the blogs who used to be on his side will suddenly turn on him like a pack of ravaging dogs.

Quite so. The thing that some on the left (and, to a lesser extent, the right) constantly miss—especially when they assert that it is far easier to blog effectively when in opposition—is that libertarians such as Guido (as he is emphatically described by Brian Mickelthwait), your humble Devil and any amount of other bloggers is that we are always in opposition to the government because we are always in opposition to the state.

And if they don’t, I for one will be bitterly disappointed.

There are a few libertarians who are willing to give the Conservatives a chance, on the grounds that they might be better than NuLabour, or that it might be possible to drive Cameron's merry men to a more libertarian position; your humble Devil is not one of these.

As I have said many times before, provided that I have not blogged myself out or the state not shut The Kitchen down, then your humble Devil will continue to rant and swear at the corrupt politicians, our mendacious media pundits, our pathetic toy parliament and the ever-increasing power of the EU project.

There will be some who will sigh in despair at this reassurance—"will that foul-mouthed bastard never bugger off?"—but there will be some, I hope, who look forward to the ride...

UPDATE: Charlotte Gore details Liberal Conspiracy's awkward week, whilst darling Sunny flails about in the comments with gems such as this...

I didn’t realise the dedication to free speech meant I had to tolerate abuse and trolling on our blog too.
...

It’s a funny misreading of the concept of free speech if you think deleting abusive comments is somehow against that.

No, Sunny: it is you who have "a funny misreading of the concept of free speech" if you think that indulging in comment censorship is, in fact, free speech. You are free to do what you like with comments at your place, but don't try to pretend that your arbitrary, unilateral modification and deletion of comments is anything to do with "free speech".