Careful With That Axe, Nadine

[Update at end of post]

While most attention was being given to events around the apparent lack of competence in the Tory Party (as well, of course, as the Savile business and the continuing attempts by the Fourth Estate and its pals to discredit anything remotely related to Leveson), a curious Twitter exchange was taking place involving (yes, it’s her again) Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries.

As seen on First Capital Connect (allegedly)

Ms Dorries had asserted that, while she has not claimed for first class travel – which figures, as it’s not much more than a half hour train journey from her constituency to central London – she would not begrudge MPs of any party who have long distances to travel doing so. This was accepted by @AndyCavster, but he then asked if she had employed family members and paid them “over the odds”.

That’s a challenging and forthright question, but Nadine Dorries works for We The People, so she should expect such examination in a public forum such as Twitter. And at first she engaged with her questioner, but became agitated when he quoted an article in the Daily Mirror. “If you don’t want to be blocked don’t quote the scummy Daily Mirror at me again” she snapped.

And it soon got worse: “just don’t quote the [Mirror] at me or misrepresent me as you have just done”, she told him. “Your [sic] flying close mate”. Why can’t anyone cite a national newspaper in a request to a Member of Parliament? Did the Mirror have to withdraw its story? If not, then there is no reason it can’t be quoted. Merely because Ms Dorries does not agree with its tone or content is not sufficient cause.

Moreover, how has @AndyCavster “misrepresented” her? He hasn’t: this is just a gratuitous smear, and here we encounter an old Dorries favourite, a ploy she used against Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads fame (mentioning him, incidentally, gets you blocked by Ms Dorries), most recently when she maliciously attempted to have him removed from the Big Question studio (and failed).

And the reality in which Ms Dorries exists is an interesting one, as another Twitter excursion shows. “Lynton Crosby would have won 2010 for us” she asserts, despite his previous effort in 2005 making no impression on public opinion, and the use of crude dog-whistle politics bringing the Tories a welter of condemnation. Crosby has been talked up way beyond his real campaigning value.

All of which merely reinforces the thought that Nadine Dorries is not particularly good MP material, although she is an accomplished smearer of those who have the temerity to disagree with – and challenge – her. That, together with her intolerant attitude and thin skin, does not bode well for the future, and especially if the Tories want to introduce more youth into Parliament.

But if she finds herself shut out, Nadine Dorries will only have herself to blame.

[UPDATE 1940 hours: as @AndyCavster has now discovered, Nadine Dorries was not entirely honest with him in her last comment.

Yes, the fragrant Nadine had blocked him, but somehow lacked the candour to say so. That's an interesting attitude to take for someone who is paid out of the public purse. Her pals at the Guido Fawkes blog would be hot on the trail of anyone else for that kind of thing, but as I've noted previously, they have a blind spot when it comes to Ms Dorries]