While the Westminster media bubble ponders the latest “what if” speculation about who might or
might not stand in the forthcoming Newark by-election, there has been a most
unseemly rush to take credit for the richly deserved downfall
of departing MP Patrick Mercer. Yes, the Telegraph and BBC can jointly claim the lion’s share for their
sting exposing Mercer’s greed, but one name has been forgotten.
Step forward the serially tenacious Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads fame, whose exposure of
Mercer’s distinctly dodgy dealings, his love of securing More And Bigger Paycheques
For Himself Personally Now, and a blithering technophobia that left a
supposedly worldly-wise Tory MP open to being exploited by a number of con
artists and other charlatans, preceded Mercer’s stinging.
What Ireland’s experience has also shown is the tendency of
some politicians to react to adverse criticism by either smearing their
accusers, getting someone else to smear or do them down, or a combination of
both. Mercer’s “friends” made some
quite disgraceful accusations against Ireland. It didn’t work. This succeeded
only in drawing attention to the MP’s cluelessness. Disaster followed.
Oh God no ... look, can't you shine that damned spotlight somewhere else?
But back to the exposure of the soon to be former MP for
Newark: Mercer was hot on counter terrorism. He was also to prove gullible.
Mercer was taken in by a pair of moderately accomplished but cretinously stupid
shysters called Glen Jenvey and Dominic Wightman. Ireland warned
Mercer of their less than total reliability and probity. Mercer, it seems,
did not want to know.
Patrick Mercer (right) with Dominic Whiteman, Oct 2006
Ireland then noted
Mercer’s enviable ability to score fees from a variety of media outlets in
exchange for his supposedly authoritative take on “National Security”. And it was this appetite for those little
extras that brought the Newark MP to the attention of those who ultimately
arranged his exposure. Plus, one comment Mercer made in a telephone
conversation with Ireland linked in another MP.
The fragrant Nadine: a smear too far?
“Are you broadcasting
this?” Mercer demanded of Ireland. Have a think about that. One might
suspect the other party of recording
a conversation, but broadcasting?
Where can he have got that, especially given Ireland’s discovery that Mercer
was a technophobe? But the timing of the question gives the game away: just
after the 2010 General Election, and an incident in the Bedfordshire town of
Flitwick.
Tim Ireland, at the invitation of concerned constituents, attended
a hustings event, recording
and also broadcasting it. The concern was over the behaviour of (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries. Ms Dorries
made a
number of defamatory assertions at the time and viciously smeared
Ireland later. Mercer’s “friends” did
his smearing; Ms Dorries joined in with hers. Mercer got stung. He is on his
way out.
What goes around comes around. I shall say no more.
Mercer seems not to be the sharpest knife in the box. In that secret filming he latched on about sugar production in Fiji and came out with the outstanding statement "we have a sugar beet factory in Newark" and that's the only industry we have in the town" . Complete nonsense . The town also has NSK ball bearings, Hoval boilers , a huge factory employing over two thousand people making cakes and desserts and the main distribution headquarters of Currys/ Dixons, which also employs a couple of thousand people. So, for somebody who has represented the town for some years, he not very clued up about employment in the town.
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