The inevitability of the soap opera that was nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk and his now estranged wife Karen was that, being played out in the cheaper end of the Fourth Estate, the whole thing was sooner or later going to end in tears as stuff hit fan. Today, the stuff has indeed hit the fan as two Sunday papers have opened up on the Danczuks with separate stories, but equally damaging ones.
Once again mainly about Themselves Personally Now
The Mirror has the new news: “Selfie queen Karen Danczuk plotted £1,000 lapdancer honeytrap to smear MP husband Simon Danczuk”. So it’s a nice and tasteful exposé, then. The allegations are made by salesman Steve Bennett, supposedly a friend of the Danczuks, but perhaps a former one after today, who told “I went to a very good friend of mine, a scouser. She’s absolutely stunning with a fantastic body”.
Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes? “I asked her if she would do it and she agreed, saying she wanted a grand to do it. I told her she was selling herself too short … Karen said that if she was in a bar in London and was a bit flirty, he might go for it but she couldn’t guarantee it. She wanted him to so she could get out of the marriage”. The idea was to get the MP to take Bennett’s friend back to his Westminster apartment. For sex.
That would then give Karen Danczuk grounds for divorce on the grounds of adultery, and, it has to be conceded, it’s rather more original than tipping off a snapper and leaving the hotel room unlocked. Bennett claims that he decided against the ruse as it would, he believed, destroy the MP, although Danczuk’s tenure as Rochdale’s representative in the Commons may not exactly have been helped by his revelations.
The Mirror story would be bad enough on its own, but in the meantime the Mail On Sunday’s David Rose has taken time off from his valiant campaign to prove that climate change is not happening, honestly, to prod at the Danczuks: “The dark side of the Danczuks: A Spanish family holiday suddenly abandoned. A text that read: ‘I’m scared.’ A claim of threats to kill... Disturbing questions about the MP who crusades against abuse”.
As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point. Rose does not unearth anything that was not already known: the Danczuks’ relationship was never less than rocky even before they married, Kazza’s family are not best disposed towards her right now for a variety of reasons, the Deli in Rochdale is the subject of significant rent arrears, and the local Labour Party had held an inquiry into one particular bust-up.
The problem for the MP is that what gets plastered across the MoS all too often gets picked up by the Daily Mail the following week. Rose’s article carries the suggestion - and that’s the only invitation the Daily Mail needs - that the local Labour Party has been shielding Simon Danczuk. If it’s something that can be framed as a Labour cover-up, the Dacre doggies will be all over it in short order.
And the party nationally wouldn’t worry about a by-election. Not with a 12,000 majority.
"And the party nationally wouldn’t worry about a by-election. Not with a 12,000 majority." -
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, you're wrong there.
Danzcuk won the seat from the Lib Dems in 2010, with a narrow majority of under 1,000 and increased the majority to 12,000 this year against the national trend.
As it happens, as Danczuk's majority was over 12,000 in May, I'm right there.
ReplyDeleteThe national trend that mattered in this case was that the Lib Dem vote collapsed. Part of that went to Labour and the rest to UKIP.
A by-election in the near future would be most unlikely to see a Lib Dem revival, so that 12,000 majority would still be the benchmark.
The Mail story is very weak and very old too.
ReplyDeleteMail story contains many new elements, reporter given new information, spoke to those not interviewed before, and raises the issue of who was lying to whom?
ReplyDelete" A by-election in the near future would be most unlikely to see a Lib Dem revival, so that 12,000 majority would still be the benchmark."
ReplyDeleteAs you know perfectly well, I didn't suggest that an by-election in the near future would see a Lib Dem revival in that constituency, I was merely demonstrating that your analysis is selective at best.
Incidentally, your obsession with the Danzcuks is increasingly creepy, almost worthy of your bete noire Uncle Rupe now that I think of it.
Wow, has Simon got a replacement for Matt 'sock puppet' Baker already?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMr Baker is still Simon's "right hand man" until the end of the month. Yes sock puppets were indeed his speciality, allegedly, though SURELY he's not posting here as Anon?
He's moving jobs to put his own gloss on the activities of the elected Mayor of Bristol. No jokes about bristols, thank you. Mrs Danczuk and he are not the best of friends.
It is rumoured he wanted to keep his move to Bristol quiet, so please don't tell anyone.
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/96466/matt-baker-rochdale-mp-simon-danczuks-right-hand-man-is-moving-on