As the fallout from the death of Tory activist Elliott Johnson brings yet more new revelations this weekend, the efforts by some of those likely to be sucked in to the ever-deepening whirlpool to distance themselves from what went on around former RoadTrip organiser Mark Clarke have resulted in their being shown up as distinctly economical with the actualité. As good right-wingers, they believe they have no need to obey Brown’s law.
The Most Worshipful Master Harry Cole: untrustworthy slob
This was established by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, when he admonished Damian McBride over the latter’s suggestion that he invent one or more “facts” to more easily smear someone. “Don’t”, replied Brown. “It’s the lie that gets you”.
This straightforward rule has escaped Harry Cole, formerly tame gofer to Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, as the allegations have begun to pile up. The Independent has observed “Mr Cole … is now the Westminster Correspondent of The Sun, breaking regular exclusives about the Tatler Tory scandal – several based on documents that could only have been obtained from people close to the centre of the scandal”.
The report gets to the nub of Cole’s current dilemma: “Although the tabloid has written extensively about the links between Michael Clarke and Mr Elliott … Mr Cole has yet to mention his own association with Mr Clark … Friends of Mr Cole said he had made ‘no secret of the fact they were close friends for 10 years’ – but said they fell out in July last year”. And to that last claim I call bullshit.
Paul Staines: a corpulent drunkard
In July last year, far from falling out with Mark Clarke, Cole was cheering him on. Zelo Street posted at the time on the vicious ousting of one Sarah-Jane Sewell from Tory youth wing Conservative Future - something which Clarke openly celebrated with drinks at the Two Chairmen pub in central London. Cole, as Nick Mutch has pointed out in a piece for Byline Media, ridiculed Ms Sewell’s resignation letter.
Moreover, if Cole had indeed fallen out with Clarke, how did he secure access to two items of the latter’s personal correspondence, original signed letters from Grant Shapps and David Cameron? Also, the “I fell out with him last year” line also seems to be rather like the excuse deployed by both Paul Abbott, CEO of Conservative Way Forward, and Donal Blaney, founder of the Young Britons’ Foundation.
The falling out between Cole and Clarke must have come terribly suddenly, too, because also in July 2014, the two of them were playing cricket together - along with Abbott. We know this as they posed for a group photo at Didcot Parkway station. Worse for Cole, Mutch adds a new allegation to the pile facing him: that he, Clarke and Abbott were Freemasons associated with Phoenix Lodge (#173).
From the sight of Master Cole - or perhaps that should now be upgraded to The Worshipful Master Cole - with trousers well alight over his claim to have fallen out with Mark Clarke when he clearly had not - we move over to his former boss Paul Staines, who, it has to be assumed, was in possession of the Guido Fawkes Twitter feed earlier today.
Harry Cole and Paul Abbott having a sudden and vicious falling out with Mark Clarke. Or maybe not
“Not a good sign that the CCHQ/Clifford Chance investigation is leaking already” he appears to have claimed. There is only one article talking about that investigation today, and it is in the Independent. And when we take Staines’ assertion, then match it up with the relevant part of the text, something most interesting may be observed.
This is what the Indy said: “There is no evidence that the Guido Fawkes gossip blog … ever ran untrue smear stories pushed by Mr Clarke … However, sources close to Clifford Chance, the law firm appointed by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) to investigate the scandal, confirmed that they would explore Mr Clarke’s media connections as part of the probe”. Spot the leak (clue: there isn’t one).
No, the Independent story shows no sign whatever of a leak from CCHQ, or indeed Clifford Chance. All that it does show is confirmation of the investigation’s scope. Staines has seen a leak where there isn’t one. The conclusion as to what this means can be described in a clearly understandable four-word phrase.
OH WHAT A GIVEAWAY.
It gets worse: Staines does not tackle the Indy’s main claim - that the Fawkes blog was used to smear Clarke’s opponents. The paper does not provide any examples, but Zelo Street will.
I do believe you didn't intend to Tweet that ...
Former CF chair Ben Howlett, now MP for Bath, and who has by his own admission been bullied by Clarke, was on the receiving end of several hatchet jobs by the Fawkes blog (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE for instance). The more observant reader will notice that the last of those posts was dated October last year - three months after they all “fell out” with Clarke. So it must have been a complete coincidence, then.
When the Elliott Johnson and Mark Clarke story broke, my first conclusion was that this was an act of entryism that had gone badly wrong. And it keeps coming up entryism: Ray Johnson’s revelation that his son’s CWF redundancy letter came from Griffin Law, Donal Blaney’s legal practice, Nick Mutch suggesting a takeover of CF by a “RoadTrip slate” of top executives, and the YBF training all those young activists.
Small wonder Mutch uses the phrase “Worse than Militant”. A Tory Party with an ageing and declining membership offered all those young activists - it must have seemed too good to be true. That is because it is now looking like it really was too good to be true.
Cole and Staines have failed utterly to explain away their part in the entryism; if anything, there are more questions for them to answer than a week ago. Questions that will not go away. And they will at some time have to stop deflecting, spinning, projecting, blustering and, yes, lying. Because, as Gordon Brown explained to Damian McBride, that leads only one way.
It’s the lie that gets you. And it will get Cole and Staines, with the certainty of night following day.
12 comments:
The sooner they're "got" the better.
I can't wait till they get an early morning wake up from the bizzies, then have to explain themselves to the beak......You know, like Jonathan Aitken, Jeffrey Archer and (fill in any number of tory shysters here).
Sooner or later the whole rotten edifice is going to collapse around them. It can't come soon enough for the mental health of this country.
Has Harry CorpuCole said whether he's a mason?
Paul Osborn - former YBF strategy man, Donal Blaney's bezzie and now installed at DB's CWF madrassa for neocon grown ups and seen adoringly curating a banner on Roadtrip 2015 https://www.flickr.com/photos/hkaur92/15515668611/in/album-72157648687227452/ - confirmed on Twitter within seconds of being asked last night that he isn't a mason.
So quick to answer, you'd have thought he was expecting it in the light of Mutch's piece. Deafening silence meanwhile from the others.
@Anon 17:32
"Sooner or later the whole rotten edifice is going to collapse around them"
I wouldn't bet on that if the following list of people involved in freemasonry is legit.
"http://fallingmasonry.info/masonic-public.html"
There will many who will be innocent of any misfeasance or crime but the question should be asked "What is the need for a secret society in an open society?"
Yet again, Alexandra Swann is noted on twitter sticking by her bully boy pals: "Patrick Sullivan is a liar and a fraud. Truly disgusted." Hmm really? Her own lies are being scrutinized by lawyers.
That is so bloody true.
Vile, vile crew. I'm still aghast how many in politics follow the Fawkes Mafia.
It will keep them down.
Probably not Freemasons but users of 'dark arts'.
Why did Creosote move to Ireland?
Patrick Sullivan is as much a bully as Clarke! He bribes / bullies his way through everything. He is a horrible fat slob with zero talent whose big shot lawyer father writes snotty letters to anyone trying to confront his grotesque ways. It is amazing he tried to pretend he was a hero in the Daily Mail piece he tried to use as a PR stunt. Shameful.
Another huge slob is William Hanley. Why is this guy even allowed a Commons pass. He is best pals with Alexandra Swann who was very involved with UKIP and who covers for him. Lawyers are looking at several matters.
Read this and make your own minds up. Who supplies this creep with drugs....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3328717/The-sex-tape-shames-Conservative-party-Tatler-Tory-used-vile-revenge-porn-humiliate-political-opponent.html
'Sources say the female was ‘plied with drink’ at the Commons reception before she and Walker went to a party at the Fulham home of another Tory aide, Will Hanley, who has a Commons pass issued by Conservative MP Nigel Adams.
According to one account, the woman was taken into a room and given cocaine, which she proceeded to snort. This newspaper has been told a camera had been placed on a table in an attempt to film the woman taking drugs.
There is no suggestion that Mr Hanley was aware of the incident.
Walker last night said ‘There is no such film’ – before putting the phone down. He refused to respond to further calls.'
10th October 2010
William Hanley is mentioned as far back as October 2010 and pictured here taking drugs during the Conservative Party Conference. The article claims he takes Ecstasy and Mephedrone. He would therefore surely have known the girl mentioned above was being set up. She was taken to his house.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-politician-caught-snorting-meow-253016
Then we learn of Clarke allegedly mentioning drink-spiking:
19th November - Daily Mail article details drink-spiking allegations and photographs :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326263/Sex-drugs-blackmail-claims-rock-Tories-Party-chiefs-accused-cover-allegations-against-Prime-Minister-s-aide-bullied-activist-death.html
Taken from the above article:
‘On a separate later occasion at an event in London, I overheard Mark and his friends discussing plans to humiliate those who “crossed their path” or who weren’t susceptible to sexual bribes, by spiking their drinks and taking intimate pictures of them whilst they were under the influence.’ In the letter, she also claimed there was a culture of drug abuse led by Mr Clarke. She wrote how on one trip to Harlow ‘I walked into the ladies toilet to find Mark [and two female friends] snorting lines of cocaine from the surface top.
‘I was told, in no uncertain terms, to “Keep my f***** mouth shut”.
‘Later in the evening, Mark approached me to say he’d “got stuff” on me, including intimate pictures, and that if I wanted them to remain private I’d refrain from crossing him ever again.’
The Tories must now let the police take over. These are serious criminal events.
Might be interesting to see what other events and conferences Hanley has attended and who was present with him. For instance, whether Cole or others with links to Clarke were in attendance, who they were texting at the times etc. We know these incidences happen across right wing parties and there are those who go to extraordinary lengths to provide smears and false statements to cover up for the sake of political figures. In some cases these criminals have tried to make out that certain MPs have asked them to do these things based upon the smears they feed them about the chosen victim. One political figure boasted of his friendship with Nadine Dorries and his sick photos of half cut women in a state of undress. He referred to her as "Nads". He likes texting "Nads". There are many others involved in these activities which are pre-arranged in old man cigar type clubs. The subject is smeared and given drink and drugs. Worth noting that only very ugly, slobby men and repulsive ugly lizard men do this to women.
I understand from newspaper reports that Elliott's toxicology tests revealed he had been drinking heavily. Who had he been drinking with, if anyone? With so many victims having been slipped a drug I am guessing the toxicology tests covered this.
Those slobby repulsives really should learn how to see straight.
A drug can destroy their minds beyond repair.
As with many unsolved crime scenes. Certain information is retained.
Tick tock.
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