Tory Bullying - Look Who’s Still Here

After the bullying scandal broke over the Tory Party, in the wake of young activist Elliott Johnson’s death, there was much expression of remorse and regret. And no-one was more regretful and remorseful that the head man at both the Young Britons’ Foundation and Thatcherite pressure group Conservative Way Forward, Donal Blaney. He was in the papers and on the radio showing how sorry he was.

Donal Blaney

Not only that, he would resign as Chairman of CWF: as the Mail On Sunday’s political editor Simon Walters told, “Blaney said he was resigning as CWF chairman to look after his ill wife in their US home. He added he no longer had enough time to carry out his CWF duties and planned to expand his legal work in America”.

Blaney’s spokesman, quoted in the Telegraph, went into more detail: “Because he needs to be in the United States on an increasingly full-time basis to care for his wife who suffers from a progressive and degenerative circulatory condition called Raynaud’s Disease, Donal is naturally unable to dedicate the time needed to execute his statutory and fiduciary responsibilities as a director or Chairman of CWF”. And there was more.

“He also has a busy legal practice to run which is expanding across the Atlantic too. He resigned as a director and Chairman of CWF earlier this week. There is and can be no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Donal or CWF. Others are accountable for their own wrongdoing. He cannot be”. So when did Blaney say his goodbye to the UK and go off to Tampa to care for his wife and her circulatory condition?

Who's this in the circle?

It seems that whatever move he made was not as permanent as he has made out: Blaney was caught on camera at last week’s CWF 25th anniversary party at the Millennium Hotel in London’s Mayfair. The photo, kindly sent to Zelo Street by one of the blog’s regular sources, shows Blaney deep in conversation with a strangely familiar figure who had his back to the camera. As Rolf might have asked, can you guess who it is yet?

The mystery figure has been identified as none other than the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines, aka Guido Fakwes, whom one might think would be the last person Donal Blaney would want to be seen conversing with, given his clear suggestion that he was seeking rather less of the limelight, and a lot less of the recent scandal that has followed the unfortunate Elliott Johnson’s death. Well, well.

So Donal Blaney has not had to move to the USA on a full-time basis just yet. And his willingness to deal with The Great Guido is yet more interesting. I wondered the other day if the Fawkes blog story about expenses incurred during the Newark by-election campaign had been informed by someone close to Mark Clarke. Having seen Staines and Blaney chatting together last Friday, one has to wonder if that guess was right.

And how will Blaney’s wife Marci manage without him to care for her? From her recent Facebook post telling “Wow, it’s hot today so I decided to get a sun tan!!! Love Florida in the winter time!” perhaps she is managing just fine.

What you will not read in the authorised version. No surprise there, then.