Nadine Dorries' James O’Brien Meltdown

It was the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines who told the Leveson Inquiry “Editors, pundits and journalists are surprisingly thin skinned and there is much sport to be had in teasing and taunting prominent media figures”. He might have added some of his pals on the back benches to that list, not least Mid Bedfordshire’s Tory MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries, who has gone off the end of the pier in no style at all at LBC host James O’Brien.

O’Brien occasionally passes adverse comment on Ms Dorries, who has thus far not seen fit to go on his show and defend herself. She does, however, take his criticisms personally, which usually causes her to end up looking yet more foolish. One example was when she called him a “Public school fuck wit”, only for O’Brien to point out that she had sent two of her daughters to the same public school he had attended (Ampleforth College).

So there is significant previous here, but her latest meltdown has taken it to a new level. After an interview in the Independent told O’Brien had asserted “Andrew Bridgen [the Conservative MP and Leave supporter, who suggested all English people are entitled to Irish passports] and MP Nadine Dorries are picked off as ‘some of the most profoundly ignorant people ever to disgrace public life’”, she went ballistic.

“This man needs to see a Doctor. I’ve found his obsession with me seriously creepy bordering on, shall I call the police? I’m a back bencher, not a Minister and have had to email his employer a number of times. It’s not his soul in jeopardy”. Er, WHAT? She’s a politician with an (undeservedly) high media profile. She persists in saying things that are not true. She counters criticism with smears and abuse. That brings more criticism.

But on she ploughed. “I guess it must be a latent bitterness at having failed so badly at broadcast TV that does it, however, when Brexit is over, he is going to have to find a new reason to excuse his irrational, erratic, rude and obsessive behaviour bcse without Brexit as a screen, he’s exposed”. He managed OK for several years before the EU referendum, so it’s a safe bet he’ll manage OK after it. And her opinion was not universally held.

Hence “You are an MP, he is a journalist. It is his job to hold you to account for your actions in post. The reason why you get a lot of attention (along with others) is because you advocate a position for the country and are unable to support it with facts … Actually reading the article, he was bang on about you … [and] If Nadine can't take fact based, policy and action driven criticism then maybe politics is not for her”.

Worse, her most infamous recent gaffe kept coming back to haunt her. “Have you figured out what the customs union is yet, @NadineDorries?” asked one Tweeter. This was not a solo effort, hence “Have you found out what the customs union is yet?” Then someone alluded to her sheer nastiness by asking “What have you had to email them [O’Brien’s employer, presumably LBC] about? Asking them what the Customs Union is?”

That’s the Nadine Dorries of legend: viciously trying to get her critics sacked in order to silence them. Not that she doesn’t have the intellectual heft to counter them, of course.

The fragrant Nadine comes off second best once again. And remember, they allowed her to become an MP.

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