Danczuk Police Photo-Op Busted

The ability of Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk to turn any situation into an opportunity to score More And Bigger Paycheques For Himself Personally Now was never more starkly illustrated than when he voluntarily attended a Lancashire Police station yesterday to be interviewed under caution over an historical allegation of rape. Most politicians would keep such occasions low key. Not Danczuk.

Not for Simon Danczuk the quiet and anonymous visit to the cop shop, followed by the briefest of statements to the media well after he had made himself scarce: for him, this was yet another opportunity to make money, and, if possible, thousands of pounds worth of it. You think I jest? Let’s look at a selection of those media reports from yesterday.

Some were brief and to the point: the BBC merely told “Lancashire Police said a 49-year-old old man had "voluntarily" attended a station by prior appointment”. A still from a recent video was included in the item. The Guardian also stuck to stating the facts, and included a recent snap. That same photo was also used by Sky News (“first for breaking wind”). But the Mail, Sun and Mirror got images taken outside Rossendale Police station. They were the only photos taken on the day - via agency iCelebTV.

Those papers who tried to follow Danczuk’s journey to Rossendale were given the slip, I’m told, as the MP did not spend the previous night at one of his usual haunts. The first thing the press knew was when news came through that Danczuk had attended for interview, an agency had the exclusive photo rights, and would they all like to open their wallets in order to use one or more of the snaps? Ker-ching!!

The Mirror stumped up for two snaps, filling out its on-line copy with older photos. The wealthier Mail bought more, and also a video. The Sun, which I’m informed had been given the slip earlier in the day, took just one. But the Mail and Sun then exposed the full extent of the money-grubbing racket when they also included a photo of ex-wife Karen “leaving the gym” - also credited to iCelebTV!

In fact, the Sun went further, specifically crediting both sets of photos to snapper Donny Ryan. So it has to be assumed that Ryan was tipped off by both Danczuk and his former wife as to their movements yesterday. They were both in on the money-making scheme. And it gets worse: it has been put to Zelo Street that sums as high as £5,000 were being demanded in exchange for rights to publish all those photos.

You read that right: Simon Danczuk has a claim of rape made against him, attends a Police station for interview, and arranges for an agency to have an exclusive, together with yet another staged photo-op with his wannabe and publicity-hungry ex-wife. It takes some brass neck to manipulate something so serious for personal gain. And it is not the first recent occasion that Danczuk has used a photo-op for personal financial gain.

Who at Rochdale CLP still wants to defend their MP now? Don’t all shout at once.

Murdoch - No Fool Like An Old Fool

With a confidence that Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk must envy, 84 year old billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch has, though the pages of one of his own papers, announced his engagement to 59 year old high maintenance model Jerry Hall. Should the happy couple proceed to the marriage stage, it would be Rupe’s fourth tying of the knot. So aren’t the rest of the press ecstatically happy?

Well, some of them are: the Mail has told readers “Jerry Hall, 59, and Rupert Murdoch, 84, announce their ENGAGEMENT in The Times after a whirlwind four month romance … Model Jerry Hall and media baron Rupert Murdoch began dating in October … Mr Murdoch proposed over the weekend while in LA for Golden Globes”. The BBC went with “Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress-model Jerry Hall are to get married”.

The happy couple’s good news is also noted by the Guardian, as well as the Independent and the Telegraph. But there seems to be some reticence at Rupe’s own papers, but no doubt they’ll get round to it. David Jack of the Times has already made his own guarded comment: “@rupertmurdoch announces his engagement to Jerry Hall in today's @thetimes”. Yes, in the classified ads. One wonders who paid.

But no comment to go with the announcement. Could anyone do better? (Thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch certainly could: “How nice, congrats @RupertMurdoch and @JerryHall_”. But she’ll have to grovel harder and write better to get another regular column. Couldn’t anyone give it the full gush?

They certainly could: Piers Morgan told his followers “Congrats to @JerryHall_ & @RupertMurdoch on their engagement. An inspiration to all romantics … I wish them well”.  Zelo Street understands that the extended Murdoch family has been most helpful to the former Screws and Daily Mirror editor recently.

Another pitching for Don Rupioni’s attention was appalling former Screws man Neil “Wolfman” Wallis, telling “Wow! Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall announce engagement – in classifieds”, but he won’t get any credit for quoting the Guardian in his Tweet. Nor will the Rasping F***wit (for it is he) be getting another gig with Rupe any time soon.

Also giving a cagey welcome to the engagement news were the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, now heavily dependent on the Murdoch empire, and, so I’m told, ever ready to accommodate the decisions handed down by the chief Mafiosi’s selected executive officers.

It was left to Joan Collins to give the happy couple the full showbiz schmaltz: “Congratulations to @JerryHall_ & Rupert Murdoch, I knew when we had dinner last month that a big event would be happening, you had a glow”. At the age of 84? That’s less plausible than the worst Dynasty storyline.

It’s always interesting to see how many media folk still live in fear of Don Rupioni. Maybe they all forgot what Danczuk said recently: “There’s no fool like an old fool”. Rupert Murdoch just proved that, but so many were too scared to say so.

[UPDATE 1810 hours: the phoney veneer of celebration over Creepy Uncle Rupe and Jerry Hall getting engaged was broken on ITV This Morning when co-host Philip Schofield was captured on camera looking less than totally convinced by the idea.

Zelo Street readers can see Schofield's priceless expression in the Vine above. If only others were so candid in their response to this non-event]

Daily Mail Bowie Hypocrisy

Today’s Daily Mail has followed the rest of the press pack in marking the passing of rock legend David Bowie: their front page take is captioned “Bowie, starman still dazzling the world even in death”. There is fulsome praise from a host of hacks and pundits. Several pages of the paper are given over to features on his life, times, and music. And the whole exercise is a prime example of the worst kind of rank hypocrisy.

There’s an “exclusive” tribute from Boy George: “'I always dreaded this day, I hoped he was immortal': Boy George writes touching tribute to friend David Bowie after star's shock death … George penned a tribute letter for his friend David who died Sunday … ’I first saw David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust performing at Lewisham Odeon in 1973 just before my twelfth birthday,' George started his letter … The Karma Chameleon singer said Bowie 'validated me and made me realize I was not alone’”.

Young New Zealand singer Lorde was also represented in the Mail: “'I've never met a hero of mine and liked it... he was different': Lorde joins the outpouring of grief for David Bowie who died after a secret cancer battle”. There was even a “close friend” on hand to tell the Mail about Bowie’s battle with cancer.

“David Bowie fought liver cancer for more than a year because he wanted to live to see his daughter grow up, close friend reveals as fans party through the night in memory of their idol … David Bowie told close friends that he was suffering from liver cancer in 2014, according to director Ivo van Hove” told the headline.

But the Mail didn’t know until his death was announced. And that means, despite gushing articles like “The daughter who made David Bowie yearn to live: How birth of Lexi put singer's workaholic tendencies 'into perspective' and gave him the will to stay healthy after his first heart attack”, and also “Shock and mourning at death of David Bowie turns to partying into the night: Fans celebrating life of their music idol turn out in their hundreds at his hometown - and even the statues wore the 'Aladdin Sane' logo”, Mail staff will be hoping that their worst Bowie hypocrisy does not attract too much attention.

Because yesterday’s paper, published before news of the death was announced, contained a typically nasty hatchet job on Bowie from the pen of Jan Moir. Under the headline “THE BITTERNESS OF MRS BOWIE”, readers were told “She claims he forced her into a debauched open marriage - then 'poisoned' their son against her. Now Angie Bowie's hitting back in viciously indiscreet style”.

Bowie’s first wife Angie, from whom he was divorced in 1980, is part of the latest Celebrity Big Brother line-up (I know, I know, “for some value of ‘celebrity’”). So the Mail despatched its cattiest Glenda to arrange a payday for Angie, and a hit-job for the Dacre doggies, unaware that David Bowie was terminally ill with cancer. And they got caught out.

It takes a certain kind of brass neck to run articles like that, and then splash on the fulsome tributes the next day. Being the Daily Mail means never having to say you’re sorry.

Junior Doctors - Press Beyond Parody

News that thousands of junior doctors are to take industrial action tomorrow has sent the already febrile right-leaning press into a state of panic: here is a group of workers who are highly intelligent, highly qualified, dedicated to their profession, hard working, caring, and above all popular with the public - many of whom read those same papers. But strikes are by definition A Very Bad Thing. So the medics had to be demonised.

Here, though, a problem entered: that same public sympathised with the doctors’ grievances. There was widespread support for their stance. No matter: out came the hacks, with orders to smear, and smear they did. The problem was that the smears were so crude and amateurish as to generate little more than ridicule, and that includes attempts to suggest that the ones going on strike were all rotten lefties.

Even the supposedly upmarket Times could not get itself out of the playground, howling “Labour hard left to picket hospitals”. The phrase “hard left” is another recent import from the USA, being a staple attack line of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). Readers were told that “moderate” Labour MPs (unnamed) were opposed to the action. It was supremely lame stuff. But the Sun was about to sink yet lower.

It's hard! It's left! It's, er, a smear

“Moet medics: High life of docs’ leaders who are heading up NHS strike … EXCLUSIVE: Pics show champagne-swilling lavish lifestyles enjoyed by striking ‘Moet medics’” screamed the headline, over an article that was only “exclusive” because the Sun hacks were the first to trawl junior doctors’ social media accounts for evidence that fitted their ludicrous claim that holidays and eating out made them somehow extravagant.

The supporting text was as lame as the headline: “JUNIOR doctors leading Tuesday’s NHS strike over new contracts are champagne-swilling socialists … The union reps have enjoyed lavish holidays and parties and some own £500,000 homes … some of the most vocal enjoy jet-set lives … a string of luxury holidays … skiing and enjoying swanky meals … pictured on a beach in front of a helicopter”. Wow! Zap!! Dull!!!

It gets worse: one of the doctors “signed a letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader” (er, hello Sun hacks, this is not illegal). Another of the medics “is in snaps enjoying hols and boozy parties” and was snapped on board a snowmobile (which is also not illegal, nor even extravagant). And one doctor “posted a pic of her and an elephant”. The hacks have even been publishing estimated house values.

This is so amateurish that anyone with brain engaged can see though it, and most of those commenting on the Sun article have ridiculed the Murdoch doggies for suggesting that annual leave is some kind of extravagance which mere doctors should not be allowed, especially if they have saved their pennies to enjoy a holiday abroad. What is worse, the Mail has gone along with the exercise, showing the press just doesn’t get it.

A word in your shell-like, Moet Murdoch, Bollinger Brooks, and all the rest of the Perignom press: this is another smear you have got plain flat wrong. Grow up and try doing some actual journalism for a change.

Trevor Kavanagh - Unfit For IPSO

New press regulator IPSO, which, as I explained to Al-Jazeera’s Listening Post strand last month, is the same PCC fluid in a differently labelled bottle, has recently made a change to its board membership, appointing one Trevor Kavanagh, ultimate Murdoch insider and faithful retainer and attack dog to Don Rupioni for many, many years. Here was the press establishment giving its opponents the finger, and big time.

Why did Kavanagh cross the road? Because Rupe indicated that it was in his best interests to do so

And they might have got away with it, except for one horribly inconvenient fact: among all the smears and hatchet jobs that Kavanagh has been involved in over the years has been the Sun’s coverage of the Hillsborough stadium disaster. Kelvin MacKenzie, the paper’s singularly unsavoury former editor, is not the only identifiable figure from the past involved in the infamous front page smear of Liverpool fans.

The Independent - note that this is a paper which has not signed up to IPSO - has told “In 2012, Mr Kavanagh revealed how he passed on what he thought was an ‘apparently copper-bottomed corroboration’ about the story his newspaper was about to run on Hillsborough”. He passed on the claims about Liverpool fans that then appeared on the front page of the Sun, under the headline “THE TRUTH”. 

There was more. “He said his sources - South Yorkshire’s chief constable, Peter Wright, and a trusted colleague of the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher - ‘don’t come much higher’. ‘At least partly as a result of my “evidence” The Sun went ahead with its infamous headline: “The Truth”’, he said”. Kavanagh then explained “He said he and his newspaper had ‘apologised profusely, repeatedly and sincerely’”.

How long it took for the apologies to be wrung out of him and his paper is not, for some reason, told, nor is the way the Sun dismissed all criticism in the aftermath of making the initial claim - while other papers that had run the same smear were rowing back and saying sorry. The Murdoch press took years to own up, and even then, Kelvin McFilth claimed that he’d only apologised because Rupe told him to.

Kavanagh is part of that whole disgraceful episode, and now he has been appointed to the board of IPSO, the regulator that is meant to monitor and enforce press standards. Those who lost family members at Hillsborough have told what IPSO’s management appeared to be unable to grasp: that appointing Kavanagh was wrong on so many levels. “Press standards”? What “Press standards” would those be, then?

IPSO has done next to nothing to restrain the worst excesses of the press. The dishonesty, smears and misinformation continue much as they did before the Dowler hacking was revealed to the world. And appointing Trevor Kavanagh to its board is telling the hacking victims, all the others who suffered at the hands of other bad press behaviour, and, yes, the Hillsborough families, that most of the Fourth Estate doesn’t give a damn about them.

IPSO could redeem itself a little, though. And that is by sacking Kavanagh. Right now.

So Farewell Then David Bowie

Nothing is forever; no-one is immortal. So many in the world of rock and popular music have departed early; many of A Certain Age will still remember where they were and what they were doing when Elvis died, or when John Lennon was gunned down. But the striking uniqueness of David Bowie was that, although he has passed at the age of 69, he was still a force, still active, still making music.

David Bowie. And that damned cigarette

That is one heck of a track record. And it was achieved by constant reinvention, of musical genre, stage persona, via a range of collaborators and in the most unexpected of settings (Bowie spent some time in the 1970s living in what was then West Berlin, a city divided and surrounded by a Warsaw Pact country, whose leaders would rather it were not there). Bowie was not unafraid of change, of making things happen.

That reinvention means that today, as news of his death sinks in, there will be so many different memories of Bowie: there are still a few who, like me, saw his first appearance in popular consciousness with Space Oddity at the end of the 1960s. Many more saw him burst onto the radar with the Ziggy Stardust persona, which generated a cult following - but which he had no qualms about killing off in the mid-70s.

In the late 70s, Bowie was almost written off: he was less visible, less successful, and in any case, he’d had a good innings. But back he came in the 80s, with a string of commercially successful albums, again reinventing himself, exploring new styles, and yes, winning new admirers. It seemed by the opening years of the new millennium that he would just go on and on through middle age, a constant in the musical firmament. But lung cancer in his late 60s would always be a difficult battle.

What was remarkable about those last months is that Bowie managed to keep his fight against The Big C away from the media: today, there will be a succession of established and wannabe hacks kicking themselves, asking why they did not pursue the story. Well, tough titty for them and good for Bowie say I: that achievement only increases his stature. It really was possible to have a private life.

So Bowie has gone, but the music remains. Just in case you’re not familiar with at least part of his oeuvre, take a moment to listen to just one song: Life On Mars, from the mid 70s, tells you why this bloke was special. It’s not just the song, not just the arrangement, not just the lyrics, not just the production, not just the performance. It’s how all of those come together, into one unforgettable whole.

Then you will know, if you hadn’t already, why so many people are talking about David Bowie. A phenomenon like him will not pass this way again. Not ever.

David Bowie 8 January 1947 - 10 January 2016.

Danczuk Corbyn Book Dishonesty

The latest instalment in the soap opera that revolves around Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk has been played out today in the pages of the Sun, as readers have been told “Simon Danczuk blasting Corbyn in plot to write book boasting how he toppled him … EXCLUSIVE: Labour MP looking to cash in as soon as Jezza gets the boot”. Yes, this is yet another shameless money-making scheme.

The article continues “SHAMED Simon Danczuk has been publicly criticising Jeremy Corbyn so he can write a book boasting how he toppled the Labour leader … The Rochdale MP, 49, began working on it in October, weeks after Corbyn got the top job … Danczuk aims to cash in by publishing as soon as Corbyn goes … He has told pals this could be at May’s local elections”. Do go on.

“A source said: ‘He sees himself as Labour’s saviour and wants to champion his divisive behaviour if Corbyn is ejected’ … Danczuk branded Corbyn’s policies ‘crazy’ … He has been suspended by the party for sexting a girl of 17 … Last night he denied writing the book [my emphasis]”. And to that denial I call bullshit: there is a book in preparation, and it would have Danczuk’s name on the cover.

The way that Danczuk can tell the Sun, while keeping a straight face, that he is not writing the book is because, as with the previous effort on his predecessor as Rochdale MP Cyril Smith, the actual writing will be done by his now returned sidekick Matt Baker, who, as I’ve previously told, already writes all his columns. And it is those columns that will form the basis of the book, which will have a most imaginative title.

My information is that the Danczuk and Baker opus will be called “Jeremy Corbyn - My Part In His Downfall”, which the joint authors might think rather good, except for one highly inconvenient fact. The title clearly apes Spike Milligan’s first volume of memoirs, “Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall”, and the joke there was that Milligan, as a humble artilleryman, had next to no influence on the direction of World War 2.

So if Danczuk and Baker use that title, they are admitting that the MP’s ranting had no real effect on the course of events - not the strongest of sales pitches. And it gets worse: as I also mentioned recently, Danczuk had been attending Parliamentary Labour Party meetings rather more regularly, partly to pick up information and gossip to feed to Baker and include in his Mail on Sunday and Sun columns. But now he can’t do that.

This is because, as a result of the “sexting” controversy, Danczuk has been suspended from the Labour Party, and therefore cannot attend PLP meetings. The longer this goes on, the less goss he gets for Baker’s ghosted columns. And today, neither MoS, nor Sun, is running a Danczuk column. Until and unless those papers do run more of his columns, there will be no more material for the book.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but Danczuk’s Corbyn-bashing magnum opus right now is going nowhere. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bloke.

So Farewell Then Louise Mensch

Sometimes one can have too much of a good thing. On occasion, one can equally have too much of a bad thing, and there are few things worse that the weekly dirge of drivel spewed out in the pages of the Sun On Sunday by (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch. But now that drivelfest is at an end, as Ms Mensch has conceded that her column today is to be her last. As Mrs T might have said, Just Rejoice At That News.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

There will no doubt be those who claim they were the ones who got the Mensch column stopped - Iain Dale might be one of them, having suggested the move personally to Sun editor Tony Gallagher - but ultimately the paper cannot keep on offering its readers a weekly page of waffle that makes little sense and is all too often used to pursue personal objectives, on occasion used to bully the powerless.

Worse, the accuracy of Ms Mensch’s outpourings has been shaky at best, one particularly egregious recent example being her claim that there was an “EU Coup” in Portugal, when there was nothing of the sort. And, as she strolls off into yet another reassuringly expensive sunset, I have to tell Ms Mensch that, in her rant over sex attacks in the German city of Köln, she has added a yet more monumental howler to the list.

When she Tweeted “Dear German interior minister, and BBC trying to play down his comments, women won’t stand for this … I want to be clear that this is an act of coordinated sexual violence and racial/religious hatred by a sect”, she had not only got the photo out of context, but had also got the religious affiliation of the perpetrator wrong, too. Wrong enough to be more than embarrassing.

The photo she uses, which she no doubt believes to be a follower of The Prophet spitting, is nothing of the sort. It comes from an article in The New Observer, from January 2014, titled “Communist Thugs Attack Police as Peaceful Austrian Nationalists Gather for Culture-filled Ball”. That would be before the recent waves of refugees arrived in Western Europe from the Middle East and North Africa, then.

But it then gets worse - a lot worse: the photo is from the previous year’s ball, and so even less likely to have anything to do with refugees. And the caption on the photo reads “2013: A Jewish communist (left) spits on a ball attendee” (the political party holding the ball, the FPÖ, is likely to attract hostility from Jews, given its right-wing populist stance). So it appears that Ms Mensch is accusing Jews of “racial/religious hatred”.

How she squares that with her single-handed campaign to call out other Twitter users as anti-Semites, on the basis of very little evidence at all, will be interesting to see. As she has already - inadvertently, perhaps - called Theodore Herzl, a founding father of modern Zionism, for anti-Semitism, she has previous for this kind of gaffe. One has to wonder if the Sun’s management have tired of being associated with such ineptitude.

So, with foot firmly embedded in mouth, there goes Louise Mensch, on her way … out.

Top Six - January 10

So what’s hot, and what’s not, in the past week’s blogging? Here are the six most popular posts on Zelo Street for the past seven days, counting down in reverse order, because, well, I have outside clear up stuff to do later. So there.

6 The Sun - A Whites-Only Paper Kelvin McFilth’s latest vicious racist rant confirms that the Super Soaraway Currant Bun is not aimed at anyone considered to be “other”.

5 Danczuk Dirt Disher Baker Is Back Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk, we now know, does not write his own columns, but delegates the duty to his now returned sidekick Matt Baker, who takes a 50% cut for his trouble.

4 Michael Dugher - Why He Went The reality is that Dugher was sacked because he was regarded as useless.

3 Danczuk Smear Campaign Revealed Zelo Street exclusively revealed how Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP used his status to undermine a critic on Rochdale council.

2 Farage Assassination Hoax Busted There was no attempt on the life of Nigel “Thirsty” Farage - his car should have been maintained properly, and checked regularly.

1 Laura Kuenssberg - Not Good Enough Manufacturing news for the advantage of the Tory Party, as the BBC’s Daily Politics appeared to have done last Wednesday, is out of order.

And that’s the end of another blogtastic week, blog pickers. Not ‘arf!

Dan Hodges - Wrong On Dugher

It has not been a good week for the Pundit Establishment, with an inordinate amount of time being expended on a very limited shadow cabinet reshuffle on which so many of them called it badly wrong. And no-one embodies the failure better than the Telegraph’s not at all celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges, who has claimed to know the inside story of Michael Dugher’s sacking, only to get it dreadfully wrong.

He's desperate, Dan

Even the headline of Hodges’ piece, “Tom Watson's power is waning - and soon he's going to have to choose where his loyalties lie”, is at the very least questionable. But it is on Dugher where he really sells the pass: the MP “was a well respected and well liked member of the shadow cabinet, who had a reputation for being one of Labour’s most effective anti-Tory ‘attack dogs’”. Two things here.

Michael Dugher

Being an “attack dog” does not equal shadow cabinet competence. And Dugher was, as I’ve already told, regarded as useless, ineffective on subjects like Leveson 1 and 2, the BBC Charter Review and the threatened sell-off of Channel 4. But back to Hodges: “he was also viewed by many colleagues as being ‘untouchable’ because he enjoyed the patronage of Tom Watson - one of his closest friends - and Andy Burnham”.

Tom Watson

Then we see just how clueless Hodges can be: of Watson’s absence on holiday, he notes “‘It’s all got a whiff of John Major’s toothache’ one [Labour MP] said to me – a reference to the dental emergency that allowed Major to avoid signing Margaret Thatcher’s nomination papers during the Tory putsch of 1990”. That, Dan, was an enormous hint that you were being given - a hint that you missed totally.

Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham, too, tried his best to let Hodges know that he was barking up the wrong tree, at one point Tweeting to him “You don't half talk rubbish sometimes”. But Hodges was too clever by half, sniggering “So I'm wrong. You are resigning then”. No Dan, he wasn’t resigning. He was never going to resign. You just don’t get it.

Someone can't take the hint

Dugher was given a respectful send-off by Watson and many others. That does not mean they had wanted him to remain in the shadow cabinet. It means they did not want to see him humiliated by a move that was seen as inevitable. Many of them, as Hodges rightly tells, go back a long way together. That is all.

Also missed completely by Hodges was the perception that Dugher was too close to the Murdoch press. That matters when he was supposed to be following up on Leveson 1, and urging the start of Leveson 2. It matters when he was meant to hold the Government to account on BBC Charter renewal. And we now know it was more than perception.

Look where he went running to

That is because Dugher has gone running to - where else - the Murdoch press, making some most creative allegations in today’s Times, such as “Corbyn keeps bad company, most are out of their depth” (says MP who was, er, out of his depth shadowing the DCMS), and claiming that Ken Livingstone is “running the Labour leadership”.

And Dan Hodges doesn’t know why Watson and Burnham would not fight harder for Michael Dugher. One can only wonder what else he doesn’t know, while assuming he does. But then, the Tel’s coverage of Labour ceased to be useful many years ago.

Daily Politics On The Rack

One sure signal that panic has set in is when someone shouts “Conspiracy Theory”. It is the cheapest and nastiest smear in the book - and, sadly for those who deploy it - so obvious as to render its use ineffective. The latest sad individual to press this particular panic button was Labour MP Stephen Doughty, as he sought to defend his resignation from the shadow cabinet live on-air during Wednesday’s Daily Politics.

Andrew Neil, lead presenter, BBC Daily Politics

That the BBC’s lunchtime political strand is under fire is not in doubt, and not the result of any conspiracy theory. The facts of the matter are well known: Doughty announced his resignation five minutes before the start of Prime Minister’s Questions, giving David Cameron a political advantage during his exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn, the Prime Minister being then able to deflect from discussing the floods.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC Political Editor

That Doughty intended to resign that day was known by 0900 hours. Yet the story was held back for almost three hours. Had the news been broken earlier, no-one could have had cause for complaint. Nor would there have been a problem with holding the resignation until after PMQs. The problem for the BBC, and the source of so much disquiet, is the timing. This, too, is not a conspiracy theory.

Stephen Doughty's resignation email. Note time stamp

Moreover, that Doughty timed his actions deliberately to give his party leader as little chance as possible to react before PMQs is clear: his email to Corbyn was timed at 1151 hours. The chance of Corbyn seeing that before PMQs is not unadjacent to zero. Doughty was on set at 1153 hours. His announcement was made around two minutes later. This, too, is not a conspiracy theory, but fact.

Robin Gibb's reply to Seumas Milne

The response by the BBC’s Robin Gibb to Corbyn’s chief spinner Seumas Milne may also be considered. He asserts “I reject your suggestion that we orchestrated and stage-managed the resignation of Stephen Doughty”. That is not the impression given by Andrew Alexander’s now-deleted blog “Resignation! Making the news on the Daily Politics”.

This is what he said: “Just before 9am we learned from Laura Kuenssberg, who comes on the programme every Wednesday ahead of PMQs, that she was speaking to one junior shadow minister who was considering resigning. I wonder, mused our presenter Andrew Neil, if they would consider doing it live on the show?” Words like “orchestrated” and “stage-managed” describe that process all too well.

Gibb refutes Milne’s claim that the Doughty interview was designed to “Promote a particular political narrative”, but again, Armstrong’s blog suggests it was: “As Andrew Neil handed from the studio to the Commons chamber we took a moment to watch the story ripple out across news outlets and social media. Within minutes we heard David Cameron refer to the resignation during his exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn”.

But what the Daily Politics has done, and what neither Milne, Gibb, nor any of the participants have apparently touched on, is to underscore what I said before Christmas: that Corbyn’s leadership will not survive because there are so many MPs who do not want it to continue. Stephen Doughty’s weaselling shows that he is one of them.

That, though, does not excuse the cheap stunt pulled by the Daily Politics. The timeline is there for all to see: no conspiracy theories are involved.

Don’t Menshn Köln Sex Assaults

The vista of the magnificent cathedral, and the curved overall roof of the adjacent central station, in the German city of Köln is instantly recognisable. What is not known is that the area nearby is notorious for low-level theft and other forms of criminality. And on New Year’s Eve, it seems there was far more serious criminal behaviour as gangs of men assaulted and robbed several women during end of year celebrations.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

As the BBC has reported, “Witnesses and police said that the men involved were of Arab or North African appearance … Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere agreed there should not be any general suspicion towards refugees at least ‘at this stage of the investigation’ … ‘But if North Africans were the perpetrators, for which there is some indication, there should not be a taboo and people should not gloss over it’”.

So the ethnicity of the alleged assailants is indicated, but not known. Their religious affiliation has not been alleged, far less ascertained. But such details were mere details to (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch, who instantly knew more than everyone else about the incidents, kicking off by telling the Köln mayor to resign, and swiping at Labour stalwart Ken Livingstone from her glass house, just because she could.

Someone suggested the attacks showed the West was finished. Ms Mensch knew better: “Europe maybe the west no”. Er, Germany is part of the West, and Köln was, before reunification, in the part called West Germany. Then, as a warm-up, she kicked the BBC: “Cologne sex attacks on women  'not as bad as online comments against their rapists' BBC News”. This drew a mild protest from Giles Dilnot.

 “At no stage do I think you're suggesting this … but that wording looks like WE are saying that. It IS an extraordinary quote” he cautioned. But Ms Mensch was not for discussing the matter, she knew Who Done It. “Dear German Interior minister, and bbc trying to play down his comments, women won't stand for this” she ranted, accompanying her Tweet with a photo of a man spitting aggressively at a young woman.

 Spitting had not been alleged in the Köln attacks. But on she ploughed: “I want to be clear that it is an act of coordinated sexual violence and racial/religious hatred by a sect”. No racial or religious group has been positively identified, and her supporting photo was taken last year, and in a different country. “This is from Sweden. It happened last year but is indicative” she trilled. Wrong: what the photo shows has not been alleged.

Nor has spitting even been mentioned in the context of the Köln attacks. But she still knew better than everyone else: “If the colour of the skin were reversed the BBC would have no difficulty in recognizing a racist attack. That is what this was. End”. See, it’s the BBC’s fault again. And Greater Manchester Police: “they are attacks by one sect that perverts one faith against unbelievers. Police refusal to accept that got 1000s raped in Rochdale”.

That would be why the Rochdale assaults led to so many convictions, then. There is much we do not know about the Köln attacks. There is also acute sensitivity regarding numbers of refugees, as well as innate suspicion of other ethnic groups (Musa Okwonga’s take on the attacks, and that suspicion, is a must read). What we do not need is Louise Mensch going in with both feet and using the incidents to blame her pet targets.

Laura Kuenssberg - Not Good Enough

Of all news sources in the UK, whether print, online or broadcast, the BBC has been and remains the most trusted. Its journalism is perceived to set the standard for others to follow. The Corporation is as admired for its impartiality and objectivity as it is despised by the partisan and politically motivated, an illustration that it is doing something right. So the disappointment at any fall in its standards is that much more keenly felt.

Laura Kuenssberg ((c) Guardian)

That the perceived fall in standards came via a long-serving presenter and anchor, and the Corporations’s political editor, has only made matters worse. The problem can be put directly: a shadow minister, Stephen Doughty, declared his resignation from Jeremy Corbyn’s team on Wednesday, live on the Daily Politics. This event occurred five minutes before the start of Prime Minister’s Questions.

David Cameron was, in those intervening five minutes, made aware of the resignation and used the information to mock Corbyn. That Doughty’s resignation was not spontaneous, that presenter and anchor Andrew Neil had suggested it earlier in the day on hearing that a junior shadow minister was “considering” resigning, and that political editor Laura Kuenssberg had actively solicited Doughty’s appearance, was then let slip.

This happened in a blog by Andrew Alexander, one of the Daily Politics team, titled “Resignation! Making the news on the Daily Politics”. The blog was later pulled, but a cached copy is still available (HERE). As Doughty was, earlier in the day, merely “considering” resigning, the question has to be put as to whether BBC staff were complicit in some kind of encouragement, an incitement, an inducement even.

Both Neil and Ms Kuenssberg would have known that the timing of Doughty’s appearance and his announcement would give Cameron an advantage at PMQs. Both are equally aware, as are all those who work for the Corporation, that the Tories, now with a Parliamentary majority, are leaning on the BBC to make cuts, while all the time whining long and loud about non-existent left-wing bias in its broadcasts.

But the chief culprit has to be Ms Kuenssberg: her reporting on the shadow cabinet reshuffle has been sloppy and tabloidesque, for instance telling viewers and readers about what Corbyn “wants” without actually getting that information from the Labour leader first. She, like so many of the Pundit Establishment, failed to notice that Michael Dugher was sacked because he was perceived as useless.

And the impression, only reinforced after Alexander’s blog was pulled, is given that she was central to not merely reporting the news, but creating it, and to the advantage of the Government. On top of that, Zelo Street understands that another BBC programme has recently shied away from running a story that could seriously embarrass a cabinet minister - and all this going on at a time the Corporation’s charter is under review.

That would be as in under review by the same Government that was handed the PMQs advantage, and won’t have that cabinet minister embarrassed. Ms Kuenssberg, as the successor to John Cole, Andrew Marr and Nick Robinson, should have risen above the kind of tawdry exercise that took place on Wednesday. She did not. And it is for that reason, more than any other, that her behaviour in the Corporation’s service is not good enough.

Simon Danczuk - A Tory In Disguise

As controversy continues to surround Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk, few have yet focused on his policy stances, where he lines up on key issues of the day. And that’s a pity: had the press done so, they might have had a surprise. An authoritative source has filled in the gaps for Zelo Street: the result is that all those shouting that Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents should “Join the Tories” may be right in this case.

For starters, Danczuk is opposed to bringing train operators back into public ownership - a key policy of his own party leader. And it would make no difference, had the Labour leadership contest been won by the candidate who came second, Andy Burnham, as this is a policy he also supports (Danczuk is rumoured to detest Burnham). Exactly what the voters in Rochdale think of that, where the private sector runs the trains and also has the contract to run Manchester’s Metrolink trams, is not known.

How about country pursuits? Most in Rochdale will not care, and those that do will most likely be strongly opposed, but I’m told Danczuk is pro-hunting. How many Labour MPs take that view? And what will his constituents think of someone who bangs on incessantly about the interests of ordinary working people? Most of those ordinary working people might not be too keen on an MP taking that view.

There’s more: anything called nuclear? He’s in favour of that too, so any move by Labour to oppose renewal and upgrading of the Trident weapons system won’t have Danczuk’s support. It’s doubtful whether he and Emily Thornberry exchanged Christmas cards. So it costs tens of billions of pounds? He’s still up for it.

And then we come to education, where, once again, Danczuk is, I’m informed, right in line with the Tories. He might not yet have gone The Full Gove and asked the loathsome Toby Young to open a Free School in Rochdale, but he’s all for supporting academies, and indeed creating more of them. Whether he’s told all those previously supportive people in his Constituency Labour Party is, once again, not yet known.

But one issue is missing, isn’t it? Wait no more: Simon Danczuk is all in favour of more private involvement in the NHS, even in Rochdale, birthplace of the Co-Operative movement. He would fit right in with either UKIP or the Tories, although of course if he stood under either label in Rochdale, he would be humiliated. But he would, I’m told, see no problem sitting as an Independent - so long as he remains an MP.

It would be fascinating to hear how Danczuk’s increasingly hard-pressed election agent Allen Brett is taking the news that the bloke he’s worked his socks off to get into Parliament (twice) appears to have very little attachment to the Labour Party, other than to satisfy the ambition of Himself Personally Now. How much support will the CLP continue to give their MP, when the bad news just keeps on coming?

The era of Simon Danczuk in Rochdale was for a time, but not for all time.