Friday, January 04, 2008

Rosa, Princess of the Three Line Whip

The Telegraph's new political correspondent Rosa Prince has hit the ground running and seems to like posting on their THREE LINE WHIP BLOG. Yesterday she brought us the devastatingly sad (sic) news that Shaun Woodward may not be long for this Cabinet. Today she raises the prospect of a Cabinet reshuffle by February only then to dash our hopes and says she doesn't think there will be one.
So I pass on this tit-bit not so much for its accuracy, but because I think it’s fascinating that Labour wonks have got into such a tizzy over Gordon’s disastrous few months that they’ve plunged into rumour overdrive already.

My first reaction was to question why she would write about something she reckoned wasn't true - it's just the sort of thing journalists would criticise bloggers for doing - passing on unsubstantiated gossip. But then it clicked. Rosa has heard something, analysed it, dismissed it but then shared her reasoning with her readers in a way she could never have done before the advent of newspaper blogs. It's what Ben Brogan has pioneered the art of. Welcome to blogging - and the Telegraph - Rosa!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

not sure that Rosa Prince is seen as the sharpest tool in the box which might explain her rather muddled reasoning on whether or not there will be a reshuffle. What next? Rosa does the weather: "It might rain tomorrow, or snow, or be dazzling sunny or we could be in for hail - or not - then again.."
Think the blogosphere is best left to the likes of Messrs Dale and Guido. Sure Rosa will find something she is talented at!

Anonymous said...

I've heard a rumour that Gordon Brown and Labour are planning a class-based assault on David Cameron in the new year.

That would just be another nail in Brown's coffin. Who cares about stuff like that? Not many people these days...

Anonymous said...

Surely,it would be too much to hope that he would promote the arrogant and incompetent Cooper.Still,I would love to see Woodward get the Lord Lundy treatment.Everyone despises a renegade.

Anonymous said...

To Canvas at 7:23 PM -

Brown would do well to steer clear of drawing attention to the 'privileged few' with some old fashioned class warfare. An awful lot of Labour MPs could come under the spotlight, living the life of the 'modern toff' with luxury lifestyles and property portfolios. Mr and Mrs Balls spring immediately to mind, followed by a whole host of others living it up at the expense of the long suffering taxpayer. Then we have names such as Follett, Millband, Benn, Woodward and others living the champagne socialist dream with oodles of inherited or gained loot.

The average 'man in the street' is more concerned with the perilous state of the Economy. Maybe Brown's time would be better spent running the country and trying to fix the mess he's helped create rather than rubbishing the Opposition?

The more he tries to pull of these silly stunts, the more people see him for the vile and pathetic creature he really his.

Unsworth said...

Where has this woman been for the last decade or so? Dagenham or somewhere like that?

Anonymous said...

Surely you realise that the co-ordinated attack on Shaun Woodward by Rosa Prince and Kevin Maguire was a bitchy attempt to rile their former Mirror lobby colleague, Oonagh Blackman, who is now Woodward's spad?

Iain Dale said...

surely not!

MorrisOx said...

Welcome to the world of blogging? Welcome to the world of Phil Space, more like.

You could fill column inches with rumours everyday. It's called s gossip column and it's one of the laziest areas of journalism there is.