Saturday, April 11, 2009

Draper to McBride: These Ideas Are Totally Brilliant

The Sunday Times has some of the details of the emails from Damian McBride HERE.

And as a further taster for tomorrow, here is part of the email exchange between Derek Draper and Damian McBride.


From Damian McBride

I think Red Rag should appear with no preview - as you say - but with a good initial story and with Labourlist then mentioning that the bug is catching...........

Tom was going away today after a chat with me to work on a couple of insiderish announcements for Labourlist about appointments to Labour HQ and No10. I'm working on a couple of other things as well........we've got to keep the momentum going over the weekend - it's been brilliant so far.

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Draper [mailto:derekdraper@............]
Sent: 13 January 2009 18:56
To: Damian McBride
Cc: Dodgshon, Andrew; Whelan, Charlie
Subject: Re: Rag [UNCLASSIFIED] [Non-Record]

These are absolutely totally brilliant Damian.

I'll think about timing and sort out the technology with Andrew this week so we can go asap.

Do we want to tip off anyone about Red Rag having set up? Walters? I could do it and say LabouLlist had been sent the link anonymously.

PS Don't forget LabourList Damian!

Sent from my iphone:

On 13 Jan 2009, at 18:34, "Damian McBride" wrote:

Gents

A few ideas I've been working on for Red Rag. For ease, I've written all the below as I'd write them for the site, but obviously Andrew will want to adapt for his own house style, length, etc.

The first one is a solid investigative story, so may be a good one to use early. The other 3 are gossipy and mainly intended to destabilise the Tories.

I'm not sure how to set up easy links in the copy of the text, so I've stuck in the full links below each bit of relevant text.

Damian

Note the comment by Derek Draper "These are absolutely totally brilliant Damian." These emails are proof that Charlie Whelan is implicated in the whole thing. The reference to Andrew Dodgshon is presumably an indication that he was being lined up to write TheRedRag blog. He works for Charlie Whelan and is the press officer for Unite/TGWU.

It is quite clear from what the News of the World says and from these emails that this was a site that was being prepared for launch. I have my own ideas about why it has yet to see the light of day, which I will keep to myself for the moment. But I am clear on one thing. Draper is lying when he says the whole thing had been shelved.

Hattip: Guido Fawkes

20 comments:

Plato said...

Updated story rolling blog

The Times creams them completely.

Jimmy said...

"this was a site that was being prepared for launch"

Meaning what?

Anonymous said...

Oooo, Jimmy's here. Nothing to see, folks. Move along...

Ed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ctesibius said...

Iain, don't be silly. We know he was lying - his lips were moving

Anonymous said...

This so funny and the subject line non-record..LOL

God and they are running the country and keeping us safe from the terrorists........ God help us

Guy Herbert said...

Despite the horrors of what New Labour has done to the country and its constitution, there are certain lines that *no-one* has been prepared to take in relation to key Labour figures and their families. The Brown team don't appear to be acquainted with those limits - they're too Rigid Righteous.

They deserve all the consequences.

Unknown said...

So is that the worst that involved Watson? That he had spoken to McBride on the same day?

Span Ows said...

Let's hope McBride isn't the only one...he is clearly going quickly (after the shit hit the fan) hoping he WON'T take anyone else with him.

Chris Paul said...

Long hiatus from "as soon as possible" in January to three full months later? But this is the big question for me. Had they shelved this scheme or not? If they had the whole story becomes much less significant. Labour List has been launched in the interim and after a shakey start is getting somewhere.

Presumably it is the Nadine Dorries story that is introduced as being solid and investigative? Not trailed in the ST write round. Sticks out like a sore thumb because of Nadine's preemptive actions. Mistake I thought.

Colin said...

The Labour Party should pick up the tab for McBride. A refund to the taxpayer is due.

Trend Shed said...

"we've got to keep the momentum going over the weekend - it's been brilliant so far."

What does that mean?

What smears would they have cooked up on or around 13th January - maybe it was the false allegations of racism against you Iain?

Unknown said...

Did that e-mail reply by Derek strike anyone else as being a bit sycophantic?

These are absolutely totally brilliant Damian.

Was that a chat up line Derek? It sounded like it.

Mirtha Tidville said...

Downing Street have just denied and condemned scurrilous stories that Nokia phones have somehow been thrown at people/walls. They totally deny these rumours and reports.


The phones were in fact Samsungs

this time

HarveyProcter said...

Err is that it? I don't mean to be picky or anything but do tell me the real e mails are a lot worse than those posted?

Unknown said...

This shows the true caliber of Brown and his team at Downing Street.

It just shows how standards have fallen since they forced Blair out.

No wonder the country is morally and financially bankrupt!

Grumpy Old Man said...

I have been totally gobsmacked by the number of Labour trolls blowing their cover by trying to run interference on this story. Name after name is coming out of the woodwork in a futile attempt to spin a major error into a mild peccadillo. Labour are worried big time by this.

Twig said...

If McBride was so close to the PM, how is it that he didn’t know that Brown would find this behaviour so despicable?

There’s something wrong with this picture.

TheBoilingFrog said...

It is quite clear from what the News of the World says and from these emails that this was a site that was being prepared for launch. I have my own ideas about why it has yet to see the light of day, which I will keep to myself for the moment.

So do I Iain, and I am sick to the stomach at the implication Draper etc was making.

The delay wouldn't be related to a sad event on the 25th Feb would it?

Martin S said...

I rarely do 'political' stories but this is so 'brilliant' (sic, prop. Derek 'Dolly' Draper) that I have run it on my own news site:

Massive own goal for Labour?

The phrase 'you could not make it up' comes to mind.

Labourlist is a very, very long suicide note for the Labour Party of Gordon Brown.