How to explain the coup that never was this week? Senior national political editors received a call from No.10, declaring that a plot was under way to replace the prime minister with one of his cabinet, Wes Streeting. So by Wednesday morning the story was all over the headlines.
Now as it happens – by coincidence or not – Mr Streeting was scheduled to tour the TV studios that morning. Naturally he was asked about his intentions, and (perhaps naturally) he refuted any knowledge of the allegation. Wednesday was also PMQs, at which Keir Starmer roundly condemned any briefings against his ministers, even though it seems to have come from within No.10. It is not possible that the PM couldn’t find out what had happened within minutes, yet No.10 denies any knowledge. Then by Thursday, ‘government sources’ were putting it about that the three hacks involved “must have all been tricked by several imposters posing as No.10 staff”.
As Clive Lewis (Norwich S) wryly observes: “I see we’re opting for the old Bobby Ewing ‘shower scene’ strategy: The last 48 hours never really happened.”
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Dear reader, Sir Keir’s advisers have never given any indication of being gifted with keen political instincts, but no sane (or at least sober) political apparatchik would have made those calls.
What on earth did No.10 believe Mr Streeting was about to do by next morning which put them in such a pother? He couldn’t call out the tanks – he’s the health secretary, not defence. He could only call out the ambulances.
And then the allegation that it was a hoax? These three hacks can see from their phone who is calling – they speak to them regularly and know their voices. This version is inconceivable and is perhaps not intended to be otherwise, since there is a hint of sarcasm in the disclaimer to suggest the hacks have made it up. Anything to get out of the hideous embarrassment that somebody close to the PM has gone rogue. He knows it but apparently does not have the power to do anything about it.
Ironically, of course, though there may have been no serious plan to oust the PM – and nobody yet has explained how it would be done – there probably is now.
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Until the extraordinary events at No.10, it was assumed the lead story this week would concern the BBC and its imbroglio with Donald Trump. This is another mystery, though in this case the conspirators are known and have left their dabs all over their work. The initial shock of BBC resignations last week has passed, and as the allegations and the background come under scrutiny, the narrative begins to change.
There lies the danger in this kind of conspiracy. It takes on a momentum of its own, and the plotters lose control of the story. This has already begun to happen, though the plotters had anticipated the story would still be of a hapless BBC, pinned down under the onslaught of Donald Trump’s bullying.
Instead, they have used up their ammunition, and the BBC is still standing. And angry. There are hundreds of wily hacks within its portals all looking for blood, and many of whom will know where the bodies are buried.
We learned yesterday that the man ostensibly behind the furore, Michael Prescott, himself deliberately edited extracts from Mr Trump’s speeches in his now notorious memo on which the conspiracy is based. Robbie Gibb, who was placed on the board allegedly with the deliberate intention of undermining and perhaps destroying the BBC, is himself under increasing fire. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, announces she is reviewing the role of political placements on the board, which suggests Mr Gibb’s days are numbered.
Meanwhile, the BBC has apologised to the president but is refusing to pay compensation. Also, there seems no realistic means by which a legal action could be brought in this country. So the plotters may soon have grounds to consider their cunning plan with misgiving. We should not be surprised if, during next week, it is no longer the BBC that is on the defensive.
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Once again it is left to Ed Davey in an open letter to say what probably many Labour MPs and supporters believe Keir Starmer ought to say, and quite possibly what he himself would like to say. But of course, Sir Ed can say these things without the PM’s fear that the madman in the White House will begin focusing thermonuclear warheads on London.
Sir Ed declares: “We have a responsibility to protect one of our nation’s most treasured institutions from becoming subservient to Donald Trump and his cronies”.
Kemi Badenoch (NW Essex) jumped in, but Sir Ed has adroitly contrived to put her in a position where she has to defend putting Tory placemen on the BBC board, and for the moment takes her out of play. The intentions of the plotters were certainly not to draw attention to their own sleazy manoeuvrings.
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Across the country, bizarrely, local branches of a non-existent party have been set up and members have paid their dues. It is of course Your Party.
The omens were never propitious. It was to be expected that any party organised by Jeremy Corbyn would come to dispute and fisticuffs probably within the first fortnight. But to achieve it even before its launch exceeds even his exacting standards of incompetence.
Senior ‘party’ sources describe the situation as “an insane mess”. Lawyers are involved. There is £850,000 in a bank account somewhere, membership fees collected by Ms Sultana following her unauthorised launch, without agreement of her colleagues and using data allegedly used improperly. So there is now not only the question of the money, all of which apparently now has to be laboriously refunded; but also the question of mis-use of the data, which has been referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Ms Sultana herself appeared on Question Time this week. An opportunity for good publicity? No. Her colleagues swiftly made it clear they disowned her and demanded the money back – even though it seems it may not legally be theirs.
After a long political career of almost sanctified irrelevance, Mr Corbyn chooses to live in an unappetising labyrinth of political intrigue. Our sympathies go to those who, with the very best of intentions, were drawn innocently into this morass of poisonous bickering. Demand your money back and go to the Liberal Democrats or the Greens.
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“We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen who live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it is thought we keep a bawdy house,” complains Shakespeare’s Mistress Quickly. For some reason this quotation sprang to mind on reading protests from Nigel Farage (Clacton) about his knowledge of Russia having bought his once-close colleague Nathan Gill. Questions were being asked as to whether Mr Gill was just one rotten apple, or part of a whole diseased orchard.
Mr Farage declares that he was stunned at the revelations, but he was even more outraged at the idea Mr Gill might have represented more than just one bad apple. It was pointed out that – apparently by coincidence – some of Mr Farage’s own statements seemed to contain remarkable similarities to sentiments expressed by Gill. But Mr Farage would have none of it.
He is shocked! Shocked to find that political corruption is going on in his party. “I didn’t know anything about it!” he declares.
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Pecksniff has constantly warned readers of being misled by the apparent Reform surge. Now, polling guru Sir John Curtice makes the same point. They may lead the pack in the polls, but they have become an exercise not in measuring popularity but unpopularity.
As an amusing aside, we might wonder about the likelihood of the remaining Tories realising – as they should – that their survival may depend on doing down Reform, and so they have more in common with siding with the other parties – the pack, rather than the rats.
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It is a common factor that those who join Reform seem to do so to settle old scores and to ‘get’ people they despise. They seem to believe being elected as a councillor, or even just becoming a member of the party, confers rights of swagger that others do not share.
So it is that this week we learn of a self-appointed vigilante group calling itself the Essex Spartans. They apparently ‘patrol’ through the streets of Harlow, Loughton, Epping and Debden. They may not look terribly impressive, but no doubt it makes them feel important. On the face of it though, they are acting illegally, in contravention of the Public Order Act. You can’t just appoint yourself a public guardian.
Incidentally, my dears, do we all recall that money-making idea of Nigel Farage of turning out Reform football shirts? That too seemed in contravention of the Public Order Act. Curiously, after all the blather we have heard no more.
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Councillor Andy Drummond is an elected representative for Newmarket Town Council, Iceni ward of West Suffolk Council and Newmarket and Red Lodge on Suffolk County Council. One of those he represents on the town council wrote to him concerned all the flags which had appeared in her neighbourhood. He replied: “It’s your problem, not mine, this is England, these are our flags and I am proud that a growing number of loyal subjects wish to show their allegiance to the flag”.
He was reprimanded for two breaches of the code of conduct. Last year he was also reprimanded, on that occasion by West Suffolk Council, for showing lack of respect to council staff and volunteers. Yet his picture shows a face of ineffable smugness, a face which says: ‘I can get away with anything, because it’s my right’.
So readers are invited to show Cllr Drummond he may be mistaken, and they may care to see this diary as a declaration that the next election campaigns involving Cllr Drumond begin here, and now. East Anglia Bylines is not a campaigning organisation, but constituents and political colleagues of any council on which he serves are hereby encouraged to send Pecksniff any well-sourced material deleterious to his good name. The diary could carry a regular feature, which we shall call ‘Dobbing-in Drummond’. By the time of the election, we might hope to have a heap of ordure on his odious views and arrogance towards others sufficient for voters to give him the bum’s rush.
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While Jaywick in his Clacton constituency was once again winning the dubious honour of being the most deprived part of Britain, Nigel Farage was drinking champagne at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago party. No doubt Mr Farage spent the entire party promoting Clacton’s good name.
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In August, Pecksniff published exclusive news that Suffolk County Council are breaching the local government code in promoting its own preferred version of local government reorganisation, OneSuffolk, which wants the county council to remain, and take on the powers of all other councils.
But as well as promoting one version and attacking the alternative, the county council was also spending public money to do so – even though there are specific instructions that this should not happen.
This week however, we can reveal five other councils in Suffolk have written directly to the Local Government minister, Alison McGovern, dobbing in the county. They are Mid Suffolk, East Suffolk, Ipswich, West Suffolk and Babergh. As they explain in their letter: “Its content is not honest and truthful; it is not objective and even-handed; and it uses public funds to pay for lobbyists and lobbying activity”.
What makes this so odd is that their behaviour is so blatant, openly flouting the rules and using public money to do so. One can only wonder at how senior management might imagine this will reflect on their future careers. For the elected councillors, motivation is easier to assess. Just a few years ago, Suffolk was a Tory fiefdom: they ran almost every council. Now, mostly down to the ingress of the Greens, the county council is the only one left. Lose that, and the party is in oblivion.
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Last Saturday found your diarist moving among the cognoscenti at Framlingham market. There was a fund-raising stall for the Royal British Legion, but also a familiar figure playing the troubadour. Councillor Vince Langdon-Morris, an accomplished chanteur, was singing anti-war songs to raise money for Remembrance Sunday. Mr Langdon-Morris is a cabinet member of East Suffolk Council and one of the bright sparks who are there for public service and who make things work.
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This week’s will o’ the wisps and keyhole conjurers were Malcolm Lynn, James Porter, Mary Marshall, Liz Crosbie, Celina Błędowska, Mark Popay and Karl Whiteman.
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