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| Lord Feldman, loons and press hypocrisy | Lord Feldman, loons and press hypocrisy |
| (4 months later) | |
| The controversy over the unidentified source of the "mad, swivel-eyed loons" remark about Tory activists, attributed to one of David Cameron's closest advisers – the one with "strong social connections to the PM", hint, hint – has taken on a life of its own in the Tory press. What the press doesn't spot, as usual, is how the incident also exposes the hypocrisy of the newspapers involved. | The controversy over the unidentified source of the "mad, swivel-eyed loons" remark about Tory activists, attributed to one of David Cameron's closest advisers – the one with "strong social connections to the PM", hint, hint – has taken on a life of its own in the Tory press. What the press doesn't spot, as usual, is how the incident also exposes the hypocrisy of the newspapers involved. |
| Lord Feldman, top-drawer barrister and Oxford chum of Cameron's, denies that he was the senior Tory who made the remark about the party faithful in a brief exchange with a pair of political reporters as he passed their table in a Westminster restaurant. Which is just as well since he is co-chairman of the party, in charge of membership – a task he is performing as badly as co-chair Grant Shapps is doing on the propaganda side of the job. | Lord Feldman, top-drawer barrister and Oxford chum of Cameron's, denies that he was the senior Tory who made the remark about the party faithful in a brief exchange with a pair of political reporters as he passed their table in a Westminster restaurant. Which is just as well since he is co-chairman of the party, in charge of membership – a task he is performing as badly as co-chair Grant Shapps is doing on the propaganda side of the job. |
| The alleged exchange took place on Wednesday night, but the reporters sat on their little scoop until Saturday's editions, knowing that it would make more impact at the weekend. Sure enough, Sunday's newspapers solemnly report the denial issued on Saturday by Lord (the title came with the job from Dave) Feldman, though they also describe it as a high-risk strategy and quote other sources – also anonymous – as saying the story is true and that Feldman is the man. Feldman denies using the phrase. | The alleged exchange took place on Wednesday night, but the reporters sat on their little scoop until Saturday's editions, knowing that it would make more impact at the weekend. Sure enough, Sunday's newspapers solemnly report the denial issued on Saturday by Lord (the title came with the job from Dave) Feldman, though they also describe it as a high-risk strategy and quote other sources – also anonymous – as saying the story is true and that Feldman is the man. Feldman denies using the phrase. |
| There is no question that Feldman was at the scene of the crime, the Blue Boar Smokehouse, attending a Conservative Friends of Pakistan dinner, or that he spoke to the reporters. The issue is whether he said what the pair say he said. Two others present and the foursome's guest, a civil servant whose identity is also being shielded, appear not to have heard the fateful exchange. | There is no question that Feldman was at the scene of the crime, the Blue Boar Smokehouse, attending a Conservative Friends of Pakistan dinner, or that he spoke to the reporters. The issue is whether he said what the pair say he said. Two others present and the foursome's guest, a civil servant whose identity is also being shielded, appear not to have heard the fateful exchange. |
| What should readers who have other things to worry about yet have paid good money for the newspapers concerned think about all this? I know no more than what I have read in the papers, but I have worked in this particular snakepit for 30 years or so. I think I can guess what probably happened, and definitely know what I think should have happened. | What should readers who have other things to worry about yet have paid good money for the newspapers concerned think about all this? I know no more than what I have read in the papers, but I have worked in this particular snakepit for 30 years or so. I think I can guess what probably happened, and definitely know what I think should have happened. |
| Let's assume that drink had been taken and the mood was informal. Feldman hoves into view and is subjected to banter – this being the night when 113 Tory MPs, some of them emphatically swivel-eyed, I have the luxury of confirming, had voted against their PM for not being Eurosceptic enough, a futile vote that will do much more harm than good to their cause. | Let's assume that drink had been taken and the mood was informal. Feldman hoves into view and is subjected to banter – this being the night when 113 Tory MPs, some of them emphatically swivel-eyed, I have the luxury of confirming, had voted against their PM for not being Eurosceptic enough, a futile vote that will do much more harm than good to their cause. |
| Probably thinking he is engaged in a harmless private chat, Feldman – who has never stood for public office and has less to do with the press than the average ambitious policeman – lets his copious hair down a bit about the pressure on MPs from the party's increasingly elderly activists. (Here's ex-MP Paul Goodman's sensitive take on the grassroots mood.) | Probably thinking he is engaged in a harmless private chat, Feldman – who has never stood for public office and has less to do with the press than the average ambitious policeman – lets his copious hair down a bit about the pressure on MPs from the party's increasingly elderly activists. (Here's ex-MP Paul Goodman's sensitive take on the grassroots mood.) |
| Did Feldman use the offending phrase? If he did, it was both wrong and unwise – shocking, in fact. One Tory MP is quoted on Sunday as saying Mrs T would never have treated the activists this way, and he's right. Her mistake was to treat her ministers, MPs and large swaths of society disrespectfully, but she loved the activists. They were One of Us. Ministers and MPs got their revenge: they sacked her. | Did Feldman use the offending phrase? If he did, it was both wrong and unwise – shocking, in fact. One Tory MP is quoted on Sunday as saying Mrs T would never have treated the activists this way, and he's right. Her mistake was to treat her ministers, MPs and large swaths of society disrespectfully, but she loved the activists. They were One of Us. Ministers and MPs got their revenge: they sacked her. |
| But what about the press ethics? The reporters concerned, let's call them Tadpole and Taper to protect their anonymity, know to whom they spoke. There are two of them, four at a pinch, and it is their word against his in any libel suit. So why not identify Source X outright? Here's where the hypocrisy comes in. | But what about the press ethics? The reporters concerned, let's call them Tadpole and Taper to protect their anonymity, know to whom they spoke. There are two of them, four at a pinch, and it is their word against his in any libel suit. So why not identify Source X outright? Here's where the hypocrisy comes in. |
| Tadpole and Taper must have known they were being a bit fly, just as reporters who record private lunches with doddery old ex-ministers or Vince Cable's constituency surgery boasting about Rupert Murdoch know they are being fly. T and T were engaged in post-prandial banter, not interviewing Feldman for a page-one splash. | Tadpole and Taper must have known they were being a bit fly, just as reporters who record private lunches with doddery old ex-ministers or Vince Cable's constituency surgery boasting about Rupert Murdoch know they are being fly. T and T were engaged in post-prandial banter, not interviewing Feldman for a page-one splash. |
| But a story's a story, especially a story about Europe, which plays to a wider narrative about the elitism of the Cameron regime – all Eton and Oxbridge – and its disdain for the activist base outside the golden triangle of David Cameron's life. It's the triangle between his west Berkshire childhood home near Newbury on the M4, his Witney seat just up the A34, and Westminster, back down the M40 in London. Oxford and Eton are within that space. | But a story's a story, especially a story about Europe, which plays to a wider narrative about the elitism of the Cameron regime – all Eton and Oxbridge – and its disdain for the activist base outside the golden triangle of David Cameron's life. It's the triangle between his west Berkshire childhood home near Newbury on the M4, his Witney seat just up the A34, and Westminster, back down the M40 in London. Oxford and Eton are within that space. |
| The newspapers – the Times and Telegraph to the fore, the Labour Mirror (less impact) reporting too, the Mail for once running to keep up, perhaps distracted by the McCann case again – are Eurosceptic cheerleaders, as are their proprietors, most based outside Britain for tax purposes. The Tory trio have all become much more so in recent years – recent months, in the case of the Times's new editor. They are also chippy and provincial in the public stance they often adopt, at variance with private lifestyles in many instances. | The newspapers – the Times and Telegraph to the fore, the Labour Mirror (less impact) reporting too, the Mail for once running to keep up, perhaps distracted by the McCann case again – are Eurosceptic cheerleaders, as are their proprietors, most based outside Britain for tax purposes. The Tory trio have all become much more so in recent years – recent months, in the case of the Times's new editor. They are also chippy and provincial in the public stance they often adopt, at variance with private lifestyles in many instances. |
| Newspapers are competitive, even though this one required a bit of routine collaboration. So got for it, lads! The office editors back in what once was Fleet Street will have been thrilled. As a gesture to the disreputable circumstances of the exchange, Taper and Tadpole split the difference and do not name their source. | Newspapers are competitive, even though this one required a bit of routine collaboration. So got for it, lads! The office editors back in what once was Fleet Street will have been thrilled. As a gesture to the disreputable circumstances of the exchange, Taper and Tadpole split the difference and do not name their source. |
| What would I have done at their age? I'm not sure. Probably tucked the phrase away for future use to indicate the disdain that some Cameron's familiars – the unelected metropolitan idiots – have for the rank and file. It's the disdain we see in bankers. But to use a remark gleaned in pub banter as a page-one splash and make it cowardly clear where it came from in almost every detail? I hope not. That's not playing straight. | What would I have done at their age? I'm not sure. Probably tucked the phrase away for future use to indicate the disdain that some Cameron's familiars – the unelected metropolitan idiots – have for the rank and file. It's the disdain we see in bankers. But to use a remark gleaned in pub banter as a page-one splash and make it cowardly clear where it came from in almost every detail? I hope not. That's not playing straight. |
| Cover-up, Mike? No. It's not as if it's news that some senior Cameroons feel this way, is it? Old story. The mischief, deeply destructive of public trust in institutions, lies in fingering someone close to Cameron, knowing that the era of social media – the internet and Twitter – will all but guarantee the name will circulate online and emerge soon enough. | Cover-up, Mike? No. It's not as if it's news that some senior Cameroons feel this way, is it? Old story. The mischief, deeply destructive of public trust in institutions, lies in fingering someone close to Cameron, knowing that the era of social media – the internet and Twitter – will all but guarantee the name will circulate online and emerge soon enough. |
| The editor of the Telegraph himself felt moved to tweet the story to help ramp it up. Not sure his predecessor, Bill Deedes, would have done that, but he was once a Tory cabinet minister. Not sure senior execs at the BBC will be playing that game any more either, after getting their fingers burned. | The editor of the Telegraph himself felt moved to tweet the story to help ramp it up. Not sure his predecessor, Bill Deedes, would have done that, but he was once a Tory cabinet minister. Not sure senior execs at the BBC will be playing that game any more either, after getting their fingers burned. |
| But outing people they can't/won't name themselves via social media is a game the mainstream media and its useful online idiots play all the time now. Ask randy footballers. Ask poor Lord McAlpine. Here's Guido Fawkes making hay with "Loongate". Ask Andrew Mitchell, the ex-chief whip, stitched up by a police/tabloid scam, in which the press is now backing calls on the Met's commissioner to resign over private briefings to the press itself against Mitchell. The cheek! | But outing people they can't/won't name themselves via social media is a game the mainstream media and its useful online idiots play all the time now. Ask randy footballers. Ask poor Lord McAlpine. Here's Guido Fawkes making hay with "Loongate". Ask Andrew Mitchell, the ex-chief whip, stitched up by a police/tabloid scam, in which the press is now backing calls on the Met's commissioner to resign over private briefings to the press itself against Mitchell. The cheek! |
| It's a rough old business and all three sides play with fire in an age where former conventions and courtesies – conspiracies if you prefer – have been corroded by new technologies and flagging sales. At bottom that's what the Leveson inquiry and report was about. It's also part of the Loongate story. Anything to weaken Cameron's hand as last-minute efforts are made to reconcile the rival versions – parliament's and the press's own – of the royal charter to regulate the press. | It's a rough old business and all three sides play with fire in an age where former conventions and courtesies – conspiracies if you prefer – have been corroded by new technologies and flagging sales. At bottom that's what the Leveson inquiry and report was about. It's also part of the Loongate story. Anything to weaken Cameron's hand as last-minute efforts are made to reconcile the rival versions – parliament's and the press's own – of the royal charter to regulate the press. |
| Fair's fair. You fight your corner and protect your interests. What sticks in the craw is the hypocrisy of it all, dressing up a catfight as something it isn't. | Fair's fair. You fight your corner and protect your interests. What sticks in the craw is the hypocrisy of it all, dressing up a catfight as something it isn't. |
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