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Specific Claims and Denials

The Prime Minister has said that he did not know that Nadine Dorries would be on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Dorries has responded by making the counter-claim that she had informed the whip's office that she would be away for a month. Now, these two claims address different issues: one is about the Prime Minister having knowledge of Dorries making an appearance on a television show; the other is about the chief whip's office having knowledge of Dorries taking a month off (and giving permission for this). As it stands, one, both, or neither could be true. The counter-claim from Dorries (which has been responded to by the whip's office) does not address the specific claim made by David Cameron. The responses to the claim that Dorries informed the whip she was taking a month off do not address the time off, but refer back to the Prime Minister's claim that he was in the dark about Dorries appearing on I'm A Celebrity.

Here is a video of an appearance Nadine Dorries' daughters made on TV: Daybreak

At the start of the interview, it is claimed that Dorries asked for time off. "Obviously, she, she did ask for the month off. She did. She requested it from, um, the chief whip at the time, that she was going to go away for a month, it would be controversial. He said it's fine, you know, and that happened so that was OK."

HuffPo wrote that "She did not say if the whip's office was aware that her 55-year-old mother would be flying off to the Australian jungle to take part in the reality TV show." So journalists are at least pointing out that the claim is only that the time off was allowed, not that the appearance in I'm a Celebrity was. But they don't seem to have managed to clarify what has actually happened.

Then there's the whip's office quote that is being presented as a contradictory response to the comments from the Dorries camp: the chief whip "was neither asked nor did he agree to Nadine Dorries going off to Australia for a month to take part in I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here". This is a specific denial that does not address the actual claim made by Dorries' daughter.

In spite of the articles about this from broadcasters, blogs and newspapers, we still don't know what Dorries asked for (if anything) or what the chief whip agreed to (if anything).

If I were interviewing Nadine Dorries or her daughters I think I would ask what permission was actually requested from the chief whip. And I would be interested to see the response of the chief whip's office to the question "what did Andrew Mitchell agree to?"

If we are charitable and assume that Cameron, Dorries and Mitchell are all telling the truth then it seems that what actually happened was that (a) Dorries asked for and received permission to take a month off, without saying what it was for and (b) Dorries was not given permission to appear on I'm A Celebrity, because she didn't ask for it. Presumably, Dorries was suspended not for taking a month off but for going off to Australia to take part in a TV show.

I'm a bit bemused to be in a situation where I'm left to guess what happened despite wide coverage of the situation, because each of the two sides insists on making specific claims and denials that do not address the point the other side is making, and no-one appears willing or able to call them on it.

The Nadine Dorries Manifesto

Nadine Dorries had an... interesting outburst today with the usual distortions about harassment and other criminal activity where there is none. She then followed this up with a slight misreading of what was obviously a joke, causing her to express her core aims and beliefs in third-person. This has resulted in a neat Dorries-specific manifesto, which is mirrored below for future reference:

Nadine Dorries wants a referendum on EU membership very soon, to stop right now sending English £s to support failing European economies, to introduce a Bill of Rights, to scrap the Human Rights Act, to lower overall taxation in order to stimulate growth, to cut harder and faster on public services in order to reduce spending, to bring the upper limit at which abortion takes place down to 20 weeks, to remove Local Authority control over education, to free the NHS from Whitehall and to open up free market provision within the NHS, to dramatically reduce inward immigration, to embrace our special relationship with the USA, to make prison mean hard work and life to mean life, to increase our defence budget and support our troops, and she belives green taxes are damaging to elderly people who can barely afford to heat their homes. (source)

The less said about yesterday's lashing out at Tim Farron the better, but it should be pointed out that Dorries must have known this man was recently smeared as 'secretly gay' when she wrote this headline, or she should at least have thought better of it after the fact if she actually had to be told about this yesterday. Instead, she has let it stand.

It's as ugly as the claim so foul she pretends it projectile vomits from a mouth other than her own:

Tim (Farron) is playing to the left. The left are strongly pro-abortion and Tim knows this. Some with a stronger faith than Tim may say he’s been blinded by ambition and sold his soul to the devil. I would describe him as a typical Lib Dem. (source)

Charming.

Back with Feedback

Nadine Dorries: Feedback was down for about a week due to computer problems, that unit's eventual repair and then replacement, plus interference from 'supporters' of Nadine Dorries, some of whom then decided it would be a constructive to create an anonymous website containing just the kind of venomous, personal attacks that Nadine Dorries (eventually) claimed to be the victim of.

While the interim feedback facility was out of action, Nadine was quite chatty on her blog, and the following is a run-down of what has been missed:

Nov 10 - I need a wife!: Nadine blogs on the challenges of balancing wild parties and solemn ceremonies with shopping, laundry, the dishes, the floors and walking the dogs. She closes by saying "I need a wife....."

Nov 12 - Mid Beds Annual Dinner: Nadine posts a photo of herself, her daughters and other guests with John Major at a party. She informs us that her intern Stephanie responded to the toast "My Lords ladies and gentleman – the Queen" by saying; "Omigod, is she here, where?"

Nov 13 - Friday night pre dinner drinks and prep!: Nadine posts a photo of herself, her daughters and other guests from *before* that same party. Sitting on a bed and drinking champagne.

Nov 14 - Rocket Science?: Nadine announces that she is now a member of the Innovation University and Skills Select Committee. While never experiencing university herself, she feels confident that "(we need) fewer universities, not more and that half of the courses on offer should be scrapped." She presents as evidence an invitation for us to "walk around any halls of residence at the moment and spot the unhappy students."

Nov 15 - Posh Nosh: Nadine dashes from an audio interview to a posh lunch.

Nov 16 - Posh Nosh Part 2....: Nadine tells us of a potato-in-cleavage moment involving Andrew Rawnsley of the Observer and The Sunday Edition and a woman with "generous assets". She closes by promising some background to ITV's decision to axe the Sunday Edition. Ahhh, sweet discretion....

And that, minus one extraordinary outburst that demands its own mirror, brings us up to date and back online. Prepare to speak your brains.

Posh Frocks [Feedback version]

Posh Frocks was posted by Nadine Dorries on Tuesday, 6 November 2007 at 17:03

Readers of this website are invited to comment on this entry here, as they are not permitted to do so at Nadine Dorries' half-a-blog.

Posh Frocks

It’s the State opening of Parliament today and I was invited to the House of Lords for lunch.

I was both bedazzled and bemused by the dresses and tiaras. Most of the women I know don’t get married in dresses as posh as some of those worn by the peers’ wives!

It was drinks first in Lord Strathclyde’s office, then with the Lords Chief Whip, and then lunch.

It’s all so much more genteel over there.

It’s all about speeches today, however, none will top the stonking speech made by David Cameron.

Every day Gordon Brown looks further diminished and less of the statesman he did the previous day. There will be nothing left soon!

My intern Stephanie went into the Stranger’s Gallery to watch the debate.

She has just gushed back into the office in her All-American way talking about how she bumped into David on his way to the Chamber.

Steph wasn’t looking and was delving into her purse, David was shuffling his papers, and the near collision occurred.

Profuse apologies followed and a near faint on the part of Stephanie, who hasn’t shut up about a thirty second encounter for the last hour. God help me and save me from impressionable star struck interns!