Interesting developments over the last few weeks with regard to Tory HQ and press office (CCHQ).
Following normal procedure, if the SKWAWKBOX has a story concerning Tory MPs, councillors, candidates etc, we call CCHQ to allow them to comment. Until fairly recently, that all ran smoothly enough – though no doubt to the considerable discomfiture of various Tory functionaries, as this blog has broken news of racist tweets by councillors, candidates who’ve never read the party’s manifesto and other embarrassments.
But for several weeks now, CCHQ has become a black hole. Phone calls for comment result in a request to email the query – and emails go out and remain unanswered, in spite of chasers.
This week, the SKWAWKBOX broke the story of a vile, racist tweet by the official Twitter account of Harrow Conservatives, which was quickly deleted and followed by panicked moves to try to obscure its source.. The SKWAWKBOX contacted CCHQ, spoke to a polite person named Gareth instead of the usual Harriet and, as usual, was asked to send it by email. Which we did.
Nothing came back.
The story was picked up in turn by Evolve Politics and the Canary. One or both of those publications contacted CCHQ – much later than this blog did – and got a response in which the Tories, laughably, tried to deny it was an official Tory account in spite of this:
Which the SKWAWKBOX also archived in case the Tories deleted it. Which they did.
The SKWAWKBOX is not exactly unknown these days – and the people at CCHQ press office know the publication well from many calls and emails. They’re aware it’s well read – and very well aware that it’s a source quoted and relied upon by BBC News and even right-wing publications.
So it seems that we frighten them – that a call from the SKWAWKBOX is a signal to batten down the hatches, put their fingers in their ears and hope it all goes away.
If that’s the hope – that refusing to answer will mean we won’t run the story – they’re always going to be disappointed. Stories run anyway – and are often picked up by other independent left publications and the mainstream media.
Ignoring media queries is desperately bad practice for a political party, however much you don’t like them. Even if a story is embarrassing for you, it’s best to have some kind of comment included. So it’s a sign of something seriously amiss – as well as unprofessional.
The pending queries with them – some of which have been unanswered for weeks – include a suspended Tory councillor ignoring her suspension, concerns about possible Tory plans to avoid repaying industrial tribunal fees and evidence suggesting a Tory MP broke the party’s own rules to attempt to stack his selection as a parliamentary candidate. Articles on those will follow when remaining loose ends are tied up.
Other stories have already been run, including various articles on the desperate Tory lies about student debt.
But we’re busy people at the SKWAWKBOX and don’t have time to waste on people playing ostrich and sticking their heads in the sand – even if they’re at CCHQ. So this email was sent to them:
If you’ve decided not to respond to queries from this publication, say so and we won’t waste our time asking – instead we’ll say you declined to comment, as that is what a refusal to respond amounts to.
Of course, we probably won’t get an answer to that one either – but now everybody knows about it. And if you see a Tory with her/his fingers in ears shouting lalala at the top of his/her voice, it’s probably someone hoping the mean, nasty SKWAWKBOX will stop frightening them.
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Keep at them 🙂
hahaha, Brilliant, love your work guys,,
Everyone involved with the Skwawkbox should be completely and totally proud of the job you’ve all been doing in presenting the news to the public in a way not really seen before, you know, like the truth.
No wonder the Tories are running scared of you as they’ve been feeding and indeed living off lies for oh so very long now . . . 🙂
It’s not just the Tories we are after, or it shouldn’t be. Libs, sorry chaps, Greens, or is it time to rethink Leftleave and the cabal. our enemies are legion! For pity sake let’s not go down the road of coalition with the pinks and their red roses. Those thorns pierce.
Reblogged this on sideshowtog.
😆 😆 😆
I wonder if that means the Canary is scared of me because it doesn’t respond to e-mails about untrue reporting, and clarification of its business model!!
One should bear in mind the following fact that HIndson wrote in an earlier reply thread,
Graham Hindson 30/07/2017 at 3:44 pm · ·
As a life long Conservative voter it’s unlikely to be my CLP!
Thus there you have it , self confessed Tory Troll and hence any and all comments by this troll need to be viewed bearing this fact in mind.
The Canary don’t waste time or effort on piss artists like you Hindson.
No Graham. Nobody’s scared of you.
It’s like being savaged by a dead sheep.
Exactly – non response to e-mails doesn’t necessarily indicate fear.
Canaries are kept in cages , have no choice concerning their diet and some are taught to repeat what they hear. I like condors, hawks, eagles and even owls. Owls are wise and hunt.
Reblogged this on sdbast.
Well done, Steve and your team. If CCHQ is running scared of you, it means that you are hitting them where it hurts, and that’s a very good thing.
Tin hat time at Theresa May’s CCHQ (Conservative Chaos Headquarters).
Metaphorically speaking, the boot is on the other foot. Skwawkbox et al. have a huge bucket of sh*t, and they are just about to tip it all over the Tory Party.
Let’s look at the facts.
The Tory party is literally withering on the vine. Its supporters are dropping like flies. It is intellectually exhausted and, at the same time, is suffering the ideological trauma of witnessing its neoliberal economic model crumbling before its eyes. Tory economic policy has been based on neoliberal economic theory for the last 35 years, so it must be intensely distressing for Tories to acknowledge that the economic policy they have been promoting and implementing for the last 35 years is fundamentally flawed and démodé.
In addition, May’s cabinet appears allergic to the convention of collective responsibility and has proved itself to be is nothing more than a vipers’ nest of pocket lining, gossiping plotters; a dwindling motley crew of second rate, venally corrupt, arms dealing, asset stripping, donor class lickspittles.
It is bad enough that the Tories ecstatically run a relentless national asset stripping programme on the UK, purely for the benefit of their corporate donor class, but Tory foreign policy has proved to be equally disastrous for the country.
It is worth remembering that, as I write, the Tory party is supplying arms and working hand in glove with the extremist leaders of an extremist Islamic Caliphate group which funds and spreads its head chopping, crucifying, death cult philosophy around the globe: that group is commonly known as the House of Saud.
The Tory cabinet is well aware that the weapons they are supplying are being used to kill men, women and a children in Yemen. They are fully aware that the weapons they have provided the licences for are being used to commit war crimes against innocent civilians. The Tory government is therefore, at least in part, culpable for the current humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
The Tory party’s foreign, domestic and economic policies form an incoherent, illogical mess. Politically speaking, the Tories, as a government, are in a state of complete chaos. The Tory government is, indeed, in such a chaotic and weakened state that it has been forced to enter into a coalition with a sectarian, racist, homophobic organisation with close links to loyalist terrorist groups: AKA the DUP.
When all these factors are taken into consideration, it is clearly not in the national interest for May’s chaotic government to limp on any longer. The security of the country is being actively degraded under the governance of May’s weak, divided and chaotic administration.
It is time for May to do the right thing. It is time for May to stop placing the interests of the Conservative party above the interests of the country. It is time for the Tory party to put the country, and itself, out of its misery. It is time to call a General Election.
There will be two completely different options available to the public at that election.
The Labour offer is to invest in upgrading the UK’s infrastructure; invest in education and training; invest in public services; build a million new homes; increase the minimum wage to £10 for everyone; begin to immediately introduce an ethical foreign policy. The Labour offer is simple: economic growth through investment, through decent and well paid jobs and through upgrading the UKs infrastructure whilst protecting our environment, so we can compete and win in the modern world.
Far be it from me to set targets for John McDonnell, but the full implementation of Labour’s strategic investment programme could well deliver economic growth of 5% to a Labour Chancellor by the end of the new government’s first term. If the proposed new investment bank and regional banks act effectively, and if enough people take advantage of the investment and education and training opportunities available under a Labour Government, then it is feasible that the UK could achieve growth of between of 5-7% per year by the end of the Labour Government’s first term.
Finally, the Labour party manifesto contains a post Brexit plan. The Labour party is the only party in the UK with a post Brexit plan. The Labour programme is a four term project, it is a comprehensive, cohesive and intelligent plan to increase prosperity, boost the economy and to increase domestic security by improving international relations.
The Conservative party offers is to continue their asset stripping of the UK; to run down our public services and Heath Service; to continue engaging in self-defeating military interventions, and to continue restricting the economy by persisting with failed neoliberal policies.
Take your pick.
Sorry for the long post, Skwawkbox. I just wanted to make a few points – I won’t make a habit of it.
AMEN to that….
Stop phoning. Just send the email, and include the standard line “cchq has been approached for comment but have not yet responded”
That way if they ever do respond, it hasn’t delayed your publication at all and the responsibility is entirely theirs.
Never let Tories control the agenda – even for 5 minutes.
Oh, and keep ’em scared 🙂
THIS ALONG WITH STEVE’S BLOG IS CALLED THE CORBYN EFFECT!
WE HAVE A DEFUNCT CON-PARTY STUMBLING ALONG MAKING U-TURNS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY!
YET, DARE I WRITE, THOSE ON THE RIGHT IN OUR PARTY STILL INSIST ON TRYING TO DERAIL POLICIES THAT GO AGAINST TORY AUSTERITY AND THERE NEVER ENDING ATTACKS ON US THE ORDINARY PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY!
WHILE LINING THEIR OWN POCKETS WITH OUR HARD EARNED TAXES!
THEY POUR MONEY INTO THEIR PET PROJECTS JUST TO SEE THEM FAIL!
MAY GOES ON HER JOLLIES WALKING IN THE SWISS ALPS WHILE WE STRUGGLE BACK HOME FROM POLICIES CREATED BY HERSELF AND HER VERY RICH CABINET MINISTERS WHO ARE CONSTANTLY LYING AND SPINNING THE TRUTH ALONG WITH HER!
THOSE ON THE RIGHT KNOW THEIR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!
YET STILL CARRY ON AS IF THINGS ARE HUNKYDORY.
ROLL ON THE NEXT G E!
JC4PM.