No tracking. No cookies
Subscriptions
Subscriptions
APRIL 2021Dacre, Dogs& Jacob Rees-Mogg
Exclusive to print for a month, Peter Oborne shares his observations of the political scene, at home and abroad. For the latest diary subscribe to the May Digital Edition
Playing the Man
IN THE DAYS I ATTENDED THE DAILY MAIL‘S leader conference, Paul Dacre loved nothing more than denouncing the cronyism of Tony Blair or David Cameron. I vividly remember his justified outrage about Labour donor Gavyn Davies’ chairmanship of the BBC or when Cameron appointed another old friend to a position he did not deserve. (It was often my task to convert these denunciations into Daily Mail prose.)
Yet Dacre, the greatest newspaper editor of the modern era, has allowed his name to be touted in connection with the impending Ofcom appointment. Dacre, who knows nothing about broadcasting regulation, is allowing Boris Johnson to use him as a stooge. Months before the formal appointment process had even started, Dacre’s name was being given to Conservative journalists as the Downing Street choice. This contempt for due process is not new. But it is upsetting that someone of Dacre’s stature should tolerate it.
I wrote to Dacre several weeks ago warning him that the Prime Minister and his sordid associates inside 10 Downing Street were playing him for a fool. He didn’t reply. It’s still not too late for the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers to return to his senses and issue a statement that he is appalled by the cynical and morally repugnant conduct of the Johnson Government that I have no doubt he privately despises.
Worm Turns
THIS BRINGS ME ONTO PETER RIDDELL, Commissioner for Public Appointments. Riddell has been a pro-government patsy for decades, first in his days as a Times political columnist and more recently in a succession of obscure Whitehall roles.
The worm has turned.
In an astonishing letter to Lord Jonathan Evans, chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Riddell warned that ministers were seeking to place political allies in public roles. He informed Lord Evans that “some at the centre of government want not only to have the final say but to tilt the competition system in their favour to appoint their allies”.
Riddell went on to say that there had also been attempts at “packing the composition of interview panels with allies”. Had such a letter been written about Blair or Cameron, Paul Dacre would have run a double-page spread naming and shaming the Downing Street toadies, while commissioning a thunderous leader and ordering an op-ed denouncing this abuse of power.
So I checked. Peter Riddell’s stand against the abuse of public appointments has received no coverage in any Mail title
Duke of Duty
I FELT THE BBC’S COVERAGE OF PRINCE PHILIP’S DEATH was perfect, and it was proper that Parliament should be recalled so that MPs should pay tribute to a public servant who served this country so well, with such self-sacrifice, both in war and peace.
I feel less at ease with the idea that a royal yacht should be launched in his memory. Prince Philip was dedicated to two great causes. One is well-known: wildlife conservation. One less so: the conservation of urban recreational spaces. This dates back to his school days in the 1930s when he learnt his cricket in a public park.
Conservatives are promoting the royal yacht so they can spark a ‘culture war’ around the Royal Family. This would damage the monarchy. It would be much better to set up a fund so that youngsters can play sport in public places.
Ministers don’t want a royal yacht to help the monarchy – it’s so they can travel round in it themselves.
Hack Attacks
I AM GRATEFUL TO BYLINE TIMES FOR PUBLISHING my list of false statements made by Boris Johnson and ministers on the Hansard record on pages 22-23 of the April edition. I sent a copy to the Leader of the Commons and have at last received a reply.
“Ministers who come to the Chamber are undertaking an important constitutional duty by ensuring that the Government is held to account,” intones Jacob Rees-Mogg, adding that they are “also under a duty to correct any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”.
So far so good. Unfortunately Rees-Mogg adds: “I disagree with your accusation that false or misleading statements are common-place in this House.”
Last month, Rees-Mogg launched a baseless attack on the Huffington Post’s deputy political editor, Arj Singh, on the floor of the Commons, accusing him of doctoring a statement by the Foreign Secretary.
Rees-Mogg said that Dominic Raab’s words had been “shockingly distorted by low-quality journalism”, adding that “it is a cheat that journalists sometimes use of editing text, editing a recording, and it was done to Roger Scruton by the New Statesman and it’s now been done to the Foreign Secretary”.
This attack on Singh’s professional integrity would have been actionable but for the fact that it was made under parliamentary privilege. Rees-Mogg has neither apologised to Singh nor corrected the record.
I have always admired Rees-Mogg for an almost over-punctilious sense of honour. This behaviour is a good illustration of one of the secondary problems of having an habitual liar like Boris Johnson as Prime Minister: others follow suit.
Hound Dogs
THROUGHOUT MY CHILDHOOD AND EARLY TEENS, I suffered from a morbid fear of dogs. This was a result of being bitten when five years old by a dog belonging to the economic advisor to Harold Wilson, a certain Lord Thomas Balogh.
The animal bore down on me on the way to school, taking a chunk out of my upper left thigh. I was so traumatised that thereafter I would find elaborate alternative routes to avoid passing Lord Balogh’s Hampstead town house. I can still feel the terror and anguish as I write.
What is it about politicians and dogs? President Joe Biden calls his German shepherd “sweet” even though it’s already attacked two people in the short time the brute has been in the White House. Boris Johnson’s Jack Russell cross has acquired the reputation as another nasty piece of work.