UK Politics
The whispers
Published 07 February 2008
A bad actor and a poor liar - all the gossip from the Westminster Village
Shifting alliances in Camp Cameron are causing upheaval. The wheels are wobbling on Druggie Dave's friendship with his old cycling chum "Boy George" Osborne. All that tortoise-and-hare stuff has upset the Notting Hellers, Cameron resenting pushy George breathing down his neck. Baldie tyke Willie Hague remains Cam's big shadow cabinet buddy but, adds my snout, he's becoming palsy-walsy with the unlikely figure of Dave's leadership rival David Davis. Broken-nosed action man's a handy chap to have on your side when someone's trying to push you about, the rapprochement surviving even the defenestration of DD's mate Del Boy Conway, MP for Family South.
Mega-rich Tony Blair's diagnosis of Uncle Gordie's weaknesses tells us much about the worst of friends. The considered view of Europe's wannabe supreme ruler is: "Gordon's a bad actor and a poor liar." Quite so. Not charges that could be laid at Teflon Tony's own door.
Back to Boy George - and I'd wager that the shadow bean-counter shudders at the memory of his Oxford nickname. Osborne was one of the first non-Etonians, perhaps the first, to be admitted to the tailcoated Bullingdon Club. The trust-fund Tory's baronetcy and St Paul's past secured entry, if not exactly acceptance. He was, giggles my snitch, called "Oik" by the Hooray Henrys. Oik Osborne? It has a certain ring.
Not only rugby was turned upside down when England surrendered to Wales at Twickenham. Before watching the match, the educashon minister "Big Kev" Brennan addressed gays and lesbians, while Hattie Harperson's bag carrier, Chris Bryant, played with 14 other blokes. "We've swapped lives," observed Bryant. "Only for an afternoon," replied Big Kev.
The tearoom's divided on Nick and Ann Winterton's nice little earner, sticking their £700,000 London flat in a family trust to claim £21,600 a year in rent at the taxpayers' expense. One half denounced the Tory couple as a greedy; the other half wished they'd thought of the scam. My snout admitted it was a cross-party split.
The evictor-in-chief Caroline "Heart of" Flint's (left) threat to boot jobless tenants out of council houses reminded your hack of an incident during Labour's deputy leadership roadshow. In Newcastle, the Blears cheerleader wore an unflattering "Nuts for Hazel" T-shirt. "And who," enquired a party stalwart in suit and tie, "are you?" "I'm a government minister," Heart-of-Flint beamed until the Geordie grandad spat back: "Not dressed like that, lass."
Kevin Maguire is associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror
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