Newmania: “My business is not politics I work for a living”.

- Ditto.

Newmania on me: “You need a little lie down I think, you are clearly over excited.”

- Thank you – and I have to say I think you come across as a pale imitation of Boris Johnson, only without any of the wit or the charm. Insulting your (ex?) colleagues isn’t very endearing either.

Newmania on Mildmay Ward: “It seems rather salubrious to me as a place.I suspect the residents live from sundried Jalapenos drizzled with Olive Oil suffused with something.”

- Yes, politics very clearly isn’t your business or you’d know a little about Islington history or might have explored it more. Largely decent but largely poor would be nearer the mark for Mildmay.

- The Ward was one of the original 88 Neighbourhood Renewal Areas.

- Due to the recent influx of ‘suits’, the largely intact street of mid-Victorian houses I live in is now only in the bottom 11% in the country on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Shame we rent.

- The Mayville LSOA area where I work is two streets away and in the bottom 4%.

Perhaps its the diet ?

( I `m kidding)

It seems rather salubrious to me as a place.I suspect the residents live from sundried Jalapenos drizzled with Olive Oil suffused with something .

( But don`t quote me )

This seems like a storm in a tea cup. Remember Lib Dem Jody Dunn and her “drunk, flanked by an angry dog, or undressed” jibe at the people of Hartlepool? Well here in Manchester Chorlton we’ve had a local candidate caught calling the local people “bastards” as in “none of the bastards will open the door to me” talking on his mobile, probably to the local LD MP John Leech. The Tories are forever bitching about their local organisations. Iain Dale and others have attacked their Scottish colleagues for example. I am a Labour member and blogger and from my point of view Lib Dems are by far and away the ones with the LEAST POLITICS and the LOWEST OPINION of the voters.
http://chrispaul-labouroflove.blogspot.com/2007/04/chorlton-paul-ankers-godfather-writes.html

Really Mr Pack you lot are excellent at these foot in mouth moment and insulting the intelligence of the voters. Just get a grip and stop drawing attention to it.

I’m even less impressed now. The Peter Gruner Tribune article you defame (without having read!) is perfectly unbiased and he quotes your denial at length. Mr Gruner is a very good journalist.

A simple logic point. That doesn’t mean he KNOWS that your comment wasn’t directed at us Mildmay residents. He’s a journalist, not a mind-reader. He reports what you SAY.

He has told us what you typed on a Blog (I have checked and you did) and that you now say you were having a laugh and referring to Conservative colleagues.

You are, I assume, an experienced politician. You will therefore appreciate that most people aren’t going to believe you. Most people will think ‘Well he would say that’. Other people will just hear on the grapevine that a(nother) politician has said we’re all scum. So it goes.

Afraid the Casablanca comment is above my head but I do remember Rick saying,

“You’ll excuse me, gentlemen. Your business is politics, mine is running a saloon.”

…and I think I’ve wasted quite enough of my time on this too so goodbye.

I am shocked (in the best casablanca style )

From the front page of the Tribune today I see that Mr Newman’s political opponents are making as much mileage out of this as possible. Good. He shouldn’t have said it. I normally hate political sniping but people should think before they open their mouths. People shouldn’t make bloody stupid comments that local people can only interpret as yet another insult to them or about where they live / their HOME.

I’ve only lived in Mildmay for 20 years but my partner’s family moved up here from Clerkenwell in the 1880s. She is not ‘almost bestially stupid’. Nor are any of the neighbours she grew up with. Nor am I. Nor is ANY participant in the time bank I run here in Mildmay.

Yes there are some ‘almost bestially stupid people’ around. Two (or three?) people were shot on the south side of Newington Green on Monday night and that story didn’t even get into the Tribune.

Do something about it. I don’t know if those two live here or were just trying to take over somebody else’s little, local ‘business’ but most people who DO live here just want to get on with their lives without the risk of getting caught in crossfire.

In this case I do think Mr Newman shouldn’t have said what he did but I can’t but feel that if all you politicians could all stop scoring clever points off each other and actually stopped this sort of awfulness happening, you’d be very, very popular.

Peter

But I do recall a certain Tom Finnegan standing for the Tories in Stockton South (just down the road) at the 1983 General Election. Even though said Tom Finnegan had stood for the National Front in Birmingham Erdington (from memory) at one of the 1974 General Elections.

Local Tories said they had no idea Finnegan had ever been an NF member. Oh, come on! I remembered the guy’s name! And I’m not even a Tory candidate vetter!

Recall Sir Keith Joseph and Nigel Lawson both doing a runner?

And it was the SDP’s Ian Wrigglesworth who kept Mr Finnegan out of the Commons, but by a very narrow margin. Badge of honour there.

Nast lot.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2007/04/maude_calls_on_.html

Not so smart, are you?

Put the odd whisky inside these Tories and the truth starts dripping out.