With apologies to those who’ve already seen this story — but it’s too good for us not also to copy and paste from the Telegraph report…
Nick Clegg’s awesome spokesman: “I can’t believe we are having this f—ing conversation again” buff.ly/VK1hdz
— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) January 16, 2013
With Nick Clegg about to miss ‘an unprecedented fourth meeting of the Privy Council’ in his role as Lord President of the Council, the Telegraph spotted a mischief-making opportunity and phoned one of the leader’s aides to get a quote. The reporter got more than he bargained for:
“I can’t believe we are having this ******* conversation again,” an aide to the DPM emoted in a tirade worthy of Malcolm Tucker in the television series The Thick of It. “The ******* fact is he can’t ******* be everywhere, but I know you are going to go off and write that the DPM has ******* snubbed the Queen once a-*******-gain.”
A less fun official response followed:
Later, in an official statement, the DPM’s office said: “This was an emergency session of the Privy Council, which was arranged at very short notice. The DPM could not attend because he had already had a long-standing commitment to give evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee in Parliament at exactly the same time.
Please feel free to speculate about the identify of the Dude responsible below. If they weren’t a Lib Dem they’d surely be an early contender for our Liberal Voice award…
* Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
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12 Comments
Brilliant. The Telegraph’s student-level antics should be treated with the contempt they deserve.
I’m sure the Queen wasn’t too upset.
Well, *** me, the ******* Queen wasn’t ******* upset? I ******* don’t ******* well believe it! ****!
I’m suddenly warming to Nick Clegg’s office
Pressure obviously getting to someone. Tucker is fictional, BTW.
You might consider for a minute that newspapers always get the last word. Good communications people build relationships. For example, Joe Haines was a far more effective ‘press officer’ than Campbell.
are we sure it was a dude? The suspect I suspect is a lady
They’re almost as charming and sophisticated as Andrew Mitchell. Do you think that applauding this kind of loutishness is helpful?
Jennie, if she spoke in those terms, then ‘she’s no Lady’.. !!
Liberator got there first!
http://liberator-magazine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/new-clegg-media-management-tactic.html
While no fan of bad language, the Telegraph deserves all this and much more. Its capacity for trivial muckraking and distortion as regards the Lib Dems is beyond belief.
Agree with Bill. Less aggression, more skill, please.