Mark Pack

My head hurts: the David Cairns chaos

By | Tue 16th September 2008 - 7:46 pm

To lose four people in a handful of days would be bad at the best of times, but the chaos surrounding the departures only deepens the mess Labour is in.

We’ve already had the failing-to-sack-someone-because-it-turns-out-he-has-already-quit-but-you-didn’t-notice-manoeuvre.

And then today brought us not only the departure of a minister, but a departure in rather chaotic circumstances. The story starts last night when the BBC ran a story that a minister was set to quit. This morning the Daily Telegraph named him as David Cairns. Then a “source close to” the Scottish Secretary of State Des Browne said David Cairns had, “no intention of resigning.” And then David Carins, er…, resigned.

Just to add to the fun, fellow minister Tom Harris explained that David Cairns had “no intention of resigning” and only resigned because the Daily Telegraph had named him as someone who was going to resign.

My head now hurts … but useful tip to any newspapers: it would appear therefore that you can make any minister who has “no intention” of resigning do just that by reporting that they are going to. Ooooh, the power…

Read more by .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Daniel Walker
    @theakes "first past the post was a winner for us in 2024. Suggest we keep our heads down and live with it." If your opinion on an electoral system—...
  • Paul Holmes
    Rob, you also say that we can't be the party of the NHS or the Environment because Labour and the Greens have those. Surely it is a mistake to abandon whole are...
  • Paul Holmes
    Rob, you offer two possible groups of key target supporters for the Liberal Democrats. However, both are, as you note, just subsets of the affluent middle class...
  • Peter Wrigley
    @Jana: I regrade myself as an extremest for liberalism: the maximum amount of individual freedom that doesn't infringe the freedom others. I’m also pretty ke...
  • Roland
    >”He’d voted in every general election since 1974, he said, and this was the first time he had ever voted for a winning candidate.” Well I could say t...