Yesterday Guido Fawkes excitedly blogged that “Eastleigh LibDems Holding Emergency Meeting … Guido has just heard they are holding an unscheduled meeting” and went on to claim in a subsequent post that Chris Huhne’s election expenses were “top of the agenda”.
Alas, Guido’s source is not exactly up to top-notch standards on this one.
Let’s take it one by one.
Was it an emergency meeting? No, it was a previously scheduled one.
Was it a Liberal Democrat meeting? No, it was a meeting of the Eastleigh and the Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Horton Heath Local Area Committees to which council officers and non-Liberal Democrat councillors were invited.
At this point you might wonder if Chris Huhne’s election expenses were really top of the agenda for a meeting to which not only outsiders but rival politicians were invited.
And you’d be right to wonder.
Because why had these two Local Area Committees, who usually meet separately, scheduled a meeting together?
It was because along with their normal business there was one special, joint item of business to talk about…
(Drum roll please.)
.
.
.
.
.
(Wait for it.)
.
.
.
.
.
… a cycle path.
Yes indeed the emergency Lib Dem meeting with election expenses top of the agenda was actually a scheduled council meeting to talk about local issues with a local cycle path top of the agenda. (UPDATE: A car park also featured.)
Time for you to get a new source Guido, I think if s/he can’t tell the difference between an expense return and a bicycle.
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38 Comments
Rofl.
Absolute nonsense. YOU need to getter a better, truthful source.
We’ll still be here when Huhne is gone and you’re asking yourself why you staked your political credibility on backing him.
BBC South’s Peter Henley confirms on Twitter it was not an emergency Lib Dem meeting:
http://twitter.com/BBCPeterH/status/73474689581842432
So why did Cllr Chris Thomas come out of the meeting and say, as they had discussed, the sunlight centre had made allegations in the past and hadn’t come to anything. doesn’t sound like just bicycles. Back to spin school!
@Harry Cole
You know that we all know that you’re paid for such brown nosing?
What you mean I work for the site that ran the story? Great scoop sunshine.
Ok Mark, why was the meeting two hours long (unusual for a LAC) and why were the Independent Councillors not invited? And why was this one not open to the public, as they have been in the past.
You really think the local LibDems, under attack from every angle, seriously didn’t mention the pending investigations by the Electoral Commission that could have massive repercussions for them all?
You’re either delusional or knowingly denying the obvious.
Why are you putting your neck on the line for a politician who in all likelihood will be out the door any minute? He’s really not worth this coordinated libdem blog attack that we have seen today. I’d focus on shoring up what little creditability the LibDems have left…
First line directed at the absurd Andrew Tennant. Obviously
LOL… Guido and Harry sound a little stung 🙂
Yes, you can tell from the ad hominem vitriol that they’ve been caught out on this one. 🙂
hahahahahahahhaha
@Chris Keating
Nah, that’s just their typical modus operandi; Harry and Paul never play the issue, always the man.
playing the man, over the issues of perverting the course of justice and instigating a cover up.
oh so ad hominem…
get a grip.
OUCH !!
You would never have caught ‘The Master’ making such elementary errors, but now that Guido has handed over day-to-day control of his ‘masterwork’ to a cheeky chimp who never proof-reads his copy, the disintegration of the ‘brand value’ cannot be far behind.
And to think Guido Fawkes was hoping that Lord Ca$hcroft was going to come along and make him an offer he couldn’t refuse !! That horse has bolted now that he’s handed over the running to a semi-literate underling.
Chris Huhne may not be happy at this situation, but no one at Number 10 is going to be fretting about Guido Fawkes ever again, as the ‘good old days’ of Damian McBride are gone for good.
Seems rather a shame that the arrival of ‘new blood’ means that the Order-Order blog has only one way to go – down, as it did for a while have a useful role in keeping politicians honest.
OK Guido – where was the meeting of Eastleigh Lib Dems taking place. It wasn’t in Chris’s office as the BBC man went there and it was shut. Chris’s agent and local party treasurer is also a Bishopstoke Councillor so is likely to have been at the above meeting.
Harry: Nothing in your post questions it not being an emergency meeting, not being a Liberal Democrat meeting and expenses not being top of the agenda. So you happy to concede that all three of those claims made over on order-order were wrong?
There doesn’t seem to have been a meeting scheduled for the 25th for either of the committee’s who supposedly met.
http://www.eastleigh.gov.uk/meetings/ieDocHome.aspx
@ Mark Pack… forgive a naive question but if your analysis is that Huhne must go because of stuff like this …why engage in stuff like this??
Point and rebuttal really isn’t the point any more. Huhne just needs to go.
Time will tell if we score that as one for the bad guys or one for the angels.
@Kevin
I imagine because, like any decent person, he believes in the truth and accuracy.
Kevin: If you were under police investigation because of one claim against you, would you consider therefore that makes you free target for someone to throw lots of other, obviously flawed, claims at you? My answer to that is “no” – and hence that’s the answer to your question.
Charles: Those are only the individual meetings of the committees; this one was a joint briefing (joint because of the bicycle path).
Mark Pack
I understand that Guido is a seasoned blogger but I fail to understand why we are getting a series of articles debating what Guido has to say on his blog.
By bringing his crusade to light here on LDV we are merely adding fuel to his fire.
I have no opinion (yet) on the expenses of Chris Huhne because there is not enough information in the public domain to make one. Highlighting weblog conspiracy theories is hardly going to do Mr Huhne any favours. Non-partisan voters are likely to think that there is no smoke without fire.
You are doing his work for him by spreading his beliefs to this site. All he needs is a few more websites to fall into the same trap and you will find Guido’s agenda pushed on to the BBC news..
Surely not what you want ?
Remember that there is no such thing as bad publicity… That certainly applies to owners of weblogs like Guido… Why do you think he is here ? He now has a second platform to play with his ‘tanks’…
If people disagree (or agree) with Guido’s thoughts then they should take up the fight on Guido’s site.
However, it is clear to me that the only people to benefit from these articles are those that want everyone to accept that there really is a fire.
Guido has been around a long time and he does not deny that he has an agenda. I would encourage people to think of the tactical implications of their actions. If Guido wants a fight then encourage loyal members in the members forum to go to his site and fight back..
But why oh why , bring ’ his’ fight here ?
Mark, I still haven’t found any online trace of this meeting, and if it was a public and previously scheduled meeting I would have imagined there would be a notice somewhere.
My point isn’t that Guido Fawkes got it right or that’s it’s somehow OK to peddle inaccuracies about Chris Huhne. My point is that rebuttal here only serves to feed the story.
It’s become a classic Catch 22- the fact that we’re even discussing this is part of the problem.
The story has become such that whatever the facts of the case Chris Huhne best serves his party and himself by resigning.
Kevin
My point is that rebuttal here only serves to feed the story.
It’s become a classic Catch 22- the fact that we’re even discussing this is part of the problem.
Exactly…
Guido mis-heard his source. He thought they said that there was a joint meeting to discuss a Psychopath.
@ Kevin
Ever heard of a circular argument? I think you’re the only one who’s in that particular loop.
@RC…I wondered why I was getting dizzy, thought it was the Guinness. As for being in the loop, I don’t think I’ve ever been the loop in my life!
Facts are for the boring old dead tree press. The blogging elite shall not be restrained by such ridiculous matters!
At the end of the day, Guido is no better than any of the other politicians out there. He will do anything to reclaim the good old days and make a few headlines (of blogs, regrettably).
@Harry – if you think 2 hours is untoward for an ordinary committe meeting you’ve obviously never been a councillor!
This really is quite pathetic, on all sides.
Not only is it uninteresting, but it has no relevance to Huhne’s position anyway. The meeting did take place? Doesn’t matter? The meeting didn’t take place? Doesn’t Matter. Boring. Irrelevant.
Gentlemen, take a step away from the keyboards. Go for a walk, or something.
This just epitomises how pathetic the whole Huhne witch hunt has been from start to finish. Bottom of the barrel stuff i’m afraid chaps.
I’m sure there’s a joke in there about the difference between a cyclepath and a psychopath…
http://livingonwords.blogspot.com/2011/05/incredible-shrinking-credibility-of.html
@ Dan Falchikov…Piece if tarmac walks into a bar. Barman says, “We had a red piece of tarmac in here yesterday- he a mate of yours?”
Piece of tarmac says, “He’s no mate of mine, in fact he’s downright dangerous, he’s a cycle-path”
Is that tumbleweed blowing past??
@Harry Cole – couple of pointers re council meetings. Almost all of my area committee meetings run over 2 hours – it’s rare that they don’t.
We also have meetings where the officers brief councillors on topics relevant to the whole area, not just our ward. These are usually done in private – often because there’s some form of confidentiality required, or because officers want to make clear their views to councillors before we support or oppose the plans. I don’t know why the independents weren’t invited, but it’s possible that the cycle path didn’t impact on their ward and therefore there’s no need for them to be there (I’m not an Eastleigh councillor and don’t know the area.)
Now, those stories about Edinburgh University……
Just found this on Harry Cole’s website at http://www.harrycole.net/2009/11/freelance-hack-and-editor-of-political.html
“In 2009 Harry co-founded the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics…”
Strangely, I don’t see any mention of this on Order Order at all. There’s clearly a conflict of interest – Harry using his master’s voice to promote his own organisation which works to his own agenda. Probably explains why Guido & Harry are getting more and more desperate on this story…
Sounds as if Lib Dems are determined to make a meal of the expenses story because they know that it has no legs. The points story, on the other hand….
Oh Dear Oh Dear
I was at this meeting and I can safely say that there was absolutely NO discussion about anything to do with expenses or Chris Huhne. …When I left, I was stopped by the local microbloggers and a Daliy Echo reporter and was asked if there was this extrordinary meeting…NO was the reply. “Did I know the Sunlight Centrehad made a complaint ” reply No but they have made complaints about things in the past and the complaints were nonsense”.
The liberal in me demands a free press, but, I do wonder why bloggers cant be made to substantiate some of the wilder claims they make. Will Guido publish a retraction I doubt it.
Oh and the independent councillors were invited, they just didnt bother to turn up.!
I wonder if I claimed that aliens had landed in Eastleigh to pick Chris H up they would print that too???? P.S. before anyone does publish that as the latest headline…its nonsense.
It is possible that there were two meetings on the same day.