Old Etonians stick together
A German TV crew was interviewing the left-wing MP Dennis Skinner here this lunchtime.
Gradually Skinner gathered a small, appreciative audience, and launched into full flow, with an attack on the Conservatives and Old Etonians.
Whereupon the cameraman, totally unbeknown to Skinner, quietly stopped filming.
The cameraman was Dan Goodhart, son of the late Conservative MP Philip Goodhart, and an Old Etonian.
A story is doing the rounds about Siobhan McDonagh, the MP who led the calls for a leadership contest.
Yesterday, I am told, she was sitting among the conference exhibition stands and suddenly approached by the Brownite minister Tom Watson, one of the ring-leaders of the 2006 coup which unseated Tony Blair.
Watson is reported to have put his arm round McDonagh and asked if she was OK.
McDonagh was a little puzzled, and asked why Watson was enquiring.
"It's just that I know exactly how you feel. Two years ago I went through exactly what you're going through now."
Sadly, Siobhan McDonagh denies that it happened.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 23rd Sep 2008, JunkkMale wrote:Meanwhile, outside Westminster-in-Manchester (if a temporary tented village as the 'Caravan of all the Talents' and its camp followers make their gilded way about the land)....?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 23rd Sep 2008, JunkkMale wrote:Meanwhile, back in the bubble...
'We're all peers together...'
So in the spirit of sticking together, the blood relative of a bloke being slagged off, if to an appreciative audience, by another bloke has a wee moment on the pause button, professionally speaking.
This being a German TV crew I am shocked, but not surprised. The world is going to pot, because the crisis is Global, see. I've been told that a lot, lately.
Can you imagine anyone from say, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ allowing personal feelings or editorial agenda creeping in to influence the flow of someone whose views they did not hold.
The very idea!
ps: technical point... is it possible to stop filming 'noisily'? Just asking.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)