Why the silence from Iraq War dossier apologist Alastair Campbell on drugs cheat Lance Armstrong’s TV confession?
He interviewed the cyclist in 2004, after the drugs claims had surfaced, and gushed: ‘Sheryl Crow, his pop-star girlfriend, greets me. Armstrong appears. A long, firm handshake . . . If you ask him a question, he answers it straight out.’
Even as Armstrong’s guilt emerged months ago, Campbell praised his ‘character’ and ‘intelligence’.
Ruthless, bullying liar Armstrong cloaked his crimes in charitable do-gooding and targeted newsmen who saw through him. Surely Campbell abhors that?
Chain-smoking Rail Minister Simon Burns, shamed into giving up his £80,000-a-year Government limo ride to work from his Essex home, is said to be finding his 90-minute commute ‘purgatory’ because of the smoking ban on trains.
A fellow MP once counted Burns paying 27 visits to a Commons smoking area in one day. Burns denies lighting up in his limo, but a fellow Minister said: ‘Officially, we can’t smoke in Government cars, but if you ask nicely, the driver will let you have a crafty fag with the window down.’
Ivan encounters a little yokel difficulty Ivan Massow was hot favourite to become the party's candidate for the Frome seat in Somerset until yesterdayGay Tory Ivan Massow, a friend of Education Secretary Michael Gove, was hot favourite to become the party’s candidate for the Frome seat in Somerset – until yesterday, when local chairman Edmund Costelloe quit over Cameron’s gay marriage plans.
He stepped down hours before Massow, left, a supporter of gay marriage, threw his hat into the ring. ‘Some of the yokels aren’t too keen on all that stuff,’ said an insider. The scene is set for a Somerset showdown.
Before quitting as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams enraged David Cameron by claiming his health policy was causing ‘anxiety and anger’, his welfare crackdown was ‘punitive’ and his Big Society campaign ‘painfully stale’.
Yet when he took his seat on the Lords crossbenches last week, the two ‘supporters’ who guided the whiskered Welshman through the arcane ritual were Tory loyalist Lord Framlingham and former Thatcher aide Lord Griffiths.
‘We look forward to him repaying us by showing more support,’ said a Conservative peer. Fat chance.
George’s boar show More from Black Dog... Black Dog: Havana laugh, at Dave's expense 02/06/13 Black Dog: Mogadon Man needs a tonic 25/05/13 BLACK DOG: Skiing accident MP Graham Stuart a victim of power politics as officials reject expenses claim for electric wheelchair 18/05/13 Black Dog: Party rivalry for Nad and Dave 12/05/13 BLACK DOG: 'Ugly' Gove's big attraction 05/05/13 Black dog: By Gove, Happy Birthday Ma'am 28/04/13 BLACK DOG: Maggie and Denis - reunited at at last 21/04/13 BLACK DOG: A hip answer to grumpy Glenda: Could Left-wing MP need another operation to 'lighten her up'? 13/04/13 Black Dog: So that's why it's called the conko 06/04/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEGeorge Osborne clearly takes a close interest in Pippa Middleton’s social life, which seems to involve hanging out with European aristocrats.
The Chancellor amused guests at a party at The Blue Boar in Westminster thrown by the Conservative Home website, by referring to her latest exploits – a wild pig hunt with super-rich Belgians.
On the choice of venue, he said: ‘The Blue Boar, eh? Sounds like something that Pippa Middleton is hunting.’
Lib Dem Graham Watson infamously marked the Algerian hostage drama with the tweet: ‘Al Qaeda 1, David Cameron 0’. Things took a surreal turn with the MEP’s next message: ‘At Bulgaria liberal congress when an armed man tries to shoot leader’. Since misfortune tends to come in threes, Dog plans to give Watson a wide berth.
