I haven't seen a nice thing said about her as a result of this. Even Hacked Off complained about her! And Moonbat.
The combination of revenge hatchet job and unsubstantiated lurid claims hand waved away as *just a line* aren't cutting any ice. She's been all over the media trying to limit the damage to her career and just making it worse it appears.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
Oh dear, Oakshit's fretting over her now tarnished journalistic career. Shame.
I doubt it would prove terminal in the long run, although it might constrict certain opportunities in the short term, but what on earth did she think the reaction was going to be in accusing a sitting PM of putting his penis in a dead pig's head when he was younger? I cannot regard any surprise, irritation or regret at it getting attention over the rest of the work as genuine.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
Oh dear, Oakshit's fretting over her now tarnished journalistic career. Shame.
I doubt it would prove terminal in the long run, although it might constrict certain opportunities in the short term, but what on earth did she think the reaction was going to be in accusing a sitting PM of putting his penis in a dead pig's head when he was younger? I cannot regard any surprise, irritation or regret at it getting attention over the rest of the work as genuine.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
She must have got a fair whack to take this "assignment".
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
The publisher is Iain Dale.
Well that's Iain Dale's head on the block, as well. What were they thinking? All very strange.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
The publisher is Iain Dale.
Well that's Iain Dale's head on the block, as well. What were they thinking? All very strange.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
The publisher is Iain Dale.
Well that's Iain Dale's head on the block, as well. What were they thinking? All very strange.
I thought Lord A owns BiteBack, and Ian Dale is CEO. Choices may be limited!
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
But yep, it's a cluster**** of epic proportions. I do drive a diesel, but it's a Nissan, and knowing now about Diesel engines over the last few years it'll be my last one.
I've driven diesels for the last 8 years - very economical, superb drives no problems. VW's f***-up is less about diesel than fraudulent cheating.
I hope the good lord continues to fund all manner of political polling - decent, trustworthy or not, it fills up necessary thread space!
"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing Opinion Polls. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just... *do* things."
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
But yep, it's a cluster**** of epic proportions. I do drive a diesel, but it's a Nissan, and knowing now about Diesel engines over the last few years it'll be my last one.
I've driven diesels for the last 8 years - very economical, superb drives no problems. VW's f***-up is less about diesel than fraudulent cheating.
Maybe you've spent the last 8 years pumping noxious fumes into the atmosphere to the detriment of all our healths?
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
The publisher is Iain Dale.
Well that's Iain Dale's head on the block, as well. What were they thinking? All very strange.
Is Cameron going to sue?
Of course not. What can he possibly gain from having an allegation about necrophiliac oral pig-rape paraded through the courts? Even if he wins the country would giggle, very loudly, and not in a good way.
The damage to the writer and publisher will be done to their reputations, over time. Unless they can now find some evidence.
But since Cameron isn't suing, I see little reason for evidence to be revealed. If it exists, it should be kept in reserve for such an eventuality.
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
But yep, it's a cluster**** of epic proportions. I do drive a diesel, but it's a Nissan, and knowing now about Diesel engines over the last few years it'll be my last one.
I've driven diesels for the last 8 years - very economical, superb drives no problems. VW's f***-up is less about diesel than fraudulent cheating.
Maybe you've spent the last 8 years pumping noxious fumes into the atmosphere to the detriment of all our healths?
I am convinced that british bookmakers will be outed in a similar way at some point regarding FOBTs
Yes - they're a licence to print money, so much so that the major bookies are rushing to open more and more high street shops to accommmodate these machines, even in locations where they are already well represented. At the very least and as a first step, the government should more severely restrict the number of machines allowed in each shop.
They are restricted to four FOBTs per shop. That's why the bookies need to open so many shops.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
The Mail ran it as a serialisation, not a direct report. I do not believe Dacre would have run an original news piece about the Prime Minister raping a dead pig's head, without some corroboration.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
I completely agree with you about Oakeshott ruining her reputation. But people seem awfully keen to upgrade the allegation from "put his genitals in a pigs head for a joke" to "had sexual intercourse with a pigs head".
Just thinking - if this pig's head lark is the standard hazing ritual for entry to this funny Oxford club, presumably all of the other prominent individuals who were members have performed the same act?
Time for a new wikipedia page: People known to have stuck their chap in a dead animal's mouth.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
The Mail ran it as a serialisation, not a direct report. I do not believe Dacre would have run an original news piece about the Prime Minister raping a dead pig's head, without some corroboration.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
I completely agree with you about Oakeshott ruining her reputation. But people seem awfully keen to upgrade the allegation from "put his genitals in a pigs head for a joke" to "had sexual intercourse with a pigs head". It sounds funnier is all. I accept there was no suggestion of amorous intent in the alleged act.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
The Mail ran it as a serialisation, not a direct report. I do not believe Dacre would have run an original news piece about the Prime Minister raping a dead pig's head, without some corroboration.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
I completely agree with you about Oakeshott ruining her reputation. But people seem awfully keen to upgrade the allegation from "put his genitals in a pigs head for a joke" to "had sexual intercourse with a pigs head".
It sounds funnier is all. I accept there was no suggestion of amorous intent in the alleged act.
Wasn't it being funny the utterly lame reason Oakeshott gave for including it in the book in the first place?
"Most epidemics are the result of a contagious disease. ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – is not contagious, and it may not even be a genuine malady, but it has acquired the characteristics of an epidemic. New data has revealed that UK prescriptions for Ritalin and other similar ADHD medications have more than doubled in the last decade, from 359,100 in 2004 to 922,200 last year. In America, the disorder is now the second most frequent long-term diagnosis made in children, narrowly trailing asthma. It generates pharmaceutical sales worth $9bn (£5.7bn) per year. Yet clinical proof of ADHD as a genuine illness has never been found."
Wasn’t there someone in either myth or history, association with whom was generally ruinous? Not Cassandra, since Oakeshott appears to prophesy success!
Incidentally, I think the question about “others” is a good one. , Every Freemason, for example, has followed a prescribed path, and all these ‘secret societies” don’t change their initiation processes.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
The Mail ran it as a serialisation, not a direct report. I do not believe Dacre would have run an original news piece about the Prime Minister raping a dead pig's head, without some corroboration.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
I completely agree with you about Oakeshott ruining her reputation. But people seem awfully keen to upgrade the allegation from "put his genitals in a pigs head for a joke" to "had sexual intercourse with a pigs head".
It sounds funnier is all. I accept there was no suggestion of amorous intent in the alleged act.
Wasn't it being funny the utterly lame reason Oakeshott gave for including it in the book in the first place?
Yes - it's a poor reason to include such an allegation in a book (particularly if you are going to whinge about people ignoring everything else in it as a result), but I think in terms of discussing it afterwards it holds up better, as reasons go.
Dacre and Rothermere will likely end up with some mud splatter on them too. I wonder if HMG's decisions regarding the tax status of non-dom's influenced the latters views with regard to serialising the story in his tabloid?
I am convinced that british bookmakers will be outed in a similar way at some point regarding FOBTs
Yes - they're a licence to print money, so much so that the major bookies are rushing to open more and more high street shops to accommmodate these machines, even in locations where they are already well represented. At the very least and as a first step, the government should more severely restrict the number of machines allowed in each shop.
They are restricted to four FOBTs per shop. That's why the bookies need to open so many shops.
... and in run down areas where the high street is dying, there are a lot of empty shops & a lot of bored poor people
It says it all when an awarding winning journalist trashes her reputation over unsubstantiated allegations and the media goes into a frenzy when all the while Europe is in a crisis of unbelievable proportions over the refugees/migrants and Europe, and in particular Germany's, car industry could be bankrupted by these claims over gas emissions and the US talking of class actions. This could be the car industry's 'Lehman Brothers'. Germany heading for a big fall maybe !!!!
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
But yep, it's a cluster**** of epic proportions. I do drive a diesel, but it's a Nissan, and knowing now about Diesel engines over the last few years it'll be my last one.
I've driven diesels for the last 8 years - very economical, superb drives no problems. VW's f***-up is less about diesel than fraudulent cheating.
Maybe you've spent the last 8 years pumping noxious fumes into the atmosphere to the detriment of all our healths?
Oh get over yourself - for one thing I live in Spain and for another I don't care.
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
But yep, it's a cluster**** of epic proportions. I do drive a diesel, but it's a Nissan, and knowing now about Diesel engines over the last few years it'll be my last one.
I've driven diesels for the last 8 years - very economical, superb drives no problems. VW's f***-up is less about diesel than fraudulent cheating.
Maybe you've spent the last 8 years pumping noxious fumes into the atmosphere to the detriment of all our healths?
Oh get over yourself - for one thing I live in Spain and for another I don't care.
Ah, I was only joking (darn the lack of a sarcasm emote)
What's most odd about this Isabel Oakeshott positioning is how she's suddenly now downplaying it "It's just one page in the book", "It's hardly Watergate". She clearly cut corners on what she thought was a minor detail, and didn't have the basic journalistic foresight to realise that an allegation of the Prime Minister putting his manhood in a dead animal would be the story.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
Nick Cohen tore her a new one over that too - pleasing as it was to see Huhne go down the Sunday Times behaved appallingly towards Pryce.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
Just thinking - if this pig's head lark is the standard hazing ritual for entry to this funny Oxford club, presumably all of the other prominent individuals who were members have performed the same act?
Time for a new wikipedia page: People known to have stuck their chap in a dead animal's mouth.
Much more interesting to compile a list of Dave's "contemporaries" who are "distinguished MPs" to find out who told the story, true or not. I would guess that Dave had not given him a senior position in this or last government unless it was a major betrayal. I wonder what the punishment is for those who betray the club's members - though Dave "was not a member". Suggest spend a week naked in an actual pig sty with a couple of randy boars.
@SkyNewsBreak: EU ministers have voted by majority to approve migrant quotas - Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania & Slovakia voted against; Finland abstained
I have recently changed from a large diesel 4X4 to a PHEV, Plugin Hybrid Electric vehicle. Zero road tax,no congestion charge,£5K grant from Gov to buy it. The Gov paid for 2X£1000 charging points to be fitted, and extremely low BIK if you use it on business, fantastic torque and extremely quiet, free recharge at motorway services, and preferential parking,whats not to like. On emissions when you take it for an MOT they do not do an emission test, even though it has a 2 litre petrol engine. OK just to balance out me being a goody goody, I still keep my 4.6 litre V8 fire breathing monster, which gives me about 15 mpg when I enjoy myself.
The VW story is going from a "whoops" story at the weekend to main headline scandal.
It could be "an Enron" as brand reputation goes. And I'm an Audi driver of many years' standing, so not particularly happy at the possible ramifications, financial or otherwise, for the VW-Audi Group.
Of course, being the petrolhead I am, I'd never buy a diesel, so I take some comfort from that.
Sorry Bob, it's a proven fact that 99.99% of Audi drivers are ar*eholes, maybe you're the one which isn't
By all accounts, I'm a jolly nice chap and all round good egg.
However, I do drive like an a***hole. I now know why.... :-)
How can a 62 year old drug still have rights to sell other than (potentially) branding?
Drugs lose their patents and become generics: manufactured by anyone. Price drops, hardly anyone uses the drug, so makers pull out until there is only one left.
At this point, our cartoon villain buys up the sole maker, and hikes the price of the the drug by 5,000 per cent. He has a monopoly so patients (or their insurance companies) have to pay it.
Now, you say, remembering the E part of your Oxford PPE course, surely more manufacturers will enter the market and the price will drop back. Trouble is, it takes time for a new maker to get FDA approval, set up supply chains and manufacturing facilities, and against that there is the obvious threat that our cartoon villain monopolist can immediately drop to, say, 1,000 per cent of the original price to wipe out the new entrant.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
Nick Cohen tore her a new one over that too - pleasing as it was to see Huhne go down the Sunday Times behaved appallingly towards Pryce.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven wrong? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven lying? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
I can absolutely believe they would lie about it, secure that they could always deny saying it, or that they once made an off colour joke but said nothing about photos or anything like that. I'm inclined to think it could be true only by those who defended it as no big deal if it was, because I'm apparently prudish about these things.
@SkyNewsBreak: EU ministers have voted by majority to approve migrant quotas - Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania & Slovakia voted against; Finland abstained
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven wrong? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
How can you prove him wrong though. Much more difficult to prove a negative. And besides, the intent may have been to fling mud at Cameron, and that succeeded spectacularly.
That was then. To read Oakeshott’s bluster today you would think that Pryce had stabbed her in the back rather than the other way round. Oakeshott describes how Pryce had had the impertinence to talk to the Mail on Sunday as well as the Sunday Times. ‘She had double-crossed me,’ wails the poor victimised thing. ‘While I was busy protecting her identity, she had been busy revealing all to a rival newspaper…This was an extraordinary betrayal and deeply underhand after everything we had been through together. Our relationship had been based on trust. I had kept my side of the bargain; she had broken hers.’
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
Nick Cohen tore her a new one over that too - pleasing as it was to see Huhne go down the Sunday Times behaved appallingly towards Pryce.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
How can a 62 year old drug still have rights to sell other than (potentially) branding?
Drugs lose their patents and become generics: manufactured by anyone. Price drops, hardly anyone uses the drug, so makers pull out until there is only one left.
At this point, our cartoon villain buys up the sole maker, and hikes the price of the the drug by 5,000 per cent. He has a monopoly so patients (or their insurance companies) have to pay it.
Now, you say, remembering the E part of your Oxford PPE course, surely more manufacturers will enter the market and the price will drop back. Trouble is, it takes time for a new maker to get FDA approval, set up supply chains and manufacturing facilities, and against that there is the obvious threat that our cartoon villain monopolist can immediately drop to, say, 1,000 per cent of the original price to wipe out the new entrant.
There are several reputable generic manufacturers in India who would, I’m sure be happy to help! Can’t recall how difficult it is to actually make the chemical; too long since I was involved in that sort of thing!
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven wrong? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
How can yum prove him wrong though. Much more difficult to prove a negative. And besides, the intent may have been to fling mud at Cameron, and that succeeded spectacularly.
To be fair, most of the fightback also consists of mudflinging and playing the Oakeshott, not the ball.
@SkyNewsBreak: EU ministers have voted by majority to approve migrant quotas - Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania & Slovakia voted against; Finland abstained
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven lying? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
What do you think the MP said? Contrary to what lots of people seem to have understood, the book does not claim that the MP, who was the only source of the story, was present at the alleged porky frolic. It's not only an unattributed and uncorroborated source, it's hearsay from an unattributed and uncorroborated source.
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven lying? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
The rumours about McAlpine were circulating in Westminster for many, many years, and were known to journalists. I think you may be underestimating MPs penchant for scurrilous gossip and tittle-tattle. He might not have been expecting the rumours to get into print in quite such a prominent manner.
There's also the option that it is a rather senior Conservative MP who might quite like to put pressure on Cameron to quit this parliament.
I'd guess Ashcroft is the "editor" of the Dave book and that it was his decision as to whether the pig's head should make an appearance. He is a billionaire and can basically do as he wishes as long as it is not criminal.
This is the country that we live in: one where senior government ministers share weekends away with national newspaper editors and senior BBC figures, while immensely rich party donors believe they should be given senior cabinet positions as a result of their donations.
I'd guess Ashcroft is the "editor" of the Dave book and that it was his decision as to whether the pig's head should make an appearance. He is a billionaire and can basically do as he wishes as long as it is not criminal.
This is the country that we live in: one where senior government ministers share weekends away with national newspaper editors and senior BBC figures, while immensely rich party donors believe they should be given senior cabinet positions as a result of their donations.
And, in this instance, were roundly denied their expectation.
Living off Junction 30, this is very relevant to my interests - there are NEVER workmen along the whole 18 mile stretch, and I have no idea why the whole area has to be 50 mph till God only knows when.
Likewise with the M60 round Manchester where probably 15 miles is restricted to 50mph and average speed cameras. It's been a year now since the "smart motorway" works started, yet the work proceeds at snail's pace with only short stretches seeing any noticeable activity, and it all looks very piecemeal with a bit of work here, another bit randomly 5 miles on, and so on. It seems like the most cost effective option was to just impose the restrictions at the outset over the whole stretch and leave in situ until 2017 rather than doing it a bit at a time, minimising inconvenience. Meantime it's gridlock all around for much of the day.
They've now put hearstrings signs up saying "my daddy/mummy works here, slow down in roadworks", but that irritates me even more - there's no sign of any mummies or daddies other than in the small hours, and no sign of road "works" - and I don't need heartfelt pleas to "slow" to 50 when there are big yellow cameras every few hundred yards ensuring my compliance on pain of 3 points and £100 fine!
"Highways England" hasn't a clue. It's a New Labour agency set up to screw over the motorist, and it seems to have got worse not better since Cameron got in.
while immensely rich party donors believe they should be given senior cabinet positions as a result of their donations.
Or, more accurately, one immensely rich party donor thought he ought to get some kind of position, which he didn't get. Seems to be a problem with his expectations, not a criticism of the country.
Cameron dead pig claims ‘hardly Watergate’, author protests
She's potentially destroyed her own career. If you are going to make an allegation like that against the prime minister, you need sworn testimony, witnesses willing to go on the record, perhaps a few photographs. It's called "standing up a story" and it is basic journalistic practice. If you can't stand up the story then you don't run it. No Fleet Street editor would touch this unless she could provide evidence to go with the allegation.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
The Mail ran it as a serialisation, not a direct report. I do not believe Dacre would have run an original news piece about the Prime Minister raping a dead pig's head, without some corroboration.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
They went with it because (a) it would sell papers and get people talking about the Mail (b) Cameron wasn't going to sue and (c) they covered themselves politically with the "Revenge" headline which immediately called Ashcroft's motives into question.
Ashcroft is finished as a player in the UK. Isabel has finally realised what a Faustian bargain entails (she was advised against taking the deal but £250,000 for 18 months work was too great a lure). Cameron is embarassed but can shrug it off.
The news cycle this week is piggate, refugees/migrants and VW catastrophe. Isnt it the Lib Dems conference this week but I don't see it covered on the media - shame really!!!
"A member of VW’s supervisory board, Olaf Lies, who is also economy minister for the state of Lower Saxony, said there would also be a cost for those found responsible."
He is in VW's board and a finance minister. No conflict of interest there.
I guess it does. As of this minute I am the bestselling novelist in the country. Heh.
(The Number 1 spot has been confirmed by my publishers)
Congratulations!
I got to about No. 300 once, I think, briefly. I am in awe.
For many years there've been strong rumours that the entire music charts are being gamed, especially with the switch to digital downloads. With relatively few sales required to get to Number 1 in the bestseller charts nowadays, might it be possible to game the bookselling charts as well?
(Not that I'm accusing Sean T of this. and congrats to him).
Getting a bit unseemly - reneging on a deal is not generally met with public accusations of penis insertion in dead animals, so it's not quite the same even if it hurt the good lord to be so disappointed at the time.
Call me biased (perhaps I am), but I'm still inclined to believe the pig story. Would an MP really lie about it if it would've been so easy for him to be proven wrong? (Unless the suggestion is that Ashcroft/Oakeshott are lying about an MP even being the source.)
How can you prove him wrong though. Much more difficult to prove a negative. And besides, the intent may have been to fling mud at Cameron, and that succeeded spectacularly.
Given the source is a political person, I found this a plausible article (from an L B Johnson campaign):
How can a 62 year old drug still have rights to sell other than (potentially) branding?
Congratulations to those Americans who think privatised medicine is good for them.
It happens in the UK as well. Google Pfizer and Flynn if you want. So it's not a factor of privatised medicine.
I haven't read up on this specific case, but it is a dark underbelly of the industry that these price gougers exist. It's not good for the patients, it's not good for the payors and it's not good for the industry as a whole. R&D is hideously expensive and risky, so you do need high prices on innovative drugs to fund it, but 20 years is quite long enough to generate returns: I'm fine with aggressive generics and fortunately payors are now wise to many of the old tricks (me-toos, reformulations, etc). Those patent extensions (paediatric extension, orphans, spc, data exclusivity) all exist for a reason & are an acceptable trade off.
But gougers should be shot at dawn
(I actually spent much of the morning gossiping with a former members of the senior leadership team at GSK and he pretty much agreed with the above)
I'd guess Ashcroft is the "editor" of the Dave book and that it was his decision as to whether the pig's head should make an appearance. He is a billionaire and can basically do as he wishes as long as it is not criminal.
This is the country that we live in: one where senior government ministers share weekends away with national newspaper editors and senior BBC figures, while immensely rich party donors believe they should be given senior cabinet positions as a result of their donations.
And, in this instance, were roundly denied their expectation.
So, let me get this right, did Ashcroft think he was buying a position in Cabinet with his millions?
I think he's asserting that he had been promised a post and then that was reneged on. He gave the Tory party more than just money when they were in Opposition.
I guess it does. As of this minute I am the bestselling novelist in the country. Heh.
(The Number 1 spot has been confirmed by my publishers)
Congratulations!
I got to about No. 300 once, I think, briefly. I am in awe.
For many years there've been strong rumours that the entire music charts are being gamed, especially with the switch to digital downloads. With relatively few sales required to get to Number 1 in the bestseller charts nowadays, might it be possible to game the bookselling charts as well?
(Not that I'm accusing Sean T of this. and congrats to him).
I wouldn't know now, I haven't been in the business for a few years. It used to be rumoured that publishers would induce booksellers to take 000s of copies on a sale or return basis to boost the title's profile only to quietly return them a few weeks later when nobody was looking. Harder to do that in the digital age, though.
Edit: it occurs to me that this might be particularly relevant if, say, you happened to have a lucrative newspaper serialisation deal. A high ranking would make the title much more attractive to an editor...
Comments
The combination of revenge hatchet job and unsubstantiated lurid claims hand waved away as *just a line* aren't cutting any ice. She's been all over the media trying to limit the damage to her career and just making it worse it appears. Oh dear, Oakshit's fretting over her now tarnished journalistic career. Shame.
I doubt it would prove terminal in the long run, although it might constrict certain opportunities in the short term, but what on earth did she think the reaction was going to be in accusing a sitting PM of putting his penis in a dead pig's head when he was younger? I cannot regard any surprise, irritation or regret at it getting attention over the rest of the work as genuine.
Hmm, rubs chin... I doubt it would prove terminal in the long run, although it might constrict certain opportunities in the short term, but what on earth did she think the reaction was going to be in accusing a sitting PM of putting his penis in a dead pig's head when he was younger? I cannot regard any surprise, irritation or regret at it getting attention over the rest of the work as genuine.
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
She must have got a fair whack to take this "assignment".
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
The publisher is Iain Dale.
"The Ice Twins" by Tom Knox.
Correct?
I got to about No. 300 once, I think, briefly. I am in awe.
Is Cameron going to sue?
She's still worth inviting to connect on LinkedIn though.
*innocent face*
* from his twitter account.
I see he's playing the "it's all for the military charities" line at the moment.
I thought Lord A owns BiteBack, and Ian Dale is CEO. Choices may be limited!
She's either witless and greedy or she's been stitched up by an informant who won't now go on the record.
No Fleet Street editor? Have you not read the papers?
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Porkergate by Jokeshott
Pokeshott
Edit: well done.
Edit: not just this in the papers but also the Sun's Corbyn £45 last week.
Wasn’t she mixed up with Vicky Pryce and Constance Briscoe?
The damage to the writer and publisher will be done to their reputations, over time. Unless they can now find some evidence.
But since Cameron isn't suing, I see little reason for evidence to be revealed. If it exists, it should be kept in reserve for such an eventuality.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
I completely agree with you about Oakeshott ruining her reputation. But people seem awfully keen to upgrade the allegation from "put his genitals in a pigs head for a joke" to "had sexual intercourse with a pigs head".
Time for a new wikipedia page: People known to have stuck their chap in a dead animal's mouth.
It sounds funnier is all. I accept there was no suggestion of amorous intent in the alleged act.
http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/corbynmania-early-evidence.html
Can't say I disagree.
(By the way, will be picking up my copy of Ice Twins for some holiday reading. Congrats)
Wasn't it being funny the utterly lame reason Oakeshott gave for including it in the book in the first place?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/thousands-of-children-are-being-medicated-for-adhd--when-the-condition-may-not-even-exist-10509842.html
Incidentally, I think the question about “others” is a good one. , Every Freemason, for example, has followed a prescribed path, and all these ‘secret societies” don’t change their initiation processes.
Yes - it's a poor reason to include such an allegation in a book (particularly if you are going to whinge about people ignoring everything else in it as a result), but I think in terms of discussing it afterwards it holds up better, as reasons go.
Next question. When's the film coming out ?
Nick Cohen tore her a new one over that too - pleasing as it was to see Huhne go down the Sunday Times behaved appallingly towards Pryce.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2013/03/the-sunday-times-jails-its-source/
I wonder what the punishment is for those who betray the club's members - though Dave "was not a member". Suggest spend a week naked in an actual pig sty with a couple of randy boars.
On emissions when you take it for an MOT they do not do an emission test, even though it has a 2 litre petrol engine.
OK just to balance out me being a goody goody, I still keep my 4.6 litre V8 fire breathing monster, which gives me about 15 mpg when I enjoy myself.
However, I do drive like an a***hole. I now know why.... :-)
At this point, our cartoon villain buys up the sole maker, and hikes the price of the the drug by 5,000 per cent. He has a monopoly so patients (or their insurance companies) have to pay it.
Now, you say, remembering the E part of your Oxford PPE course, surely more manufacturers will enter the market and the price will drop back. Trouble is, it takes time for a new maker to get FDA approval, set up supply chains and manufacturing facilities, and against that there is the obvious threat that our cartoon villain monopolist can immediately drop to, say, 1,000 per cent of the original price to wipe out the new entrant.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2013/03/the-sunday-times-jails-its-source/
The moral of both stories is, don't talk to Isabel Oakeshit.
Oh, and Pryce deserved to go to prison regardless of how she was treated.
Oakeshott does not understand that the moral obligations between a journalist and his or her sources flow in one direction only. They are putting their life and liberty in your hands not vice versa. They are free to deny the truth of the stories you print, if that what it takes to keep them in a job or out of prison. They can speak to other journalists; they can do whatever they want. You are in their debt. They are not in yours.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2013/03/the-sunday-times-jails-its-source/
There's also the option that it is a rather senior Conservative MP who might quite like to put pressure on Cameron to quit this parliament.
This is the country that we live in: one where senior government ministers share weekends away with national newspaper editors and senior BBC figures, while immensely rich party donors believe they should be given senior cabinet positions as a result of their donations.
Good to see PM retains his sense of humour. We must have the same doctor. I had the same in 2010 when the PM reneged http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-34328067
"A member of VW’s supervisory board, Olaf Lies, who is also economy minister for the state of Lower Saxony..."
They've now put hearstrings signs up saying "my daddy/mummy works here, slow down in roadworks", but that irritates me even more - there's no sign of any mummies or daddies other than in the small hours, and no sign of road "works" - and I don't need heartfelt pleas to "slow" to 50 when there are big yellow cameras every few hundred yards ensuring my compliance on pain of 3 points and £100 fine!
"Highways England" hasn't a clue. It's a New Labour agency set up to screw over the motorist, and it seems to have got worse not better since Cameron got in.
Edit: that said, it's an interesting question as to whether this is cock-up or conspiracy by the Mail. Did they just presume Oakeshott had some evidence to go with this wild allegation, or did they gamble that either the PM wouldn't sue, or if he did sue he'd sue Oakeshott and Dale?
They went with it because (a) it would sell papers and get people talking about the Mail (b) Cameron wasn't going to sue and (c) they covered themselves politically with the "Revenge" headline which immediately called Ashcroft's motives into question.
Ashcroft is finished as a player in the UK. Isabel has finally realised what a Faustian bargain entails (she was advised against taking the deal but £250,000 for 18 months work was too great a lure). Cameron is embarassed but can shrug it off.
We pull out no matter what.
(Not that I'm accusing Sean T of this. and congrats to him).
FPT: Miss Plato, aye, I remember that. Obama's a weasel.
Congrats to the site's first number one best-selling author
Given the source is a political person, I found this a plausible article (from an L B Johnson campaign):
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/steerpike/2015/09/has-ashcrofts-unnamed-tory-source-been-reading-hunter-s-thompson/
“Christ, we can’t get a way calling him a pig-f—er,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”
“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofabitch deny it.”’
But who knows. The answer is obviously to get the BBC to have Cameron on 'Would I lie to You?'
I haven't read up on this specific case, but it is a dark underbelly of the industry that these price gougers exist. It's not good for the patients, it's not good for the payors and it's not good for the industry as a whole. R&D is hideously expensive and risky, so you do need high prices on innovative drugs to fund it, but 20 years is quite long enough to generate returns: I'm fine with aggressive generics and fortunately payors are now wise to many of the old tricks (me-toos, reformulations, etc). Those patent extensions (paediatric extension, orphans, spc, data exclusivity) all exist for a reason & are an acceptable trade off.
But gougers should be shot at dawn
(I actually spent much of the morning gossiping with a former members of the senior leadership team at GSK and he pretty much agreed with the above)
Edit: it occurs to me that this might be particularly relevant if, say, you happened to have a lucrative newspaper serialisation deal. A high ranking would make the title much more attractive to an editor...