A "plot" exposed - by Richard... Sunday, September 06, 2009 eureferendum.blogspot.com

A "plot" exposed - by Richard... Sunday, September 06, 2009  eureferendum.blogspot.com

A Labour plot to smear the new head of the Army, General Sir David Richards, because of his daughter's "crime" of working for David Cameron, was exposed last night.

Really?

This, apparently, is on the basis that unnamed "sources" said they had heard from Eric Joyce that he had been "disturbed" to hear Labour colleagues discuss Sir David's 25-year-old daughter, Joanna Richards, who recently became Mr Cameron's diary secretary.

"Well-placed sources" say Mr Joyce feared Labour was preparing to deploy more smear tactics against General Richards if he stepped out of line like General Dannatt. "He heard talk of Richards' daughter working for the Tories and did not like it," said one source.

And that is the sum total of the "evidence" offered by the Mail on Sunday, allowing Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth to say of the "planned campaign" against General Dannatt's successor: "For Labour even to think about smearing General Richards and his daughter is absolutely despicable."

Can someone please tell me how they would characterise the evidential base offered by this paper, and what purpose is served by the conclusions drawn from it? The other interesting question is how many will believe this heavily-researched and well-authenticated piece of work, and repeat it verbatim, without any qualification?

As to the reality, Gen Richards is extremely highly regarded by ministers, is in constant contact with them and is working intensively on fleshing out the response to US Gen McChrystal's report on the Afghan strategy.

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Proud of ourselves? - by Richard... Saturday, September 05, 2009

For what it is worth, I had to record this.

An ICM/Guardian poll has found that support for the BBC has risen in the last five years with almost four out of five people believing it is an institution of which to be proud. 

The poll showed that 77 percent were proud of the BBC, up from 68 percent in a similar poll from 2004. Some 63 percent thought the corporation provided good value for money, up four percent from five years ago. And support for the licence fee has grown from 31 per cent in 2004 to 43 percent. 

Well, you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but this would seem to confirm that you can fool an awful lot of people most of the time.

Do you ever feel you are fighting a losing battle?

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