Mailwatch(ed) Forum

The two most ‘fiercely anti-woke zealots’, as they were called, were married to each other, Munira Mirza and Dougie Smith. They regularly railed against individuals and institutions perceived to be pushing a ‘woke’ agenda. The list of those to be purged was long: the BBC, the civil service (especially the Treasury), the National Trust, universities and the NHS among those whose socially conscious tendencies needed to be stamped out. Supported by several ministers, notably Dowden, Truss and Kemi Badenoch, they were convinced of a need for the party and No. 10 to be ever more vocal on the emergent cultural fissures – not least on footballers’ activism and new revisionist views of history and empire.

Seldon, Anthony; Newell, Raymond. Johnson at 10: The Inside Story (p. 351). Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition.

‘Dougie operated in the shadows. None of us and No. 10 knew what he actually did. But he gave the impression that he had something on everyone,’ says an official. Dark secrets about people with influence in government, including presence at exotic events, was said to be one of the secrets to his influence with the powerful. ‘He was just very frightening, very bad tempered, a ruthless leaker to the press, very motivated by staying in power and keeping in with whoever has power,’ says an aide.

Seldon, Anthony; Newell, Raymond. Johnson at 10: The Inside Story (p. 463). Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition.

Abernathy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 05, 2023 3:20 pm The thing is, I, like, at a guess, 99.97% of other, normal folk in the country, don’t give a badger’s fart about Boris Johnson, or whether he was brought down by a secret cabal, or Mad fucking Nad. Mostly, we’re just glad that Johnson is gone.

Other than a mild disgust that Dorries has been given the opportunity to monetise her fantasies by Dacre, if I never see or hear about Nadine Dorries ever again, it’ll be far too soon.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sun Nov 05, 2023 12:33 pm You'll be amazed to hear there are rumours that Dorries' manuscript was an avalanche of libel suits waiting to happen.

She's not named this Dr No character, but it's apparently very easy to identify who it is. That seems like a bit odd if there are going to be major revelations- wouldn't the lawyers be much more careful about it? So far I think it's basically the story about slicing up his brother's rabbit when he was a kid. See if there's more.

As for who this is, I can tell you, channelling reddit, that it's definitely not a bloke called Dougie Smith.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2023 2:27 pm

Dorries is such an idiot and a terrible writer, I'd pay triple the price of her awful book to read the unedited draft. I bet she called anonymous characters 'Sougie Dmith' or 'Mr Dougie X' (to give but 2 randomly selected examples of names that could be used that in no way imply I do know who anyone is).

Nadine Dorries has won the support of well-known conspiracy theorist David Icke after her new book pointed to a “shadowy Tory” figure who operates within the Conservative Party.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/ ... st-362582/

Abernathy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 12:13 pm Absurdity builds on absurdity,

Another hugely normal dispatch from our hugely normal country, in fact. But there’s more. Nadine has also slammed on to the table the claim that British Conservative governments are run by a cabal of shadowy figures known as “the movement”. And everyone has … just got on with their afternoon tea as if nothing has happened.

You wonder what “the right crisis” would have been? I somehow picture breathless aides summoning Johnson to Cobra and going: “Prime minister, someone who isn’t one of your wives urgently needs to get pregnant and left to bring up the child on her own.”

Arguably, the mere existence of The Plot – by someone who was a cabinet minister until relatively recently – is but one indication that the government and the wider political culture are very much on fire. Also arguably, the muted reaction to The Plot is a symptom of the past few years in that particular political culture, which might reasonably have left people thinking of their country as the sort of place where these gothically grotesque things probably do happen, increasingly to the point of being unremarkable.