Conspiracy Theory Alert: Is The Torygraph Under Orders To Derail The Con-Dem Govt?

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

First David Laws, and now ginger no-mark 'Danny' Alexander...

BBC News - Treasury chief Danny Alexander 'paid home sale taxes'

Got no love for the Tories, the Lib Dems or the Daily Telegraph, but looks for all the world like the Telegraph is on a mission to damage the senior Lib Dem members of the coalition government, maybe derail the pact sooner rather than later, and force an election before the Lib Dems have a chance to re-group, thereby handing the Tories a straightforward victory in an election re-run.

Well?

 

[Chicken Run]

What do you think Tom?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

What do you think Tom?

I think they all deserve each other mate

 

[Gwylan]

If you really want to get conspiracy theorist about it, the Torygraph could be trying to undermine CMD. There have been plenty of anti-Cameron pieces in the DT over the past couple of years.

 

[Stoo82]

Or, its more independant than you think?

 

[beorhthelm]

under orders from who? and to force out a tory governement in favour of... another round of Labour, a period of minority governemnt paralysis?

no, i think its simply they got their expense bone and felt like another chew. just like the Mail and the Lord whathisface, they are exerting their journalistic freedoms without worrying about the consequences.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Revenge by the Barclay Bros?

Mind you every paper will try and bring the coalition down if it gets the scoop to do so.

The lib deads have been playing the holier than though for a long time Laws, Alexander and Huhne next?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

under orders from who? and to force out a tory governement in favour of... another round of Labour, a period of minority governemnt paralysis?

Under orders from its Tory-supporting paymasters. To force out a coalition government with as many of the main Lib Dem players discredited as it can make stick. Thereby making any new election a straight re-run between Tories and Labour with the Lib Dem vote falling away to its traditional pitful levels. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

No Tom...you are getting paranoid

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

It's strange, isn't it? Dandyman and I were discussing the coalition the other night at Seagulls over London, and I said I thought it would probably go belly-up, but I didn't think it would be this quick. The Telegraph is patronised by a bunch of old fashioned, right wing Tories, who hate the coalition every bit as much as they do Labour. They are the same sort of people who prevented Ken Clarke becoming leader (the MPs in 1997, reduced to an ultra-Eurosceptic rump and the membership in 2001, heavily diminished by Hague's constant focusing on saving the pound, which, though I agreed with him on the principle concerned, left Blair free to do what he wanted) and also prevented Michael Portillo from having any chance of winning the leadership. I also suggest you read ConservativeHome to see the attitudes some of these people show. They are like UKIP people, who think they are defending Britain, but end up handing victories to Labour.

This is the same reason they don't like CMD. Whatever you think of him, and I wouldn't expect the left to be positive, he has changed the face of the Parliamentary Party. While white, heterosexual men still form the majority of the party (as they do in the other two), this is by no means the whole case. Not surprisingly these old-fashioned types don't like it. I didn't want this coalition - some of its ideas, such as on Capital Gains Tax greatly concern me, as it will not hit the rich as the Lib Dems intend, but rather the enterprising and those who have built up a small property portfolio for their retirement. I would have far preferred a clear victory, but for whatever reason my party didn't win, and for CMD this was the only game in town. A minority government would not have lasted 6 months. However, the Telegraph needs to be careful with what it wishes for in my view. If they were to be successful in bringing the coalition down, and Labour has a new leader in place and is united (there seems to be none of the infighting and sniping which followed the Tories' defeat in 1997), then I think Labour could win, bolstered by defecting Lib Dem voters who no longer feel able to vote Lib Dem to keep the Tory out. Even from my own, Tory perspective, I think Labour needs a time in opposition to rediscover its radical edge and what it really stands for, but I don't think somehow that it would resent the chance to get back into power, especially after such a short period.

 

[Hunting 784561]

You just have to read current articles by Simon Heffer, Norman Tebbit, et al, in the Telegraph every week, to know that they despise this coalition.

Scratch the surface and the Telegraph is a lot more UKIP than one nation Conservative, and a lot of the old buffers that read and comment in it would like to see the coalition fail, force another election, and get replaced with more a hardline right wing Euro hating bunch.

I also think that the Telegraph feels it did well over it's expense scandal outings, so it does have it's tail up at the moment.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The job won't be completed until they stick the knife into Cameron and install their own puppet prime minister.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The job won't be completed until they stick the knife into Cameron and install their own puppet prime minister.

Dear God NO!!!!!

 

[Chicken Runner61]

If the Tories could'nt win with Cameron and a 24point poll lead they ain't going to win with a lurch to the right even with the Ukip voters.

With New labour, the tories under Cameron and the Lib dems all slightly different versions of the same thing (The coalition proves that) it shows that it needs some pretty radical thinking and marketing to define a party without coming across as an extreme political group.

I suspect that next year when the cuts and economy really bites you may see a new more traditional left leaning Labour party trying to win voters.

 

[Hunting 784561]

I see a lot of venom from the left and the far right towards this coalition, but the funny thing is, it is what the people seem to want.

We cant have that though - can we - so the press will have be relied on to bring the house of cards crashing down.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

I see a lot of venom from the left and the far right towards this coalition, but the funny thing is, it is what the people seem to want.

We cant have that though - can we - so the press will have be relied on to bring the house of cards crashing down.

Some political commentator said on one of the programmes that the press cannot stand the parties working together; unless it's two parties in an adversarial system there is no juicy gossip for them, so they have to go digging for stories to undermine the coalition. When Labour and the Lib Dems were working together in Scotland, you never heard of any real politics, just expense scandals involving Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell, two of the Labour leaders, and David McLetchie, the previous Tory leader. Of the daily business the government was getting on with, including a massive rail investment programme (okay, with England's money you could say, but that's another matter), there was very little.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

I see a lot of venom from the left and the far right towards this coalition, but the funny thing is, it is what the people seem to want.

We cant have that though - can we - so the press will have be relied on to bring the house of cards crashing down.

I don't get the "it is what people want" I don't remember any party stating they wanted to do a deal with another in fact I heard quite the opposite.

People may have had little to choose from between the three but if it had said on the voting slip Conlibs this government would not have got in.

 

[cannedheat]

Hope so.

 

[arfer guinness]

Maybe it's just a good newspaper, that reports the facts as it sees it. As in life it's up to the individual to decide.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

It could be in the Tories interest to see the coalition fail on the basis the next election would be a 2 horse race with the Conservatives favourites to secure an overall majority over Blue Labour.