Even the BBC Have Given-Up on Hain
Long-term readers of cunningtitle (from before the move from .co.uk to .com) may recall a small category of posts labelled HainWatch, since Mr. Tangerine-Man is something of a celebrity for this site after effectively (and fancifully) saying:
I think Guantanamo Bay should close, and the Prime Minister agrees with me [For reference, NOT a direct quote]
Unfortunately it looks like Mr. Hain’s internal demolition of the Labour Party may soon come to an end after an undeclared donation.
This morning one of the BBC’s leading stories was the George Osborne had failed to declare nearly half-a-million pounds to the Commons. To be fair to him, the Commons officials had told him he didn’t need to, but it was clearly being dug-out as an effort to deflect the blame of Peter Hain.
Only it obviously hasn’t worked.
It’s 2:15pm, and now the BBC has replaced the story with another entitled “Cameron warns Hain over donations“. The story about Osborne has been relegated to a few paragraphs at the bottom of this article, and blamed squarely on the Mail on Sunday.
My best guess as to why this change has happened is that the BBC has decided the story is unspinnable, and have just decided to give-up and continue the attacks on Our Orange Friend. It might have something to do with Cameron’s fairly solid defence of Osborne on Andrew Marr, or maybe they’ve just given up hope.
And to those who would say that if he doesn’t declare donations he isn’t doing his job properly, I would point out that breaking rules and mucking things up is Peter Hain’s job. And he is doing it very well too.