Gordon Brown yesterday claimed he cannot recall meeting Abrahams.
Of course Brown knows that he knows Abrahams.
Brown is lying.
We are witnessing an amazing outbreak of mass selective amnesia, affecting the PM, the Deputy PM, Abrahams and all those in the Labour hierarchy who have known Abrahams as a key labour donor for the last four years. His association with the Party goes back to the 1990s where he was known to all, including Gordon Brown.
The media cannot cover up this story for Gordon Brown as they would have done for Blair just a few years ago, as the blogs are 100% onto this, Guido to the fore, Dale close behind, but with hundreds of others alert and watching every step of the unravelling stink.
The only question in my mind is - Will Brown be the first PM to be blogged into extinction?
I doubt Blair would have survived all his lies throughout his period as PM had the blogs been going then like they are now. The power of the MSM to keep another Blair in office for ten years and hide the truth from the public can surely never be the same. There can never be another Alastair Campbell or Mandelson able to control the 'narrative'.
In fact the opposite appears to be the case and the MSM are keen to join in the emerging blog-fest. The Spectator as in above link are leading the charge. Adam Boulton on his Sky blog seems to want a piece of the action. And Finkelstein from timesonline is obviously keen to be in at the kill. The Telegraph is writing multiple angles on the story too - online.
Under Blair pre-blogosphere, none of these would have dared to go out on a limb too far away from the rest of the media pack, and corruption stories like Blair accepting UKL1 million from Formula 1, for example fizzled out very quickly after a strong denial from Tony on TV. Now the opposite is happening. The blogs keep the stories alive. The MSM don't want to left out of the blog-party, and allow Guido and Dale to steal all their customers, so they are out there competing to blog Brown's indiscretions.
While democracy is in severe danger in Britain at the institutional level, it seems to be breaking out in rude good health again via the web, and from there slowly back into the MSM, although the die-hard BBC still has a way to go before rediscovering the fact that there are people outside the BBC who exist and have knowledge and good ideas, and that some of them are Conservatives. David Cameron's small government policy will fit in with all this just fine.
But Brown and his attempt to run a New labour style media machine cannot possibly keep on going much longer. He is totally discredited, and has become an embarrassment to watch and listen to.
It was Brown's idea that technology was the primary cause of economic growth (his neo-classical endogynous growth theory), and not the drive and skill of business people. Maybe it's time he realised that the technology he believes in, is also changing politics. Harold Wilson said 'a week s a long time in politics.' In the new era of internet blogging, a few minutes can be enough to reposition a whole debate. Things like this extract from the Huntsman's post below for example -
AbrahamsGate Timeline (From The Huntsman)
31 Jan 2003: Janet Dunn makes donation of £25,000 to Labour
06 May 2003: Janet Kidd, a secretary working for Mr Abrahams, donates £25,000 to Labour.
18 Aug 2003: Ray Ruddick, a jobbing builder, makes £25,000 donation.
01 Apr 2004: Mrs. Kidd donates £10,000.
27 Oct 2004: Mrs. Kidd donates £2,000.
05 Feb 2005: Mr. McCarthy donates 25,000
29 Jul 2005: Durham Green Developments submits plans for Durham Green Business Park
05 Oct 2005: Highways Agency blocks plans for Durham Green Business Park.
22 Dec 2005: Mr. McCarthy donates £52,125
23 Dec 2005: Mr Ruddick donates £17,850, Mrs Kidd £30,000.
31 Mar 2006: Plans for business park withdrawn.
21 Apr 2006: Mr. McCarthy donates £50,000
24 May 2006: Mr Ruddick donates £50,000.
02 Aug 2006: Business park plans resubmitted.
18 Sep 2006: Highways Agency withdraws objections.
19 Oct 2006: Durham County Council grants planning permission.
22 Jun 2007: Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, registers £5,000 donation from Mr Abrahams to his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership.
27 Jun 2007: Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister.
29 Jun 2007: Mr Ruddick donates £24,000, Mrs Kidd £38,000.
07 Jul 2007: Mr Ruddick and Mrs Kidd make £80,000 donations.
17 Jul 2007: Harriet Harman registers £5,000 donation from Mrs Kidd to her victorious campaign for the Labour's deputy leadership.
20 Nov 2007: Official figures show that since Mr Brown became Prime Minister, Mr Ruddick and Mrs Kidd were Labour's third biggest donors.
25 Nov 2007: Mr Abrahams admits it was his money that had gone to Labour via Mrs Kidd and Mr Ruddick.
26 Nov 2007: Peter Watt admits he knew of donations and resigns as Labour general secretary.
The BBC are still a good news organisation - but not yet able to move into the internet age of immediacy. People said that 24 hour news had changed the way the world worked. It did. But it's as nothing to how blogs are moving the initiative away from the centralisation and bureaucracy of worldwide news organisations, where the same bulletins are repeated verbatim hour by hour throughout the day. Brown is not being scuppered on the BBC. He's being done for by individual bloggers all working in a linked informal network, who can check on his every word within minutes of them being spoken. As yet the Beeb, CNN and the like cannot and are not competing.
The pulse of broadcast news, which not long ago seemed to be leading the informational race, beats every few hours. Government spokesmen can keep up, and be an hour ahead even, feeding their narratives to influence the news bulletins. Blogs however pulse by the minute. Spin-meisters don't have a chance of regaining position, once it is running away from them..
The BBC reports the Abrahams story thoughtfully, as if a little bit removed from its viewers and readers and contendedly behind the pace of events, as if that is enough to be treated as a superior voice. It used to be. But bloggers now write to their readers as equals sitting together in the same room with immediacy, their only deference being to the truth. Politicians and media employees are seen as no better than anyone else, regarded as an entirely expendable commodity if they are found to be lying or cheating.
BBC - Why, for example, did some party individuals spot the dodgy donations while others did not and, as a result, is Ms Harman safe in her post? (Mr Brown took some coaxing on that last one, but finally made it clear he had full confidence in her).
And how could it be that the party's general secretary Peter Watt not know what the law, introduced by his own government, was or fail to keep the prime minister in the loop - particularly after the secret donations at the heart of the cash-for-honours affair?
Was it not the case that these donations were a secret kept within a small group of senior Labour figures - something flatly and robustly denied.
It has to be said, there was an air of disbelief when the explanations were offered to the media, and the opposition parties still remain unconvinced and continue to press for more comprehensive answers.
i.e. BBC speak for Brown is lying.
The problem is when you lie and no one believes you is that your credibility is gone. This might not yet be the end of Brown's period in office. But it's surely the end of his period in power. And when Brown eventually goes, the world too will be changed. He will be the very first British PM that was blogged to extinction.
George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor is of the opinion that Brown's fall will be coming quicker than we think, the knife to be wielded from within his own ranks.
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