ONCE YOU BECOME THE STORY.....

Long ago Alisdair Campbell was forced to resign as a Number 10 aide after he "became the story" during the awful days of the Hutton Inquiry.
In a much lesser kind of way, it looks as though his former ally Derek Draper has lost the plot in a screaming match with David Hencke of The Guardian.
Hencke is one of the good guys in the media - a genuinely independent-minded kind of political journalist
Draper once had a career as Peter Mandelson's aide and left politics for a while to pursue a career as a psycho-analyst. The spat is allegedly over whether he lied about his credentials.
My brains are pretty scrambled tonight after answering myriads of questions in Keighley but one thing I do know. Derek Draper has made himself a bit of a laughing-stock - thanks to his obviously humoungous ego, the whole venture seems doomed.

TOP 100 LEFT BLOGGERS

Tired out after long day taking pics in Warrington, getting bus from there to hospital where my dad is still in dock but hopefully on tbe mend, and on to planning meeting for Convention Of The Left. Just two weeks to bo...... and just time to note before I crash out that made number 58 in Iain Dale's Top 100 Left Bloggers. Congrats to Stroppyblog , Harpymarx and Labour Left Forum - LRC supporters all - for also making the list. No , it doesn't mean a thing but I would have been slightly gutted not to have made the list.....which is below


http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/09/top-100-left-of-centre-blogs.html

NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK

Honourable mention for entertaining new leftie blog SPENNYPOST .Can't work out if the title refers to the blogger's name or where he lives. Maybe I will be enlightened. But sounds like he is an LRC sympathiser which is good enough for me.

LRC CONFERENCE

Actually I am too tired to write much in the way of detailed political analysis . It can be found elsewhere but just to note the following. Yesterday was a good turn-out with around 250 people attending . The mood decidedly more upbeat than the debacle of Labour Party Conference. Possibly because people were actually allowed to speak. Good speeches as ever from John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, Tony Benn. Good to see Jane Davison AM on board too ( though she should have been given a time-limit) and conference offered solidarity to victimised UNISON activist Karen Reissman who got a standing ovation. Michael Gavan , another UNISON mmeber threatened with the sack, got a rousing reception too.
LRC is growing steadily following the John4Leader campaign, despite the disappointments of this year. ASLEF are the latest union to affiliate.
Compass's Jon Trickett MP had lots of lefty rhetoric in his rather rambling speech about New Labour and why the Government were way off course,.All very well banging on now about re-claiming the Party but he , er, did have a chance to change the agenda and NOT give Brown an easy ride. Anyway, the audience was largely polite and bridges have to be built I suppose . But I wonder what Neal Lawson would have made of his speech....
West Yorkshire LRC resolution in support of lowering leadership threshold passed unanimously and only real dissent was over an ambiguous motion from the AWL which suggested LRC might support non-Labour candidates. It was, quite rightly, thrown out.
No we can't - as if we did we would get thrown out of the Party. It's a no-brainer. As Owen Jones and many others said, the road to oblivion. Remember Lesley Mahmoud.....
Thanks to fellow bloggers Stroppy Bird, Jon Rogers, Tami and Marsha Jane for their excellent company after the conference ( can we have an organised social event next year as an added incentive for those who travel hundreds of miles....) . And a special thanks to Linda Riordan MP for giving me somewhere to sleep! Just as well the other residents who got there at same time could sort out my ineptitude with the fob and keys. Now have to work out how to fill two hours' teaching tomorrow. May do more considered piece tomorrow .Forgot to say got voted on to National Committee - so back in London soon.