Shapps Caught Personally Astro-Turfing
Grant Shapps MP is gaining acclaim for his mastery of the Tory by-election campaign in Ealing Southall. Now Guido doesn't usually cover the usual poster stealing, leaflet faking shenanigans that go on in local elections, but this one is just too funny.It appears that yesterday Grant Shapps indulged in a bit of astro-turfing on the LibDem's YouTube site, posing as a demoralised LibDem comment maker “Okay, realistically we’re not going to win though. Especially since the Tories have just received 5 defecting Councillors from Labour. Don’t quite know how they’ve done it, but the Tories have stolen a march on us this time.”
Alas it wasn't very well disguised and quickly seen through, since he used what appears to be his genuine GrantShapps login. Doh!
Hat-Tip : LibDemVoice
UPDATE : CCHQ is denying it. Grant was hacked they claim. "In past two days he has removed a number of posts from his own YouTube videos which had appeared without authorisation. We will be monitoring the account carefully and can't rule out the activities of our opponents." Yeah right. You don't need his password to comment on his videos, so that is irrelevant. We are supposed to believe that someone hacked his account, posed as him posing as a LibDem? C'mon.
46 comments:
is shapps related to chris paul?
Is it possible that someone else is using Greg's name, Sherlock?
(It does go on, I'm led to believe).
Grant, not Greg.
Ah, but how do you know he's not really a demoralized LibDem working undercover to destabilize the Tories? And the void looks also into Grant Shapps...
We did receive 5 (five) defecting Labour councillors.Wonder if the BBC will report it...now?
Latest tally is now six councillors defecting from Labour to the Tories. There's talk of at least one more. Perhaps the BBC is waiting for the final tally - by which time, well, it will be old news, so what's the point?
Be worth the Tories winning, just to see heads explode at the BBC. "After all, the Tories are horrid, horrid people - so how could those nice Sikh people vote for them? I mean, after everything we have been telling them about the Tories for years and years, you would have thought they would have got the message..."
Do foundfirst and marquee really think the BBC is not reporting the Ealing defections? It was on the BBC news website yesterday afternoon and has been reported on every Radio 4 and Five Live bulletin I heard last night and this morning.
Awww, bless... Of course, only YouTube staff can remove comments, so it's not as if Grant's in a position to rectify his amateurish faux pas!
I presume I'm not the first to have spotted the remarkable similarity between Ming and that Scotch video tape skeleton from the seventies:
http://tinyurl.com/2z3bz6
hilariously bad.
A Tory sock-puppet! Who'da thunk it?
"I presume I'm not the first to have spotted the remarkable similarity between Ming and that Scotch video tape skeleton from the seventies:"
I'm gonna tell you how its gonna be
With the LibDems lifetime guarantee
Re-record not fade away,
Re-record not fade away...
mitch said...
Is it possible that someone else is using Greg's name, Sherlock?
(It does go on, I'm led to believe).
It really is from Grant Shapps. You can follow the links to there from his constituency website.
The twat!
I wonder if the BBC will run this as a major political story....
Looking at his page on Youtube, it's either an awfully clever and careful set up of Shapps (set up last October!), or it really is him. Given the choice between conspiracy and cock-up this one has massive cock-up (for Shapps) written all over it. What a twat - he can't even astroturf properly...
I wonder how long it will be before we sill 'Silly Tucker' headlines as life imitates art... :-)
Do please visit tuscantony.blogspot.com for the video of Ming - the Lifetime Guarantee Years.
Jolly good show?
You praise the prat, but he was stupid enough to be found out, so he's f**king useless.
He ain't the main man.
What do you get if you cross Grant Shapps with half a brain?
Tom Watson!
If it really HAD been Grant Shapps, don't you think he'd have known that a grand total of 6 Labour councillors, not 5 as in the post, have now defected to the Tories?
Yet more Lib Dem dirty tricks I'm afraid...
I hear they've got a new poster:
"Lib Dems Can't Play Fair Here!"
Why should the BBC care for municipal defections in West London? I live a couple of miles away, in Kew, but couldn't give a rat's bollock about Ealing, apart from the tasty sushi bar opposite Ealing Common tube.
I think people in the country might have more to worry about? It's ripe material for nerdy blogs but not for easy TV news.
On his constituency website Grant Shapps states that he "studied Business and Finance at Manchester". He obviously wants people to believe that he has a degree from Manchester University. In fact he has an HND from Manchester Poly.
A bit like Jeffrey Archer who always says he was educated "at Wellington", knowing that people would assume that it was the prestigious Wellington College in Berkshire, whereas he was actually at the relatively lowly Wellington School in Somerset.
Machiavelli - nice try - except Shapps' comment was posted yesterday.
If he'd posted that a sixth councillor had defected before the press release went out, then people would start wondering why he could see into the future...
machiavelli said...
If it really HAD been Grant Shapps, don't you think he'd have known that a grand total of 6 Labour councillors, not 5 as in the post, have now defected to the Tories?
Yet more Lib Dem dirty tricks I'm afraid...
I hear they've got a new poster:
"Lib Dems Can't Play Fair Here!"
His comment was posted before the 6th defection was announced.
Yes, nice attempt at the 'strike back' there machiavelli, except that he's admitted it...
No, I'm Spartacus...
Congrats Guido for publishing a Neg-Con story....But you had to as it IS SO funny. A huge steaming astro-turd on Tony Lit's lawn. LOL
|N|B|W|
It's funny, at least Browns astroturfers have the decency to hide their identities.
According to mr Dale the guy used a 1234 password on YouTube and was hacked,pigs and flying come to mind.
A mate of mine at the BBC says CAmpbell got £250,000 for the rubbish going out tomorrow on his diairies. So much for Campbell's I'm not doing any serialisation - in print maybe! Still the liar to the last.
Guido, isn't it libellous to talk about "the LibDem's YouTube site"? Even nowadays, there really is more than one LibDem. Honestly!
Politicians rarely manage to get the internet right do they.
Ian Duncan Smith described by the BBC as visiting estates 'wondering what to do about...' the broken society.A couple of days ago Mark Simpson referring to alcoholism as 'a more difficult subject..'for the tories.We know what you lefties are up to in those editing suites.I'd like my democracy back,please.
Of course... there's one Youtube entry no-one should miss ie. Staines's utter humiliation on Newsnight at the hands of Michael White. Very very funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r5d2Ccpo3I
Go to YouTube and search for Alan Partridge - Debate
Luv
Eileen
It wasn't me.
Mark 1234 Shapps MP claims that someone was able to hack into his YouTube site because he used a ludicrously simple password.
Difficult to believe, given that he professes to be something of an internet expert and is a Director of How To Corp Ltd which markets online toolkits (see the current Parliamentary Register of Members Interests).
Sorry, that should have read "Grant 1234 Shapps MP".
Okay, realistically this story means nothing though. Don't know why anybody bothers reading this blog anymore.
Oh bugger I have been haxX0red
IainDale said...
Okay, realistically this story means nothing though. Don't know why anybody bothers reading this blog anymore.
I agree,Iain Dales' blog has a better class of poster.Comment moderation never has to be enabled,because bad language is not tolerated.
Re. the fiasco over the non-existent 6th defection, Iain Dale seems to be becoming a bigger pillock by the day. Sad really. He ran a good blog, but now seems to have become a central office barrow boy.
Iain Dale, well these old queens can never admit to getting it wrong.
he might be hacked anyway even had he used a better password. money buys harrasment. and there's big money in politics.
there could be a massive dirty tricks budget landing in the Constituency sufficient to pay off defector(s) and hack into opponent's email and so on.
the spooks are bound to be out if Labour fear losing the seat. It would undermine the Brown first few weeks, and that would undermine the undemocratic imposition of the Constitution. Imagine how much money someone might be prepared to drop off in Ealing Southall at the moment.
Dad, why have you stopped taking your medication again.
tapestry, your tin foil hat is in the post. Get real.
pensioner, 8.56pm. Clearly you're reading this blog yourself though, are you therefore suggesting we should do as you say, rather than as you do? If so, you are an old mothball-flavoured socialist and I claim my place on Tony's resignation honours list (in lieu of the usual £5)
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