Portillo is a Broadcaster Not a Tory
Iain Dale gave Portillo a great tongue lashing on election night which has sparked off a wave of Polly-bashing. Guido has a confession to make, he was if not a Portillista certainly a sympathiser. In fact a couple of decades ago Guido worked for David Hart,* the breaker of the NUM and Scargill's nemesis. Less well known is that Hart had been grooming and encouraging Portillo for years in readiness for greater things. Hart was also the man who installed the phone lines prematurely in preparation for an abortive Portillo leadership challenge. It backfired when it leaked out and undermined Portillo badly. In retrospect perhaps this was fortunate.
Portilllo's living is nowadays derived from him being respected as someone who understands the Conservative Party and he is drafted in to provide balance and a non-left-wing perspective on the BBC. Oddly he seems completely unsympathetic to Cameron, in fact peevishly hostile. Reports that he voted against the Conservatives last week are incredible if true. Might it not be appropriate therefore for the BBC to find another balancing figure who is a broadcaster and a Tory? Like, errm, Iain Dale?
*Something I have been meaning to blog for sometime - David Hart is seriously ill. He has done his country great service. His role in defeating NUM thugs and ending Scargill's Marxist dreams make him deserving of the highest honours. He also personally financed and supported a network behind the Iron Curtain which was crucial in assisting dissidents and later in pressurising Gorbachev on perestroika in the Western media. These are just two examples of his good works. For some unexplained reason he was not ennobled by Margaret Thatcher, perhaps an oversight, perhaps he fell out of her favour. By convention the leader of the Conservative Party is able to put forward some names for honours every year for services to the party. David Hart may not have made any donations to the party lately, but he did help Thatcher with her speeches and battles back in the day. His work deserves recognition.
Portilllo's living is nowadays derived from him being respected as someone who understands the Conservative Party and he is drafted in to provide balance and a non-left-wing perspective on the BBC. Oddly he seems completely unsympathetic to Cameron, in fact peevishly hostile. Reports that he voted against the Conservatives last week are incredible if true. Might it not be appropriate therefore for the BBC to find another balancing figure who is a broadcaster and a Tory? Like, errm, Iain Dale?
*Something I have been meaning to blog for sometime - David Hart is seriously ill. He has done his country great service. His role in defeating NUM thugs and ending Scargill's Marxist dreams make him deserving of the highest honours. He also personally financed and supported a network behind the Iron Curtain which was crucial in assisting dissidents and later in pressurising Gorbachev on perestroika in the Western media. These are just two examples of his good works. For some unexplained reason he was not ennobled by Margaret Thatcher, perhaps an oversight, perhaps he fell out of her favour. By convention the leader of the Conservative Party is able to put forward some names for honours every year for services to the party. David Hart may not have made any donations to the party lately, but he did help Thatcher with her speeches and battles back in the day. His work deserves recognition.
65 comments:
Guido is spot on. Lets hope this true Brit gets better health wise and is duly recognised by the system for his vital contribution.
Portillo is still the best. He is a far brighter, far better travelled, with vastly better contacts internationally, a real grasp of international politics,a Thatcherite who makes the Eton squits look like minnows. The rest of the party look thick and have always been shit scared of him
1) David Hart did an excellent job. Well said Guido.
2) Portillo is a fucking disgrace, as is the BBC. Last night, on the Laurel and Hardy (Abbott) Show, Portaloo revealed that he did not vote for Boris.
Only the BBC could provide "balance" by having a non-Tory as the Tory representative.
I lived in Southgate when Portaloo was the bone idle MP. When I went to my first fundraiser and asked him a question, all he did was stare at my cock and eye up my (male) University friend. Fair enough you might say - but he was on duty. No wonder he lost his seat.
Portillo is out of touch with the Tories - he knows none of the next generation and is cold shouldered by the older members of the shadow cabinet. He is a hostile observer of the party.
The BBC should find someone else to perform the friendly Tory critic role.
Portillo is sore because Dave is doing a good job. Plain old fashioned envy. A tory commentator who doesn't like the Tory Party - no wonder the BBC love him.
Portillo is a Broadcaster Not a Tory
This is true but what is Dave as he is certainly not a Tory either.
Many Tory supporters are now prepared to overlook Dave's political shortcomings, just as Labour supporters overlooked Blair's in order to get the keys to number 10.
At least Blair was a Tory in disguise. What is Dave?
I think that it is sour grapes with Portillo. He has been very Tory critical over the years and even now begrudging of their success. Also been interesting to see Abbott's mood change over the months on the program she used to be a jolly soul but talked about Livingstone last night as if he had died.
BTW thought that the Purnell lad was terrible on Question Time, no wonder NuLab are in trouble with people like that in senior positions.
He got nailed a few time and was very leaden footed.
His Mum must have known he was out as she had let him wear long trousers for the show as a special treat. In all a total twat.
Guido is right. Senor Portillo is not a Tory he is a self serving broadcaster who on leaving Paliament moved left so rapidly it made your eyes water.I suspect he is jealous that the leadership of the party jumped a generation and he didn't get a look in. Not voting for Boris who one suspects of Libertarian sympathies is about his level. Did he reveal whichof the time servers placemen and line dodgers was fortunate enough to receive his vote?
Ones thoughts are with David Hart and his family perhaps a knighthood for him and make Porteeyo a Dame.
Well perhaps you could define a broadcaster for us Guido? Sitting on a chair pontificating or making documentaries on irrelevances even to those interested in classics subjects does not a broadcaster make.
Portillos problem is that he is a loser, but he thinks he should be a winner. He was offered a place in the Tory party after he lost his seat, again, but wanted to start at the top, and he is just too arrogant for that.
He is a bitter and vindictive little man and has been shown up for that even to people in the Labour party.
Lastly...he is no Mathew Parris.
Portillo did a prog awhile back on different methods of capital punishment. I wished they had practised on the blubber mouthed cunt. Now that would be good reality TV, worth turning Big Bro off for.
Personally I think Ian Duncan Smith is usually better
Abbott and Portillo are a good double act but I don't think that there is real balance - that seems to be provided by Brillo
Portillo cannot get over the country's sheer hatred for him as shown by the sheer joy at his 1997 loss of Enfield Southgate. It must have rankled that Twigg beat him. Twigg being an 'out' gay man, as opposed to Portillo 'experimenting' with c*ck 'some time ago in the past'. Ann Widdecombe's jibe at Michael Howard is more applicable to Portillo.
What is Dave?
Simple, he's a paid-up member of the Cameron Party. I can at least see something in Michael Portillo that says that he cares about more than just his own personal advancement but, sadly, I can't see that in the modern crop of Conservative MP's, with the exception of William Hague.
At least Blair was a Tory in disguise
That will probably go down as the ultimate joke in political history, that a Tory managed to work his way up the Labour Party hierarchy to the leadership and substitute traditional Labour values with Conservative ones, all while the Labour Party faithful lapped it all up and begged for more.
Last night's This Week with Andrew Neil was another BBC Labour propaganda fest. We were treated to Diane Abbott, Matthey Taylor, and Kevin Maguire all spinning for Labour in their diferent ways.
To provide so-called balance we had the ludicrous Portillo as his usual bitchy self snidily dismissing Cameron's achievements as usual.
Andrew Neil's show used to be one of the best on TV but it is sadly becoming a travesty and a government mouthpiece.
The 'sexual chemistry' between Portillo and Dianne Abbott on the This Week couch used to make me vomit.
She facing forwards, he with his tongue practically in her ear, "Look at meeee ... I'm not a racialist or a homo."
Does anyone have access to the old Scallywag archives? There was plenty of sordid stuff on there about Portillo as I recall.
His frequent visits to that "specialist hotel" in Morocco......yuk!
Has he formally parted from his wife yet or are they still keeping up appearances?
BTW It's interesting to see Diane Abotts mask slip as things turn sour for Brown. What a nasty bitch she is. I thought she was near to physically attacking Boris Johnsons sister on Sky News last week.
You see the real vicious faces of these people when things aren't going their way.
Buts its ironic because Cameron is doing everything to the party that Portillo had advocated.
Portillo was amongst the first to really suggest that the Tories need to move away from their electoral losing strategy, and mvoe to the centre ground.
Cameron has completely occupied the centre ground, and marginalised the Labour Party.
Cameron has gone to great lengths to try and make the party look more like modern Britain (god help us).
Cameron has moved away from talking about tax and europe, to discussing health, quality of life, low paid conditions, environmentalism etc.
Maybe Portillo believes it should have been him that done this, and he is pissed, i dont know.
Portillo, Dale - 'tongue lashing' - it's not a pleasant image however your mind chooses to process it.
- portillo is perfect for the BBC. he is an arrogant and alienating figure who is quite happy to take pot shots at his own side. they hope he will drive undecided voters away from the 'nasty party'
on the same subject they had Boris's sister on QT last night - not a good move. she is also the Beebs dream as she was everything a
maybe-former-labour-voter detests about the tories.
she was a bit of a parody, was not succinct, and did not have the mental fleetness of foot to cope with even piers moron.
moron is such an utter cunt I find it hard to fathom - but the scary thing was the applause he got for his little pro-labour/ pro-brown speech. Be under no illusion - there are still a lot of very stupid and very tribal labour votes out there.
care is needed.
Portillo is just a typical screwed-up, bitchy, unbalanced, resentful, closet-gay who spent his whole political career trying to undermine his party's leaders.
He's carrying on his vendetta now he's a TV pundit.
The man's a totally untrustworthy, psychologically fucked-up, snake who would have destroyed the Tory party had they been foolish enough ever to have elected him leader.
Guido, you're right about Scargill, but during that time a lot of unnecessary pain and abuse was inflicted on decent miners and their families by the government and others. Yes, the industry needed sorting out, but some of what was done bordered on pure malice.
There's still a lot of resentment up here about it.
I hope Portillo has never said never.
I for one would fight for him.
As for those Union thugs - I got up close and personal with the enemy at Wapping. I remember golf balls thrown under the Police horses, the bricks striking our bus, the spitting, the groups of thugs following female colleagues on the tube, the daily bomb threats - all topped off with a mad coalition of Hackney Lesbians, Save the Whale and the West Ham ICF - all looking for trouble on a Saturday night!
Lest we never forget what those treacherous bastards attempted to do to this country!
I hope they feel the shame as they sit in their mortgage free council houses and sun drenched chavvy villas.
Oh how we now need the courage of previous Tory governments.
Portillo's first politico post was as SpAd to David Howell at the old Department of Energy in the first Thatch government. He spent a lot of time talking about Howell's (many) shortcomings behind his back.
And downhill from there. Not to be trusted & the Tories are well shot of him.
Warriormonk: "Be under no illusion - there are still a lot of very stupid and very tribal labour votes out there."
Absolutely - and this was Dorking, Surrey. Not your average Trot hotbed - so, BBC - were they bussed in?
It is fascinating to see that Portillo still polarises comment in this way. He is as some of you point out now a professional commentator with no political ambitions - why shouldn't he say what he feels? He owes no 'loyalty' to Dave and may well be as mystified as I am as to what Davism has to do with Conservative values - but maybe he has come to terms with the fact that all that Hart and he once stood for has vanished from the scene. Portillo can be eloquent and persuasive when he wants to be, so why stifle his opinions?
In particular, why attempt to reinforce such objections as some of you may have to him with references to homosexuality? This sort of as hominem (or do I mean 'ad homonem') attack is usually used to detract attention from what a person is saying or stands for. If Portillo's attitude to Davism can be criticised, it can done on the basis of political argument and not cheap slurs.
Some of what Portillo says articulates a real concern that politics, which used to be centered on economics and society, is now increasingly taken up with pseudo-messianic/apocalyptic bunkum about eco-catastrophe, vague apostrophes to 'equality' or other nonsense squabbled over by Dave and other UK politicians in a manner reminiscent of James Ensor's etching of skeletons fighting over a herring. Whether you agree with him or not, Portillo has a right (and the experience) to justify plaguing any houses he pleases.
By the way - re David Hart, despite the fact that he once violently and quite incorrectly took issue with me over the appropriate use of a Yiddish colloquialism, I entirely concur with your encomium.
guido -> just a thought. but is there any way some eastern european countries could recognise Mr Hart - as you mentioned he funded dissidents during the Soviet era.
maybe you could let them know that he is seriously ill.
just a thought.
Portapotty. Makes me shit!
What's all the fuss about Guido?
I just watched last night's show and Portillo quite clearly said he no longer works for the Tory party.
Toilets Maguire made another unpleasant appearance on Today this morning, bigging up the 'Great Leader'.
The problem is, it doesn't work anymore, as the second anyone hears his name being mentioned as a contributor to a debate, it sets off a red alert warning of imminent spin and lies! In fact the more Today try and support Brown, the more listeners start to realise that the political balance of the show is somewhat 'skewed'.
Nice of Ming to slip in a mention of the YouGov poll - Humphries and Co were desperately avoiding the elephant in the room throughout the show.
It's the arrogance that baffles me.
Portillo served the Tories for many years, and is much better informed and connected than many of the current crop of PR twats (Davis and Haigue not inc.) that currently run the party. He's critical, because there is much to be critical about. Even if that pisses off Iain Dale, who sold himself to Cameron, long ago.
Eileen Critchley said:
"As for those Union thugs - I got up close and personal with the enemy at Wapping. I remember golf balls thrown under the Police horses, the bricks striking our bus, the spitting, the groups of thugs following female colleagues on the tube, the daily bomb threats - all topped off with a mad coalition of Hackney Lesbians, Save the Whale and the West Ham ICF - all looking for trouble on a Saturday night!"
If I remember, Eileen, we were riot cops voluntarily - nobody forced us to do it and most of us loved it, let's be honest.
I never went up t'North as it was slightly before my time but I distinctly recall officers bragging about how they'd paid off their mortgages on the back of the NUM.
I grant you, Fleet Street needed sorting out - I knew unscrupulous printers claiming two wages and the like.
As regards the miners - surely there must have been a better way than to have thrown a generation of basically honest, tough and productive men on the scrap heap. I believe that Chav UK (certainly in Northern towns) is the consequence of this.
So, Portillo has an agenda - show me a politican/ ex-politican who does not!
The opinion polls are a real hoot at the moment - I wonder when Labour's nerve will break?
Clearly W. Alexander has decided that she had better take control of her own destiny as being perceived as being a puppet of Brown is evidently a definite route to oblivion.
Shame he's ill...
Shame Guido uses this to advance his blog...
Shame it isn't Guido dying...
I try very hard to forget about your involvement with David Hart and the miners' strike. Its the one blot on your otherwise unblemished career and I wish you wouldn't keep reminding us that sometimes your judgment of people and events is just plain wrong.
Anonymong,
Not sure I understand your first point.
We are all dying.
I think your original instincts were right actually Guido. Portillo, for all his shortcomings, would have been a good leader of the party from '95 or '97 onwards and would have limited the electoral damage that occurred to the party during that period.
His crucial mistake was not to take John Redwood's offer to stand aside in his favour in the '95 contest (as originally detailed by Hywel Williams in the book Guilty Men). Had he, rather than Redwood, stood in that contest, Major would have been brought down and Portillo may very well have gone on to the leadership.
At the very worst, we would have got a two-year Heseltine premiership, with Portillo as Chancellor and heir apparent. The Tories would still have lost in '97, but not by such a big margin, and Portillo would have retained his seat and succeeded to the leadership. He'd have done a far better job than Hague, IDS or Howard in limiting the scale of New Labour's electoral success and although he would probably have been more of a Kinnock than a Blair, the Tories would be much further forward on the path of modernisation by now.
On the contribution of David Hart to late 20th political history, I couldn't disagree more, although your loyalty is to applauded.
Never forget whose fault the miners strike really was. It was no brain, no hair, commie cunt Scargill, no one elses. If there was hardship, and by god I bet there was, the blame should be firmly placed where it belongs and that is at front door of our Arthur. So lets not have any revisionist history on here, lets not shed fecking crocodile tears, the bastards needed sorting, if you go round holding guns to nations head, each time you don`t get you want, then you can expect nothing else. Next target is the Crow Cunt, he needs his wings clipped pdq.
Remember when Gordon became Prime Minister? It rained. For days on end. There were even some nasty floods.
Since Boris became Mayor of London the sun has been shining every day.
Coincidence?
The great Guido's been 'ad. Portillo bats for the other side. In Alastair Campbell's Diaries, Blair was mentioned as seeing Portillo as a key 'ally' in 1996. Twelve years later and Guido's still not seeing it. Portillo's no friend of the Conservative Party. Dale's ahead on this one.
So what
Some professional knob jockey has a cat fight with a part time knob jockey, you can never trust any arsebandit, they are all disloyal and bitchy, just look at the cunt we have in number 10, another sosdomite who would sell his own kids for power and a suck on a nice fat cock.
Yes, the miners' strike was nasty, very nasty. But it was an industrial war for control of the nation, it had to be fought and it had to be won. Arthur Scargill was not a normal trade union leader (and God knows they are bad enough), he saw himself as a socialist revolutionary fighter. Good job the cunt turned out to be more Che Guevara than Fidel Castro.
By the way, who airbrushed the cock out of that photo of Don Miguel? He doesn't open his mouth that wide for nothing.
Arthur Scargill was head of the NUM but he was by no means responsible for the miners' strike. The government started stockpiling Polish and South African coal - and telling coal merchants to keep quiet about it - at least 18 months before they started putting unreasonable pressures on miners. To start with the miners agreed to some pretty extreme changes to their working lives but each time they agreed to something the government invented something even more unreasonable in order to pile the pressure on. It was the government who wanted and planned that strike in order to, as they saw it, break the unions.
Erm, I wonder mischievously, is David Hart any relation to Nigel Hart?
Guido, as it goes for Portillo it goes for Abbot, she isn't much of a Labour supporter either in the same way Portillo isn't a Tory one. On top of that, seeing the truly pathetic turn the Politics Show has taken lately it might not be a bad idea to replace both of them with new faces to relaunch one of the few politics programmes left in the BBC.
So Diane Abbott is expected to criticise the Labour Government, but the Tory representative isn't allowed to criticise the Tories?
What nonsense.
As for Iain Dale... it would be a marvellous treat to have the eloquent Portillo replaced by John Gaunt's unsightly less intelligent brother.
Personally I enjoy Portillo's appearances on TV. I like being reminded that he is no longer an MP, it makes me feel all warm inside.
Two bits of myth in danger of passing into accepted truth.
1 the miners defeat was entirely self inflicted, Scargill would not hold a ballot the strike was not legitimate, it split the Union, British coal was too expensive and high energy prices risked jobs in other areas.The myth of the brave miners standing up to an authoritarian government is balls they were stupid murdering bullies who failed to realise that a democratically elected government would stand up to them-unlike Heath who suffered froma severe shortage of spine.
2 In what way is Blair a Tory, he did not reduce taxes he did erode civil and economic liberties he undermined the Union and showed no respect for tradition.Neither strand of Conservative thinking the liberalor traditionalplayed any part in his actions. He was just a social democratic four flusher who manaaged to dupe large swathes of middle England into believing he had their best interests at heart.
Slipper, hear hear!
You know what they say, any friend of Thatcher is, well, a cunt.
So as leader from 1995 or 1997 Portillo would have limited the electoral damage to the Tory Party ? Paul Linford, what are you on ? Whatever it is, can I have some as it plainly lifts one out of horrid grim realities.
Let's not forget that in 1997 Portillo suffered one of the highest anti-Tory swings in a normally rock-solid seat. Thousands of voters even switched to the ridiculous twerp Stephen Twigg just to get rid of Portillo. He was loathed personally much more than the hapless Major. BTW that 1997 result shows the superiority of the constituency system over the list system. With PR Portillo would probably have remained an MP and we'd have been deprived of that delicious "Were you up for Portillo?" moment.
His chameleon-like political career shows an absence of core principles. It's all "me, me, me". Perhaps that's why Guido approves.
Anonymous, May 9, 2008 1:11 PM, said...
"You know what they say, any friend of Thatcher is, well, a cunt"
Let me guess, twelve, thirteen? When you leave school you could audition for the News Quiz. You'd make a fine partner for Mr Hardy.
The Janitor 1.44
Thanks Janitor, very good of you to give me the benefit of your huge adult intellect.
Paul Linford @1047. Disagree entirely. Portillo would have been disastrous as a Tory leader. He has too much self-regard for his own intellect and is too lazy in processing thoughts to words to function as an inspiring leader.
I reckon he would have been a worst ditherer than Gordon and created a greater rift amongst the Tories.
Let alone that disgusting neckless Danish dwarf they have chairing the News Quiz.
I would like to add
to slippers post and say that blair is not a tory in my book as...
his regime systematically weakened any area of the British establishment that you care to look at. (take judiciary, police service, armed forces, upper chamber etc etc)
not to mention the sheer cluster-fuck that passes for the UK education system - from pre school through to post graduate.
enormous and ineffective public spending
everything brought down, dumbed down, to the lowest common denominator.
cheers 'tone.
what is so disappointing is that so many people actually voted for this and said institutions are properly fucked.
The miners were 'stupid murdering bullies' (Slipper 12.28)
One loon shoves a brick off a motorway bridge. They're all 'stupid murdering bullies'
Well the pits are all but closed, northern towns overrun by feral chavs, fathers without pride or purpose other than sperm donation ... I've no brief for Scargill but the miner's instincts were bang on the money.
Coal may be cheaper from elsewhere but don't you think it rather disingenuous not to factor into the true cost the levels of welfare expenditure now involved ?
As for the Police - the miner's dispute was not their finest hour.
There was plenty of sordid stuff on there about Portillo as I recall.
Word is that Portillo's a nonce.
Portillo's had the builders in for the past 18 months. Either they're doing a very big job or else he's being ripped off - the latter hope.
Portillo is a faggot and an arsehole! He cannot make his mind up! He comes to everything late - he still thinks the Labour party can win the next election - keep trying you sad fucker you might work it out in the end.
P.s. He has never forgiven the tories for rejecting him due to his ambigous sexual past! Bad luck faggot you should have run in 1995!
Does he have foggot breath?
I am a Cameron fan despite being what i would consider a right winger. I would probably have sympathised with Davis but voted for Cameron as Davis would not have got the Tories elected.
So I am agnostic about Portillo. The plain fact is -- a fact, 'cos I heard it with my two ears -- is that soon after Cameron was elected leader Portillo thought he was 'the real deal' not a flash in the pan. He expressed doubts at the time of the grammar school fiasco, but why not when every right wing nutter in the tory party was gunning for Cameron.
And if your commentators expect the likes of me to rollover in ecstasy and admiration at their knowledge of Anglo Saxon they are mistaken. your 4 letter numpties just shown they don't have the intelligence to rub two half decent word together never mind a single coherent thought.
your 4 letter numpties just shown they don't have the intelligence to rub two half decent word together never mind a single coherent thought.
Pot. Kettle. You twat.
Anonynoyingfuckwitcunt said...
"You know what they say, any friend of Thatcher is, well, a cunt."
You know what else they say? Anony cunts should not be seen and definitely not heard. Now fuck off you twat!
Sorry to go on about the miners strike but I think we should try to generate light rather than heat.There was more than attack on third parties at Glasson Dock South Wales and South Yorkshire inter alia.The Police did not turn up en mass on spec it was a response tothe mass picketing initiated by Scargill so while not all striking miners were involved in murderous attacks ther was a huge amount of bullying and intimidationand I must come back to the nub there was no ballot and the Tories had won an election on a perfectly clear prospectus given that and the history of the miners you didn't need the gift of prophesy to work out what would happen. Scargill misjudged hugely split the NUM and hastened the end of the mines. Its what socialism does.Of course it is sad that that British workers are denied the chance to work in dark dangerous pits get lung diseases and die young but strip farming hand loom weaving and candle stick making werefine and noble occupations that have gone that is what capitalism does.
When this authoritarian has finished removing the right to remain silent has introduced 42 day detention without trial stopped waging a pointless and expensive war in Iraq and given up on taxing the poor do please mark me down as a friend and admirer of Margaret Thatcher along withall those who bought their own council houses privatisation shares and did a little to get out of the thrall of the state.
Of course that should read 'MAGGIE FOR PM'.
Hands like cow tits.
Portaloo was in Morocco again just a few weeks back.
As for David Hart: Is that Hart spelt with a "C', an "I' and an 'A'? What's libertarian about that?
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