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Week on the web
Andrew Alexander
Much more colourful than boring old complicated party donations irregularities, the Conway scandal has provoked something of a delighted frenzy.
To see how quickly the story moved, check these two posts by Ben Brogan - in the first, from Tuesday, Conway is still "a force to be reckoned with", but by Wednesday even Conway's friends are "horrified by this business".
Brogan thinks David Cameron must be covered in Teflon for nothing to have stuck in this scandal, but many were questioning the Tory leader's overnight change of heart - from saying a 10-day Commons suspension was punishment enough to withdrawing the whip.
Freemania notes that Cameron's dictionary must contain "two exciting new definitions".
"To dither is to fail to give the media a quick and bloody resolution to a story; to be decisive is to see which way the wind’s blowing and then fart in that direction."
Hopi Sen wonders why it took Cameron so long to dump the toxic MP, pointing to Nick Robinson's conclusion that "he would be taking on a powerful coalition consisting of those who never wanted him to be leader plus the parliamentary old guard who regard questions about their allowances as challenging the assumption that all MPs are 'honourable members' until proven otherwise".
ConservativeHome was certainly pushing hard for his expulsion, while Liberal Conspiracy hung out the bunting and offered readers a "Pocket-money Conway special".
Fraser Nelson at the Coffee House says Michael Dobbs's chief whip Francis Urquart would be spinning in his fictional grave if he knew how little the "clueless" Tory whips seemed to know about the party's misbehaving MPs.
You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.
For an indication of quite how revved up Fleet Street has been over the Conway story, Luke Akehurst points to Jasper Gerard in the Telegraph. Invoking that other famous fictional Tory, he said: "Short of Conway giving the V-sign to his voters, his Christmas card could hardly have been more Alan B'Stard."
Stumbling and Mumbling uses a well-known statistical joke to show that MPs are four times more likely to defraud the taxpayer than benefit claimants.
The blogosphere would not be the friendly place it is without a regular outbreak of internecine fighting, and this week the target was blogging elder Iain Dale.
He told readers of his new look site he would not comment on the Conway story as the MP was a friend. Cassilis gives his thoughts on Dale's self-imposed purdah.
Dale also took to the airwaves on Telegraph TV where he debated the subject with Simon Heffer, complete with wonderful guitar twanging noises - via PlayPolitical.
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Published: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:32:34 GMT+00
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