How Charlie Whelan killed New Labour

Vulture

Good for you Fraser. The sooner the nation wipes this dog's turd from its shoe the better.

Craig Strachan

Tell him to go Carter-Ruck himself.

Dorothy Wilson

Well done!

Dorothy Wilson

And thank you!

Unwise Earnie

A note of caution. Trade Union activists construe the most mild of interventions from a line manager as bullying and harrassment. It is a phrase they bandy about thoughtlessly whenever they or their constituents are not getting precisely what they want or when they are being held do any account for not doing what they are paid for.

I would treat an accusation of bullying and harrassment from a Trade Union activist/employee as extremely suspect.

Sally Chatterjee

Well done. I expect more "omerta" from the bullyboy himself.

Neil Turner

Well done Spectator. Bullies hate sunlight

I wonder how much coverage the story will get from the BBC or Sky ?

Danko

Bravo, glad to see that someone is standing up to this thug. Well done Fraser.

lawrence greek

Good on you Spectator.

Charlie Whelan is scum and must be outed. Courageous stuuf.

Cuffleyburgers

Great stuff, marxist bullies, the iron fist inside blair's velvet glove is now exposed for what it is.

Good luck with this.

Megan

Well done Fraser.Don't be intimidated by unpleasant characters like Whelan.

Mogens

Good. I don't normally buy The Spectator but tomorrow I shall. I have a feeling that Whelan is about to get his 'come uppance' and even better Ed Balls could well lose his seat at the election. What joy!

Stevie

The electorate need to have this story under their noses before they vote Nulabour. The last thing this country needs is the Three Little Pigs left in charge for 5 more years.

Maygordonrotinhell

Well done Fraser. This has all the hallmarks of Robert Maxwell, that other bullying Labour Scumbag.

Tiberius

He's calling it "hilarious rubbish" on Twitter.

Mazza1230

You might try contacting Alastair Campbell....

Catosays

Go Speccie. Go Fraser. Never give in.

Irene

I'm with Craig Strachan!

The Laughing Cavalier

If he plays the legal game again just give the story to Guido or another offshore blogger who can publish with impunity.

Bob.India

Excellent stuff and a display of real guts - So glad I've renewed my Spectator subscription.

AnnInnis

Well done.

TGF UKIP

Fraser, you are probably too young to remember what Private Eye (with access to far smaller funds than The Speccie) told Peter Carter-Ruck to do. It ended with "off" and started with "fuck".

jon dee

Brown's broken politics cossets, defends and depends on thugs like Whelan.

More power to your elbow - many will admire your bravery.

Philip

Well done Fraser. If he threatens to sue then I think a fighting fund should be established. I will be the first to donate £100.

Alfred T Mahan

I wonder whether the union staff with the grievance had a union to support them against the monstrous management practices of, er, their union...

Mrs Crewe

If you want donations for legal battle I'm up for it!!!!

toco

Apart from being part of the Smeargate story Charlie Whelan,Damian McBride and Derek Draper all left their last jobs in disgrace and all worked for the bully that is Gordon Brown and his equally odious bully boy friend Ed Balls/Cooper.This just about sums up Unite's Labour Party.

Paul Wright

"A magazine with a small budget obviously faces huge pressure to do what he wanted" - och, poooor wee yew, a cowerin', timorous beastie. If only, if only you were in fact owned by a vast company whose billionaire shareholders avoided just enough tax to be able to afford even a 2nd rate QC's fees. If only.

Percy

Ah do you remember the good old days when Cuddly Charlie was always having a laugh on Radio 5 live, where did it all go wrong for the socialist funster?

JohnAnt

This is more like it. I might even buy that issue.

Occasional Ostrich

And these are the descendents of those polemicists who told us in the 18th & 19th centuries that autocratic sovereigns could not be trusted to rule us. Oh, joy!

Mazza1230

@Percy
"Ah do you remember the good old days when Cuddly Charlie was always having a laugh on Radio 5 live, where did it all go wrong for the socialist funster?"

He was able to be a "socialist funster" on 5Live because Alastair Campbell insisted that Brown fire Whelan as his spindoctor for, among other things, alledgedly leaking details of one of Mandelson's resignations to the press.

Amazing that all these characters have buried their differences for the time being in order to try and save their crumbling power-base.

Tapestry

Whelan and Dealin - Whelan out the lawyers, dealin out the verbals.

Kennybhoy

Well done that man!

deirdre thompson

I have not bought the Spectator for years but I will go to town tomorrow and buy this one.

Snowman

Fraser, bite and bite again

Thomas Rossetti

Great work, Fraser! More power to your elbow.

David Gold

That's just decided it, I'll be buying a copy straight away. Anything he doesn't like must be worth reading!

Nash

Hopefully a reprint of the article will go to every household in Ed Balls' constituency.

Lizzy

God I hate these toerags. Fraser you have acted in the longstanding tradition of "publish and be damned". Brilliant and thank you.

Jean Monnet

I'm glad you referred the complainant to Arkell v Pressdram (1971). Very well done.

This makes up for your baffling retention of the fellow who can't vote here and so gives us his third-hand opinions and malapropisms instead.

Ken

@TGF UKIP:
Ah you mean "We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v. Pressdram"!
Just the ticket and what's more full support from here for any Whelanballs fighting fund.

Excellent work Mr Nelson. Whelan, McBride and the rest of the tribal pondlife around Brown, need long exposure to sunlight followed by even longer enclosure in cell-light.
Meanwhile I understand there are plenty of Unite members who oppose Whelanism, perhaps they will now stop paying dues to the bullyboys.

Nick2

I'll be buying the Speccie tomorrow in support.

Silent Hunter

Excellent work Fraser - I hope you well and truly nail the b*rst*rd.

Holly ......

Some folk just don't get it.
New Labour NEVER existed!
It was some geezer pretending to be a Tory
surrounded by the loony lefties,who blocked their 'front man' at every opportunity.
The same people who were New Labour are still there today.
Labour are the problem...always have been..
always will be.
What is the difference between the economy today and the economy in 1979?
Labour have been in power longer and the economy is in an even worst state!

Stephen Bowers

About time this creep was shown in all his glory.

I am taking out a subscription in support.

Edward Sutherland

Well done, Fraser. You keep up the good work and I'll keep up the subscription! What about a fighting fund to take on the bullies?

irate

Sounds great.

I swore off buying the Spectator after Rod Liddle's idiotic and offensive "would you shag that" piece, but I don't think I can resist buying this issue.

Wonder how much will be picked up by t.v. and the papers?

ButcombeMan

Excellent stuff-very well done. I regard Brown re-elected with Balls fixed as his succesor as the ultimate "Nightmare on Downing Street". It is terrifying to think this remains a possibility. The British people have sucked at the Socialist teat so long, they seem incapable of seeing the truth of Brown & Balls economic illiteracy. I conclude there must be something being put in the milk.

oldtimer

I will buy a copy tomorrow.

James

Pathetic.

In2minds

Well done Fraser Nelson. I seem to remember Martin Bright making 'comments' about Whelan too and Rod Liddle fights on another flank. Go Speccie go!

perdix

I'm Sparticus! I'll buy a copy tomorrow and support a fighting fund if you need one.

Simon Stephenson

Very perceptive Holly (7.37pm). I only wish more were not so locked in to what New Labout told us they were that they were able to look at the last 13 years and see that yours is the much more likely explanation.

It stands to reason really, doesn't it? Rabid left-wingers, having infiltrated Labour on the deceit of a much more moderate ticket, suddenly in 1983 in control of the Party.

How to get elected?

They tried presenting themselves as socialists and were roundly rejected, so what better way to progress than to go back to the strategy that served their infiltration campaign so well, and present themselves as something far more moderate than they actually were. Bingo! Then find a leader who's more into ego-stroking than public service, and away we go.

The bastards should have been put down a well at birth.

RickH

I'll buy the issue. Great timing - you'll get the impact even if he does sue. You can rely on a fiver from me for legals (I'm poor, but sadly I know justice is expensive). What do libel lawyers use as contraceptives? Their personalities.

Ish

I agree with the above comments about a fighting fund if further threats come in, and would contribute as well.

Augustyn

This should be obligatory reading for all members of Unite.

Athesius the Facilitator

Where is Richard?

Chuck Unsworth

Whelan is a complete clown. He's now become the story. How professional is that at this particular point in an election campaign?

Naturally, it is to be expected from these people. Self-interest overrules all other considerations.

Still, very well done Fraser. I'll make my modest contribution tomorrow as will, judging by the comments above, many others.

JohnPage

Did Andrew's McBride question to Balls today have anything to do with this?

Mike Thomas

These vermin are finally getting their desserts.

Hope it's laced with rat poison.

andrew

leaving heathrow on day two of the strike, four youngish male Unite thugs nearly ran me and my family off the road as they screamed by, on the wrong side of the road, beeping their horn and jeering in their drop top BMW. I temporarily forgot the strike was on due to a long haul flight jet lag, and genuinely thought we were under attack. thugs is an understatement.

What exactly was zooming around, beebing with the roof down at 50 mph in a 30 zone achieving? I only just caught the red unite ribbon on thier car as they disappeared off ahead of me. It was scary, and illogical for a striking organisation looking for support.

Adrian James

Have never bought the Spectator before but will be purchasing this edition. Well done Fraser (and co.).

david

I have not bought the Spectator for years. I will now. Thanks for saying what many of us would like to say if we were granted the voice to do so. It is no exaggeration to say 'I know now what friends in Eastern Germany tod me they felt when the wall was felled'. It's a sense of the freedom which only comes from the 'right to write; to write the right'
The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR recognizes the right to freedom of speech as "the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression" Thank you very much.

Simon Denis

They're a vile and unlovely crew - let's hope you fix 'em good and proper this time.

gareth

Fraser - you should send in your attack dog - Alex Massie, in a physical assault on Unite.

Mr Eugenides

I think the truth of these allegations will be demonstrated by the simple observation that most Labour people, even those who come out to attack you tomorrow, will believe the Spectator rather than Whelan.

Kristin

More in-flight reading for Gordon? Well done.

Anna

You say that Charlie Whelan killed New Labour, and I don't doubt it, but was New Labour ever worthy of life? Most of its 'stars' have abandoned ship, or been proven corrupt. Its modus operandum was spin, obfuscation & outright lies, it was no better than the current mob. The Great Charlatan takes the stage to support Gordon Brown. The one remaining 'New' Labour star, the noble Lord, worshipper at the shrine of wealth, indulges in truly laughable ad hominen attacks such as 'toffee nosed'. Labour did once have honourable people, and indeed still does, but now, New or Old, its leadership is all about power & control and is simply not fit to form a government. However, it's used its thirteen years well, brainwashing the electorate into thinking the State is its friend. I sincerely hope the Conservatives form the next government, but if they don't, and since I've already lived most of my life, I'd rather enjoy seeing Labour win a fourth term and junk the country. It would be a fitting revenge on all those idiots who fell for that toothpaste smile in 1997 and I'd go to my grave laughing.

JW

Just what the doctor ordered...........to reward the Spectator for backing Fraser Nelson with this story I will now take out a year's subscription - even though we already have one in the family.

Keep up the good work - whoever is in power come May 7, the nation will need protecting from evil leftist megalomaniacs like Whelan.

p.s. I can honestly see Balls losing his seat

Paul Hawkins

Amazing -these odious people spy on the citizens' every move,yet create laws and use blatant intimidation to make sure their deeply unpleasant activities cannot be scrutinised.

That alone is reason to be rid of them.

Greenslime

And, of course, there is the delicious irony that he is using the 'St Andrew Street Boot Boys', yellow as the pissed on snow themselves, to defend himself against his bullyboy MO becoming public knowledge.

Greenslime

And, of course, there is the delicious irony that he is using the 'St Andrew Street Boot Boys', yellow as the pissed on snow themselves, to defend himself against his bullyboy MO becoming public knowledge.

Paul B

Take it to them Fraser, bite the bullying B`s.

Derek Pasquill

Well done.

Anything which diminishes the power of the nightmarish trio Brown-Balls-Whelan has to be a good thing.

JohnPage

The Mail runs it - http://fwd4.me/Liz

Kirkins

I was a Labour party member until the revelations about the smear campaign orchestrated by McBride and OTHERS. It confirmed my feelings that Labour had become almost Stalinist in the way it bullied members and was happy to conduct viciously underhand campaigns. I have zero tolerance of such tactics and resigned immediately. I always thought Whelan played a leading role in encouraging this way of working.

Stand up to the bully.

Ghengis

It is notable that our resident automatic response virus has not picked up on this tale.

Penfold

And where's Hattie Harperson just when folk need her idealism and purity of thought, action and deed. Arranging for her husband to have a safe seat and not face any wimmin short lists.
They are dreadful people, we know it, but now Fraser has made it official. Keep up the expose business.

Ronnie

'The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.'

Andy Carpark

That other great political monomaniac, V I Lenin, sacrificed playing chess and listening to Beethoven on the altar of absolute power.

There is, so far as I know, only one recorded example of Gordon Brown recreating and it appears in Tom Bower's biography.

It consisted of sitting on a sofa and watching televised football - with Charlie Whelan and Ed Balls.

Rhonda Valley

Fraser,

Ever thought of 'doing' a piece on Carter Ruck? Their name crops up quite a bit when it comes to 'gagging' the press.

John

Your timing is interesting. Are you not just trying to kid the electorate, or even bully them to accepting your world view of New Labour? And as someone said earlier some union types think any istruction/guidance is bullying.

Trafalgar

I'll be buying an issue.

Well done Fraser.

Dave Leishman

Exactly what I expect from the Spectator- a noble act of brinksmanship.

Naomi Muse

Good for you, Fraser.

The Man

C'mon Richard of York - defend that!

George Laird

Dear Fraser

An impressive piece of digging.

Well done, it is the type of work to expose the rise of institutional bullying long overdue.

Excellent.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

CMB

HOORAY!!!!! (After 9/11 attacks on New York, Jo whatshername sent the infamous email suggesting that 'today is a good day to bury bad news' and, in the end, she had to resign. Fast forward another nine years and we are so battered by such unrelenting lies and manipulation that we can barely lift our heads to complain anymore. BUT, wait, here comes Fraser!!!) HOORAY!!!!!

shaun

Socialist hide behind the illusion that they are good blokes.

A bit like Catholic Priests?

Ethan Edwards

Good for you. Tell him and his ilk to Ruck off.

I look forward to all these greasy little chancers all being consigned to the 'dustbin of history'. Might take years but I'd like to tango on his political grave! Till then I'm delighted you told him to foxtrot off.