The Internet on the Great Hoon Non-Plot
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The internet political gurus have been busy in the wake of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt’s unloved plot. The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson said that there were German operas which lasted longer than today’s Hoon-Hewitt plot to oust Gordon Brown. He was being generous, given that the Ring cycle goes on for rather longer than the plot ever did. But comment on it - well that’s another matter entirely. The blogs and online writers have all been leaping into action to comment, presumably preceding the Dead Tree Press’s more lofty commentators on the following day.
The right-wing bloggers are predictably delighted. Iain Dale focuses on the bumbling nature of Geoff Hoon’s technical wizardry - apparently the first email he sent to Labour MPs was blank - but otherwise has little comment. The Spectator’s Coffee House sees editor Fraser Nelson remark upon the ineptness of the plotters, while his colleague James Forsyth notes the lukewarm nature of David Miliband’s support. Tim Montgomerie on Conservative Home meanwhile sees the whole incident - not unreasonably - as a massive boost for the Conservatives. Guido Fawkes prefers to focus on the fact that the BBC’s Nick Robinson had earlier said that rumours of a plot were untrue, producing a rather lame video response that is unlikely to give Robinson any sleepless minutes. Robinson himself admits his error, at the end of a blog post where he emphasises the unprecedented nature of the would-be coup so close to an election. But Robinson says any plotters might draw some comfort from the partial parallel of Australian Labour leader Bob Hawke, installed just 25 days before an election which he won.
On the left, meanwhile, there is generally incredulity. Labour List publish a series of hostile emails sent to Hoon and Hewitt from various Labour MPs. ‘Skipper’ Bill Jones says that the attempted coup has received more raspberries than a summer pudding, provides six reasons why the plot is a bad idea, and then quotes the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland’s apposite article today. The New Statesman’s Mehdi Hasan attacks the credibility of the plotters, while finally, over at the First Post, ‘The Mole’ hints at a Mandelsonian involvement - he did, after all, work closely with Hewitt when they were in opposition.
It’s been a busy day on the internet, proving that while it doesn’t always provide the most thoughtful analysis, it certainly adds to the thrill ride of politics in the immediacy of its reaction.
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