Monday, April 23, 2007

I'm the Subject of a Leak Investigation

It seems Westminster City Council is conducting a leak investigation into how I obtained the planning documents for Tony Blair's house (See the story HERE). Well the very best of luck to them. Strange that no one has picked up the phone to ask. Not that I'd tell them anyway. More HERE in the Guardian.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice work!

Anonymous said...

MI5 have probably got your phone tapped in any case..

Anonymous said...

I live in South Gloucestershire and can get full documentation for any planning application, including objections, simply by visiting the Council website. Presumably it's the same in Westminster, so what on earth is all the fuss about?

Anonymous said...

I agree with anon 3 above; the only question is not 'how you got them?' but 'who tipped you off?' A neighbour, I presume.

Unknown said...

Aren't planning applications publicly available?

Chris Paul said...

All these documents are SUPPOSED to be in the Public Domain as I posted earlier. NOW they are not available. Because someone is pretending there has been a leak. Let's hope someone works out how much this has cost Westminster Council Tax payers and sends you the bill with knobs on.

The Daily Pundit said...

Planning applications? I'm more interested in whether you did the Lambada with Cherie Booth at the Radio 4 News Christmas party. Did you go? Was it any good?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BJ said...

It's a fine story, Iain, congratulations. However, you've rather hoisted your source by his or her petard by putting on your blog who it isn't. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of how local government works will have a much smaller circle of suspects to work from, now.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why. I sent the info and was slightly miffed that I didn't get a credit for the tip-off.

The reason the Planning database can't find it has more to do with a hardware failure last week, actually. If Westminster are giving their staff the third degree to find "the leaker", they can stop right now.

Anonymous said...

Of course, it's only Guido that reveals his sources..

Anonymous said...

I would have thought their prospective neighbours might be a little more worried about their 'hood being turned into a 'Top Ten Terrorist Target', to be honest..

The Hitch said...

FREE THE DOUBTY STREET ONE!

No doubt JHL can give you a few tips as to how to survive life in the big house.

Praguetory said...

I admit it was me. Can't remember who sent it to me, but I thought it was only right to send it up the blog pyramid.

Praguetory said...

I admit it was me. Can't remember who sent it to me, but I thought it was only right to send it up the blog pyramid.

Praguetory said...

I admit it was me. Can't remember who sent it to me, but I thought it was only right to send it up the blog pyramid.

Anonymous said...

could be wrong, but I think praguetory's admitted it was him.

Anonymous said...

ha, ha, ha

Anonymous said...

Don't worry Iain,

As per the Private Eye Goldsmith / Maxwell / Sonia Sutcliffe actions, I'm sure your loyal supporters will chip in to your defence fund.

The bastards could never silence "Lord Gnome" as long as thousands of his supporters were ready to chip in a fiver or a tenner to support free speech.

Open a PayPal account in readiness...if you don't need it, work out which charity you would like it all to go to.

Anonymous said...

I'll contribute to your defence fund too, Iain, and if you go down for this, will send you a cake with a chisel.

Auntie Flo'

P.S. I'm sure blogging's allowed in chokey these days, so it will be like home from home.

Anonymous said...

No, I'm Spartacus!

Chris Paul said...

We are ALL Spartacus. Can any of you lot have a word with Dale and tell him that visiting and telling someone they're a prat of the first order is not big and it's not clever. Just like pretending some public domain information had been "leaked" when it has not been isn't big and isn't clever. Is it Iain? Non story. Rude person.

Iain Dale said...

Sorry Chris, but every time you post on here you prove my point. You are indeed a prat. I suspect most of the people reasing this blog and yours think so too.

Anonymous said...

Miaow! Stop it girls!

But Iain you should be aware that I had great difficulty with your site this weekend which kept crashing when I opened it. GCHQ are probably just firing a few ranging shots!

Anonymous said...

Iain,

Who is this arse who calls himself "Chris Paul"?

He sounds like someone who runs a rather second-rate ladies' hairdressers salon in some run-down suburb of a northern city like Manchester. God forbid!

Please ignore him. He has little to contribute to this blog, unless it is to highlight your genius in the company of uneducated proles.

Treat him with sympathy. Someone should do.

I would like to kick his teeth in...

Anonymous said...

I am Chris Paul.

Iain what's "reasing"?

Anonymous said...

chris paul is great:

in answer to your question, it's

REAMING

but only for those of you who have a lisp...

Like Chrith Paul

Anonymous said...

1) Planning applications are public documents and are open to all to study.

2) No-one can have leaked documents that are by their very nature a matter of public record.

3) What exactly is wrong with Westminster City Council, are they bonkers? How can they look for a leaker in the light of points 1) & 2)?

4) Surely it is time for Simon Milton to halt the nonsensical waste of public money involved in a fruitless mole hunt, or isn't Westminster a Tory controlled Council all of a sudden?

JayBee said...

Iain

Agree with Chris.

In the short-term, there are special pants you can wear. Then you can keep your leaks to yourself.

Anonymous said...

It's all academic anyway, Iain, as David Miliblob on his blog suggests that he wants you punished for cruelty to Gio.

Miliblob states that under the recent Animal Welfare Act:

"Pet owners will have a responsibility to ensure a suitable environment (where the pet lives), a suitable diet (what it eats and drinks), that it is able to behave normally..."

Normal behaviour for Jack Russells means hunting and the penalty for denial of Gio's normal behaviour is as follows:

"Offenders can be banned from owning animals; fined up to £20,000; and/or sent to prison for a maximum of 51 weeks. It remains an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal, or to organise an animal fight, but the law relating to these offences has been revised so that it is geared to tackle the types of crimes that occur in the 21st century."

Auntie Flo'

Roger Thornhill said...

Leak or tip-off, who cares. A public service has been performed letting sunlight in.

SpongeBlair Slot-gob have been rumbled.

I for one would be peeved if they get away with a 2-storey glass carbuncle linking the mews to the main res. That, and the CCTV. I'd be demanding it cannot see my pad, that is for sure...If I were a neighbour.

kris said...

good job you're not a councillor- because some genius at Westminster would no doubt shop you to the standards board!

Unknown said...

Westminster City Council seems to have removed the details from their web search, though the reference number and summary remain.
Surely they can't be overuling planning law with the "security card"?

Anonymous said...

never mind the planning flimflam, how did the Blairs get all that money to buy up and redevelop chunks of Connaught Square? Thought they were supposed to be skint. Who's funding the giant mortgage payments?

Anonymous said...

Looks like Dame Simon Milton's got it in for you... it'll be handbags at dawn!

Anonymous said...

Innit pretty public info?

BJ said...

Anon at 1001:

I imagine it's the promise of a massive Mudoch downpayment on those memoirs.

Anonymous said...

The Sunday Times saw the plans in March.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1563916.ece

"The Blairs’ total mortgage debts have been calculated at £4.7m but the prime minister is expected to earn millions from book deals, company directorships and the lecture circuit when he leaves office."

The Blairs current salaries are relatively modest. I wonder how they manage the mortgage repayments. Maybe the've got the same financial adviser as Mandelson.

Also, from the article:

"The cost of protecting Blair will be met by the taxpayer: the annual cost of 24-hour protection for Sir John Major, his predecessor, has been put at more than £1.5m."

Anonymous said...

What's the bet that blair didn't even buy the house.......it was probably bought by the security services in his name.

Anonymous said...

Aardvark - Thanks for a very interesting post.

From what I have read, the Goodyear Blimp's earnings are thin indeed. Something like £20-30K, as she doesn't seem to go into her chambers much any more. And how much can she raise by flogging things on eBay?

So where's the money from the mortgages coming from?

So the cost to the taxpayer of protecting John Major is £1.5m and nobody hates him. How much is protecting the Blairs for the rest of their greedy, ravenous lives going to cost?

Re the lecture circuit, I wouldn't be too sure. American interest in Tony Blair peaked a couple of years back. I don't think he's going to be able to make millions from after dinner speaking.

Also, I am not persuaded that Mr Bush will help him. Not the way the Bush family has helped John Major, that's for sure. Mr Bush doesn't share any political affinity with Tony Blair. My guess, he sees Blair as a cheap opportunist. (This is not to say Mr Bush does not appreciate the involvement of our military in Iraq. I'm saying that personally, the two men have nothing in common and Mr Bush will have spotted Blair for a cheap, empty opportunist quite some time ago.)

Re the book that someone will write for him - he has the attention span of a Mayfly so he won't be writing it himself - I don't see it as a big seller. It is so widely accepted that Blair is a liar, so people will be aware that it will be mostly self-aggrandising fiction, and will be as thoroughly dishonest as the man himself.

Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I do not think there will be a treasure trove for Blair at the end of the rainbow.

Anonymous said...

Ahh but Verity you are forgetting all those massively overpaid Directorships that will be being bunged the Bliar way. The likes of Capita and all those other PLC beneficiaries of Labour largesse and the PFI boom will be rewarding their benfactor appropriately I'm sure. As no doubt will the media and advertising companies who have trousered so very much of our money on the back of the Bliar commanded explosion in Government spending on adverts and spin.

Then of course there are the various publishing houses run by rabidly New Labour figures who, still being totally in thrall to his Tonyness, will ensure that his memoirs receive a sizeable advance out of all proportion to likely sales of said work of fiction.

Stand on me luv, those two greedy self serving spivs, Phony Bliar and the Mouth of the Mersey, will have it all worked out to be sure of a very comfortable future indeed.

Damn, now I've made myself feel nauseaous...................

Anonymous said...

Sorry, the above link (at 12.09 PM)got truncated. Here it is in full.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1563916.ece.

if that doesn't work here are the two halves:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol
/news/politics/article1563916.ece.

Unknown said...

spongy5SpongeBlair Slot-gob have been rumbled.

Can you remove this please?

Unknown said...

SpongeBlair slotgob
Can you remove this please?
Some friends told me about this as I am known as Spongeblair to them