Not content with denying Liam Fox the job of Shadow Foreign Secretary, the Conservative Party website has now dropped Liam Fox from his position of Shadow Defence Secretary. See this on Recess Monkey.
At least conservatives.com is still live. As Guido noted earlier - Labour's site is one of the casualties of the Hemel Hempstead explosion: "Welcome to the Labour Party website. The normal site is temporarily unavailable following an explosion at Buncefield oil depot in Hemel Hempstead on Sunday 11 December. Part of the offices of our hosting company were extensively damaged, resulting in the loss of our site." I've just visited now and it's still not back. Pathetic.
On the subject of Hemel, local MP Mike Penning has been brilliant on the media. Calm. Informed. Concerned for his constituents. A great performance and much better than Caroline Spelman's confrontational and flustered response on yesterday's Newsnight.
Lord Luke is only names as Shadow Secretary on the "ministers" page. On the Shadow Cabinet page he's still in post.
CCO's really gone down hill since Cameron took over. Must be a failure of management ;-)
Posted by: James Hellyer | December 13, 2005 at 19:57
Editor please stop with the anti-Spelman comments. She is asking probing quesions about the fire and coming across well.
Posted by: Clare Lewis | December 13, 2005 at 20:09
Sorry, Clare, but I agree with our Editor on this one. Her performance on Newsnight made me squirm.
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | December 13, 2005 at 20:13
Keep the pro-Penning stuff up! That was one quality team IDS had round him.
Posted by: Innocent Abroad | December 13, 2005 at 20:26
Neither Spelman nor May is very impressive.
Posted by: Goldie | December 13, 2005 at 21:39
Mike Penning has done well. It's refreshing to see a normal guy (an ex-fireman himself) representing both his constituents and the Conservative Party so well. Much better than some plummy barrister whose only experience of fires is warming his bum at the hearth of some country house.
Posted by: Tory T | December 13, 2005 at 22:19
Couldn't agree more Tim. Mike has been a great spokesman for both his constituency and the Party. Perhaps our candidate selection works...
Also agree with the points about Caroline Spelman. One of our problems seems to be that our front-benchers like to go in feet first demanding answers (often to irrelevant questions) rather than keeping quiet for a few days and assesing the situation.
Posted by: Louise | December 14, 2005 at 06:51
I agree with your comments about boith Mike Penning and Caroline Spelman. She is far from impressive. Why is she in the Shadow Cabinet at all? During the General Election campaign, when there was a debate over the closure of Longbridge, she heaped self-righteous indignation on Patricia Hewitt when it was blindingly obvious that a Tory Government would have done no different from Labour, not least because of EU rules on state aid. The attack was an entirely opportunistic attempt to attack Labour from the left, echoed of course by the Lib Dems John Hemming.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | December 14, 2005 at 11:02
As a Hemel resident, researching the portrayal of Mike Penning especially in new media. I would like to know how you guage his concern for Hemel residents. I especially ask this in light of his over concern for marking public holidays of historical Queens and other subjects, whilst until 2006 neglecting local issues. Please reference such statements.
Posted by: David Butler | February 28, 2006 at 23:37