George Osborne: No Tongues

GEORGE OSBORNE was so convinced that the Tories would not win an outright victory in the general election that he offered to give Lynton Crosby a French kiss if they got a majority.

The chancellor made the bizarre pledge to the Conservative campaign chief on election day as senior Tories tried to predict whether David Cameron would be returning to Downing Street.

When Cameron stormed to an unlikely win, Osborne was forced to “consummate” his promise but withdrew his pledge, as one senior Tory put it, to give the architect of the campaign “a proper snog”.

The chancellor planted a kiss on Crosby’s cheek in front of Cameron and fellow strategist Jim Messina when they met in No 10 on the morning after their triumph.

Crosby said: “It’s true. His aftershave still haunts me. Fortunately tongues remained withdrawn. The pledge was on election day. The consummation was the day after at No 10.” ...

The Sunday Times.

I guess if you went to a posh school you find this sort of thing 'bloody hilarious'.

Tories: Post Gay Marriage

David Cameron's new star signing, the election strategist behind President Barack Obama's victories, has become embroiled in allegations of a homophobic past just days into his appointment.
Jim Messina, who managed the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012, was on Saturday night dealing with allegations – first made in 2002, repeated in 2012 and now being retold on Twitter – that he was behind what has become known as the most homophobic political advert in US history. Messina was unveiled as a consultant to the Tory party on Friday.
The damaging allegations date from Messina's time as chief of staff for Democrat senator Max Baucus of Montana, just over a decade ago. He allegedly put together a political advert in which a rival candidate, Mike Taylor, was shown applying lotion to a man's face, then appearing to reach towards the man's groin, while a voiceover said: "Not the way we do business in Montana."
The footage of Taylor had been taken from an advert for the politician's hairdressing business. The Denver Post reported at the time: "Only the most naive adult would miss the implication that Taylor is a homosexual… The supposedly inclusive Democrats deftly played on the right's homophobia."
After the advert aired, Taylor dropped out of the election, which Baucus won....

The Observer.

With him and the devil's spawn Lynton Crosby now advising Cameron expect more appeals to scare-mongering right-wing populism like this racist trash.
Be afraid - be very afraid.
Fagburn wonders what LGBTory think of this homophobic cunt?

Update: Spinwatch on the dirty tricks of Lynton Crosby, The Wizard of Oz.

Conservatives: Architecture And Morality

The architect of David Cameron’s policy on gay marriage is leaving Downing Street after losing a power battle with the Prime Minister’s new Election supremo.
Andrew Cooper, Mr Cameron’s personal polling guru and a key modernising figure at No 10, is returning to his private business after being usurped by outspoken Australian ‘fixer’ Lynton Crosby.
Mr Cooper, who became Director of Government Strategy two years ago, is a former member of the now defunct Social Democratic Party and lobbied Mr Cameron to ditch traditional Right-wing Tory values and policies on Europe, tax and crime in a bid to ‘detoxify’ the Conservatives’ ‘Nasty Party’ image.
In contrast, Mr Crosby, who took charge of the Tory campaign machine in January on a £200,000-a-year deal, specialises in ‘dog whistle’ tactics – subtle appeals to voters’ underlying prejudices over issues such as immigration – which are designed to appeal to core Conservative voters.
Defiant Mr Crosby denies using ‘dog-whistle’ tactics to send surreptitious messages, saying: ‘It was more like a foghorn..'
He is understood to have been critical of Mr Cameron’s policy on gay marriage for alienating grassroots supporters.
Mr Cooper, co-founder of the Populus polling company, helped persuade Mr Cameron that while gay marriage would lose votes among older party supporters in safe seats, more importantly it would attract votes in marginal constituencies...

If the Mail On Sunday can be believed - which, of course, it often can't - this doesn't look good, and will see the Conservatives stepping up their attempts to recapture the bigot vote from Ukip.
There may not be of a direct connection, though, as Crosby was appointed last year, and Cooper will still be working for Cameron part-time.
Also The Telegraph has suggested Cooper's desire for the party to back gay marriage was arguably even more cynical.

When the Coalition was dividing up the announcements for their [2001] party conferences, it was agreed that Nick Clegg could inform his troops of the gay marriage legislation. But Andrew Cooper, Cameron’s pollster, panicked, ordering the policy to be briefed to the press as a Tory announcement. He hated the idea of the Conservatives being outflanked, and wanted to be able say to young voters: “We legalised gay marriage.” 
So the issue ended up with such prominence not because there was overwhelming demand for it, but because it became the centre of a custody battle between the two Coalition partners.  
   
Update: Downing Street issued a formal denial of a story in the Mail on Sunday that Mr Cooper was going back to Populus, the private polling company he co-founded, but without any further comment or explanation. Mr Cooper is a controversial figure in Tory circles, because of his role in persuading David Cameron to legalise gay marriage. The Independent.