Nick Boles steps down! (Nothin’ to do with me, Guv’nor…)

This entry was posted on
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
at
6:37 pm and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement.

Iain Dale – Nicholas Boles Steps Down from Policy Exchange

Well, we all know how Paul ‘Guido’ Staines would play this… he would claim full credit even if he were a casual bystander.

Perhaps, if he were in one of his less-conceited moods, he would link to two or three related items and say “What a coincidence!”… so let’s try that one on for size and see how it feels:

Bloggerheads – Iain Dale and the Nick Boles question
Guido 2.0 (Bloggerheads) – Nicked
Bloggerheads – Nicholas Boles
Bloggerheads – Nick Boles: if you *really* want to be Mayor of London…

(pause)

What a coincidence!

Iain Dale has also decided that perhaps now would be a good time for him to step down as a Trustee of Policy Exchange (and scream “Conspiracy loon!” in the same breath). I suppose, in his mind, that makes this a non-issue from now on.

Ministry of Truth – Guido, The Smith Institute and the Think Tank he’s not writing about.
Ministry of Truth – Opening cans of worms…
Ministry of Truth – Open letter to Iain Dale

(pause)

What a coincidence! Again!

One especially nice touch is that this began with Iain hiding behind his anonymous trolls and bullies, but he has suddenly decided that he doesn’t want to play such games right now; “If you can’t be bothered to identify yourselves, your comments won’t be posted. And that goes for anynmous [sic] posters in general. If all you want to do is slag people off, go and do it elsewhere.”

This, the day after he sent his anonymous trolls and bullies after The Labour Humanist with this softball.

What a hypocrite.

(Note – If Nick had been man enough to face this head-on, I would have been far less inclined to pursue this into his candidacy. As it is, I have very little respect for the man… and zero-to-no trust in his ability to handle other people’s money responsibly.)

UPDATE – A further thought from Clive:

The UK Today – Rattled?: Personally I’d be more critical of a trustee who took eighteen months to realise that they couldn’t commit to the necessary levels of support. That seems to be like the behaviour of someone who either places their image ahead of the charity’s wellbeing or a person with a rather blasé attitude towards it. Either way it isn’t the attitude I’d expect of a committed trustee. As for Nick Boles, the fact that it has taken him this long to realise that being chair of a Tory think-tank isn’t compatible with running for political office strikes me as either naive or arrogant. Neither one is an endearing characteristic in an elected official at any level.

Also, Unity has noticed that the official announcement on the Policy Exchange website makes a none-too-subtle point about Anthony Browne, Nick’s replacement: “Anthony comes to the charity with no political affiliations…”

This goose is cooked. Now comes the part where the Tories desperately scramble to hide or downplay the significance of the wonderful aroma wafting from the oven.

UPDATES + EXTRAS (22 Feb):

Ministry of Truth – Look into my eyes…
Guido 2.0 – Nick Boles and Iain Dale part company with Policy Exchange
BSSC – Swift Boat Veterans for the Tories








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