Paul Linford, 3rd October 2006:

It wasn’t all Osbourne’s fault. The word was put into his mouth by the Blairite journalist Mary Ann Sieghart who has penned her own piece justicative HERE. Sieghart, who was once so close to Mr Tony as to aspire to a job in the No 10 policy unit, gaily reassures us that “autistic” is an epithet that “plenty of politicians and journalists” have used about the Chancellor. “He does, after all, have an obsessive personality and rather low emotional intelligence. That is why the audience laughed: Mr Osborne’s joke resonated with them.”

In other words, because it’s Gordon Brown we’re attacking, that’s okay then.

Iain Dale, 6th October 2006:

I have finally found a column by Mary Ann Sieghart that I can’t disagree with. It was she who interviewed George Osborne at the Tory conference when he made his quip about Gordon Brown and autism. Read her column HERE. Paul Linford, however, seems to have had a sense of humour failure HERE.

Anyone who knows George Osborne knows he has a wicked sense of humour and is also a great mimic. Let’s hope this experience won’t have put him off being spontaneous. This whole episode was manufactured by bored journalists wh had nothing better to write and love a bit of faux outrage. Again, the lesson for the Conservatives is to keep the media beast fed and watered. If you don’t, don’t be surprised if it turns round and bites you.

Iain Dale, 13th April 2009:

Some may see this as a schoolboy spat between two bloggers with egos the size of a mountain. Maybe. But my experience is important as it demonstrates how the Number Ten lie machine will target anyone whose reputation it wishes to damage.
…
Perhaps this sort of affair is symptomatic of something more deep-rooted at the heart of government. All administrations flag after a while. They become gaffe- prone. People go off-message more frequently. A sense of malaise is almost palpable. It’s what happens when empires crumble.

hat/tip: Chicken Yoghurt

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