Hodges,Ed,Guido, and the New Statesman

There has been a great deal of controversy over the fate of New Statesman journalist and blogger Dan Hodges mainly from the website of Guido Fawkes who alleges that an article by the said journalist upset the Labour leader Ed Miliband.

The said article dealt with the issue of the booing of Tony Blair as Ed referenced him in his conference speech forcing the New Statesman to spike the piece.

You can read the full article entitled "Tony Blair is the Scar the Labour Party Cannot Help Scratching" on Iain Dale's site

The magazine has reiterated its version of events that he has simply resigned stating

For the record it says:

Dan Hodges resigned as one of our freelance bloggers, he was not sacked. Moreover, we asked him to stay and to continue blogging.

He wasn't being "rested" from the magazine for the simple reason that he is not a regular contributor to it. Like all other would-be contributors to the magazine he was invited to pitch ideas directly to the editor.

No article or column intended for the magazine was "spiked" because no piece was commissioned for the magazine.

The magazine adds that the article was not spiked saying that they did not run the piece as Hodges had already contributed four blog posts that week (as agreed, and double his usual output).

A fifth post that went over much of the same ground as the previous posts,they say was deemed redundant.

As with all other magazines and newspapers we have occasion to "spike" pieces. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last.

The perils of twitter and non quiet zones on the train.

An excellent read from Guido which had me laughing out loud and a warning to those of us who like to engage in loud conversations on the train.

A big round of applause to the Liberal Democrat activist Dan Falchikov who spent an entire train journey mouthing off about how he stirred up a rumour that had been picked up by the press about the closure of Kingston Hospital. Richmond MP Susan Kramer quickly got a campaign up but little did Mr Falchikov realise he was infact sitting opposite the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire, who was commuting in from his million pound suburban mansion:

Blogging wars and the end of Derek Draper

The Telegraph's front page story ths morning is going to cause a great deal of controversy across the political blogosphere this Easter weekend.

The paper reports that

Downing Street is at the centre of a fresh security scare after it emerged that private emails written by one of Gordon Brown’s senior officials had ended up in the hands of Guido Fawkes.

The paper adds that

The emails, which made a number of unfounded, innuendo-laden suggestions about the private lives of David Cameron, George Osborne and other Conservative MPs

The man in question believes the story to be somewhat of a plant and a continuation of his rtecent battle with Derek Draper and Damian McBride and refutes that he tried to sell the story to the Sunday papers.

Damian McBride is desperately trying to throw a smokescreen up tonight with a planted frontpage story in the Telegraph which downplays what he has been up to. Andrew Porter, the Telegraph’s lobby correspondent, is Damian McBride’s regular drinking companion and tame mouthpiece, so it is no surprise whatsoever to Guido that the Telegraph is being used by Downing Street for damage limitation./blockquote>

Meanwhile Iain Dale also involved in a blogging spat with Mr Draper

This week, Derek Draper's Twitter Feed and any mention of him have been removed from the front page of Labour List. I wonder if that is in preparation for him being dropped altogether.
I await the details of the Sunday papers, but I would be very surprised if either Damian McBride or Derek Draper still had the same job titles on Monday.