An opportunity to have coffee and cakes with Clarence Mitchell at Knoyle Hall, Brighton - Saturday 31st May, 2pm to 4pm

I wonder if tory candidates (or indeed candidates from any party) are given a budget with which to woo their electorate? I lean towards probably, because political parties have deep coffers when it comes to staying in power. The USA who are usually about 10 years ahead of us, have, for quite some time spent millions, if not billions, on ensuring selected candidates win target seats and they have the hard cash to change the local electorate's minds.

Just as the world has become a global village, so too has the way in which political parties are run. The ten year 'gap' between the UK and the USA is closing, our political candidates are getting prettier and far more polished - selection now probably includes an up or downturned thumb from Simon Cowell, and approval from a cyborg of Rupert Murdoch and a panel of tanning experts.

But I digress, if he, the prospective conservative member of Parliament or the constituency of Brighton were important, he would be accompanied by at least one member of the tory hierachy and the local WI would provided the cakes. Being an MP is not quite the cushy lives we imagine. They live in constant fear of losing their jobs, and they face this on a regular basis through the electorate where their popularity is measured by the number of votes they win. Those with low self esteem need not apply, but the deluded seem to make a success of it.

Clarence has friends in high places, but will they invest him? Will the Tory Party? From the perspective of the Tory Party the seat is unwinnable, the people of Brighton tend to be more enlightened than other cross sections of society, so they will probably target the more marginal seats that they can win. I think they would love to win Brighton, it would be a huge victory to have the artists and the glitterati on their side, but history shows, bright young things never support the old establishment.

Again, I feel a tad sorry for Clarence. Whilst he may find a lot of quaint little tea shops to raise a china cup of twinings to Her Majesty with lemon cake to die for, its unlikely the local population will vote for a party that would like to see them ostracised and denied the rights of other citizens.

What possible angle can Clarence take that will persuade the people of Brighton to vote for him? At every public meeting he attends he will face awkward, angry, questions. Not just about Madeleine by the way, but about the policies of the tory party, and their stance on Gay Marriage. This is a community that parties every summer with Fat Boy Slim on the stony beaches and holds an annual Gay Pride March that surpasses all others.

Although he doesn't appear to be playing up his happily married man with 2.4 children (I have no idea btw, never looked up his personal life) - he still has an authoritarian air that reeks of old establishment, he looks as though, at any given moment, he is likely to wag his finger at the audience as if he were a deranged old Head Master from the 50's with the power of some hidden (scary) force behind him. I just can't see the locals warming to his icy charms, and rather than thrust babies in his arms, mothers are probably wrapping them in garlic and standing guard with a crucifix.

Do they care more about parking spaces and stray dogs than they do about the economy? Or indeed, the way in which this Tory government are decimating the most vulnerable in society? Perhaps they believe Clarence can become Brighton's equivalent of London's Boris Johnson, the Mr. Personality of London by Sea? He has the flyaway hair (or has it flown off?) and the ability to clap his hands together and look like a winner, even when the rest of the world thinks he's a twat. However, he doesn't quite have the Joie d vivre of Boris, like his most famous clients, he keeps his emotions firmly behind the scenes, does he laugh? does he cry? will we ever know? He can't quite pull off the loveable old buffoon act either, it would be like a stockbroker painting his face like Ronald McDonald, a bit creepy, the angry old head master would still be lurking beneath the surface.

So who just who will he be in Brighton? I look forward to his speeches with interest.

Portia wrote:The aspiring HonMember must by now be considering canceling his date with Brighton history claiming to be threatened by Forumnutters

People posting on here as not half as nutty as the McCanns and their acolytes. Or indeed the members of the public who still believe fervently in the McCann Circus act. The McCanns are so truly awful that I have developed some kind of fascination with them. It is difficult to wrap your head around the levels of depravity they have shown. And one can only be astonished by Clarence Mitchell and his antics.

Doug D wrote:'our political candidates are getting prettier'

Rose coloured spec's on Cristobel?

LOL   

Harold Wilson - Ed Milliband

Ted Heath - David Cameron

Then of course, we have the divine Esther posing in lingerie. I don't remember Anne Widdicome ever posing in anything frilly (happily), but I may have missed it!

I do (on the whole), like Obama, but to be fair, if a group of scientists/spin doctors were asked to come up with a perfectly formed, drop dead gorgeous, charismatic automaton who would appeal to the entire electorate, no matter their race or colour, Barack would be the finely tuned prototype. I don't actually believe in (totally nuts) conspiracy theories, just saying, is all.   

But do you not think that the McCanns conspiracy theory is probably the nuttiest of them all? There is not a shred of evidence for what they say happened to their daughter. All the alleged sightings and so on. They are nuttier than anyone. Kate's book is a work of fantasy.They are they conspiracy theorists, everyone else is just trying to work out what the hell really went on, and WHY.

j.rob wrote:But do you not think that the McCanns conspiracy theory is probably the nuttiest of them all? There is not a shred of evidence for what they say happened to their daughter. All the alleged sightings and so on. They are nuttier than anyone. Kate's book is a work of fantasy.They are they conspiracy theorists, everyone else is just trying to work out what the hell really went on, and WHY.

  Quite: stolen to order, Kate bought her too pretty a dress, abductors working for international gang of paedophiles targeted 5a for months (presumably Too thick to work out how to get into other apartments), gypsies who in good Victorian drama, are always out for new blood for the tribe ..... The duo of detectives who disguised themselves as cherry pickers, Cowley and his mate, who then discovered a doll in a car! Traced the owner to a hellish liar - there's no end to it.

A lot of the scenarios are pure Victorian melodrama with the unique logic of the McCanns mixed in: persecuting themselves for not being there that minute she was abducted .... Errrrrn. But errr....  

If her loving parents were on hand when Madeleine was 'taken', would they have made sure she was well supplied with sandwiches for the journey?  Sent her off with a blue bag case containing her clothes, pink blanket, and one fifth of the family toothbrush?  Or would they have simply pressed cuddlecat into her hands and waved her a fond 'goodbye forever' before returning to their pals at the Tapas?

UT Maddie must have thought she was going on holiday and must have been very excited..i wonder if she took that there trifle kate had fussed over, along with her sandwiches..poor wee soul

tigger wrote:

j.rob wrote:But do you not think that the McCanns conspiracy theory is probably the nuttiest of them all? There is not a shred of evidence for what they say happened to their daughter. All the alleged sightings and so on. They are nuttier than anyone. Kate's book is a work of fantasy.They are they conspiracy theorists, everyone else is just trying to work out what the hell really went on, and WHY.

  Quite: stolen to order,  Kate bought her too pretty a dress, abductors working for international gang of  paedophiles targeted 5a for months (presumably   Too thick to work out how to get into other apartments), gypsies who in good Victorian drama, are always out for new blood for the tribe ..... The duo of  detectives who disguised themselves as cherry pickers, Cowley and his mate, who then discovered a doll in a car!  Traced the owner to a hellish liar - there's no end to it.

A lot of the scenarios are pure Victorian melodrama with the unique logic of the McCanns mixed in: persecuting themselves for not being there that minute she was abducted .... Errrrrn. But errr....  

Yes - a lot of the 'leads' and 'alleged sightings' are ludicrous. However, having had a quick look at the Ben Needham disappearance, I am wondering to what extent, if any, the McCanns based their story upon the mysterious disappearance of Ben? There do appear to be some parallels in terms of the version of events promoted by the McCanns and the time-line of Ben's disappearance in which there were claims that Ben was being held by gypsies. The police investigation seems to have been seriously hampered by language problems and other problems in terms of communication between UK and Greek authorities.

Just wondering if the McCanns, to an extent, used the Ben Needham disappearance(in which I do not believe there is any suspicion of involvement of parents or relatives) as a bit of a blueprint for their own (staged and faked, imo) 'abduction' of Madeleine?

They must have got the idea from somewhere.

Perhaps this is something to discuss with Clarence, along with a cup of tea and cup-cakes.

Just an observation and illuminating: a search for Clarence Mitchell on the internet gives this:

About 41 results (0.54 seconds) .  That's impressive editing of the internet imo.

Wiki doesn't give me anything straight this comes via another Google search adding 'biography' to the name: User:GrahamHardy/Clarence Mitchell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
< User:GrahamHardy
Clarence Mitchell is a former BBC news reporter, and now official spokesman for the family of Madeleine McCann.
Mitchell began his career as a journalist as a local reporter for the Barnet & Potters Bar Times in South Hertfordshire before leaving to join a BBC training scheme.[citation needed] He later joined the BBC as a regional reporter in Leeds. In the early 1990s he moved to BBC Breakfast News and then as a reporter on the main national BBC TV and radio bulletins. [1], reporting on the death of Michael Hutchence in 1997 and as royal correspondent in 1999 on the death of Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana.[2] Between 2003 and 2005 he covered stories in the Middle East including the Iraq conflict.[3]
After 20 years as a journalist[4], in April 2006 he joined the government's Central Office of Information as director of the Media Monitoring Unit and in May 2007 was sent to Portugal on behalf of the UK Foreign Office to provide temporary consular assistance to the McCanns with handling the media following the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine McCann who disappeared on 3 May 2007 while on holiday with her family in the resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve, Portugal. On 17 September, he resigned as director of the Central Office of Information's media monitoring unit to become the McCanns' media spokesman.[5][6]
External links[edit]

Clarence Mitchell profile from the BBC news website
Guardian article: A veteran of major stories
Guardian article: Former BBC man to speak for the McCanns
Notes[edit]

Jump up ^ [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Jump up ^ [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Jump up ^ Sweeney, Mark (2007-09-18). "A veteran of major stories". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
Jump up ^ [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Jump up ^ David Brown and Steve Bird (2007-09-17). "Portuguese judge balks at ordering Madeleine McCann's parents to return". The Times. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
Jump up ^ Caroline Gammell (2007-09-19). "Madeleine McCann: Parents are 'victims of heinous crime'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-09-20.

This page was last modified on 25 December 2007 at 20:33.


Clarence Mitchells that come up are either US politicians or baseball heroes. I find this impressive editing as I'm sure I've seen reams on Wiki before.
Methinks this is a bad sign, McVey going to earn enough money to pay for some  much needed clothes, Mitchell without a rap sheet - a general cleaning job neatly done so far.
If Cameron is going to enter those murky TM waters, I'm sure the necessary cleaning materials will have been deployed.

Google search 'Clarence Mitchell McCann' brings up one million hits, I meant to post parts from the website 'the Clarrifieds' but get a message it's been frozen. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Message reads:
We're sorry, this site is frozen.
If you are the site owner, please
click here to contact us
regarding the status of your website.
Please do not contact us if you are not the owner of this site.

tigger wrote:Just an observation and illuminating: a search for Clarence Mitchell on the internet gives this:
About 41 results (0.54 seconds) .  That's impressive editing of the internet imo.
[...]

***
Funny that. I just googled "Clarence Mitchell" and got 159.000 results in 0,33 seconds ...

I'm sure I once read somewhere that the pink one witnessed special branch raiding a local paper he used to work on as a journalist , the plot thickened further because close behind the police officers on the raid stormed Margret Thatcher , some files were removed from the premises ...be interesting to know what was in them ?....or indeed if anyone took a peek discovered something untoward that may come in useful later on .....has anyone read of this before ?

Châtelaine wrote:

tigger wrote:Just an observation and illuminating: a search for Clarence Mitchell on the internet gives this:
About 41 results (0.54 seconds) .  That's impressive editing of the internet imo.
[...]

***
Funny that. I just googled "Clarence Mitchell" and got 159.000 results in 0,33 seconds ...

Weirdest thing - should have specified the first one was Clarence Mitchell the clarrifieds, with only 41 hits. It was a much visited website and I find it strange that it is frozen and there is a request for the owner to make contact.

Other Clarence Mitchells are as I said, a lot of politicians, baseball player mainly US. I'm using Google.co.uk so numbers are different. Just searched again with the CM +Mc heading and now get around 880.000 - seems random.

But the heavily bowdlerised version on Wiki has definitely been edited well after 24/12/07. I've seen far longer entries in Wiki on him.
Esther McVey on Wiki - there's not a mention of the McCanns in her biography.
As far as Wiki is concerned, all pure as the driven and - in CMs case, the McCanns could hardly be excluded, but it is hardly an in depth biography of a prospective member of parliament.

Rasputin wrote:I'm sure I once read somewhere that the pink one witnessed special branch raiding a local paper he used to work on as a journalist , the plot thickened further because close behind the police officers on the raid stormed Margret Thatcher , some files were removed from the premises ...be interesting to know what was in them ?....or indeed if anyone took a  peek discovered something untoward that may come in useful later on .....has anyone read of this before ?

No, but sounds interesting. There was also the Trafigura scandal, same sort of thing. Mitchell's career started it's meteoric rise to the MMU when?

How ironic tigger Ester and Clarrie whooshing the whooshers !  

Hope you don't mind me bumping this thread but coffee and cakes with CM is next week.

It's in the diary! Highlight of my week. 

Actually, it would be quite interesting to grill him face to face over the whole sordid affair. He really does have some questions to answer.

But I forgot, politicians don't answer questions!

j.rob wrote:It's in the diary! Highlight of my week. 

Actually, it would be quite interesting to grill him face to face over the whole sordid affair. He really does have some questions to answer.

But I forgot, politicians don't answer questions!

Don't forget to take a packet of antacids with you. I'm sure the cake and coffee will be fine but the waffle might be a bit stomach turning.

Today's the day!

Clarrie is holding court. An opportunity to meet the man himself. Coffee and cake with Clarrie - a snip at five quid - who could resist - how exciting! (I'm not using any more exclamation marks for fear of copying Kate and Gerry).

j.rob wrote:It's in the diary! Highlight of my week. 

Actually, it would be quite interesting to grill him face to face over the whole sordid affair. He really does have some questions to answer.

But I forgot, politicians don't answer questions!

Look forward to hearing about it, especially numbers attending.

j.rob wrote:It's in the diary! Highlight of my week. 

Actually, it would be quite interesting to grill him face to face over the whole sordid affair. He really does have some questions to answer.

But I forgot, politicians don't answer questions!

He will be too busy doing his bullshit PR talk and shaking hand he won't allow anyone to file question about this case. You'd be lucky to get the first question past him.

It might be useful to ask him:
Is he still Mccanns' paid representative ?

What does he think of OG chances of finding the body ?
If the body links the Mccanns to the crime, would it affect his political ambition ?

Come on Clarence, show us your invoices to the Fund. Is there a prompt payment discount? I'm all for those.

Come on Clarence, show us your invoices in the hope that transparency is alive and well.

Come on Clarence, show us that your income didn't come from donations by honest people who sent money to the McCanns in their 'desperate hour' of need.

Come on Clarence, there's nothing to hide.

Yesterday's tweet from Clarence Mitchell

Perfect Sunday lunch @CrescentBN1. My local never looked better.

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aquila wrote:Yesterday's tweet from Clarence Mitchell

Perfect Sunday lunch @CrescentBN1. My local never looked better.

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He's photoshopped. K and G out of those two chairs. Either that or they left after his tasteless joke about K's slice of beef looking like Rocha Negra.

@Mirage

There are two dishes on that table, one fried, the other roasted. The big question is did he get a grilling earlier at his coffee and cake venue?

aquila wrote:@Mirage

There are two dishes on that table, one fried, the other roasted. The big question is did he get a grilling earlier at his coffee and cake venue?

No he was barbecued, aquila. Witnesses stated he'd been well and truly hauled over the coals.   
ETA: A close pal who did not want to give her mcname quoted him as saying afterwards: "It was like dying in your own back garden."

@Mirage. I've had to wipe coffee off my computer screen. I should have swallowed it before I read your post.

Well it does seem that recently Clarence has moved on from parking, refuse collection, stray dogs and cats and is now moving into the area of promoting local restaurants

Why only on Friday he tweeted

Grt day meeting supporters including Gulam Ahmed, owner of Ladies Mile Tandoori. He's backing myself and @MilesBrighton.



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aquila wrote:Yesterday's tweet from Clarence Mitchell

Perfect Sunday lunch @CrescentBN1. My local never looked better.

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  Mr Mitchell partaking of a long boozy lunch? Disgraceful behaviour, he'll be joining the PJ next

May be his last supper of fish and chips before porridge time.

aiyoyo wrote:May be his last supper of fish and chips before porridge time.

I am sure he will sample the humble pie first