Blair Mayor Project - A Bad TV Day

It's been a bad TV day for Linda and me. Those bolshies on BBC Panorama have just gone ahead and broadcast "The Blair Mayor Project", despite polite requests from my lawyers for them to see sense and pull the programme. This news article posted on the BBC website repeats the slanderous lies put out in the Panorama programme.

Of course that b*****d Livingstone is behind it all, trying to smear my ex-"boss" Frank and worse still trying to smear Linda, who is working for Frank as a volunteer in the election.

And Glenda was busy stirring the pot as well, saying if Panorama's revelations were true it was "offensive beyond words that people would be cheated in that way". After all I did for her in the past with political advice and support, that's the gratitude I get.

The gist of these pernicious lies is that Linda got hold of the Labour Party membership list from MEP Claude Moraes (for whom she had been working) and passed the information on to the Dobbo camp to give him an unfair advantage against both Glenda and against Red Ken and his purple bandwagon.

Paul Lettan told Panorama that he had personally seen my computer screen in the Dobson campaign office displaying a file called "memlist".

Lettan said in evidence: "When I moved across the screen past Luke to sit down beside him, I heard this rustling behind me and when I turned to focus at Luke, Linda was perched awkwardly in front of the screen and as she sat down in front of the screen she moved the screen round and then this man in a suit was clearly uncomfortable because he was being squashed out the way and he stood to one side to make way for her to sit".

What a load of old squashed tomatoes. To suggest that Linda and I would break Labour Party rules and effectively corrupt an election by leaking information. We weren't given a chance to defend ourselves on the "Blair Witch-Hunt Project", but I can now reveal to the world that the file that Lettan saw was in fact my membership list of the Barney's Club. I'm always keen to keep in touch with other Bristol alumni and find out how they're getting on. They pass on tips on good port and cigars, where to go to enjoy a good rag stunt and that sort of thing. In any case - does Linda look to you like someone who would "perch awkwardly"?

I would die to defend democracy. What a cheek to suggest that I would subvert it!