Scallywag on Westminster Dolphin Square

A Scallywag in Westminster

By Simon Regan 1995

The timing of the vociferous campaign against ourselves and others, directed from the heart of Smith Square, is no coincidence. It marks the start of the run-up to the next general election which most political pundits believe will be held in the autumn of l996. Compared to what the Conservative Research Department has in store for Blair and his people, Scallywag, of course, is very small beer.

Yet the whole might of the Conservative Central Office machine has been employed, in a bloodying operation to sharpen their knives for the big push to come. This has included Dr. Julian Lewis - ostensibly Deputy Head of research, but openly the Tory Chief Dirty Tricks' Hatchet Man - using the staff of Conservative right-wingers to help him in his murky work. He was able to employ researchers of sitting MP's, for example, to roam over London buying up copies of the magazine and finding out from the newsagents who supplied it.

He then forced the magazine's withdrawal by suing the wholesalers. Other staff had spent days, if not weeks, in Companies House finding out the specific names of directors. Armed with this Lewis himself made dozens of menacing calls to individuals.

Others have broken into our offices and stolen documents. The Hampstead home of one of our senior staff was entered, although nothing was taken. There was a permanent bug on our mobile 'phone and in some cases after a sympathiser had talked to us, they were contacted immediately afterwards by an anonymous voice which warned them off further contact.

All very juvenile nonsense designed to spook us and our friends. It is almost certain that right wing pals in GCHQ have provided copies of any sensitive fax we may have taken or sent. (GCHQ receives a copy of every fax transmitted in the UK). It is these same people who, almost in army formation, have been sneaking around the constituencies of virtually every shadow cabinet minister.

This right-wing clique are all of the early seventies Oxbridge Conservative Associations which were exploited by Peterhouse historian Maurice Cowling and later by Margaret Thatcher. Both Michael Portillo and Peter Lilley were recruited to the cause and spent their formative political years in Smith Square.
Most of this clique are also gay. There is a gay lobby operating around Westminster and Pimlico, with headquarters at Dolphin Square, which preys on the 100 or so (mainly Conservative) MP's who are gay. It is not illegal to be right wing nor gay. Nor is it illegal for many of them to be Freemasons. But a combination can be extremely potent. Especially as, in the case of being gay and/or Freemason, everything is usually conducted under cloaks of secrecy.

The security services, both M15 and MI6 are both well endowed with gay right-wingers. There might be little wrong with this, except for the fact that this clique has formed a party within a party. And the "Cowling Cupids" as they were known at Peterhouse in 1972-75 are now spread evenly in Whitehall, Westminster and they have penetrated almost every section of British society which could be deemed powerful.
They have become the bane of John Major's life for he inherited them when they had become deeply entrenched during the Thatcher years. Julian Lewis came to prominence after he led a powerful campaign of dirty tricks against the then CND under Bruce Kent. He represented various ultra right-wing groups such as the British Freedom Association and was first spotted when he went to Washington to smear Kent on a CND rally in the capital.

To the American security services people like Kent were nothing but dirty little pinkoes, to be eradicated as fast as possible. In turn, the Lewis campaign in Washington led to him being 'adopted' by the Heritage Foundation who subsequently paid £4 million into the Conservative party coffers during Thatcher's reign. This made Lewis a hard man to fire.

But is Lewis and Co. part of the Cowling Dream of king making? A successor to Thatcher in which Michael Portillo was to be the principle leading boy If so, it is all fitting together almost exactly as he predicted on a seat in the grounds of Peterhouse in l973. (See Scallywag 27).

Cowling would work on Thatcher to take an interest in Portillo. He would get into Parliament as soon as he'd been blooded in the CCO. Then, as predicted, he would move up the ladder fast as a Thatcher protégé. There was a bit of a hiccup when Thatcher was ousted, but timing wise, it did not make much difference.
As recently as last year, Cowling was predicting the following scenario: There would be a leadership crisis this year. A short term leader would be found. Someone to create a smoke screen, but would probably lose the election. By mid-term in opposition Portillo would seize power and take the Conservatives successfully into the new century.

Well, anything can happen in politics, but this scenario has an uncanny familiarity to it. And somewhere back there Margaret is still pulling an awful lot of strings.
Is it a complete coincidence, for example, that the former party treasury supremo, Lord McAlpine should suddenly bemoan the fact that the Tories deserve to lose the next election? McAlpine is the almost personification of a Thatcherite. Is he poised for a come-back at Smith Square when the right-wing has its day?
For, as we have catalogued elsewhere in this magazine, there is still something like seventy million pounds sitting in off-shore accounts which only McAlpine and Thatcher know about. Will the twosome barter with this knowledge? For if McAlpine did make a come-back, the party coffers would brim again overnight,
Almost all of these funds, as we have catalogued, have rather an odour to them, as have most of the real problems besetting Major's government under siege. Pergau Dam money. The Al Yamamah armaments fiasco. Mark Thatcher's very smelly dealings. Sleaze money for questions. Nearly all of them were inherited by Major.
In fact one of the reasons why the Prime Minister's Party is fumbling around so badly, is that he is simply not devious enough to play the real Tory game. Had he been up to the shenanigans of the Party in the Thatcher years, the coffers would have never emptied so rapidly.

A prominent labour MP told us in the Commons recently, "we just don't need a dirty tricks department. The Tories themselves are doing it for us."
Actually, this is very true indeed. Lewis and CO are having to work very hard indeed to come up with dirt.

Meanwhile, as ministers dropped like ninepins over one genuine scandal or another, a Tory MP was found hanging upside down in lady's clothing with an satsuma in his mouth. Two others were suspended for taking "question money" and the Scott Inquiry has deeply embarrassed just about every cabinet minister who served under Margaret.
The real Labour Luvvies are not Bragg, Follet and CO, swilling their Australian Chardonnay and bleating on about how much they just love Tony. They are a hard bunch of influential, powerful, rich, intelligent and very well-meaning people in the upper echelons of banking, business, commerce, finance, public relations and the media.
There's no parlour politics here. In the past four months we have seen more of the Hilton rooftop bar, the Ivy restaurant, the City, The Albany, Grouchos, even the Garrick, and Westminster itself than we have in the whole of the rest of our lives.
Something's cooking, Julian, and if your research department was doing a proper job and not chasing shadows, you'd know what was coming.