Derek Draper’s larger than life Labour character will certainly not be forgotten
In the Blair and Brown years, the irrepressible Derek Draper was one of Westminster’s best known and most colourful characters.
Affectionately known as “Dolly”, he was a cheerful extrovert who loved being at the centre of intrigue and gossip and was prone to boasting about his own importance.
To be fair, he was indeed very much an insider in the New Labour project that catapulted Tony Blair into power in the landslide election victory in 1997.
He was sociable, gregarious and because he worked for and was an ally of Peter Mandelson he was almost a Blairite before Blair.
He was fun, had a cheeky grin and an easy manner, and enjoyed the company and camaraderie of MPs and journalists in Westminster.
He was also very good at his job, colleagues acknowledged, and passionate about Labour winning the 1997 election after 18 years in opposition.
But it was his occasional boasting – and his misfortune in being unwittingly dragged into plotting – that landed him in two embarrassing New Labour scandals.
The first was when he was caught out bragging about how important and well connected he was. The second was over a link to a plot to smear Tory politicians.
Part of Dolly’s colourful reputation came from the fact that he worked for Mandelson, the “Prince of Darkness”, during Mandy’s ascent from spin doctor to government minister.
Draper faced criticism over his infamous quote
That wasn’t Draper’s first job in politics, however.
In fact, he worked for Nick Brown, when “Newcastle Brown” – the Tyneside MP who later became chief whip under four Labour leaders – was a shadow minister.
He went to work for Mandelson when he became the MP for Hartlepool in 1992 and – along with the equally irrepressible Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown‘s legendary spin doctor – was one of Westminster’s most high-profile insiders.
‘I am intimate with every one of them’
But Draper left Westminster a year before the Blair landslide and became a political lobbyist. And that was when his boasting landed him in trouble.
In 1998, in a scandal that became known as “Lobbygate”, he told an undercover reporter from The Observer how important and influential he was.
“There are 17 people who count in this government… to say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century,” he said in a memorable quote.
He drew criticism. Even Mandelson said at the time: “He gets above himself. But now he has been cut down to size and I think probably he will learn a very hard lesson from what has happened.”
But he landed in more trouble in 2009 when The Daily Telegraph revealed that Brown’s then spin doctor, Damian McBride, had sent him emails about a plot to smear Tory politicians including David Cameron, George Osborne and Nadine Dorries.
It was reported that Draper, who by now had set up the LabourList website, described the plan as “brilliant” in an email to McBride.
Now spin doctor for the shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, McBride immediately quit and prime minister Brown was forced to issue a grovelling apology.
A few weeks later, a contrite Draper quit LabourList and said: “I regret ever receiving the infamous email and I regret my stupid, hasty reply. I should have said straight away that the idea was wrong.”
After his career change, training as a psychotherapist, Dolly moved on, although he would still turn up to social events with Labour Party pals, such as the Tribune magazine Christmas party.
His illness has been a terrible shock to all who knew this larger-than-life character who was such amusing and engaging company. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.
VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.
The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence.
Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.
The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21.
“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.
Related: Tokenized stocks could top $1T in market cap — Execs
Thematic crypto funds
VanEck’s PurposeBuilt Fund is the latest in a series of funds from the asset manager and rivals designed to offer exposure to projects and companies in fast-growing segments of Web3.
On May 14, VanEck launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to invest in stocks and financial instruments providing exposure to the digital economy.
In April, VanEck launched another ETF investing in a passive index of companies operating in the crypto space.
Asset managers such as VanEck are requesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) permission to list upward of 70 crypto ETFs.
The wave of ETF filings is in response to US President Donald Trump softening the agency’s regulatory stance toward crypto after Trump took office in January.
Avalanche RWA ecosystem
Avalanche has emerged as a hub for real-world assets (RWAs) and other institutional-oriented crypto projects.
Its interrelated networks, called subnets, allow institutions to run Ethereum-style smart contracts in a controlled environment. On May 16, Solv Protocol launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche blockchain, targeting institutional investors
Avalanche has around $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of May 21, according to data from DefiLlama.
“We’re seeing a shift away from speculative hype toward real utility and sustainable token economies,” John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said in a statement.
Magazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions — Sky Wee
A Democratic representative in the US Congress will support a blockchain bill at a time when many left-leaning lawmakers are blocking crypto-related pieces of legislation due to concerns with President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
In a May 21 notice, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer said he had reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill that “solidifies that digital asset developers and service providers that do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters.”Emmer, a Republican, said Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres would co-lead the bill, making it a bipartisan effort in Congress.
“The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reflects a thoughtful, bipartisan effort to get digital asset policy right,” said Torres. “While similar language was voted down in markup last Congress, we took that feedback seriously and returned with a smarter, sharper framework that protects innovation without compromising oversight.”
Representatives of advocacy organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Solana Policy Institute, Digital Chamber, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund and Blockchain Association, said they would support the proposed blockchain regulatory bill. It was unclear whether Emmer and Torres had a majority of votes in the House of Representatives for the legislation to pass.
Torres has supported many bills and policies favorable to the crypto industry since assuming office in 2021. Together with Emmer, he has led the Congressional Crypto Caucus to advance crypto-friendly policies in the House since March.
A bipartisan blockchain bill amid memecoin concerns?
Other Democratic House members, including Representative Maxine Waters, have suggested they intend to block any legislation related to crypto and blockchain until Republicans address Trump’s connections to the industry, such as his family’s stake in World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. The president is planning to host a dinner with up to 220 people holding the most significant amounts of his memecoin on May 22.
Related: Interest groups, lawmakers to protest Trump’s memecoin dinner
Cointelegraph reached out to Torres’ office for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
Democratic leaning organizations and members of Congress have announced plans to protest what they describe as the sale of access to the office of the US president, in reference to Donald Trump’s memecoin dinner on May 22. The event’s attendees are said to have collectively spent over $100 million for the chance to meet with the US president.
Since Trump’s memecoin project, Official Trump (TRUMP), announced that its top 220 tokenholders would have an opportunity to apply for an exclusive dinner with the president, many leaders in the crypto industry and US lawmakers have criticized the event, saying Trump was opening his office to potential bribery and corruption.
The memecoin dinner prompted some Democratic lawmakers to withdraw support for crypto-related legislation in Congress, including the market structure and stablecoin bills.
“Trump collecting gifts from foreign governments is unconstitutional,” a spokesperson for the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, which is planning to protest near the memecoin dinner on May 22, told Cointelegraph. “Collecting foreign government investments through his memecoin is not much better. American foreign policy should not be for sale.”
Crypto industry figures such as Tron founder Justin Sun, Kronos Research chief investment officer Vincent Liu, Hyperithm co-CEO Oh Sangrok, and Synthetix founder Kain Warwick are among the tokenholders expected to attend the dinner at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, DC. The memecoin project said all applicants had to pass a background check and could not be from a “[Know Your Customer] watchlist country.”
Related: Democrats seek suspicious activity reports linked to Trump crypto ventures
Public Citizen, in partnership with progressive political organization Our Revolution, will hold a rally near the golf club, which Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is expected to attend. In addition, the Arlington and Loudoun Democrats will be hosting a separate event to urge US officials to “hold [Trump] accountable,” and Democratic leadership in Congress has scheduled two press events on May 22 ahead of the dinner.
“Americans cannot and will not accept President Trump’s view that positions of power exist only to benefit the holder of that power,” Ryan Ruzic, chair of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, told Cointelegraph. “We have a moral responsibility to speak out against corruption, whatever the result may be.”
Pushback on TRUMP memecoin affected crypto legislation
Some lawmakers initially cited the memecoin dinner and the Trump family’s involvement with the crypto platform World Liberty Financial in opposing passage of the GENIUS Act, a bill to regulate payment stablecoins. World Liberty Financial began issuing its own USD1 stablecoin in March, prompting concerns about Trump’s conflicts of interest. However, the legislation passed a key procedural vote in the Senate on May 19 with support from Democrats, setting the bill up for debate in the chamber.
“Many senators, myself included, have very real concerns about the Trump family’s use of crypto technologies to evade oversight, hide shady financial dealings, and personally profit at the expense of everyday Americans,” said Sen. Mark Warner in a statement before the May 19 vote, adding: “But we cannot allow that corruption to blind us to the broader reality: blockchain technology is here to stay.”
Senator Chris Murphy, who voted against advancing the GENIUS Act, called for bipartisan support in amending the bill to specifically bar a US president from issuing stablecoins. He also called on the White House to release a complete list of attendees to the memecoin dinner, suggesting that some or all of them would “try to get something from the president” in exchange for purchasing the tokens.
Murphy and Senator Elizabeth Warren will attend a press event with representatives for Public Citizen on May 22. California Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the US House Financial Services Committee, announced a separate press conference for the same day, with plans to introduce a bill to “block Trump’s memecoin and stop his crypto corruption, once and for all.”
As of May 21, the exact number of attendees to the dinner was unknown. A smaller group of 25 tokenholders also qualified to apply for “VIP tour” and reception — presumably at the White House — with Trump, but the complete list of those planning to attend was also unknown at the time of publication.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
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