Fancy a Bet, Kev'?

"Campbell and Prescott are Bullies and Don't Like It Up 'Em" - Boulton
Boy Scouts Swell the Clapping Crowds - Indy
Solicitor General Blog Comments on Lord Ahmed - Anna Raccoon
The Return of Morality - Tom Harris MP

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009

Fancy a Bet, Kev'?

Guido has remarked previously on Kevin "Make it Up" Maguire's unhinged hatred of one particular frail old lady. In his (always a good read) New Statesman Diary column this week he insists

Maggie Thatcher’s salivating disciples, eagerly awaiting their heroine’s Downing Street resurrection, may soon be frothing and foaming instead. Richard Stone’s oil painting of the Rusty Lady will not be hung, as was widely anticipated, on No 10’s grand staircase. Once unveiled she will, I hear,* be confined to an attic – or, more specifically, a corner room up the stairs and left down the corridor. Once installed in the Thatcher Study, as the room in which she long toiled is known, Maggie will languish unseen except by escorted visitors.

If Kevin fancies a bet, Guido is willing to make a wager, for he has it on good authority that by June 4, 2010 at the very latest, Margaret Thatcher's picture will be hanging in pride of place at the top of the grand staircase.

Back where she belongs - in Downing Street.

*"I hear" when written by Maguire in this context can be translated as "Damian McBride told me in the Westminster Arms".

The Guidoisation of Politics Continues: 
Tories Set-Up "Say Sorry On Behalf of Gordon" Website

Guido has pointed out before how the Tories draw some of their online ideas from the Obamocrats. Here they go again with www.Sorry from Gordon.com:

Which has a remarkable similarity to the Democrat's recently launched I'm Sorry Rush website...

How CNN Reported Gordon's Obama Meeting

The coverage of Brown's trip on American broadcast networks - what little coverage there was - was humiliatingly bad for Gordon. This excerpt gives you an idea. This broadcaster used words like:

Wounded at home ... wanted a news conference... got a low key meeting ... didn't seem to mind being the American President's poodle .... Brown is desperate ... the President pointedly didn't make any promises about a global new deal...

This was on left-leaning CNN, Fox News basically ignored Brown. That went well didn't it?

Gordon's "Favourite Banker" Has £14 Million+ RBS Pension

Derek Wanless - Gordon Brown's most trusted banker - who chaired Northern Rock's audit and risk committees, also has a multi-million pound pension paid for by the taxpayer. Vince Cable railed at the"collapse of Northern Rock; a product of greed and reckless gambling by overpaid executives".

It was Wanless who failed in his responsibility to rein in that reckless gambling.

The government's holding company, UK Financial Investments Ltd, is the majority shareholder in both RBS and Northern Rock. Based on the pensions data below, the taxpaying public as shareholders are funding a £14 million plus pension for Wanless. Does Brown think his friend Derek Wanless should be so rewarded given his catastrophic failure in his responsibility to exercise oversight of the risk?

Graphic credit : Paul Waugh

*Based on standard 20 x multiple.

+++ "Myners Has £4 Million RBS Pension" +++

Evening Standard's Paul Waugh has the scoop Andy Grice in the Indyreports that Treasury Select Committee Deputy Chairman Michael Fallon is saying "Myners has got a lot of explaining to do. He was a NatWest* director for three years. Yet he was the man who negotiated Fred Goodwin's pension with RBS."

*NatWest merged with RBS.

+++ More to Follow +++

UPDATE 12.00 : At this mornings Lobby briefing when asked about the City minister's alleged pension links with RBS, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "It is not for me to comment on a minister's personal financial interests." Why not? After all, the taxpayers are paying for it.