THE Prime Minister was again in Brussels during the week, watching from the sidelines while the countries in the euro try to patch together their doomed currency. Asked if Britain would be getting an in/out referendum, the Prime Minister made some vaguely eurosceptic noises before ruling out a vote and claiming: “My MPs – I completely share their views on this.” Really? A third of them rebelled against the Government over the issue last year and plenty more would have done the same if they were not so worried about their promotion prospects. Tomorrow morning the former Defence Secretary Liam Fox is set to give his first big public speech since his resignation last year. He will be talking about the sensitive subject of Europe and Guido hears he will call for a complete renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU and a referendum backed up by the threat that if the Eurocrats don’t like it, we will leave. David Cameron will not see this as helpful. It will, however, be immensely popular with backbench Tory MPs and supporters. Fox, a one-time Tory leadership contender, clearly hasn’t given up on his ambitions. BACK in February Guido bought you the news that top GMTV totty turned Labour MP Gloria De Piero was breaking many hearts by tying the knot. Her husband-to-be had some explaining to do the other day, though, after he accidentally tweeted a link to a saucy “Babe Video” site. Some men will never be content with what they have got.GUIDO FAWKES: PLOTS, RUMOURS AND CONSPIRACY
THE Government has announced a review looking into the Barclays Libor interest rate fixing scandal – Labour has been demanding a full-scale inquiry. Given that Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was in the Treasury overseeing the financial sector when all this happened, fi rstly as an adviser to Gordon Brown and then as City Minister, he would have to be high up the list of witnesses. Strangely, Balls has been keeping a low profile ever since the scandal broke, putting up junior Labour MPs to answer hostile questions despite calling Chancellor George Osborne a coward at the beginning of the week for failing to go on TV to explain his latest Budget U-turn.
BECAUSE he is a self-confessed nerd, Labour leader Ed Miliband likes to pose as a football fan as part of his “man of the people” act. His football knowledge seems to be a bit of an act, though. On Friday he was overheard on a train to Newcastle being briefed by his aides on Team GB coach Stuart Pearce, about whom he seemed clueless. You just know that when Pearce was missing penalties, Ed was playing with Rubik’s Cubes.
GUIDO has been campaigning for years to end the millions of pounds in food and booze subsidies that MPs have given themselves at taxpayers’ expense. Other newspapers have now joined in, asking how it is that a rib-eye steak with hand-cut chips and Béarnaise sauce, served by liveried waiters in gothic splendour, costs MPs about as much as we pay for a couple of pasties. MPs have started muttering menacingly about the hidden subsidy the 165 journalists in Westminster enjoy – their desks in offi ces supplied by Parliament are provided at taxpayers’ expense. That subsidy is worth millions...so if newspapers are going to shame MPs into having to pay up for their lunch, they will take revenge on the newspapers and make them pay up for their desks.
JOHN Prescott, who wants to become Humberside’s first elected Police and Crime Commissioner, jokes he is standing against the Sweeney – his independent opponent is Walter Sweeney. Less amusingly, the 74-year-old former Deputy Prime Minister, never nimble at the best of times, is walking with a stick. Guido hears that Prezza broke his “Beckham bone” – the second metatarsal in the foot – while running to catch a speech in Bradford given by Ed Balls. Most people would be running the other way.
Guido’s Column | Daily Star Sunday
We Must Renegotiate EU Relationship | Liam Fox
Bankers Were Bartenders at Easy Money Party | Fraser Nelson
The Return of Blair to No. 10 | Indy
Brussels Diary: Cheating Eurocrats and Ball Games | Alexandra Swann
Dave Says No to Balls Inquiry | Guardian
Get Your Own Phone-Hacking Souvenir | Speccie
Battle of Europe Over, Battle of Britain About to Begin | Paul Mason
Ed’s Fate in Brian’s Hands | Dan Hodges
City Scandal Product Not Cause of Bubble | Allister Heath
An Index Worth Laughing About | Matthew Sinclair
Has Liam Fox bounced Cameron into making Eurosceptic noises? Find out what he is going to say tomorrow in his big speech on Europe. We reveal how MPs plan to get revenge on political journalists and the unbelievable explanation as to why Prezza is hobbling around with a walking stick.
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