Donors Shunning Tories | Simon Heffer
100 Quangos Scrapped | Francis Maude
Prezza the Troll | LibDem Voice
Britons Do Not Like Nanny | Madsen Pirie
Proof: You Can’t Borrow Your Way Out of a Debt Crisis | Speccie
Crunch Time for Iran | Emanuele Ottolenghi
Ed’s Sleepless Nights | FT
Mandarins Beat Team GB | Telegraph
The End for Gorgeous George | Tom Chivers
Blind Beeb Can’t See IDS’ Success | Nick Wood
Evan Davis Has No Clue on EU | Mark Reckless
Unite’s £12 Million Socialist Paradise
This morning Guido revealed that Len McCluskey aims to raise a £30 million war chest to fund Unite’s takeover of the Labour Party. The internal Unite document sent to Guido shows that Red Len hopes to make up to £12 million by consolidating their posh property in Eastbourne.
According to their website the Eastbourne Centre offers 130 ensuite bedrooms, gourmet dining and two well-stocked bars, all kitted out with a plush Labour Red interior. Unite members get a generous discount. Up the workers…
Hugh Grant’s New Job
Read all about the scourge of Rupert Murdoch’s latest hobby…
...Over on Media Guido…
Government “Accidentally” Borrows £600 Million
This morning’s public borrowing figures do not make happy reading for the government. Despite July traditionally providing good news in terms of tax receipts, Chancellor Zero has borrowed £600 million in the last month – compared with a £2.8 billion surplus in the same month last year. The total borrowing projection for this year is now some £30 billion more than in 2011, despite the Coalition predicting that borrowing would fall.
BBC News‘ Jane Hill is suggesting that the government has borrowed the money “by accident“. Perhaps she has been reading Tory whip Greg Hands’ tweets to Guido:
They're increasing total borrowing>> @GregHands: @hmtreasury"Today's figures show how risky it would be to deliberately increase borrowing"
@GuidoFawkes Yes, but point is Labour would do it deliberately.
Well that’s okay then…
Taxi Trouble Mounts for Tim Yeo
Eco City Vehicles CEO Signed Age Limit Deal
Last week Guido revealed yet another of Energy and Climate Change Committee chairman Tim Yeo’s conflict of interests with the green tycoon’s taxi company, Eco City Vehicles, helping to provide London with new environmentally-friendly taxis. It gets worse.
The photograph above shows Eco City Vehicles CEO Peter Da Costa smiling broadly as he signs the agreement to introduce an Age Limit for taxis in London. Da Costa signed Boris Johnson’s Air Quality Strategy, giving Yeo’s seal of approval to plans to force drivers to replace cabs that are over ten years old. Eco City Vehicles aim to dominate the capital with their German-made taxis at £30,000 each. Da Costa himself is pictured here on a test drive with the new model. No wonder he was looking so smug…
Red Len’s £30 Million Labour Takeover War Chest
Red Len McCluskey is driving a secret policy aiming to build up a £30 million war chest to fund Unite’s “struggle for Labour’s soul“. An internal Unite document seen by Guido reveals that the union is planning a huge consolidation of its property portfolio:
The document then shows that Unite will spend the cash on a new political strategy which aims to parachute union-friendly candidates into marginal seats. They seek to:
- “Advance Unite’s ‘policy agenda’ through Labour’s ‘constitutional structures.
- Work with other affiliated unions to secure the adoption of trade union (or union-friendly) candidates in winnable constituencies in particular.
- Increase Unite members’ involvement and participation in local Labour Parties.”
It’s the blueprint to turn Labour Red…
Prezza Conspiracy Theory Debunked
Back in July John Prescott claimed he was the victim of an elaborate plot by the Tories to smear him over dodgy government credit card purchases. Central to Prezza’s conspiracy theory was a redacted letter from Gus O’Donnell, with Hull’s next top copper demanding an investigation into the apparent cover-up. The story was run byPolitical Scrapbook, and even the Observerweighed in. Now there is egg-on-face all round as the whole theory was debunked this morning, with an answer to Prezza’s Parliamentary Question in the Lords revealing the letter in question was censored simply to redact factual errors:
“A factual error in the Cabinet Office reply of 18 November 2011, incorrectly suggesting that departmental civil servants had been disciplined for the use of the Government Procurement Card under the previous Administration, was removed from the version of 21 November. In fact, the fraud stemmed from seven transactions on a cloned credit card. A second paragraph was also deleted from the version of 18 November in error. The Cabinet Secretary has written to the noble Lord to explain the background.”
Prezza can take off his tin foil hat…
Labour’s NHS Global Flip-Flop
This morning Team Ed have expressed their outrage at the Coalition’s proposals to sell off NHS operations overseas, with the Labour leadership quickly condemning plans to set up profit-making hospitals abroad as “rampant commercialism“. Clearly they have forgotten that it was the last Labour government that came up with the idea in the first place. Andy Burnham said at the time:
“There is great potential to benefit from the exceptional knowledge and intelligence within the NHS. This will mean better value for that investment of taxpayers’ money and funds raised going straight back into NHS organisations, which will benefit patients across the country. We know that BBC Worldwide has already had success in this area, and now the NHS, another of this country’s best-loved institutions, must make the most of these international opportunities. A key part of responding to the economic challenge that the NHS faces will be realising the full potential of innovation, not only making effective use of our knowledge and skills at home, but also making money abroad that can be reinvested back into the NHS.”
Guido’s diagnosis? A severe case of the flip-flop…
By-Election Watch: Lobbyist Reunion in Corby
Labour’s Corby campaign might have posed problems for Tom Watson and his team over the last few weeks, but there were smiles all round yesterday as two former public sector lobbyists enjoyed a reunion in the sun. The highlight was Labour chief whip Rosie Winterton posing with party candidate Andy Sawford as she opened Labour’s new campaign bunker. Cosy.
Yorkshire mafia footsoldier Winterton is a former employee of Connect Public Affairs, a lobbying firm with close links to the Labour Party. Connect currently employs ex-Unite trade unionist Tom Denney, Yvette Cooper’s former adviser Caroline Gordon, David Blunkett’s ex-researcher Emily Wallace and Gill Morris, described as “the best connected Labour lobbyist in the business“. Another former employee of this merry band of lefty lobbyists? One Andy Sawford…
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