Ed’s Wife and the Predator Dumpers | Mail
Life as a Researcher | Total Politics
Dave Calls for Wind Farm Debate | Telegraph
PMQs Round-Up | Harry Cole
If Ed Meant It His Euro Games Might Mean Something | FT
Forget Hezza, Here’s a Plan for Growth | ASI
Watson Dials W for Wonga | Speccie
Loony Left Cancels Christmas | The Argus
The Last Tory Europhile…Almost | Crash Bang Wallace
Susie Squire In for Gabby Bertin at No 10 | Speccie
The Hard Left are Right | Dan Hannan
Life as a Researcher | Total Politics
Dave Calls for Wind Farm Debate | Telegraph
PMQs Round-Up | Harry Cole
If Ed Meant It His Euro Games Might Mean Something | FT
Forget Hezza, Here’s a Plan for Growth | ASI
Watson Dials W for Wonga | Speccie
Loony Left Cancels Christmas | The Argus
The Last Tory Europhile…Almost | Crash Bang Wallace
Susie Squire In for Gabby Bertin at No 10 | Speccie
The Hard Left are Right | Dan Hannan
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2012
Government Line on EU Humilation
This was just sent to Tory MPs:
We hear and we take notice, as always, of what Parliament has said.Licking the wounds…
MPs on both sides of the vote want to see EU spending kept down as effectively as possible at a time of restraint and reductions at home. The only difference is about the tactics of doing so.
The Prime Minister has taken the toughest position of any Prime Minister in history – a freeze has never been achieved before – and when you realise 17 out 26 other countries are net gainers from the budget these will obviously be difficult negotiations.
The Prime Minister will continue to do everything possible to achieve the best deal we can deliver for the British taxpayer.This is all in contrast to a Labour Party who never achieved a freeze, never even asked for freeze and allowed vast increases to British contributions to the EU budget. For them this has been about cheap politics rather than taking responsibility for how we get the best deal for Britain.
Blair Faces HMRC Unpaid Interns Investigation
In a delicious twist of fate, the very man who introduced the minimum wage to Britain is facing a possible HMRC investigation into allegations he has broken minimum wage laws. Last week Guido picked up Graduate Fog‘s Tony Blair unpaid intern story, calculating that it would take the £20 million-a-year former PM just twenty minutes to earn enough to fund a three month minimum wage internship. The papers followed suit, and now it looks like Tone’s tightness could prove costly.Evidence of the Office of Tony Blair’s alleged breach of minimum wage laws has been passed on to HMRC. Employers found to have broken the law can be forced to pay compensation of up to eighty times the minimum wage, in the case of Blair’s three month internships that makes almost a quarter of a million pounds per intern. That’s at least a couple of speeches…
Flashman Dave Snaps at Tory Rebel
Prime Minister Swears at Andrew Bingham MP
Tempers are fraying in the run up to tonight’s vote. Guido hears that Cameron was at a drinks gathering for northern Tory MPs. Andrew Bingham was there and got the full Flashman treatment as a consequence of having signed the Reckless amendment. The Prime Minister is reported to have lambasted the Member for High Peak saying:
“What do you think you are doing? This isn’t some f**king sixth-form debating society.”Temper, temper Dave…
UPDATE: Apologies to Andrew Bridgen whom we originally misreported getting the ear full.
UPDATE II: Bingham denies the story his colleagues report, yet the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was very mealy mouthed.
@HighPeakAndrew We said he swore at you based on MPs who say they overheard the conversation. That is right isn't it?
@GuidoFawkes the PM did not swear at me at all. I was part of a small group chatting. The conversation was entirely cordial
Scilly Spring: Islands’ Tinpot Dictator Philip Hygate Suspended
Guido stuck his infamous cross-hairs on the face of Philip Hygate at the end of last week, and last night the loathed Chief Executive of the Isles of Scilly Council was suspended from his post. The allegations against him have been mounting up over the last few months, but it started with this story from May. Radio Scilly caught his departure:
The island’s tinpot dictator opened the floodgates by blocking the local school from becoming an academy, and now Hygate is not only facing an investigation into the circumstances behind that move, but a broader inquiry into his entire twenty year tenure. Starting with his alleged illegal surveillance of council staff and residents. Representing the very worst aspect of local government and vested interests, you have to wonder how many other Philip Hygates there are across the country…
LibDems In Need: Donate Now
One of the few memories Guido has from the LibDem conference is the army of yellow lanyard-wearing charity muggers sending round the begging bowls before Nick Clegg’s speech. Clearly the pennies didn’t add up – the LibDems In Need have resorted to taking donations from Oxfam. Martin Horwood has this month disclosed a £1,015 donation from the children’s charity for foreign travel.And which poverty-stricken third-world country did he visit to help needy young people? Horwood used the charity cash to fly to New York, stay in a hotel and pay for his meals as part of a delegation to lobby the UN on the arms trade. Just what the generous kind-hearted souls who donate to Oxfam want their money going towards…
Get the details of the redundancy deal being offered toGuardian hacks, and latest dark joke doing the rounds……Only over on MediaGuido…
No.10 Musical Chairs
Susie Squire, formerly of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, has made it to No. 10 via DWP and CCHQ – the glamorous brunette will be covering for another glamorous brunette, Gabby Bertin, while she is on maternity leave as Dave’s political spokesman. There also appears to be movements on the new Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman:
I understand Treasury man Jean Christophe Gray will shortly be announced as Steve Field's successor as PM's official spokesman. V. good pick
Government Chief Whip Lines to Take Over EU Budget Vote
This is what the Whips Office are distributing to Tory MPs about tonight’s EU Budget vote:
We would love to see real cuts to the EU budget; we are going for cuts to the CAP, to the EU’s admin budget and to the recycling of money that happens when the EU gives regional funding to relatively rich countries. But we’ve consistently targeted a real terms freeze in the next multi-year EU budget (Multiannual Financial Framework/MFF) because that’s the best deal we can actually deliver for British taxpayers.Look out for the narks deploying these ones at 7pm…
We can veto this – and we will if we don’t get a real terms freeze: no deal is better than a bad deal – but the veto won’t leave us in the best place. If there’s no agreement then ultimately we move to annual budgets, decided by qualified majority voting and jointly with the European Parliament. It can only go up so much but it could cost British taxpayers more than now.
A real terms freeze would still be an unprecedented achievement, the toughest EU budget settlement ever. There has never been a real terms freeze from one MFF to the next before – the current one is 8% bigger in real terms than the last. And we’re also going to block any changes to the rebate and any new EU taxes.
It is crucial that Parliament sends the message that there should be no changes to the rebate and no new EU taxes, including an EU-wide FTT.
Hard economic times make this a tougher negotiation, but we are sticking to our guns – no more than a real terms freeze or veto. And we are using the ceiling on the budget to put pressure on things really in need of reform, like the CAP.
Labour are being completely opportunistic and hypocritical about this. In Government they signed off bigger EU budgets and gave away £7 billion of our rebate. Their MEPs are calling for more EU spending. Their Socialist Group allies are calling for new EU taxes, abolition of our rebate and a bigger EU budget. Now, suddenly, Labour are allegedly in favour of a smaller EU budget. That has zero credibility. This is as an opportunity to prove Labour has no principle, consistency or credibility.
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