Private Eye: News Two Weeks Past Its Sell-By-Date

Iain Overton Cashes In On McAlpine | Speccie
Britain’s National Sickness | Melanie Phillips
Hammond Accused of Linking Gay Marriage to Incest | Pink News
Tory Dirty Tricks Machine Returns | Peter Oborne
My Fascination With Mysterious Plots | Adam Afriyie
Why David Ward’s Comments Were So Wrong | Raheem Kassam
Israelis Don’t Need a Lecture From David Ward | Telegraph
Six Lessons For Cameron From Afriyie Plot | Tim Shipman
Guido’s Column | Daily Star Sunday
This Isn’t Right Kind of Austerity | Allister Heath
Ed Falls Into Cam’s Referendum Trap | Alex Wickham

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2013

Private Eye: News Two Weeks Past Its Sell-By-Date

Shome mishtake, shurely? Over the last few weeks Guido has become increasingly irritated by Private Eye’s shameless pilfering of stories that had previously appeared on this blog. Every two weeks Guido picks up his copy of the Eye, every two weeks we see more and more of our stories recycled on their pages. So, from now on Guido will be taking out his red pen and revealing just how far behind the news Lord Gnome’s rag is. A two-week news-cycle just doesn’t cut it in the age of newsstreams.

Last Friday’s Eye, issue 1332, ran an interesting story about a member of the Guardian’s staff being gagged for anonymously posting comments about Alan Rusbridger. Four days earlier Guido had exclusively run the same comment in full. And what of that little nugget about new Trinity Mirror boss Simon Fox being the former chief executive of doomed HMV?MediaGuido and the Sun’s business editor were all over it ten days before…

Even more outrageous was the Eye’s claim to have“revealed” the news that Evgeny Lebedev had bought iPads for the entire Standard staff but nothing for those at the Indy. It was reported onMediaGuido in mid-December, and they even used our “downstairs” line. Meanwhile Alan Rusbridgerforgetting he is editor-in-chief of both theGuardian and the Observer was reported by Guido eleven days before it appeared in the Eye.
They were once the cutting edge of political gossip, nowadays their news is two weeks past their sell-by date…

Train Travel Takes Toll on Sleepy Simon

It seems all those early starts are taking their toll on Simon Burns. Since he’s been forced to get the train instead of his taxpayer funded chauffeur, the Transport Minister has been looking rather sleepy. Zzzzz…

WATCH: David Cameron V Adam Afriyie, Taiwanese Style

Exclusive: Mark Thompson’s Letter to CMS Select Committee
Questions the New York Times Boss Still Cannot Answer

View this document on Scribd

Ex-BBC chief, turned boss of theNew York Times, Mark Thompson, has written to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee once again claiming that during his last nine months at the Beeb he “never heard any allegations” about Jimmy Savile.
Really?
In his letter Thompson essentially says he expects the committee to believe a series of increasingly absurd notions:

1. That when he asked BBC head of news Helen Boaden in December 2011 what Newsnight’s investigation of Jimmy Savile was about she didn’t tell him.
2. That he never read or heard about any of the half dozen national newspaper and magazine stories alleging Savile’s sexual misdemeanour’s which were published in January and February 2012 and which made it clear this is what Newsnight had investigated. During his time at the BBC, Mark was a known Guido reader, who must have missed this one.
3. That when a Telegraph journalist emailed him in February 2012 asking if it was true that he knew about Newsnight’s Savile investigation he never got the message.
4. That when freelance journalist Miles Goslett rang Thompson’s office in May 2012 and told his chief of staff Jessica Cecil that Savile had apparently abused under-age girls on BBC premises in the 1970s Cecil did not tell him.
5. That when ITV wrote to him on 7 September 2012 informing him of their forthcoming documentary on Savile and repeating the allegations raised by Goslett he was not told.
6. Crucially, Thompson also asks the committee to believe that although he authorised law firm Mills & Reeve to send a letter to the Sunday Times on 6 September 2012 on his behalf threatening to sue the paper if it ran Goslett’s story, he was not fully aware what the story was and did not read the letter which the law firm sent.

Much of this beggars belief. Over to John Whittingdale…

Adam Afriyie Speech: “If I Were Prime Minister…”

Cereal choker Adam Afriyie might be insisting “there is nothing to see here”, but the man who would be king wasn’t always so keen on Dave. Last year he opened the Conservative Renewal Conference in Windsor, seen at the time very much as a “rebel Tory party conference”. Afriyie had some interesting things to say in his speech:

“If I were Europe Minister, I’d want to know how to regain control of our borders and secure our criminal justice system. If I were Chancellor, I’d be concerned about removing the age-old obstacles to growth. I’d want to release our risk-takers and wealth creators to generate the jobs and economic growth the country so desperately needs. If I were Party Chairman, I’d be concerned about the support base of my Party. I’d want to ensure that the policies adopted had been endorsed by the Party. And I’d want my Party to be motivated and ready to campaign, wholeheartedly, at the next election. And if I were Prime Minister, I’d want to be in tune with my Party and I’d want the right ideas for the country on Europe, taxation and the economy.“

Invites have gone out for this year’s even more ambitious conference. Organisers insist “this conference is not about attacking the leadership unnecessarily; it is about providing Conservative solutions to the problems this country and the world faces and being a constructive and friendly critic of the leadership”. Of course it is Adam…

Former Colleague Reaction to Huhne Trial

Judging by this now deleted tweet by DECC minister Greg Barker, news ofChris Huhne’s trial has spread quickly around his old colleagues:

Huhne could have told Barker a thing or two about accidentally tweeting direct messages…

David “the Jews” Ward Faces the Music This Afternoon
MP Faces “Retract or Sacked” Ultimatum 

The LibDems have confirmed to Guido that the disciplinary meeting between David Ward and the party whips will go ahead later today, possibly in the early evening.  In a climb down following his car crash Sky News interview on Friday night, Ward weasel worded an apology for any “unintended offence”, but that’s unlikely to make the matter go away. The Nobel Laureate holocaust survivor that Ward hid behind on Friday isfurious about being used. The LibDems say they are shocked and appalled by Ward’s “the Jews” rants, so how exactly is he planning to take the whip without a full retraction?  It would be leadership at it’s weakest if Clegg just lets this one pass…
In the meantime someone might want to have a quiet word in the ear of liberal Lord Alton of Liverpool who bizarrely asked last week in the Lords if the Government had “any plans to mark the 80th anniversary of the coming to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime in Germany on 30 January?” Unsurprisingly, Lord Gardiner replied that “the Government have no such plans.” Funny that.
UPDATE: Sources says Ward is facing “retract or sacked” ultimatum.

Media Guido to Make Huhne Reporting Restrictions Application

The ball is rolling…

UPDATE: Huhne in Court – Trial Will Go Ahead

Chris Huhne was back in court this morning.
His trial will go ahead.
The former Energy Secretary has pleaded not guilty to one count of doing an act tending or intending to pervert the course of justice.
Roll on Monday.

Sadiq’s Dodgy Donor Kebab and the Curse Of David Morris
Guido’s Sunday Column is Now Online

Quite a mix in Guido’s column yesterday; from Stringfellow and Clegg, Balls throwing his weight around and even Bryan Ferry pops up. Guido’s favourites included the curse of David Morris and Sadiq dodgy donor kebab:

TALKING of 80s chart-toppers, if you see Rick Astley’s former keyboardist-turned-Tory MP David Morris travelling anywhere, run away – the man seems to be cursed. Not only was the MP for Morecambe an extremely close witness to the recent London helicopter crash on the way into work, he spent Friday night building snowmen on the M6, stranded in his car by the weather. In both cases he took to Sky News to discuss his plight. It seems the profile-conscious MP is never going to give you up when it comes to free publicity.

SOME were surprised to see the over-abundant Shadow Public Health Minister Diane Abbott declare war on fried chicken shops and takeaways recently, especially in the same week that her Labour colleague the Shadow Minister for London, Sadiq Khan, promoted the Best British Kebab Awards in Parliament. Khan said: “It is important that we take the time to celebrate the fantastic establishments.” And why do you think Khan is such a fan of the industry? Nothing to do with the £5,000 donated to his 2010 re-election campaign by the Tayyab Kebab House in his constituency…

You can read the whole of Guido’s Daily Star Sunday column online here.