Saturday Seven Up

DCMS SpAd Gave Me Telling Off | Quentin Letts
Dinsmore Replaces Mohan as Sun Editor | MediaGuido
Checking Your Privilege is an Old Marxist Game | Madsen Pirie
Renewable Energy is an Economic Bust | The Commentator
Gove Hasn’t Won War Yet | Toby Young
Times Confirms Editorial Shake Up | MediaGuido
Windfarm Targets Unachievable | London Loves Business
Should Gordon Brown Be Sent to Prison? | Boris Johnson
Tory Backbenchers Rage | Ben Brogan
Number 10 Lovebombs Backbenchers | Isabel Hardman
Tory Taliban’s Alternative Queen’s Speech | Telegraph

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Saturday Seven Up

This week 116,730 visitors visited 356,432 times viewing 602,154 pages. The top stories in order of popularity were:

• Labour Hit Back at 1300-Word Gove Letter
• Labour Complain to Attorney General Over Stuart Hall Sentence
• Gove’s Forensic Mockery of Labour Schools Policy
• £120 Billion of Government Waste: The Worst Offenders
• SNP’s One Party State Leaflet Trick
• Labour Use Fictional Dead Children to Scaremonger Over Cuts
• Cyber Wars: UKIP Trumping Tories

You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…

FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

WATCH: Daily Politics Week in 60 Seconds

Berger’s Trade Union Lobbyist Merry-Go-Round

A classic case of cosy Labour sweeteners with trade union lobbyists here. According to the latest available figures Luciana Berger charges the taxpayer £1,750 per quarter for her constituency office rent. For where? Her website says that when back in Liverpool Wavertree she works out of the UCATT union’s office. That would be the same UCATT union that have generously given Labour £78,750 since 2010. Surely Luciana couldn’t possibly be bunging taxpayer money to a party donor. If a Tory MP did the same with a millionaire pal it would be a scandal…

H/T The Backbencher

WATCH: Treasury Playdays

Learn with George as he explains how he will ”help people who work hard and want to get on” at next Wednesday’s spending round. A helpful piece of taxpayer-funded Tory propaganda. Osborne spells it out very slowly for Ed Balls…

EU Agrees Ban on Menthol Cigarettes

Olive oil, conkers, baby pictures; it was only a matter of time before the next crazy diktat from the ban-obsessed EU. Now hectoring health ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg have agreed a prohibition on menthol cigarettes to try to stop younger generations from smoking. It now needs to go through the European Parliament, who can no doubt show just how joined up they are given they have just bunged hundreds of millions of pounds worth of subsidies to tobacco farmers.Absolutely menthol…

More Bad News For Co-Op
One awkward detail for Ed Balls in the Prudential Regulatory Authority’s first report assessing British banks out yesterday. The Co-Op bank told them they currently hold £1.7 billion of core capital, though adjusted by the PRA to reflect expected future losses that figure falls to a worrying £200 million. In ratio terms the PRA advise banks to hold 7%, crucially today’s figures show the Co-Op holds a dangerously low 0.94%.
They need that £3.6 million Labour owe them more than ever. And what about Balls’ £50,000-a-year?

Osborne Borrowed More Last Year

Turns out government borrowing actually rose last year. Revised ONS figures show public sector borrowing for 2012-13 was £118.8 billion, up from £118.5 billion the year before. This week’s Speccie cover article gets to the point:

“When the Chancellor stands up to present his spending review next Wednesday it will be with the reputation of a crazed axeman. Much of the country, whether it thinks it a good thing or not, subscribes to the belief that George Osborne is shrinking the state year-on-year, slicing here, chopping there. In a recent poll 58 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposition that Osborne’s ‘austerity drive’ is ‘harming the economy’… Osborne is no mad axeman but a bodger blundering around with a blunt chisel.”

Osborne wants to portray himself as a responsible, sound money Chancellor making tough choices, streamlining an overbearing state and making government more efficient. The truth is borrowing, and as the graph below shows, spending is still going up:

The Treasury is pushing the fact that borrowing fell last month year-on-year, which is encouraging. But to say they are not doing enough is an understatement…
See also: Tale of Two Austerities. 

Guy News Special: Trade Union Anti-Sex League

Subscribers to the Guidogram were first to see yesterday evening’s Guy News special. Freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength at this loony lefty Unison Anti-Sex League rally against Page 3. Big Sister Harriet Harman’s alternative Two Minutes’ Hate is worse than Orwell’s worst nightmare. Send them to Room 101…

42 Tory Taliban Alternative Queen’s Speech Bills in Full

1. Face Coverings (Prohibition) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to prohibit the wearing of certain face coverings; and for connected purposes.
2. National Service Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to provide a system of national service for young persons; and for connected purposes.
3. European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and related legislation; and for connected purposes.
4. Young Offenders (Parental Responsibility) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision for the parents of young offenders to be legally responsible for their actions.
5. Foreign National Offenders (Exclusion from the United Kingdom) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision to exclude from the United Kingdom foreign nationals found guilty of a criminal offence committed in the United Kingdom.
6. Asylum Seekers (Return to Nearest Safe Country) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to facilitate the transfer of asylum seekers to the safe country nearest their country of origin.
7. Prisoners (Completion of Custodial Sentences) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to require prisoners to serve in prison the full custodial sentence handed down by the court.
8. Fishing Grounds and Territorial Waters (Repatriation) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision for the Government to designate certain fishing grounds and territorial waters as sovereign territory of the United Kingdom outside the control of the Common Fisheries Policy.
9. School Governing Bodies (Adverse Weather Conditions) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to require school governing bodies and headteachers to make provision to keep schools open in adverse weather conditions.
10. Capital Punishment Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to allow for capital punishment for certain offences.
11. Government Departments (Amalgamation of Scotland Office, Wales Office and Northern Ireland Office) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision for the amalgamation of the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Offices.
12. Residential Roads (Adoption by Local Highways Authority) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to require the handover of residential roads built by developers to local highways authorities within certain time periods; and for connected purposes.
13. Equality and Diversity (Reform) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to prohibit the use of affirmative and positive action in recruitment and appointment processes; to amend the Equality Act 2010 to remove the special provision for political parties in relation to the selection of candidates; and for connected purposes.
14. Sentencing Escalator Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to provide that a criminal reconvicted for an offence on a second or further occasion receives a longer sentence than for the first such offence.
15. Leasehold Reform (Amendment) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to amend the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 in relation to the permitted signatories of notices; and for connected purposes. 8 Monday 24 June 2013
16. BBC Licence Fee (Civil Debt) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision to decriminalise the non-payment of the BBC licence fee.
17. Smoking (Private Members’ Clubs) Mr Philip Hollobone
Bill to make provision to allow smoking in a separate ventilated room in a private members’ club if a majority of the members of the club so decide.
18. Margaret Thatcher Day Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision that the annual Bank Holiday Monday in late August be known as Margaret Thatcher Day.
19. Department of Energy and Climate Change (Abolition) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for the abolition of the Department of Energy and Climate Change and for its functions to be absorbed into the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
20. Married Couples (Tax Allowance) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for a tax allowance for married couples.
21. Foreign Aid Ring-Fencing (Abolition) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for foreign aid and development not to be linked to a specific percentage of Gross National Income, but to be set yearly, by Parliament, in relation to need.
22. Charitable Status for Religious Institutions Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for a presumption that religious institutions meet the public benefit test for charitable status.
23. Same Sex Marriage (Referendum) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for a referendum on whether same sex marriage should be allowed.
24. Wind Farm Subsidies (Abolition) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for the cessation of subsidies for the development of wind farms. Withdrawal from the European Convention of Human Rights and Removal of
25. Alleged Terrorists Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for an application to the Council of Europe to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and to deport alleged terrorists subject to approval by the British courts.
26. Romanian and Bulgarian Accession (Labour Restriction) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for restrictions on the residence in the UK of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to continue.
27. BBC Privatisation Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for the privatisation of the British Broadcasting Corporation by providing shares in the Corporation to all licence fee payers.
28. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Abolition) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for the abolition of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and its responsibilities to be allocated to other Departments of State.
29. Prime Minister (Replacement) Mr Peter Bone
Bill to make provision for the appointment of a Prime Minister in the event that a Prime Minister is temporarily or permanently incapacitated.
30. United Kingdom (Withdrawal from the European Union) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to make provision for the Government to give notice under Article 50 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; and for connected purposes.
31. Asylum (Time Limit) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to require that asylum claims in the United Kingdom be lodged within three months of the claimant’s arrival in the United Kingdom; and that persons who have already entered the United Kingdom and wish to make an asylum claim must do so within three months of the passing of this Act.
32. Benefit Entitlement (Restriction) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to make provision to restrict the entitlement of non-UK Citizens from the European Union and the European Economic Area to taxpayer-funded benefits.
33. Illegal Immigrants (Criminal Sanctions) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to make provision for criminal sanctions against those who have entered the UK illegally or who have remained in the UK without legal authority.
34. Sexual Impropriety in Employment Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to require that claims by employees alleging sexual impropriety be limited to cases where the alleged misconduct is contrary to the criminal law and has been reported to the police.
35. Collection of Nationality Data Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to require the collection and publication of information relating to the nationality of those in receipt of benefits and of those to whom national insurance numbers are issued.
36. Foreign Nationals (Access to Public Services) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to restrict access by foreign nationals to United Kingdom public services for which no charge is made.
37. House of Lords (Maximum Membership) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to provide for a maximum limit on the number of Peers entitled to vote in the House of Lords, and to provide for a moratorium on new appointments.
38. Control of Offshore Wind Turbines Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to restrict the height, number, location and subsidies of wind turbines situated offshore within 20 miles of the coast.
39. Employment Opportunities Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to introduce more freedom, flexibility and opportunity for those seeking employment in the public and private sectors; and for connected purposes.
40. EU Membership (Audit of Costs and Benefits) Mr Peter Bone, on behalf of Mr Christopher Chope
Bill to require an independent audit of the benefits and costs of UK membership of the European Union.
And two more 10 Minute Rule Bills: one from Philip Hollobone on removing planning regulation provisions in respect of Gypsies and travellers and one from Peter Bone on modern day slavery.
All pretty sound perhaps except banning the burka. The Tory Taliban has spoken…