£50,000 Balls at Bust Co-op’s Gala Dinner TonightSings for His Supper to Bust Bankers Labour Owes £3.6 Million

Snoopers’ Charter Threatens Tech Boom | Nick de Bois
Why the Work Programme is Working | Harry Phibbs
Labour Bears Responsibility For Hospital Deaths | David Morris
Labour Need to Answer Gove’s Questions | Kath Hinton
London’s Political Class Look Like Mobile Phone Salesmen | Speccie
Claire Perry’s Porn Proposals are Nonsense | Willard Foxton
Iran Will Get Bomb in Rouhani’s First Term | Noah Beck
Labour Council Slammed For Sick Cuts Propaganda | Standard
Why Won’t Clegg Condemn Saatchi? | James Kirkup
James Gandolfini v Malcolm Tucker | Ben Brogan
“Sorry Man, I Confused You With an R&B Singer” | FT

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

£50,000 Balls at Bust Co-op’s Gala Dinner Tonight
Sings for His Supper to Bust Bankers Labour Owes £3.6 Million

It looks like it is a busy day for Ed Balls, the man who aspires to be a chef, lunching today, according to EyeSpy.MP, with The Telegraph’s Deputy Editor Benedict Brogan at the Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Junior’s Roux at Parliament Square.We’re all in this together, eh?
Tonight Ed’s waistline takes another hit when he is the keynote speaker at the Co-operative Party Gala Dinner 2013 at the Hilton Victoria Hotel off Millbank. The evening will apparently “provide a unique opportunity to enjoy the company of some of the country’s leading co-operators and Co-operative Party members, supporters, workers, Councillors and Members of Parliament.”
The financial hub of this great co-operative movement is of course the Co-operative Bank, which was encouraged by the Labour government to take over the Britannia Building Society in 2009 because politically Labour wanted to expand the co-operative base. Ed Balls is a Co-op supported MP, his office gets bunged £50,000 a year from the Co-op. The Labour Party itself is literally in hock to the Co-operative Bank to the tune of £3.6 million on a low interest you scratch-my-back I’ll-scratch-yours terms deal. Tonight Ed Balls will sing for his supper as their after dinner speaker…
The Co-operative Bank is a financial disaster after the Labour government induced deal, the bank’s bonds have hit junk status, 7,000 end investors – typically pensioners – will be wiped out by the bond haircut that will be necessary to plug the black hole in the Co-op Bank’s finances. It smells bad.Ed Balls isn’t going to do himself any favours tonight if he is trying to rebuild his reputation for financial probity…
UPDATE: According to reports from the room tonight, Ed is still a keen Guido reader:

Guidogram Going Out Shortly

The Guidogram round-up of the week is going out shortly.Guidogram subscribers will be the first to see this evening’s Guy News video special, so make sure you sign up and don’t miss out.
Thousands of Westminster insiders read the Guidogram every week, everyone from Downing Street insiders to Fleet Street never miss it. 
Join the conspiracy and become a subscriber to the Guidogram, free, to keep in the loop. You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…

LISTEN: The Osbornes, George and Jeffrey Duet

Courtesy of the World at One, together for one performance only, take it away….

LISTEN: Man Rejected Job Because He Didn’t Want to Wear Hat

Readers will remember Paul in Clerkenwell, the man on the dole because he didn’t want to get up for 8am. LBC’s Julia Hartley-Brewer has spoken to him again this afternoon, now he has rejected a job at a bakery because he didn’t want to wear a hat or call customers sir or madam. What next…

Labour Use Fictional Dead Children to Scaremonger Over Cuts

This is surely the most distasteful Lambeth Labour taxpayer-funded scaremongering yet, mocking up a fake newspaper splash about mythical dead children killed in a school fire, presumably the implication being what will happen if you don’t vote for them. A new low.
UPDATE:

H/T @wallaceme, @roxley

What You Can and Cannot Say on Twitter

The CPS have released their guidelines on what you can and cannot say on Twitter before getting a knock on the door from the cops. On the banned list are:

1. Communications which may constitute credible threats of violence to the person or damage to property.
2. Communications which specifically target an individual or individuals and which may constitute harassment or stalking within the meaning of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
3. Communications which may amount to a breach of a court order. This can include offences under the Contempt of Court Act 1981, section 5 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, breaches of a restraining order or breaches of bail. Cases where there has been an offence alleged to have been committed under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 or section 5 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 should be referred to the Attorney General and via the Principal Legal Advisor’s team where necessary.
4. Communications which do not fall into any of the categories above and fall to be considered separately (see below): i.e. those which may be considered grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false.

And crucially:

Against that background, prosecutors should only proceed with cases under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 where they are satisfied there is sufficient evidence that the communication in question is more than:
Offensive, shocking or disturbing; or
Satirical, iconoclastic or rude comment; or
The expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, or banter or humour, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it.

See the guidelines in full here. Prosecution face…

WATCH: Clegg Asks if Nigella Assault Was “Fleeting Thing”

Not the wisest thing to say given his utter failure to act on the Rennard rumours and complaints. At least he didn’t say Saatchi is a victim of a “show trial of innuendo, half-truths and slurs”, like he did with with his own hands-on peer. This is becoming a pattern…

Final Draft EU Referendum Bill

View this document on Scribd

James Wharton’s Let Britain Decide question changes from:

“Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?”

to:

“Do you think that the United Kingdom should be a member of the European Union?”

Roll on July 5th…

Jeffrey Osborne

Story of the week from the Sun: Obama called Osborne Jeffrey three times at the G8 summit, confusing him with the soul singer:

Come back Mitt, all is forgiven…
UPDATE:

Via @FelicityMorse

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

SNP’s One Party State Leaflet Trick

Tomorrow sees a Scottish council by-election up in Gilmerton following the death of councillor Tom Buchanan. The SNP’s leafleting tactics are somewhat interesting:

Guido is all for freedom for Scotland, but telling voters it is an “SNP by-election” and that they have to “find a replacement SNP councillor” is surely a step too far…