First Picture of Liam Byrne’s Infamous “No Money” Note

Veil Lifted on Public Servants | Dominic Lawson
Dave Can Be PM Without Clegg | Telegraph
Tories’ New Danger is Complacency | Ben Brogan
UKIP Poll Dip | Political Betting
10 Reasons Why Boris Would Be Better Bald | Toby Young
The BMA Get Real | The Commentator
Video Footage of That Liam Byrne Note | ITV
Baldness Won’t Stop Boris | Telegraph
Why are We Paying for This? | Speccie
What About State Land Banking, Ed? | ConservativeHome
Suddenly the Left Love the Constitution | The Commentator

First Picture of Liam Byrne’s Infamous “No Money” Note

Turns out it was “I’m afraid there is no money”, not “I’m afraid there is no money left”.
If we’re being pedantic…

Via ITV

Watson’s WAGs*

Another day and another Labour selection overshadowed by the heavy hand of Tom Watson. Congratulations to Stephanie Peacock the trade unionist of no distinguishable career, who has managed to get selected in the marginal seat of Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Regular readers will remember that Ms. Peacock isromantically linked to Watson and at just 25 is on rather the young side, to be a candidate. Peacock will receive a lot of heavy support from Labour’s Vice Chairman for Campaigns, no doubt.
Elsewhere, the fallout from Watson’s attempt to get his close personal friend and staff member Karie Murphy the seat of Falkirk continues to unravel. The Mail didn’t name the “senior Labour figure”, though it’s clear Watson is in this one up to his waist. Not only have there been allegations of block buying membership for union heavies, now someone has been threatening the employerof Murphy’s rival:

“The Labour whistleblower told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I was shocked to be told a senior Labour figure told Blue State Digital that unless Poynton pulled out of Falkirk, the company could lose contracts with Labour.’”

He sent congratulations to Joan Ryan too; the expenses fiddler was selected in Enfield North in an equally dodgy selection process. Guess whovisited the seat hours before the dodgy goings on began?
*Women and Girlfriend.

Bald Boris: Mayor of London Losing Locks

As Guido’s Sun column revealed yesterday, the mop-topped Mayor of London is going bald. Brand Boris is reliant on his giant blond bouffant, yet his appearance on last week’s Question Time revealed a growing bald patch at the back and a deliberate effort to comb his locks forward. It was all a bit Donald Trump:

The age old rule in British politics is that bald men do not beat rivals with a full head of hair. Think Tony Blair versus William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, nor can we forget Maggie versus Kinnock, in every election the slap-head loses. Could Boris be a modern day version of Samson? Better get shift that leadership campaign up a gear…

Flying Dry for Snowden Chasers

Having given the world’s media the slip, CIA contractor turned super leaker Edward Snowden did not board his planned flight from Moscow to Havana. Plenty of journalists did though, hoping to get a word with the truth-sayer on the twelve hour flight. As the doors closed it became clear it was all in vain:

To make matters worse, it appears Aeroflot have banned booze from the flight. The Russian airline’s website reports: ‘Starting from Feb 10, 2010, the sale of alcohol is suspended on flights to/from Havana’. So that’s a plane full of dry and scoopless hacks. What could possibly go wrong?

Via Matt Holehouse

Magpie Pierce At It Again

Yesterday Guido revealed in his Sun column:

“The usually secretive Midlands Industrial Council, a discreet business group which has donated millions over the years to the Tories, organised an upmarket booze cruise on Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth, sailing from Southampton to Zeebrugge. Guido was alerted to the jolly by a tweet from the billionaire former Tory donor Lord Ashcroft saying he had “Just boarded the QE for a 36 hour mini cruise with a group of midlands businessmen”, the military medal collector really should know that “loose tweets sink fleets”. Onboard singing for their supper in hope of further donations were Liam Fox and more surprisingly the UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Tory fundraisers will be more than a little alarmed to know that their once loyal big money donors are now entertaining the man taking their votes”

So imagine how flattered he was to read in Andrew Pierce’s Mail column this morning the very same story with a couple of words changed:

“The Midlands Industrial Council, a shadowy body which has given millions of pounds to the Conservative Party over the past 20 years, took to the high seas to debate relations with the EU. Guest speakers on the two-day cruise on the Queen Elizabeth to Zeebrugge on the coast of Belgium were Liam Fox, the former Tory Cabinet minister, and Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader. If the Midlands Industrial Council, with its fat cheque book, is  listening to Farage, the Tory high command should be worried. Really worried.”

What a coincidence!