WATCH: Labour to Abstain on EU Referendum Vote

Wriggle Room for Ed on EU Bill | BBC
Murdoch and Wendi Divorce | Speccie
Labour Boycott EU Referendum Bill | Telegraph
Tories Toast Labour Abstention | Speccie
Who Pushed Hester? | Peston
Lynton Crosby’s Plan to Beat Miliband | Speccie
More Women Want to Sleep With Farage Than Cameron | Telegraph
Only 1 in 5 Trust MPs to Tell Truth | Standard
Lord Lester Slams Leveson and Hacked Off | Index on Censorship
Greenwald Woefully Short on PRISM Details | Medium
Tory Councillor ‘Sexually Harassed Man Half His Age’ | CrawleyNews

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

WATCH: Labour to Abstain on EU Referendum Vote

Full details here.

 Via @liarpoliticians

Guidogram Going Out Shortly

The Guidogram round-up of the week is going out shortly.
Thousands of Westminster insiders read the Guidogram, everyone from Downing Street insiders to Fleet Street never miss it. The latest on Guido’s exclusive that Labour will abstain on the EU referendum bill, and more…
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…

Exc: Labour Orders MPs to Avoid Westminster for EU Vote Day
Miliband Orders Abstention on Wharton Referendum Bill

Guido has been leaked documents purporting to be Labour’s whipping orders on how Miliband plans to deal with James Wharton’s EU referendum Private Members Bill at the beginning of next month. It’s pretty rough and ready – Labour seem to be ordering their troops to run away.

1. OUR APPROACH
We are not asking colleagues to be in Westminster on Friday 5 July, as if there was a vote Labour will abstain on the Bill at Second Reading. A suggested response will be circulated by the PLP via email shortly.
This is a Tory gimmick, a political stunt and therefore we are suggesting colleagues do not need to be here, unless they are prepared to make a supportive speech on Labour’s position (see below).
The PM has been forced into supporting this Private Members’ Bill because he’s a weak leader and in hoc to his eurosceptic backbenchers. He’s conned his backbenchers into believing that this will become law and we will dismiss this as a political stunt that it is, saying it is quite wrong to use the mechanism of the Private Members’ Bill to bring in a major constitutional measure.
It is quite wrong to commit and legislate now for an in/out referendum which would create four years of uncertainty, putting at risk the national interest by damaging both jobs and the economy.
For these reasons we will not be voting on the Bill at Second Reading.
2. SPEAKING AT SECOND READING
NOTE FOR WHIPS: We will be looking for suitable speakers so that the chamber is not completely empty and if there are those in your group who would be happy to speak and make the points above, then please make a judgement and ask them whether they would be prepared to make a speech on Friday 5 July.

If this is the real line then Guido is sceptical that this is Labour’s best tactic. Ducking the issue through parliamentary jiggery-pokery will not save them from the voters…

Patten’s DCMS Anguish

Things must be bad for the increasingly troubled Department for Culture Media and Sport when a loathed Chairman of the BBC has to ride to your defence. Chris Patten told a Press Gallery lunch that the department must not be scrapped, despite the Olympics being over. Since then Maria Miller has driven press regulation into a brick wall and their only other significant project – broadband – is being rolled out at dial-up speed.Patten’s hand wringing will do little to convince Tories that scrapping the department is a bad idea.

Labour Stitch Up Seat For Thatcher Grave Dancer’s Brother

“Dancing on Thatcher’s grave” was a classic Ed moment. Keir Morrison’s 15 minutes of infamy did for his fledgling career, but where is he now? The militant trade unionist is busy helping out his brother Lachlan, for whom Labour bigwigs are trying to stitch up a seat in Sherwood. Jack Dromey, Luciana Berger and Owen Jones are among his big name backers. Judge a man by the company he keeps…

Nanny EU State Bans Pictures of Babies on Baby Food

More utter madness from the European Parliament. They have cracked down on the insidious labelling of baby milk and food, decreeing that “pictures of infants, or other pictures or text which may idealise the use of such formula” will be banned henceforth. Our own bonkers pen pushers are culpable as well, they had already stopped the use of baby pictures on infant formula for tots younger than six months. Now EU rules say no photos on baby food and milk for the first year.
Olive oil, conkers, baby food: you can’t accuse them of failing to address the burning issues of our time…

Smash the BBC: Harman Wants 15% Market Share Cap

At last a politician with the courage to stand up to the dangerously influential, scandal-hit corporation that dominates the British media. Harriet Harman’s proposed15% market share cap would, once and for all, break the unrivalled power of the BBC, who are currently over three times that with a 47.2% share. No one else comes close, News International for example are well under the proposed cap at just 10.1%. As the Greek national broadcaster is shut down to save money, it is worth noting the huge multiplier effect of the £4.3 billion that would be in consumers’ pockets in this country without the Beeb. If they were first regulated by Ofcom rather than the tame BBC Trust, then Hattie had her way, the BBC could be cut down to size…

Guardian Will Give Your Data to Intelligence Agencies

Google, Microsoft, Apple et al denying Glenn Greenwald’s claim that they allowed the National Security Agency “direct access” to their servers was pretty awkward for the Guardian. Obviously the last brave freedom fighters defending us against an omnipotent surveillance would never do that, right? Here is the Guardian’s own privacy policy:

“Please note that we reserve the right to access and disclose personal data to comply with applicable laws and lawful government requests, to operate our systems properly and to protect both ourselves and our users.”

The same rule the software giants say they play by. Is this “direct access”?

H/T @guywalters

Local Tories Plan to Kick Out Yeo

The undercover reporters that Yeo fell for claimed to representatives of a cash-splashing company from South Korea, so his Seoul-searching getawaydestination was an obvious choice. When he’s back he faces being deselected by his local association. South Suffolk Tory chairman Toby Kramers tells the Times he will grill Yeo, warning they may kick him out even if the Standards Commissioner lets him off the hook. He says he will be “guided by the opinions of colleagues and the rules of the party. Not every MP that’s deselected is hammered by the standards authorities”.Their confidence in the Standards Commissioner to get to the bottom of it all is telling…