Gay Reporter Subverts Russian TV Propaganda Channel

Neil Kinnock Sank My Boat | Sun
Rich Anti-Shale Loonies Will increase Fuel Poverty | Douglas Carswell
Retro-Monster Munch Evidence of Deflation | Bond Vigilantes
UKIP Vulnerable to Infighting | Mark Wallace
Maude: Fraud Crackdown Saves £6,500,000,000 | Public Service
Don’t Blame Ed, Labour’s Dead | Spiked
Britain’s Blind Faith in Intelligence Agencies | Speigel
Meet Fracking Protesters | Kernel Mag
Students Call For Diane Abbott to Pay Back Cash | Trending Central
TV Licence Offences a Tenth of All UK Court Cases | City AM
Cabinet Office Spy Named | Mail





Kevin Maguire says that it was Craig Oliver who called up Rusbridger demanding:
“You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.”

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2013

Gay Reporter Subverts Russian TV Propaganda Channel

Diane Abbott Talks Up London Mayor Bid

As if Gorgeous George was not bad enough, Diane Abbott is flirting with a run at London mayor. She has been coy about the possibility before, today telling Progress why she would be a choice candidate. For some reason she is against Labour’s plan for a primary, insisting “it doesn’t make any sense”. Obviously not because of how it would affect her bid.

“I wouldn’t rule it out… [London is] much more interested in and much more positive about diversity and multiculturalism. The political consequences of austerity [will be key]. Londoners don’t want a party hack. Big cities never want a party hack. They want someone who’s independent, who will stand up for them.”

Divide and rule…

UKIP Seek to End Criminal Prosecutions For Licence Fee Rebels

Immature petty squabbling aside, UKIP are back to doing what they do best this afternoon. Following this morning’s revelation that 155,000 people were criminalised last year for not paying the licence fee, the party is pushing its proposal in the Lords that the telly tax moves from a criminal to a civil jurisdiction. Which would be a start…

CCHQ Accused of “Zimbabwe Style Censorship”

Failing socialist rag Tribune’s bitch fight with CCHQ over conference press passes has taken a particularly shouty turn. There has been an impasse after the Tories said they would only award the paper one pass, despite editor Chris McLaughlin demanding two. With Tribune only having three members of staff and a circulation that plummeted to just 4,000 in 2011, in fairness giving 66% of their employees free entrance to Tory conference does seem a bit silly.
McLaughlin isn’t giving up without a fight though. He accuses CCHQ of“discriminatory restrictions and politically motivated censorship, Zimbabwe-style”, insisting “this amounts to a ban on Tribune attending conference, defended by trumped up, false claims of justification. It is an attack on press freedom and a disgrace”. Tribune are now accusing CCHQ of taking away the one pass they did offer, though Tory sources stress this is because the magazine refused to provide a name to put on the pass.Nonetheless amusing to see the loony left jumping on the press freedom bandwagon…

155,000 People Criminalised By BBC Last Year

Cracking little find in City AM today. 155,000 people were criminalised by the BBC last year over licence fee offences. That is 12% of all criminal prosecutions in the UK. If you don’t pay you end up with a fine of £1,000 or even a jail sentence.The TV poll tax is a protection racket pure and simple…

Awkward 24 Hours For UKIP

The glee with which the Tories and Labour jump on any sign of UKIP discord is more flattering than anything, nonetheless it hasn’t been the smoothest week for the party. First their chief executive Will Gilpin threw his toys out of the pram and quit, dismissing members as “a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs”. Which is part of the charm, but still. Then Godfrey Bloom was at it again, informing us how “most women can find the mustard in the pantry quicker than a man and most men can reverse a car better than a woman”. His wider points about quotas and political correctness may have some merit, though the joke is wearing thin.
Cue Nigel Farage putting his foot down. He tells the Telegraph things are going to change:

“The party does need professional management but thus far we haven’t found the person to deliver it. I gave up all managerial control of the party in 2010, I gave it up to a new group of people and at the moment we haven’t got to where we need to and so therefore…I will now be once again taking back some direct managerial control of the party until I’m confident we’ve got the right people in place. I will have to do less politics, fewer interviews, fewer public meetings, fewer appearances and I will have to spend more time directly overseeing the jobs being done, because the problem we have had is one of non-delivery… We do need to get a grip on things. We do need to professionalise things and so I’m going to have to take a much more direct, managerial role.”

Which is probably a good thing…

How Prime Minister Ordered Destruction of Guardian Hard Drives

The full story of how state security came to oversee the destruction of the Guardian’s hard drives, not in the Guardian, but the Mail.