WAR: Dave Sends Frigates to Gibraltar

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013

WAR: Dave Sends Frigates to Gibraltar

Andrew Rosindall has got his wish. The Mail is reporting that Dave is sending British warships to Gibraltar:

“British warships are to visit Gibraltar in a show of strength in the stand-off with Spain over control of The Rock. Three ships including the frigate HMS Westminster will sail for the region on Monday even as the diplomatic row with Madrid escalates over plans for draconian border controls.”

Nice to know we still have some ships.

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. All the Labour fightback news and Tory blues you’ll ever need…
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…

Labour in Retreat on Zero-Hours

Labour’s focus on zero-hours contracts is on the rocks after it was revealed Labour councils all over the country use them. “A Labour spokeswoman” appears to be in full retreat, telling the Standard that they “were not always bad” and that “this sort of flexibility can be important for some employees”. Yes, for Guardian staff, Co-Op workers, et cetera…
This all reminds Guido of Kinnock’s 1985′s conference speech:

“I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions.  They are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, out-dated, mis-placed, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers”. 

If Miliband wants to end zero-hours contracts how long before his Labour councils “because of a far-fetched, rigid dogma” are “handing out redundancy notices to their own workers”?
When Neil Kinnock can pick it apart, it is safe to say the fightback is not going very well.

Chris Huhne Sick of It All

Guido loves a cabby tale and has to share this one:

Cabby: “I had that Chris Huhne in my cab the other day…”
GF: “Oh yeah… What did he have to say for himself?”
Cabby: “Well I asked him what he thought of parliament now… He replied asking me how I feel when someone throws up the back of the cab.”

Pleasing.

George Galloway “Exploring” Bid for Mayor of London 

“I Can Win, Yeah”

That well known Londoner George Galloway is preparing a bid for Mayor of London in 2016. In an interview with the Artist Taxi Driver, the MP for Bradford coughed:

“I have a committee exploring it now. It’s a shrunken field – Boris Johnson won’t be running. Ken Linvingstone won’t be running, I would never have run against Ken Livingstone as he’s a very old friend of mine. Labour will run Ken Livingstone minus, the Tories will field Boris Johnson minus… I can win, yeah.”

Guido is not sure Boris would fancy a job swap…

Zero Sense of Irony at the Guardian

Where the Labour Party simply ignored their awkward connections to zero-hour contracts, the Guardian simply fibbed to cover their tracks. Their rant against flexible working hours included the disclaimer “Guardian News & Media, publisher of the Guardian, does not employ anyone on zero-hour contracts.” Which is apparently tosh – whole desks at Kings Place are staffed by “casual” staff with no sick pay or guaranteed work. They are told:

“the nature of your work as a casual is intermittent and will vary from week to week.  There is no obligation on GMN to provide you with work continuously or otherwise.”

The Eye reports an exec suggesting “we should have just gone to the canteen and asked staff here for a quote”. A trick the Beeb could try too.

Via Private Eye – see crediting is not that hard is it?