Saturday Seven Up

Chuka, Lies, Spin and Tax | Mail
Anyone Who Laughs at Chuka is Racist | Matthew Norman
Thatcher’s Children Have Grown Up | Michael Gove
Margaret Thatcher: An Alternative History | Mail
Less Than Half Believe in Man Made Climate Change | Angus Reid
Thatcher Podcast Special | The Commentator
Thatcher: Punk Saviour | Niall Ferguson
‘I’m in Love With Margaret Thatcher’ Moves Up Charts | Standard
Campaign to Beat ‘Ding Dong’ to Number One | The Commentator
Thatcher Was a Great Leader | Mikhail Gorbachev
Thatcher and Africa | Richard Dowden

sATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2013

Saturday Seven Up

This week 150,277 visitors visited 404,740 times viewing 652,463 pages. The top stories in order of popularity were:

• Owen Jones and the Thatcher Grave Dancer
• Arrogant Chuka Umunna: London is “Full of Trash”
• The Best Boris GIF You Will Ever See
• Compare and Contrast
• Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013
• Guardian Poll Finds 50%-34% Support For Thatcher
• Poor Got Richer Under Thatcher

You’re either in front of Guido, or behind…

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2013

Number 10′s Hidden Thatcher Tribute

Hidden in the gilding on the walls of 10 Downing Street, the small, subtle but powerful image of a thatcher climbing the cornicing. A golden legacy…

Guardian Phone-Hacker David Leigh Retires

David Leigh, the Guardian’s ‘public interest’ phone-hacker in chief, is retiring to spend more time with his two phones. Guido never got that apology for Leigh’s less than polite untruths back in 2011. That awkward admission in full:

“There is certainly a voyeuristic thrill in hearing another person’s private messages… unlike the News of the World, I was not paying a private detective to routinely help me with circulation-boosting snippets. That is my defence, when I try to explain newspaper methods to my current university journalism students, and some of whom are rather shocked.”

Send in the clowns…

The Wicked Witch of the West End

As the battle rages between ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’ and ‘I’m in Love With Margaret Thatcher’ for the highest chart position, you can always rely on Ed Balls’ spectacular lack of timing for a lighter take on the loony left campaign. Asked by the Standard what he gets up to in his spare time this morning, Balls rather unfortunately replied:

“I’ve been to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria five times in the past three years. I can’t wait to go again…”

As Guido is also a fan of musical theatre, we will let him off this time…

HMRC Investigate 100 Unpaid Intern Firms

Following sterling work from the Intern Aware team, HMRC are now investigating 100 companiesfor illegally using unpaid interns. Guido wonders whether the likes of theNew Statesman, Left Foot Forward, Political Scrapbook or PoliticsHome are on the list. Not to mention the host of MPs currently advertising for unpaid positions. The net is closing…

Lambeth Labour Poster Propaganda Unravels, Again

Another Lambeth Labour poster, another Lambeth Labour propaganda own goal. This time they are claiming the credit for freezing council tax, despite the fact that it is a Tory policy consistently opposed by Labour in parliament. For some strange reason that isn’t mentioned.
Awkward…

Even More Names Added to Thatcher Guest List

Even more names have been added to the funeral invitation list:
Newt Gingrich
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Mr & Mrs John Howard (representing Australia)
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Michael Crawford
Katherine Jenkins
Lord & Lady Harris of Peckham
Lord Maurice Saatchi
Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe
Andrew Neil

Club Owners Trash Chuka

Hardly ideal for a Shadow Business Secretary to be slammed by business leaders for talking down their industry. The owners of some of London’s top clubs have expressed their disappointment at two-faced Chuka’s snobbery this morning in a letter to the Standard:

Dear Sir,
We were appalled to read last week that Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary and London MP Chuka Umunna has branded London clubs and nightspots as ‘full of trash and C-list wannabes.’
The UK’s night-time economy is worth £66 billion every year; Mr. Umunna criticises an industry which brings in millions of pounds to the capital and provides thousands of jobs. As a London MP, let alone Shadow Business Secretary, it beggars belief that he would chose to condemn these businesses rather than champion them. Mr. Umunna is clearly still not on the side of the British businesses whose success is so vital to the economic recovery.
Mr. Umunna’s knowledge of London’s nightlife is also sorely lacking. If he had visited the area he would know that the West End plays host to a wide variety of exciting clubs and bars. To correct this blindspot in his life experience, we extend an invitation for Mr. Umunna to see for himself the vibrant nightlife the capital has to offer and visit one of our establishments on a night of his choice.
Yours faithfully,
Khalid Virani (Owner of Raffles)
Julien Burlo (Owner of 151)
Joel Grey (Director of JuJu and SOUK)
Alex Nicholl (Owner of Jalouse)

Ouch…

WATCH: Maggie Told Boris to Get Rid of Ken

“There’s a man called Ken Livingstone, I think he has something to do with London. You must get rid of him.”

Mission accomplished.

Via LBC.