Max Moments: Clifford on Paedophiles

How Tory HQ Briefed Against UKIP Candidates | The Commentator
French Socialists Attack Germany’s ‘Selfish’ Merkel | FT
Ed’s Rhetoric: Untrue and Divisive | Economist
Dave Ticks Off Britain’s Richest MP | Mail
Cameron v Liverpool | ITV
Google Chairman: Google Glass is Weird | Business Insider
Labour Split Down the Middle | Dan Hodges
In Praise of Sweatshops | Speccie
Vote Red Ed, Get Red Len | Simon Heffer
Spending More Does Not Equal Better Public Services | Fraser Nelson
Downing Street Believe They Will Win | Paul Goodman

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2013

Max Moments: Clifford on Paedophiles

In “Read All About It” Max Clifford recounts his work bringing the likes of Gary Glitter and Jonathan King to justice, making clear in no uncertain terms his disgust for paedophiles. On Glitter:

“Max punched the air in triumph when he was sent down.
‘It was meant he was known for the vile sick person he is and that wherever he went parents would watch out for him…despite the tightening up on the law relating to paedophiles, it remains very difficult to get victims to testify. Many paedophiles are rich and powerful, which sometimes wrongly helps them get away with it.’”

Yesterday afternoon Clifford was charged with 11 indecent assaults by the Savile cops…

Saturday Seven Up

This week 112,725 visitors visited 349,753 times viewing 606,501 pages. The top stories in order of popularity were:

• WATCH: US TV Anchor Turns Air Blue on First Day
• The Indy Pol Ed, UKIP and the Six Year Old Guardian Quote
• LibDem Councillor Charged Over Bombing Campaign
• Huhne Offers to Settle For £85,000 Discount
• Farage Confirms Hancock By-Election Plan
• Polly’s Singapore Spin Unravels
• WATCH: Farage’s Lapdancing Confession

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013

UKIP Candidate Tells Abusive Cyclists: On Your Bike

Some room-silencing deadpan answers to a series of questions on cycling from UKIP’s local election candidate in East Chesterton, Cambridgeshire. 78-year-old Peter Burkinshaw is taking no prisoners:

Q: What experience do you have of cycling in the Cambridgeshire area?
A: None.
Q: Would you agree that creating very high-quality cycling routes to encourage new people to cycle offers by far the best cost-benefit ratio for transport improvements that facilitate growth of the City and surrounding areas?
A: You are asking for benefits paid for by other road users. I would prefer more car parks.
Q: Do you support our view that traffic policing, of all groups of road users (cyclists, drivers, etc), should become a greater police priority?
A: Cyclists are by far the most undisciplined road users. On several occasions, I have had to stop or dodge cyclists riding through red lights when crossing at pedestrian crossings. More police attention to cyclists would be useful. 
Q: Do you and your party support a new London-style bike plan for Cambridgeshire?
A: No. This proposal amounts to theft from the people who pay to use roads and the benefit given to those who don’t.
Q: Do you support our proposal for ‘The Chisholm Trail’, a cycling and walking linear park that would run roughly along the railway?
A: Only if cyclists pay for it.
Q: Do you support the provision of a cycle bridge over the River Cam and related cycleways alongside or near the railway bridge?
A: Again, only if you don’t expect everybody else to pay for it.
Q: What would you do to ensure the developer fixes these [cycling signs] before the County Council adopts this, to avoid taxpayers paying to deal with these problems in future years?
A: Nothing.
Q: Do you support our view that legal cycling should remain permitted, that the signs should read ‘Cyclists give way to pedestrians’ and that conflict would be reduced by removing barriers to increase the amount of space here?
A: I don’t use Green Dragon bridge, so am not able to make an informed comment. However, I am constantly subjected to verbal abuse from cyclist riding of the footbridge at Jesus Lock when I ask them to stop ignoring the please dismount signs.
Q: Do you have any other general cycling-related comments or points?
A: Why are there cycle tracks on Hill’s road on both the road and footpath? Road space is required for motorised vehicles who pay for it. It shouldn’t be wasted on people who don’t. Just for your information, I walk to most places in Cambridge, but you should bear in mind that if everybody cycled, there would be no roads to ride on.

Some good points, spectacularly well made…

Mary Creagh’s Lectures in Dodgy Attack Lines

Idiot of the day goes to Richard Benyon, the Environment minister and richest current MPwho told poor families to stop wasting food this morning. You could always rely on Labour foghorn and Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh to shoot herself in the foot with her response, however:

“Mums struggling to feed their families don’t need lectures on wrapping cheese from a Tory Government which has created a cost of living crisis with its failed economic plan.”

Roll back four years and then Labour DEFRA man Hilary Benn had a rather different attitude:

“As a nation we waste around £10 billion of food each year – a third of what we buy. Part of the problem is how food is labelled. Some 370,000 tonnes of food are chucked out each year after passing their ‘best before’ dates, despite being perfectly good, safe and edible. When you buy something from the supermarket it should be easy to know how long you should keep it for and how you should store it. Too many of us are throwing things away simply because we’re not sure, we’re confused by the label, or we’re just playing safe.”

Presumably it’s just Tories who aren’t allowed to lecture people, right Mary?

Lisa Markwell New Sindy Editor

Indy executive editor Lisa Markwell replaces John Mullin as editor of the Sindy.
Another female editor at a Lebedev paper, as Evgeny has been quick to stress…

Milibands v Johnsons

Not only did Ed, David, Boris and Rachel go to the same primary school, it seems the Milibands and the Johnsons all shared the same hairdresser.These north London elite types are all the same…

Local Government’s £217,130 on Foreign Travel

Of all the departments that make up Her Majesty’s government, Guido would have thought the one that doesn’t need to blow huge sums of taxpayer cash on foreign junkets would be the Department for Communities and Local Government. Somehow the department have spent £217,130 on visits abroad since 2010, no signs of a trip to a Sydney casino though. When Guido put it to them, DCLG sources pointed to the fact that the department has made savings of over half a billion pounds over the current spending review period and most of the travel was for mandatory trips to the EU. A useful figure to keep handy…

How Tax Credits Are Set to Rocket

Hardly a surprise, but confirmation from Sajid Javid that the government projects billions more will be spent on tax credits over the next few years. The total spend on child tax and working tax credits has jumped from £24.1 billion in 2008-9 to £29.9 billion this year. The figure is projected to rise again to £32.5 billion by 2017-18. Austerity, what austerity?

Galloway: Ed Unprincipled Coward With Backbone of Amoeba

They were getting on so well, but the burgeoning friendship between Ed and George is over. Miliband called time on things this morning:

“I think George Galloway’s views are awful. He might want me to be prime minister, but I don’t want him to be an MP. George Galloway isn’t coming back to the Labour party. We want to defeat him at the next election in his Bradford West seat.”

To which Galloway hit back:

“Miliband’s claim that he repeatedly pursued me for a one hour meeting about “boundary changes” is, quite simply, a lie. I realise now that I showed poor judgement in finally agreeing to meet Miliband. An unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba.”

Nothing like a good public spat…