Dave’s Favourite Columnist

Miliband Could Be a Great PM | Thomas Pascoe
What Are You Really Paying in Income Tax? | TPA
Galloway’s Mad Month | The Commentator
Murdoch: Facebook is the New MySpace | Telegraph
Clegg’s Manifesto Referendum Pledge Spin Unravels | ConHome
Coalition Here to Stay | Ben Brogan
Tories Plan Coalition Divorce | Times
Public Doesn’t Back Dave on Europe | Peter Kellner
Public Backs Dave on Europe | John Rentoul
We Can’t Afford HS2 | Fraser Nelson
Farage Will Laugh Off Scottish Pub Drama | Michael Heaver

Ken let the cat out of the bag about Ed on 10 o’Clock Live last night:
“He is genuinely a socialist. And that is why I am delighted we finally got one because we haven’t had one for some time leading the Labour Party.”

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2013

WATCH: Tax For Dummies

The wonkish equivalent of a motherly lesson in life from the Taxpayers’ Alliance. Osborne’s suggestion that he would merge income tax and National Insurance two years ago has – surprise, surprise – gone absolutely nowhere. Hardly a shock seeing as the status quo lets him tax workers three times on the same income. It should be as easy as ABC…

Dave’s Favourite Columnist

One nugget of news from James Forsyth that will be keeping them happy over at Telegraph towers: apparently the PM’s new favourite columnist is Ed-bashing Blairite refusenik Dan Hodges.

“At the moment, the Cameroons are whining about the Conservative party being ‘unleadable’. There is much quoting of Cameron’s new favourite columnist, Dan Hodges, a former trade union official who is equally scathing about Conservative backbenchers and Ed Miliband. But even those who are indulging in this pastime know that it is not serious politics: if they really believed the Conservative party was unleadable, they wouldn’t be spending their lives trying to lead it.”

As if he hadn’t got under Labour’s skin enough already…

Hodge the Dodge: Spot the Difference

Compare and contrast Margaret Hodge’s holier-than-thou hectoring for not answering questions with her own non-answers in her Kay Burley interview yesterday. Here is Hodge berating Amazon’s Andrew Cecil at the Public Accounts Committee:

“Well, I think what we are going to have to do is order somebody to come who can give us answers to the questions we ask. We will order somebody to appear before us who does that. It is just not acceptable. I don’t know what you take us for, but we need proper answers to perfectly proper questions, which are trying to establish the economic activity in this country, and therefore what would be a reasonable corporation tax due. That is our job. The idea that you come here and simply do not answer the questions, and pretend ignorance, is just not on. It is awful… I cannot believe you have come without the information-or they have deliberately sent you. We will order somebody who can answer the questions, in public… Dear, dear. Well, we will have to come back to this.”

And here is Hodge’s humiliating exchange on SkyNews yesterday:

MH: I’m not, I’m not, I told you, I’m not, I haven’t, you know I don’t have any dealings with the company day to day.
KB: But you did say that you were confident that every penny that should be paid in tax has been paid in tax. You’ve obviously looked into it?
MH: Yes, I’m confident.
KB: And 0.01% is enough?
MH: No it isn’t 0.01, it’s what they pay, what they pay, the profits they make on the business they transact in the UK.
KB: And how much is that as a percentage of tax?
MH: I, I, I mean I can’t give you that answer.
KB: But you did say that every penny has been paid in tax so presumably you have the figures?
MH: Sorry?
KB: You did say that every penny they should pay in tax has been paid…
MH: I, I also said to you I don’t work for that business. I’m a shareholder. I think you should ask the company if you have any questions.

“Dear, dear. We will have to come back to this”…

LISTEN: Farage Hangs Up on BBC Radio Scotland

“I’m sensing similar hatred from this line of questioning as I got on the streets yesterday… [Question: Remind me how many elected representatives you have in Scotland?] Absolutely none, but rather more than the BBC do. We could have had this interview in England a couple of years ago, although I wouldn’t have met with such hatred as I’m getting from your questions. Frankly, I’ve had enough of this interview, goodbye.”

Trip went well then…

Mandy’s Big Money Motive

Since we haven’t been subjected to enough op-eds from frothing, swivel-eyed Europhiles over the past couple of weeks, up steps Peter Mandelson in the Telegraph to tell us why we should be staying in Europe:

“All the party leaders need to make clear that quitting the EU would be a colossal indulgence. It might fill many with a sense of pride in Britain’s separateness, but it would also mean greater isolation, less trade, smaller influence and fewer friends. In the globalised economy of the 21st century, where production networks and supply chains stretch far across national borders, size – of markets, trading power and negotiating clout – matters more than ever. An isolationist Britain would be weaker and more vulnerable. That must not be our destiny – and the Prime Minister’s job, along with Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, is to say so, loudly and firmly.”

Definitely nothing to with EU rules dictating that the former commissioner must maintain a “duty of loyalty” or be stripped of his £31,000-a-year index-linked pension worth over half a million pounds. As ever with Mandy, just follow the money…

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Hodge Can’t Dodge Krishnan on C4 News

All credit to Krishnan Guru-Murthy for asking the questions that Guido has been trying to get answered by Margaret Hodge for some time. Persisting even when Hodge threw up a smoke screen about the Telegraphapologising when it screwed up reporting the issues. You be the judge as to how credible you find Margaret Hodge’s answers…
Any tax lawyers who wish to anonymously comment, please do so in the comments or email Guido.Fawkes@order-order.com.

Hasta La Vista, Lefties

A study by two Danish and American universities has confirmed what we knew all along: strong men are likely to have right-wing political views, while lefties tend to be weaker. Professors Michael Bang Petersen and Daniel Sznycer say that men with greater upper body strength and bicep size are more likely to oppose redistribution, while weaker men are more likely to support the welfare state. It’s official, girly boys vote Labour…

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 Tory civil war begins…
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…

TORY WARS: Tory MEP Says Sack Dan Han

Former European Commission staff member (warning bells should already be going off) and veteran Tory MEP James Elles has gone tonto, lambasting Eurosceptic Cameron critic Dan Hannan. The frothing, swivel-eyed Europhile calls for Hannan’s immediate dismissal:

“There is the substantive question to debate about the evolving nature of the European Union, the Eurozone and its relationship with the outside world. But the fact that Dan Hannan uses the platform of a major daily (see Daily Mail 8 May), saying that ‘the idea that we can renegotiate with the EU is pure fantasy – and voters will never fall for it’ is no less than nauseating. Here is someone running for reelection for the European Parliament next year, who is also Secretary General of the Alliance of European and Conservative Parties, well ensconced in the electoral system. He should be sacked immediately in this role, otherwise it shows that anyone in the Conservative Party can contradict the leader of the Party with impunity and get away with it.”

And so the civil war begins…