This blog is hosted by Blogger.com, part of Google. Blogger has been having unexplained problems and has driven Iain Dale to attempt DIY repairs. My own geeks say (a) it is nothing to do with them and (b) it is fine if you are using the Firefox browser. Guido uses Firefox because it is quicker and allows him to open tabbed pages simultaneously. Download and switch to Firefox and your life will be better.

Iain warns that if they don’t sort it out he will drop using Blogger. Google’s Rachel Whetstone has promised Iain things will be sorted. Quickly please.

Appearing at Southwark Crown Court, Michael Brown admitted committing perjury and making a false declaration to obtain a passport. Brown also faces other fraud charges involving the HSBC bank.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC suggested the LibDem’s biggest backer will face a jail sentence when he is sentenced on 25 September. He has been on remand in Wormwood Scrubs for months.

Maybe he’ll get to talk at some date about the future of political financing with Lord Levy. The not too distant future…

According to research by PinkNews, Gordon Brown, has consistently failed to support gay rights in parliament since the Labour party was elected in 1997. Research by them shows that he has never attended parliament when gay rights have been voted on whilst Labour has been in power. They say:

Mr Brown has on 14 separate occasions failed to attend Commons votes when issues relating to gay equality were voted on. He failed to support the government’s equalisation of the age of consent, the abolition of Section 28, gay couples being able to jointly adopt, civil partnerships and the Equality Act. The registration of civil partnerships are the responsibility of the Treasury, the department that Mr Brown heads.

In late July, the Labour rebel John McDonnell, MP for Hayes & Harlington declared his intent to challenge Mr Brown for the leadership of the Labour party. Unlike Mr Brown, Mr McDonnell has voted positively in every one of the fourteen divisions relating to gay equality held since 1997.

Mr Brown could possibly argue that he was “too busy” to attend the votes. However, even with his greater work load, Mr Blair managed to attend four divisions relating to equalising the age of consent and allowing gay couples to jointly adopt.

Indeed, Mr Brown could be considered to posses a worse record than David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives.

Odd that Brown has been “too busy” to vote for gay rights. You’d thought he be happy to help out…

A co-conspirator emails about a recent lunch organised by sleazy lobbyists LLM. Ed Balls spoke and went completely mad about criticism of the spending review. He ended up shouting that if the CBI and the TUC didn’t like what he was doing they should get on and do their own. Is the heat getting to him?

The Belfast Telegraph’s David Gordon has highlighted Peter Hain’s penchant for expensive taxpayer-funded flights to sporting events in Ireland.

Hain flew in specially chartered planes to a Dublin rugby international and two Sligo motor racing events within the past year. The bill for Hain’s costly jollies comes to £10,754. Hain, a keen motorsports fan, flew with one official last October to Sligo to attend a motorsports event. The cost of this one-day trip was £2,491. In February he flew to Dublin to attend an Ireland versus Wales rugby match. Three officials went with him and the bill for the one-day trip came to £5,002. In March, he was back in Sligo again to attend another Rally Ireland event. Two officials flew with him on a charter plane for a two-day stay which cost £3,271.

The use of taxpayer-funded charter flights to attend jollies has even provoked the Conservative Party’s Northern Ireland spokesman, David Lidington: “Everyone accepts the need for Ministers to travel, sometimes at short notice, but these three trips sound like costly jollies at taxpayers’ expense.” Guido thinks Hain can get a bloody Ryanair flight to the rugby at his own expense like the rest of us.

The Tory Earl of Onslow and the LibDem’s Lord Holme were on Today this morning discussing the Lords Constitution Committee’s call for an end to the Government’s unfettered power to deploy British troops abroad.

Onslow pointed out that if France were to attack Dover we would need to respond quickly and there would not be time for a debate in the commons. Exactly.

All the more reason Guido thinks for Britain to develop a truly independent of the Yanks short-range nuclear deterrent. Onslow knows…