Guido can not bring himself to even publicise the name of the non-entity MP calling for Maggie’s new statue to be removed from the Members Lobby. At the unveiling ceremony even the speaker, Gorbals Martin, graciously eulogised the woman who saved Britain from socialist decline. For Guido, bronze is not enough.

The Hitch has come up with a brilliant proposal to honour the woman who sent the Royal Navy half way round the world to defeat a fascist junta and unshackled Britain’s economy, in doing so she restored the nation’s pride and international reputation. Name a warship after her.

Guido was at the launch of Milburn & Clarke’s 2020 Vision Thing.

It is yet another “participatory” website, policy orientated, debating the future direction of the Labour party, blah, blah, blah. Yawn.

Because we don’t have many of them already do we? CompassOnline, ProgressOnline, LabourHome, LabourSpace and even PM.Gov.UK. None of the Lobby believed it, all the questions were about Gordon. All you need to know from the questions is this: despite being repeatedly asked in different ways, neither of them would endorse Brown for leader, or rule themselves out of running for leader.

Miliband has come in sharply to 9/1 second favourite. Time to take profits if you backed him at longer odds methinks.

At an outside 100/1 on Betfair, Milburn is worth a flutter surely? Guido has put a few quid on the Kamikaze for a trading bet. Just in case he runs…

Opinion Leader Research have got back to Guido and they say nobody paid for that research. They just asked questions slanted to favour Gordon for no particular reason. They also say they won their lucrative HM Treasury contract and the Bank of England contract in a competitive tendering process.

They won’t say why the Treasury needs pollsters, what they poll about, or how much they have been paid.

Guido could understand if the Treasury needed statisticians, but pollsters? Perhaps the Bank of England would be interested in measuring, say for example, people’s inflation expectations, but their opinions? If public money has been spent by the Treasury on pollsters who have asked questions that assist Gordon in his personal political ambitions, that would be a massive breach of the Ministerial Code bordering on corruption. If it were to be proved that the payments to do something innocuous were effectively a hidden subsidy covering the costs of doing polling on issues of interest to Gordon Brown for no particular reason it would be scandalous.

Since Gordon’s personal pollsters won’t give Guido answers, maybe Gordon will answer Stewart Jackson’s parliamentary questions?

A co-conspirator points out that they also had no identifiable paying client for their “What it means to be British” research in 2005. Shortly afterwards Gordon began loudly banging his Britishness drum. Opinion Leader Research has helped Gordon on “Britishness” issues before, their research was used extensively in “New Britain” a 1999 publication produced by the Smith Institute. The pamphlet was itself singled out and explicitly criticised by the Charity Commission as being party political in the first 2001 investigation into the Sith.

Guido sees a pattern here; the Treasury hosts over a hundred of the Smith Institute’s seminars – rent-free, simultaneously the Treasury pays the Smith Institute to hold seminars. The Treasury pays Deborah Mattinson’s Opinion Leader Research generously, Deborah Mattinson sits on the Smith Institute’s board and does “polling” that is helpful to Gordon – for free. She also writes hagiographical press articles about Gordon, based on her own polling research, whenever negative independent poll findings come out.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the taxpayer has been paying, via the Treasury, for Gordon’s polling and spin, all tightly coordinated via the Smith Institute to promote the Brownite political agenda. This is abuse of office.

Outriders coming… If you believe all that guff about Milburn and Clarke having a friendly chat with Brown about the “need for a debate” and emailing the PLP for just that reason, you’ll believe the tooth fairy took all the WMD in Iraq away. Them darn Outriders is gettin’ themselves a possee together tomorrow…

Could someone point Charlie Kennedy in the right direction. He was just seen by a co-conspirator heading towards the Chamber via all four walls.

Paul Richards is a strange lad. He chooses to spend his holidays working on the boss’ deputy leadership campaign and ringing Guido to tell him he was on leave yesterday and today “in accordance with the Code of Conduct”. Wonder why he panicked and bothered changing his Facebook entry this morning, after Guido’s story, in that case?

It will be September by the time the campaign is over – if he is going to help the boss and stick to the Code of Conduct, he better take unpaid leave. The co-conspirators will be watching…

If you see any other greasy pole climbing SpAds helping their principal’s campaign at the taxpayer’s expense, email Guido. Photos especially welcome.

As the Charity Commission looks increasingly likely to deal with the Sith firmly they have launched a transparently obvious attempt to rope in Tories to provide cover for them. One problem – they don’t know any.

So they have taken to advertising in the Speccie in the hope of finding Tories interested in what Margaret Beckett has to say in a John Smith Memorial Lecture. Not that attractive a subject to Tories Guido thinks. No doubt when the Charity Commission rebukes them for their Brownite partisanship they will point at the Speccie ad and say “we tried”. Guido has magnanimously RSVP’d.

Now it is a public charity event being held on public property (No. 11 as usual). Since Guido is a member of the public they can’t have any reason to refuse to allow him to attend…

Hat-tip : Border Reiver

Jonathan Caine, a former Tory Northern Ireland SpAd for Mayhew is going back to spinning. He has had previous with the Communications Group and is until next week still a SpAd on NIO & DCA until he joins Bell Pottinger.

More stories of Tories off to spin merchants welcome.

Do email Guido names of newly minted Tory lobbyists…

The whole Facebook fad has passed Guido by, the many invitations go unanswered.

Paul Richards should have done the same, or at least have been more careful before he advertised online his breaches of the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. Unless he is currently on leave, the above is a prima facie admission of misconduct. My thanks to a supporter of a rival candidate for the above. No doubt someone more public spirited will make the appropriate complaint.

UPDATE : He has hurriedly changed his entry this morning. You know Guido might just be motivated enough to make a formal complaint. He is after all wasting taxpayers money on Blears’ private interests.