403 years ago on this day in 1606, Guido Fawkes, following months of torture was convicted of treason for his part in the ”Gunpowder Plot” against an oppressive political class and the tyrant King James I, and executed. Now, some four centuries later, it is Guido’s turn to torture politicians…

The above video filmed by the Sunday Times in the St James Hotel’s restaurant is pretty damning for Baron Truscott. The former Labour DTI minister – once a special envoy for Tony Blair – is now a director of oil and mining companies controlled by Frank Timis, a twice convicted heroin dealer.

Truscott is a director of two Timis ventures. One, African Minerals, is active in Sierra Leone, the world’s biggest source of blood diamonds (African Minerals was formerly called the Sierra Leone Diamond Company). In September 2008 the Sunday Times reported that Timis was facing the prospect of a court case over disputed mineral rights. The other company, Eastern Petroleum is involved in oil prospecting in the former Soviet Union.

Truscott is also a director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a company involved in oil exploration in northern Iraq, run by Bush/Cheney campaign contributor Todd Kozel. In addition, Truscott works for Gavin Anderson, a PR firm with strong links to the government of Russia and its commercial associate. (See declared interests).

Truscott is like a real life Alan B’stard…

John Hutton is visiting a Sixth Form College in his constituency today. He has asked that for a planned question and answer session with some A Level students the questions be submitted beforehand. Obviously even though they’re his constituents one of them could be a bit of a Paxman. Dangerous…

0947 Gordon Brown looked angry when it turned out some dope had forgotten to turn off his mobile phone during his G20 talk – until the red-faced British PM found out it was his handset ringing. And it went off twice.

UPDATE : The BBC has the clip of his Nokia ringing – you will wet yourself laughing. Still it is not as bad as the time he met Clinton and other world leaders with a big orange blob on his head is it? He really is just a walking global embarrassment.

Velux Windows in Glenrothes was subjected to a visit from Jonah last October during the by-election campaign. Gordon congratulated them on their success. (ITN footage of soon to be sacked workers shaking Jonah’s hand.) Yesterday Keith Riddle, managing director of The Velux Company Limited, said: “Unfortunately we are making a number of redundancies and are currently in the consultation process with the people affected. It is expected that around half of the job losses will be made in Glenrothes, with the rest being spread around the UK and Ireland. Be warned, whether your business is large or small, if Jonah Brown comes, doom will follow…

UPDATE : Radioactive Jonah – “Because the future is nuclear, it is only right that Gordon should take a personal interest in the way our installations operate. And thus he went to Sellafield last week. So far, so good. There was, we now learn, a little local difficulty on the day the PM came to call: a radioactive leak that meant a walkway had to be cordoned off and a building closed. The whole thing is now the subject of a board of inquiry but it didn’t spoil his trip.”

Alan Duncan is the new Shadow Leader of the House, up against Harriet Harman. Those who complain that the Tories don’t attack hard enough (they don’t) will enjoy the exchange (Hansard) he had with her this morning.

There has been a sudden delay in the Political Parties and Elections Bill. Will the right hon. and learned Lady tell the House why that has happened? Given her close personal links with the aristocracy, is she not doubly ashamed by the apparent conduct of her four Labour colleagues in the Lords? May we also have a debate on cash for influence in this House? Does not the House of Lords pale into insignificance, given that, because more than 90% of the Labour party’s battleground funding comes from the trade unions, the party remains a wholly owned subsidiary of an interest group with its own policy agenda?…

The latest forecast from the International Monetary Fund suggests that, contrary to the Government’s mantra that the United Kingdom is well prepared to deal with the downturn, the UK is actually facing the worst recession in the world. Can we therefore at last have a debate in Government time to allow the House to express its lack of confidence in the Government’s handling of the economy, or is the Leader of the House worried that this is yet another issue that would leave the Prime Minister, as reported yesterday, “tearful and dewy-eyed”?

It would appear that the Prime Minister has lost confidence in his own Cabinet and, it would seem, even in himself. He has complained that his Cabinet members are ducking interviews and leaving him to look like the Minister for the recession, yet today, curiously, we have learned that Labour MPs have been instructed by the Whips not to talk about the economy at all. So who is going to win the parliamentary BAFTAs—the “Glumdog in Despair” in Downing street or the Basil Fawltys on the Back Benches shouting, “Don’t mention the recession”? Put simply, when is this country going to get honesty from the Prime Minister about the severity of our plight?

Newbie blogger Events dear boy, events, had a little nugget on Gordon’s day yesterday, which saw a PPS (Andy Slaughter) resign, the Heathrow vote too narrowly pass for comfort, the IFS report not kind to Gordon, the IMF report stating that the UK will be the worst performing economy in 2009 and rumours begin that Obama may not come to London* for the G20 hosted by the Saviour of the World.

That was all on top of his kicking at PMQs. Add to the list as well the interview Jon Cruddas MP gave to the Indy’s Andy Grice where he warns that Gordon is perhaps too emotionally retarded to beat Cameron. Not a great day in the bunker…

Guido has more bad news from yesterday to top it off. This came in from a co-conspirator who saw:

Charles Clarke and Stephen Byers finishing a quiet dinner together at the back of Colosseo on Victoria Street this evening. Whatever they were talking about was clearly so important that the socialist bastards didn’t even leave a tip. Clarke was clearly in charge, though, and Byers looked such a drab little creature.

Clarke and Byers eh? Now which Italian dish is it that is best served cold?

*According to a White House press release it is still Obama’s “hope to attend the G-20 Summit in London”.

The Tories are doing a live videocast and live-chat right now, with Greg Clark, the Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, and Theresa Villiers, the Shadow Transport Secretary. Guido is mesmerised thinking that Villiers is going for a Sarah Palin look – see for yourself.

This will be the second Standards and Privileges Committee report (due at 11.00). Derek had to repay money given to Freddie, this is in respect of his other son Henry.

Why isn’t he being charged for fraud?

UPDATE 11.00 : Ordered to re-pay another £3,757 paid to his son. A small fine. and ordered to write a written apology. Not really proportionate to the amount that was defrauded, is it?