Have a good weekend…

Guido has a lot of time for Nadine Dorries, she adds to the gaiety of the nation immensely.  However she has really misjudged the public mood if she thinks there is any sympathy for MPs who are feeling stressed.  Most people would like to see crooked MPs in jail, not getting psychiatric counselling for stress at the taxpayers’ expense.  She seems to be saying that the ACA racket was known and understood by all to be part of an MP’s entitlement.  Well that may be how MPs see it, but that is not how most people see it nor how it was in law.

The only MPs suffering stress are those that fleeced the taxpayer.  They deserve more than that, they deserve to face criminal charges.

UPDATE : Anthony Weaver, from Holborn agrees.  He applied for a summons before a district judge in Jacqui Smith’s constituency in Redditch alleging that she defrauded the public purse of between £116,000 and £200,000 by claiming her main residence was her sister’s London house.  He wanted to prosecute Ms Smith under Section 2 (1) of the Fraud Act 2006.  The judge adjourned the case, advising Mr Weaver to contact Scotland Yard.

Guido will send a copy of  A History of Political Trials: From Charles I to Saddam Hussein and a copy of  The Big Red Book of New Labour Sleaze to the wittiest caption writer.  Note that it is the wittiest, not most abusive comment that wins…

The good weather has made Guido unwell.  It was because of the sunshine that Guido drunk a couple of jugs of Pimms.  Which led to a few beers, which led to a sip of Jack Daniels which possibly led to a Baileys. It was a bit fuzzy by this point.  This was in the evening, lunchtime had already seen a few bottles polished off in remembrance of Lord Rennard.  Mostly the weather is to blame.

Meantime enjoy Jon Stewart’s take on Scamalot:

Rennard’s goodbye letter said he was leaving not because of the News of the Screws revealing his dishonesty, not because of his expenses and not because of Newsnight featuring him as the emblematic LibDem expense trougher last night. His letter was as true and as accurate as any LibDem leaflet he has ever written.

• Nick Clegg had a two hour meeting with Chris Rennard this morning.  No doubt they were discussing his diabetes medication programme.
• Paul Burstow, Chief Whip in the House of Commons, phoned a number of female LibDem PPCs personally to assure them that Chris Rennard would no longer be in charge of their careers.
• The Federal Executive meeting on Monday was supposed to be the denouement of Rennard. As it turns out the Newsnight reference to Rennard was the final straw for Clegg who is as keen as Cameron on getting credit for running a clean party.

The News of the World is not focusing on Chris Rennard’s financial misdemeanours.  A number of Cowley Street staffers are rejoicing at the departure of of the Chief Executive.  Mostly female staff…

UPDATE :

Dear [ ],
First, I’d like to thank all members for everything that you are doing to help our candidates in the European and local elections (if you have local elections in your area). I am sure that they appreciate your support at a difficult time in politics. If you are standing yourself, then obviously I wish you the best of luck!

My reason for writing is that I have decided to make the current election campaigns my last as Chief Executive. I discussed this with Nick some time ago and I have given notice to the Party President that I will stand down as Chief Executive at the end of the Summer. I want to be able to work more flexibly in future whilst of course continuing to help our party advance. I believe that I will be better able to do so without the administrative burdens of being Chief Executive and running the party’s day to day organisation. For family and health reasons, I have needed to change the way in which I work. My wife Ann has supported me enormously in all my work. But since she retired a few years ago after more than 35 years teaching, we wanted to have something of a more normal life outside the Westminster bubble. This has become more important to me as I have struggled to maintain good diabetic control with the rigours of a very demanding lifestyle. This has proved to be increasingly difficult whilst carrying out the role of Chief Executive at HQ and around the country.

I decided that this Summer would be the best time for me and for the party to make a change. I am letting the party know this now, so that it can take the necessary steps to appoint a new Chief Executive in the Autumn.

My major work as Chief Executive in recent years has been to help create new structures for the party organisation and help to recruit an extremely strong professional team to work for it. The role of Chief Executive has therefore changed significantly since I undertook this role six years ago.By the Summer, we will have had crucial local and European elections and I believe that we will do well in them. I am also confident that Nick Clegg will prove to be the most successful Leader that we have ever had. I am immensely proud of the roles that I have played so far in securing the steady advance of the Liberal Democrat cause. Our values and beliefs have never been more important than they are today. I will, of course, continue to support the General Election campaign, but not as chair. Finally, I would just like to thank all members personally for all the support that I have had whilst working for the party and I look forward to continuing to work with you in future.

With all best wishes,

Yours sincerely
Chris

Gilts have tumbled on the news that the debt rating agency Standard & Poor’s has just lowered its credit outlook on the U.K. to negative, from stable, in view of the government debt crisis.

S&P has so far kept the Triple “A” rating intact, but the outlook change signals that the the UK’s credit rating could be lowered:

“We have revised the outlook on the U.K. to negative due to our view that, even assuming additional fiscal tightening, the net general government debt burden could approach 100% of GDP and remain near that level in the medium term…”

Note the use of the term “general government debt”. That is because government uses discredited debt definitions to make out that Britain has lower government debt than it really does.  The markets simply don’t believe the government’s figures.

Last October Guido “Asked the PM” via video (creatively using Ms Fawkes’ crayons and sticky backed plastic) about how Gordon added up the national debt:

And he, errm, cheerily trotted out a very disingenuous line:

The markets didn’t believe him and now neither do the ratings agencies…

That makes how many properties?  Expat website the Olive Press reports Moran has made money renting her fourth home, a luxury property in the Alpujarras:

She has rented out the four-bedroom villa in Granada at various times since buying it in 1984… Holiday lettings agency Rustic Blue confirmed to the Olive Press that it had rented out the luxury property in Padre Eterno, near Orgiva on a number of occasions.

How much taxpayers money has she and her husband had to fund her lifestyle?

If Margaret Moran was not toast already, she definitely is now.  The FT has caught her using her Commons office to promote her husband’s firm “EQN”.  Then they caught her lying about it.

EQN’s accounts show its funding comes from public grants, business sponsorship and private events organised for paying clients, principally in the housing sector.

Hundreds of documents seen by the Financial Times dated from 2006 to 2008 show that Ms Moran used her parliamentary staff to write funding bids for EQN, telling one that the salary the individual received was tied to working for EQN. Her constituency office also helped organise “great networking opportunities” at EQN conferences with ministers personally invited by Ms Moran.

When EQN bids for funding were unsuccessful, Ms Moran repeatedly used Commons-headed paper to intervene with local authorities and Whitehall departments to express her “concern and amazement”.

EQN received grants in 2008 from public bodies including £10,000 from Luton Borough Council for local regeneration funding, and £20,000 from the East of England Development Agency’s Investing in Communities programme for a “feasibility study” into a local women’s business centre.

A statement authorised by Ms Moran in response to the FT stated that “Margaret has never written any letters for EQN on parliamentary headed notepaper”.

However, the FT has seen copies of letters written by Ms Moran in 2007 on Commons-headed paper supporting EQN funding bids and personal invitations to EQN events sent to businesses on Commons headed paper.

Cameron sacks MPs before dawn when the evidence shows them to be red handed.  Gordon just dithers.