Scandal has been brewing for a couple of days in Denmark over the fact that the opposition leader’s husband has mysteriously chosen to pay 15% income tax in Switzerland over the 63% rate in Denmark. Today things are coming to a head as Helle Thorning-Schmidt, leader of the Social Democratic party, has been forced to cut her family holiday short and return to the capital to defend herself.

The problem lies in the fact that the amount of time Thorning-Schmidt told the greedy Danish taxman that her husband spends in the country does not add up to the amount of times he has been seen going in and out of the family home. While many could understand a successful business man wanting to avoid surrendering nearly two thirds of his pay-packet, Guido can’t imagine Thorming-Schmidt’s in-laws would be too proud. What would the Hon. Stephen Kinnock’s father have to say about such blatant tax evasion?

With job openings in journalism a rarity these days, with newspapers laying off staff left right and centre, graduate schemes having thousands of applicants for one place and talk of not paying interns laughed out of the media world, you would think the post of assistant editor to a once prestigious and well read magazine would have the applications flooding in. Not at this dying magazine though…

The New Statesman have had to extend the application process for their assistant editor, presumably because of a lack of interest or quality hats thrown in the ring. Who wouldn’t want to be responsible for the dirth of talent at the struggling magazine?

With such cutting edge insight from the Political Editor Mehdi Hasan such as “The next Labour leader will be called Miliband“ and the renowned “Mr Scoop” himself, James Macintyre on board, the job would be a breeze, just watch out for those writs. With circulation rapidly heading for rock bottom – just the libraries that subscribe – perhaps those budding lefty hacks have realised the Staggers is a place to end your career rather than start it…

UPDATE: Mehdi got in touch to insist that he is not the Political Editor but the Senior Editor (Political). If that is the only part of the story he could find to refute then things were worse than Guido thought….

Despite the fear mongering from Labour the Bank of England have stuck at their record low for the eighteenth month…

Given the ongoing battle between Ken Clarke, with the help of Crispin Blunt, and the Downing Street media operation over reducing prison sentences, Guido was particularly amused to see the make-up of this Policy Exchange event at Tory conference:

So along with a chairman, there are three speakers in a row who want to cut the prison population and no one who thinks this a bad idea. Don’t tell Andy…

But is everyone at Policy Exchange signed up to the chosen viewpoint? Why isn’t their Head of Crime and Justice, Blair Gibbs, on the panel? At the other events, the PX speaker is the person responsible for that policy area, not Neil O’Brien. Could it be that Gibbs might not be in agreement with the rest of the carefully selected guests. What does the Head of Crime and Justice have to say on the matter?

Well when he was at Reform he certainly made his views known:

“An ideology hostile to prison has taken root, progressively warping successive Government’s response to rising crime, and in its complacency, directly contributing to it… on all levels – deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation … prison cuts crime. The reason this argument is rarely heard, and certainly not from the prison reform lobby, is because the “experts” regard a rising prison population as a sign of society’s failure and so can rarely find a good thing to say about it.

The result of this anti-prison mentality and increased use of non-custodial sentences has been thirty years of rising crime and failed responses.

…we run great risks if we think, despite all the evidence, that we can have a low prison population, while we still have a high crime rate, and not expect public safety to be jeopardised… Much evidence suggests that when it is allowed to, prison works, and with expansion and more investment in Britain it can be made to work better. What doesn’t work, is a criminal justice system that attempts to replace prison with other forms of community punishment, solely on the back of ideological motives or misplaced sentimentalism.”

You can hear the wonks wincing already. How fortunate for the Prison Reform Trust who are sponsoring, sorry “partnering”, the event, that Dave’s favourite think-tank is willing to gag its experts.