Yesterday Guido bought you the news that controversial LibDem MP Mike Hancock had been juggling to keep stories about him out of the papers before the election. Well today he understands that one of those stories has resulted in a half day hearing at Winchester Combined Courts this coming 7th of October. A temporary injunction Hancock obtained against Les Cummings has expired and the follow-up legal action promised to the judge was not forthcoming, so the silenced party is now pursuing the amorous MP for damages and costs.

And you thought trying to seduce a mentally ill constituent was conduct unbefitting of a Member of Parliament…

Red Ed has just finished his speech, it was a pep-talk for a “new generation”.

To Guido it still sounded like left-lurching, deficit raising, money wasting, demotivating, buzz wording, fool talking, high taxing, fast spending, ever wasting, vote losing, Labour.

UPDATE : It was apparently 8,000 words long, took over an hour and the weird staring into the distance blank pause at the beginning was Ed waiting for the autocue to start.

Polly Billington – Gatekeeper and PR. Former BBC presenter and SpAd at the Department for Enviroment and Climate Change. (1)

Sadiq Khan - Campaign Manager. Controversial expenses fiddling MP for Tooting.

Lucy Powell – Chief of Staff. Failed PPC. (2)

Katie Myler – Spokesman. Former SpAd to Jacqui Smith, and the daughter News of the Screws editor Colin Myler. (3)

Stewart Wood – Head of Comms. Former Brown Bunker Bod and very close to Ed. (4)

Kenny Young - Press Officer. “Calamity Kenny” just about says it all. (5)

Rachel Kinnock – Events. Keeping it in the family. (6)

Greg Beales – Speechwriter. Highly rated boyfriend of spokesgirl Katie Myler. (7)

Ayesha Hazarika – Speechwriter. Stand up comic and Harman SpAd. (8)

James Morris – Polling and Message. Ally of Democrat and Brown pollster Stan Greenberg.

Alex Smith – Messaging and New Media, though doing diary work too. Editor of LabourList. (9)

Anna Yearly – Bag carrier. (10)

Nirmalee Wanduragala – Researcher. Former SpAd to Rosie Winterton and Fabian. (11)

Calum O’Byrne Mulligan – Researcher. Friends accuse him of being “Stalinist”. (12)

David’s continued refusal to say whether he will be staying or going is seriously damaging his brother’s storyline. This morning’s papers seem adamant that he is off, though if that was the case the continued lapping up of the Party’s admiration and ovations seems a little counter productive. If he was genuinely going for the good of the party, rather than sour grapes, he would have announced it yesterday instead of allowing another news cycle of speculation. The media care more about the real winner of the leadership race than the illegitimate king…

UPDATE: The betting markets now say David has a 66% chance of going, thanks to this morning’s papers.

Red Ed’s speech is going to be, in the words of one who had seen a draft of it yesterday, “vacuous” and full of talk of a “new generation”. It will be a saccharine speech sharing not just a slogan with Pepsi, its content will also be sugary and vague, without New Labour’s ideologically bitter edge. Red Ed is the synthetic taste of New New Labour…