Sarah Palin said…

“Mr Obama, I can see 2012 from my house.”

CCHQ’s opposition research operation really should have spotted this and used it to rebut Labour’s demented attack on the Housing Benefit “final solution” (© Polly). LibDem blogger Peter Black highlights this manifesto commitment

‘Housing Benefit will be reformed so we do not subsidise people to live in private sector accommodation on rents working families couldn’t afford’

Eminently reasonable in policy terms, £20,000 a year in rent is of course way beyond what the majority of us can afford. The quote is taken from the Labour Party manifesto, written by one Ed Miliband…

James Purnell when he was at the DWP said he wanted to ensure “people on benefits do not end up getting subsidies for rents that those who work could never afford”. Last week Ed piously called on LibDems to block the implementation of a policy he advocated in the Labour Party manifesto, claiming, “That is not what they came into politics for. I hope they will vote with their consciences.”

The barefaced hypocrisy is breathtaking.

UPDATE : Tim Montgomerie scolds Guido for missing that the Tory Press Office tweeted the Miliband quote on Friday and Sayeeda used it later on Any Questions. Nevertheless Guido contends that if CCHQ had been on the ball it would have been deployed at PMQs which is where it was really needed.

Danny Alexander tweeted in retort to Harriet Harman’s gingerism…

“I am proud to be ginger and rodents do valuable work cleaning up mess others leave behind. Red squirrel deserves to survive, unlike Labour.”

Watch out for the deficit denying undead zombies:

Fine Gael TD Michael Ring said…

“Now look at the mess we’re in and look at the mess this country is in. Next year the Queen is talking about coming to Ireland for a state visit. Maybe we should say to the Queen when she comes ‘you know, we have our own independence now, we’ll hand you back the country and we’ll apologise for the mess that we’re after making of it. Because at least when they were running the country they didn’t put it into the mess and the hock that we are in now.”

*Osborne trick or treat slasher mask courtesy of The Mirror (download here N.B. 22 megabytes).

Last week saw 71,871 visitors make 211,267 visits to view 329,939 pages. Boris and firemen stories dominated, so far none of the mainstream media have followed up Guido’s revelation that Boris has left the family home of his own volition. They will eventually…

The top stories last week in order of popularity were:

• London Fire Strikes Get Illegal Support
• Finally An A-Polly-Gee
• Where’s Gordon’s™ Courage?
• Dromey Fuels the Fire
• “Progressive” Government is Not the Way to Progress
• Boris Wasn’t Pushed Out, He Jumped
• Totty Watch : Boris Shows His Balls to Four Beautiful Women

You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…

In a rare move for the belligerent and hyperactive columnist, Polly Toynbee this morning apologised for the inflammatory language that Guido highlighted the other day, when she compared a slight tweak in government benefits policy to the slaughter of six million Jews. On her “final solution” comment she said:

“Yes, it was over the top, a slip of the pen, made worse by the fact that it was put in the headline. I regret it.”

Savour the moment, Guido doesn’t imagine we will get another half-apology any time soon…