Tonight is the Public Affairs News Awards where the spin-industry pats itself on the back. Shortlisted for “Trade Body of the Year” is the Local Government Association. Given that Pickles has just successfully gouged out 27% from local councils in the spending review, Guido would love to know what could have gone worse for that trade body. The LGA is not exactly the most successful lobby of all time…

The LGA wastes £14 million of council taxpayers’ money every year lobbying Westminster from a posh Smith Square office. Even Caroline Flint, Pickle’s Local Government shadow, thinks the “LGA should be handed a revolver“. Local councils would better off taking Eric out for curry…

UPDATE : Believe it or not the LGA won.

A usually reliable source emails to say contrary to speculation (see below) Boris hasn’t been thrown out by the long-suffering Marina. He has left her and is under the delusion that the latest love interest is “The One”. Here we go again…

With the news that Boris has been kicked out of his family home and is now living in a rented house down the road from his wife and kids, it seems he is not letting women get in the way of his day job. There was barely a sign of distraction when he met an extremely important visiting  international delegation yesterday:

Sometimes Guido wishes he could be the Mayor..

Will Hutton, boss of the now bankrupt Work Foundation writes…

“…everything is being put at risk by once again kowtowing to the gods of financial orthodoxy.”

The expenses crisis, lobbying shame and six Labour MPs being investigated by the police has caused the UK to plummet in the rankings of the most corrupt countries in the world, dropping to a humiliating 20th place. Guido has been highlighting the problem for years without fancy weightings, equations, interactive maps and graphs but Transparency International have really put the boot in. The UK is sandwiched between those two beacons of democracy Chile and Qatar.

Given that just last week Will Hutton’s Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society) went into insolvency and had to be bought out by a third-rate university, it seems a little odd that they are still managing to sponsor events. Pitched as “the leading independent authority on work and its future”, the think-tank’s future is far from secure and Hutton, it’s well paid head-honcho, is just about still in work. The Foundation has a £27m black-hole of unfunded pension liabilities, which makes Hutton’s claims that the country’s debts are not a problem a little hard to swallow.

Given the particularly miserable breed of lefty is now a government advisor on high pay, will he be pointing out that his own vast salary couldn’t have made life easy for the ailing think-tank? A while back Guido reported that Hutton was earning more than £180,000, there’s still no sign of an up to date set of accounts, but last year’s figures highlight the irony and hypocrisy of the whole situation. If Hutton wants to keep his job, he should probably consider a pay cut…