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.

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