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…

Cllr Nigel Fletcher tweets:

“PM says he “hit the phones” at EU summit yesterday. A nice change from the last PM, who used to hit people with phones.”

Labour MP Emma Reynolds sparked outrage last night at an Oxford Union debate. The YBF sponsored event discussing whether the channel was wider than the Atlantic gave the Shadow Junior Foreign Office Minister a chance to share some of her more extreme views on China.

Facing Dan Hannan at the dispatch box, Reynolds said “China’s control and command approach is something to be admired”. UKIP’s Lord Monckton, also taking party in the debate, nearly had a coronary and the speaker had to quell the audible outrage of room. Does her boss Yvette agree with her stance?

We are a week or two now short of having paid Gordon Brown to stay at home for six months writing his “Beyond the Crash – How I Saved the World“ book. Guido has no objection to him embarking on a new career as a fiction writer, it is just that he sees no reason why the taxpayer should subsidise his writing.

He has only deigned to vote on one day since being rejected by the people, September 6. The only other day of attendance was to be sworn in, effectively to clock on for his pay.

He has not seen fit to give us the benefit of his experience during the debates on the Spending Review, the Emergency Budget or in fact any other subject. If he is saving it all up for his book than he should have the courage to resign and move on.

There were rumours that he would resign his seat after the election of a new leader of the Labour Party. Well, what is he waiting for, none of his former comrades want him and he is clearly too scared of the mockery that he would face in the chamber to contribute to the proceedings of the House. Either he contributes to Parliament or he leaves it.  The taxpayers do not owe him a sinecure, the taxpayers have enough debts due to Gordon already…

Lord Tebbit tells the Prime Minister…

“… he would do better to go down fighting than to surrender in some Vichy-style arrangement, pretending to hold on to sovereignty by agreeing to what Europe demands. The empty decks of the aircraft carriers will mock a decision to subsidise the ambitions of our masters in Brussels.”