Andrew Mitchell is not having a good time at the moment, Dispatches turned him over for having a few quid in a tax haven (who doesn’t?) and the Sunday Times has caught him intervening on behalf of Cocoa-finger, the commodity hedge fund trader Anthony Ward. Nothing wrong with backing British firms. Except when they make donations to your political office.  He has now been referred to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and is the bookies favourite to be for the chop from the Cabinet. Oops…

It was only a fortnight ago that Guido wrote to the Daily Mail’s editor, Paul Dacre, asking him for a columnist’s job at the Mail. Some of you will have noticed that he has decided that Guido’s distinctive style and subject choices are worthy of a column. However due to an unfortunate mix-up at the printers the paper has run Guido’s stories with Andrew Pierce’s byline. What other explanation can there be?

The lead story in the Mail column was a piece on Tristram Hunt, which admittedly appeared here on the blog a full 7 days ago, but it was such a good take on the story – pointing out that Tristram’s alma mater was a member of the Eton group of schools – it was worth repeating. Quote of the Day this morning was Guido’s Quote of the Day on Friday and even the story about DfID hosting a “gender and climate change seminar” was recycled from Thursday’s blog.

Guido’s invoice is on the way…

Guido has just watched a preview of tonight’s BBC documentary, “Tea Party America”. Surprisingly it did not characterise them all as closet Klu Klux Klan loving creationists – usually the BBC finds the nuttiest looking demonstrator and interviews them as a typical Tea Partier. Probably because Andrew Neil was reporting and didn’t go in with the usual pre-conceived agenda…

Brillo has been even handed, though he seems wary of Glenn Beck’s populism and suspicious of some Tea Party elements on the fringe. The Washington beltway consensus seems to be that Sarah Palin, the Tea Partier’s sweet-heart, won’t run in 2012, which from an entertainment perspective is a great disappointment. The Tea Partiers will however have an impact this week. Something those of us who think we’re “Taxed Enough Already” will welcome.

See also: “Tea Party America” tonight at 19:00 on BBC 2. Dan Hannan has been reflecting on the Tea Party phenomenon on his blog.