Phil Woolas is wandering around Parliament today and the Speaker who could have had ended his career with a click of his fingers has just delayed a by-election in order to allow the disgraced Labour MP to attempt to seek a Judicial Review. It could then go to the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, and beyond… Ol’ lyin’ Phil isn’t going down without at fight.
Labour are already 60% favourites to win and the delay can only negate the Woolas controversy. Funny that the Labour supporting Mrs Speaker was urging her husband not to be too tough on Woolas this on breakfast TV this morning…
“The Prime Minister said that any special adviser who briefed against another department or who briefed against a colleague from another party in the coalition would be sacked. Downing Street is making clear to other cabinet ministers and their special advisers that their behaviour is being monitored. Leaks, designed to settle private scores with other departments, will not be tolerated.”
On Friday Guido noticed that Dave’s brand guru Anna-Maren Ashford had been quietly slipped onto the Civil Service payroll, but would have nothing to do with the PM’s image. No Siree.
Well it seems this trick has been spread amongst former CCHQers who couldn’t quite be found jobs in Downing Street or departmental political roles. In the States when a new regime comes in, they bring the civil service too, but that’s not officially how things are done over here. It seems the Cameroons been watching too much of the West Wing…
Strangely a lot of new civil servants do not appear on the grand organigram of government departments, late additions perhaps, but funny how Sam Freedman who was Michael Gove’s man until May is now a senior civil servant at the Department of Education; Jo Penn, formerly Teresa May’s advisor, moved from CCHQ to the Home Office in May, into a politically neutral role. Back in May Rishi Saha went from doing CCHQ’s new media stuff to doing Downing Street’s new media stuff. The official numbers of SpAd’s may have fallen, but the Civil Service count has risen…
Here’s a line Guido has been waiting to write for a long time - the New Statesman’s James Macintyre has been fired.
As regular readers will know Guido has had a less than cordial relationship with the thirsty sidekick of Derek Draper. There are two different versions of events as to what happened after the Statesman’s Labour Party Conference bash. Macintyre claims he was mugged on the way home, but witnesses say he was paralytic. Either way he didn’t wake up with his work laptop or phone. He was put on leave, but has now finally been shown the door after months of humiliating errors and dud stories.
In honour of his departure Guido thought he would list of some James’s Greatest Hits:
How can anyone forget when he called Michael Kaminski, the current leader the Tory ECR group of MEPs, a neo-nazi, on camera? Or when he accused the whole Conservatives of being institutionally racist? What about that time he got the Staggerssued for some serious cash by Daniel Hannan for equally outrageous claims?
There have also been some fantastic quotes from the widely respected journalist. By far the greatest must be those that showed his incredible foresight:
“With a few exceptions, the dark briefings by ministers against other ministers within Labour went away with the departure from Number Ten of Tony Blair”
He was destroyed by the Tory bloggers during the election after making up a story about them based on a menu he found. He also called the election for Labour:
“a small overall majority for Labour is the most likely outcome”
Who could forget the his email chain with his former “close friend” Derek Draper about the cuteness of boys and girls, and the drunken denial of an unasked question at Tory Conference in Manchester 2008:
“I did not have sex with Derek Draper”
One of the final straws that broke the camel’s back must have been his calling of the Labour leadership for Diane Abbott. Presumably post lunch.
It is not known at this time whether he has finally got that job he coveted so much with Ed Miliband…
Guido would like to send his congratulations to Ed Miliband and his partner Justine on the birth of their second son last night. There will be sighs of relief at HQ as Labour’s poll standing went up when they were leaderless. Ed is taking paternity leave, so keep at eye on those ratings. Plenty of time to fill in that vexatious birth certificate this time too…
UPDATE: Strategists at Victoria Street will be overjoyed – Ed has declared he is taking two weeks off. Could be a massive poll boost.
“We Maastricht rebels were derided and abused for opposing the single currency by the wise, clever, Guardianista soft centre left establishment from whom we now hear so little on the matter.”
Mr Bryant and Mr Watson managing to make the whole hacking affair look like a farce – the more they moan the less I care about the whole subject! So partisan it beggars belief at all costs. They cannot rise above it ! If I was to call the PM a ‘liar’ I would want to be VERY sure.
How can anyone forget when he 
