Lets take a moment of quiet reflection as David Chaytor faces his last night of freedom. It will be an outrage to justice and shame this country’s legal system if the former Labour MP is not given a custodial sentence. Chaytor has admitted he shamelessly stole £13,000 from the taxpayer for a mortgage he had already paid off. Under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 lawmakers are not above the law.

Don’t drop the soap David…

Lord Tebbit blogs:

“A Lib Dem win in Oldham would push the Coalition further Left. I hope they come fourth.”

First it was Gavin and Stacy and now it’s Money Supermarket:

Wouldn’t give up the day job. Oh wait…

Guido couldn’t really understand all talk of a Frankenstein merger amongst “purple plotters” over Christmas. Everyone knows if you mix blue and yellow together you get green. When watching the Dave and Tarzan presser early he couldn’t help but think the merger might be beginning. Since the summer the coalition has used this particularly putrid shade of green as the coalition colours:

Anyone else think it looks remarkably similar to what you would get if you put the LibDem bird with the tree in a blender? Coming soon to a lamp-post near you…

Writing behind the paywall for mass appeal, Ed Miliband told the Times this morning that: “Labour is not to blame for Britain’s debt mountain and accuses David Cameron of peddling a “great deceit” about the previous Government’s record to pursue a damaging programme of cuts.”

He claims:

“What is this deceit? It is that the deficit was caused by chronic overspending rather than a global financial crisis that resulted in recession and a calamitous collapse in tax revenues.”

Last time he made such absurd claims the Spectator provided Red Ed with this handy graph. Perhaps he could explain then why the last government was spending more than it was bringing in from 2002?

If he gets stuck perhaps he could ask Alan Johnson…

There was much amusement at Sadiq Khan’s puff-piece interview in this month’s GQ. The Shadow Justice Secretary was hit with tough and rigorous questions such as:

“I live in Tooting and it’s amazing how much people there love you. You seem one of the few politicians who people not only trust but also really like. Why do you think that is?”

Guido hears all is not well in red circles where Khan is concerned. His slippery behaviour has made him deeply unpopular in the Parliamentary Labour Party and Guido understands there was distinct unease about his closeness to the leader. Given a distancing job, the one time campaign manager has all but been cast out by Miliband, because of concerns that Khan could bring him down. Over at justice, Sadiq no longer has any input, or a desk, in the shadow HQ. Khan still has lingering questions over his dodgy expenses habits, but Ed could survive losing a member of his Shadow cabinet rather than one of his inner circle…