It’s hard work climbing the greasy pole, but with a lucky bet and sharp suit, Labour’s Chuka Umunna, the new MP for Streatham, seems to be rising fast, but ruffling a fair few feathers on the way up, especially in his own party. Even Brillo couldn’t resist bringing the former lawyer down a peg or two with his introduction to “Ed Miliband’s chief envelope licker and bagcarrier” on today’s Daily Politics:

Despite being Miliband’s loyal PPS he can still sit on the Treasury Select Committee, but showed an embarrassing lack of knowledge in his attempt to grill Bob Diamond last week. Someone who actually knows the ins and outs of lending tears a chunk out of him in the Standard’s letters page tonight, and in proof that you don’t actually have to have met Chuka to find him absurd, it was a two pronged attack as another reader wrote:

“Chuka is likely to be a competent Parliamentarian, but will he speak out on the issues that explicitly matter to us? We don’t need another centrist clone.”

They say politics is show business for ugly people, but both industries require at least something beyond a pretty face.

Since the new year it has become clear that Ed Miliband has upped his media game. Despite the obvious flaws in the Son of Brown, Bob Roberts and Tom Baldwin have begun the long process of shaping a message. You could say the two hacks have taken to their jobs much quicker than their boss, with Baldwin crafting lines in the back-room, leaving it to Bob to prowl the corridors and slap backs. However was this double act really Miliband’s first choice?

“Sky sources” work two ways and Guido hears Jon Craig, who wasn’t the happiest bunny at Sky last year, was talking to Team Ed but the idea fizzled out. More intriguing was the suggestion that “Mr. Exclusive“, and Darling favourite, Robert Peston had been approached. Guido spoke to Pesto earlier and despite adamant sources, he laughed heartily at the suggestion. “Of course I’ve not been in bloody talks with them.” But then he’d have to say that, wouldn’t he?

Keep an eye on the country’s debt counter this afternoon as it sails into thirteen figures – hitting a trillion pounds:

And that doesn’t include all that debt off the books…

Downing Street sources say:

‘Compared to McBride, Coulson is a saint.’

The Friday caption contest was the usual mix of bile, bad jokes and mindless nonsense, but there is always one caption that makes Guido chuckle. Congratulations to Bill Quango MP, get in touch with your address for a copy of Big Brother Watch, The State of Civil Liberties in Modern Britain – a collection of essays edited by Alex Deane. The winning entry:

“The Presidents rush to see if its really true. Labourlist has gone off message.”

Sort of topical….

Lord Taylor would not be on trial today if was not for a combination of bloggers and Jonathan Calvert of the Sunday Times. Taylor, a former barrister, is pleading not guilty to six counts of false accounting under the 1968 Theft Act between 2006 and 2007, he denies dishonestly claiming £11,277.

For background on ther case see Pesky Bloggers Do It Again (Nov, 2009).

Amusingly he claimed to a co-conspirator on the Lords of the Blog not long before being charged that

For your information, the police have examined my expenses. The police are satisfied that there has been no impropriety or any other cause for concern. They have thanked me for my cooperation, and will not be taking the matter further.

Alas that turned out to be untrue when it was challenged by a co-conspirator, that very claim on his blog set in course a chain of events that led to him being in Southwark Crown Court today. He would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky bloggers…

(On a lighter note Guido did however like some of his blogged tips for a better life - Top Tips From Troughing Lord Taylor.)