His National Insurance number, mobile numbers of advisers and staff, as well as an odd-looking address book. Nothing too damning on first glance, but an embarrassing breach of security none the less. Lolz indeed.

While Palin begs for a meeting, it seems Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has skipped straight to emulating Maggie:

Worked for her. Saatchi and Saatchi should send an invoice…

UPDATE: Ben Brogan points out that

Mitt Romney’s rip off of Margaret Thatcher’s famous 1979 “Labour isn’t working” poster is quite funny. But while the image is still striking, he seems to have missed the point: “Labour isn’t working” is a clever bit of wordplay. “Obama isn’t working” isn’t.

Milly Dowler’s mother Sally says:

“The lengths to protect his human rights have seemed so unfair compared to what we as a family have had to endure. I hope that whilst he is in prison, he is treated with the same brutality he dealt out to his victim and that his life is a living hell. For a mother to bury their child in any circumstance is truly agonising, but to bury your child when you know she died in such an appallingly awful way is terrible.”

Milly’s sister Gemma put it succinctly and powerfully, the family won’t have seen justice without:

“An eye for an eye, a life for a life…”

A call for justice which has majority support in the country, but unfortunately not in parliament.

The political class complains that the public is disengaged, could that be in part because there are a number of issues where the political class refuses to carry out the wishes of the people. All polls since 1965 when hanging was abolished show that there is majority support for capital punishment, yet there is no majority for it in parliament. It is not even an issue for parliamentarians even though the incidence of homicide is higher now than it was before the abolition of hanging. The coalition has promised that there will be e-petitions legislation before the end of this year. If it passes Guido will put all the resources at his command into a campaign for a vote on the restoration of capital punishment for child and cop killers. Even if we don’t win the vote on the floor of the House, we shall at least see which MPs believe salus populi suprema est lex, and those that put the welfare of child killers above the wider community. Bring it on…

Sir Peter Westmacott has just been announced as the UK’s new Ambassador to the States. His wife’s brother is Hassan Nemazee, the multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker. Nemazee is currently serving twelve years for defrauding Bank of America, amongst others, for an eyewatering $292 million. Much of which went on donations to the Democrats.

Should make for an interesting chat at the White House…

You can rate the wittiest one liner with the new thumbs up and down function in the comments. Up for grabs are two tickets for Yes, Prime Minister which returns to the West End from 6 July at the Apollo Theatre. Prize tickets valid until the end of August, Mon-Thursday. Most thumbs up wins… simples.

The Ham & High broke the news this morning that two time Oscar winning actress turned Labour MP, Glenda Jackson, won’t stand again in her now ultra-marginal Hampstead seat. With the boundary review set to wipe out many London Labour MPs, there will be plenty of eyes on the seat. Though not normally a fan of family patronage and seats passed down the line, given how much love the Labour Party hierarchy are showing Jackson’s son, the rabble rousing Dan Hodges, surely he is the perfect candidate for the job.

@tom_watson Tom, I love and respect you. But you seriously think I'm taking lecturers from you about loyalty to the Labour leader?—
Dan Hodges (@DPJHodges) June 13, 2011

Already giving Ed a healthy dose of realism in his Staggers and Labour Uncut columns, Guido is sure Dan will want to do the right thing and allow his name to go forward…

UPDATE: As regular readers will remember, Hodges was behind the controversal No2AV baby poster:

@MrHarryCole …vote Hodges or the baby gets it. Worked OK last time…—
Dan Hodges (@DPJHodges) June 24, 2011

Looks like we’ve found our slogan.

Ben Brogan hits the nail on ‘ed:

“he has hit the ground strolling, and the voters are noticing… he is settling in the public mind as that goofy guy who is mates with Gordon and who wants to keep taxes high. It may be a marathon to 2015, but Edward isn’t in the leaders’ pack. He’s stuck at the back with the guys dressed like dinosaurs.”

A Taxpayers’ Alliance and YouGov poll shows more than half the country would like to see an end to the controversial practice of public sector union officials being paid while they do union activity instead of working. As the unions don’t have to pay their staff and national organisers, they can spend the money raised through subs on political activity, like funding the Labour Party.

The TPA reckon that at least £67 million is being diverted from frontline services into the pockets of union officials. As Guido has been showing you over the last few months, these officials are up to no good. If the unions want staff they should pay for them out of union subs. Guido isn’t surprised the public are rejecting this absurd loophole.

UPDATE: Given this insight into the public mood, perhaps the Tories own taxpayer funded operation, the Parliamentary Resources Unit, might like to retract their amber warning to MPs over David Morris’ EDM calling for a ban:

The benefits of scrapping Shadow Cabinet elections are endless, for Miliband at least. The public look set to be deprived of the bi-yearly bun-fight that takes patronage out of the hands of the leader. Miliband has found himself forced to fill his shadow cabinet with his brother’s supporters and just six of his own backers. He also gets to pretend he isn’t a weak leader for a whole news cycle.

The plans will have to be backed by the party, and it could all be hugely embarrassing if they thumb their noses at him, but it comes with vital Blairite support. If the changes do pass, will Miliband implement last summer’s promise, in support of Harriet Harman, to make half his cabinet women?