What the media in Britain isn’t telling you is how “the rebels of Britain approach Liverpool in hit-and-run battles with Cameron’s brigades and mercenaries from Ireland and Scotland.”

But then again perhaps Libyan State TV has better sources on the ground…

Over at the “evidence based” LeftFootFoward blog they have an opinion piece claiming “Osborne’s ‘safe haven’ view is delusional”. Let’s examine the evidence, starting with Sovereign Credit Default Swap rates:

Exhibit A

CDS rates reflect the cost of insuring against the risk of default. UK gilts have got their edge back, German government bunds are now seen by international markets as a higher risk than British gilts. So Osborne is right to claim that Britain is seen as a safe haven, with the resultant benefit of lower cost long term borrowing. Guido’s second piece of evidence is the disparity between German and UK government borrowing rates:

Exhibit B

German 5-year borrowing rate: 1.41%

UK 5-year borrowing rate: 1.29%

UK rates are lower, though not as low as that other traditional European safe haven, Switzerland, where interest rates have turned negative. This means that effectively you have to pay the bank to deposit Swiss francs. Below are last night’s closing money market rates for Swiss LIBOR futures, usually quoted as 100 minus the rate, they are now confusingly trading above 100 meaning that money market rates are now negative. Not something Guido has ever seen before…

Elsewhere in Europe the banking system teeters on the edge of disaster. Anecdotally there are tales of Italians driving their Alfa Romeos across the border to convert their paper euros into hard currency in Switzerland. To paraphrase Sarah Palin: How is that monetary unity thing working out for europhiles?

Every player has now returned to Westminster to sweep up the mess of the riots. Better late than never in some cases, but back in town none the less. So where is the man that bills himself as “Serious About London”. Where is the man with“Serious Solutions”? Not Boris or Ken, they are both back and scrapping. Lembit has been pressing the flesh and pounding the streets all summer. Brian Paddick hasn’t been off the TV for days, and is even on Question Time tonight. Where though is the LibDem establishment candidate for mayor – the man of many cardigans – Mike Tuffrey?

Why hasn’t there been a peep out of the the man Cowley Street is pinning their hopes on for Mayor? Because he is on holiday. Still.

UPDATE: Guido has been chasing the Cardigan Candidate’s press officer, Ashley Lumsden, who confirmed his boss was on holiday, but refusing to say where. Lumsden asked Guido to email over specific questions, which he duly did, and after receiving no reply has been trying call again. Ashley is in hiding though. Poor form…

Officially Scottish bus-king Sir Brian Souter got his knighthood for services to transport and the voluntary sector. Scotland is in a bit of a tiff though given it has emerged that it the SNP executive that put him up for the gong. It’s apparently just coincidence that Souter is the nationalist’s biggest donor.  Guido remembers the days when the SNP led the charge in Parliament against the Cash for Honours scandal. What was it that Alex Salmond said in 2007?

“There is hardly a single person in the Palace of Westminster who would not freely concede that throughout the London based parties, there has been a political culture which allowed a relationship between financial donations and nominations for honours.”

It seems that has spread north…

Fightback Dave has thrown his liberal streak out of the window as he struggles to redeem his reputation. Gone is the pledge to cut back CCTV, and then there was this particularly chilling gem:

“Mr Speaker, everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers.”

Warsi flagged up Blackberry Messenger in particular on the Daily Politics. A bit like blaming the Gordon Riots on carrier pigeons…

In 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported:

BlackBerry was operating “beyond the jurisdiction of national legislation,” the U.A.E.’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement issued on Sunday. ”As a result of how BlackBerry data is managed and stored, in their current form, Certain BlackBerry applications allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions.” The U.A.E. was working to resolve “these critical issues with the objective of finding a solution that safeguards our consumers and operates within the boundaries of U.A.E. law.”

Judge a man by the company he keeps…

Guido imagines someone over at Channel Four News just got yelled at…

Blog favourite Bryony Gordon has taken to the pages of the Telegraph to declare her undying love for a fellow hack. She describes in detail how smitten she is with this “beefcake, hunk, my hero”. And who is this “chiselled god of news” that sends her weak at the knees?

Sky’s riot hero Mark Stone, of course, who else?

When Margaret Thatcher came to power in the 1979, one of the first things she did was to implement the recommendations of the report of Lord Edmund-Davies into police conditions, in full. That immediate 45% pay-rise wasn’t forgotten in the years that followed…

Downing Street is going to come under huge pressure today to reverse on planned police cuts. And rightfully so. Boris and even Ken are outflanking the Prime Minister on the right, and deep down, despite a bit of rain and peace last night, the scenes we have seen over the last five days could come back at any time.

Things aren’t going well for Dave and were he to lose the support of the police, things will be very bleak indeed…

David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, gets it…

“In areas like mine, we know that 59% of black Caribbean children are looked after by a lone parent. There is none of the basic starting presumption of two adults who want to start a family, raise children together, love them, nourish them and lead them to full independence. The parents are not married and the child has come, frankly, out of casual sex; the father isn’t present, and isn’t expected to be. There aren’t the networks of extended families to make up for it. We are seeing huge consequences of the lack of male role models in young men’s lives..”