Senior Tory sources seem very keen to disabuse any and all as to the demand for Guto Harri’s services. A “person in a position to know” called Guido to emphasise, vehemently, that Guto was never in the running for Downing Street, was never offered a job by Downing Street and was never the first choice ahead of Andy Coulson for the Downing Street job. Despite what you may have read elsewhere. Glad we have cleared that up.

Guto did however manage to convince the Guardian and the Telegraph’s Mandrake otherwise. Nevertheless he managed to spin himself a promotion and pay hike of over £100,000 extra, he is on £250,000 plus benefits at News International, nigh on doubling his pay at City Hall. If he can improve the perception of Murdoch over the next couple of years he will have earned every penny…

UPDATE: Guto has been in touch to insist that he never claimed to have been offered a Downing Street job and that it was merely speculation by journalists.

Guido got wind last week that Mehdi Hasan had been sacked as Political Editor of the New Statesman. When we put it to him he exploded…

@GuidoFawkes Simple question: are you a tit?—
Mehdi Hasan (@ns_mehdihasan) May 16, 2012

Well it now seems Guido was on the money and the Staggers were just being nice by not announcing his departure last week along with other internal movements. He’s bagged a massive promotion in both status and influence by joining the Huffington Post.  Guido just spoke to one of Mehdi’s fellow lefty hacks:

Lefty: Has he been fired?
GF: Well he’s going to the HuffPo, so you could put it like that.
Lefty: Oh god that’s worse than being fired. That’s worse than being dead.

Are they going to pay him?

See also: Mehdi is “The Commentator” and a chart of the New Statesman’s newsstand sales during the Mehdi era:

Norman Tebbit has a humble brag:

“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.”

After the Scrapbook lot spotted a section of the TPA/IoD’s report, that deals with the entirely correct assertion that lefties are just jealous of the wealth and sexual prowess of the right, it was only a matter of time before #TPAChatUpLines was trending:

#TPAchatuplines Fancy a quickie? Make sure you use a non-dom.—
Chris Ward (@christopherward) May 21, 2012

"You know what they say, it's not the size of the state, it's what you do with it" #TPAchatuplines—
Lisa (@Lefty_Lisa) May 21, 2012

Nice laffer curves #TPAchatuplines—
Mark Ferguson (@Markfergusonuk) May 21, 2012

Did it hurt when you fell from haven? #TPAchatuplines—
Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) May 21, 2012

I like my women like I like my public sector spending: going down rapidly whenever I request it #TPAchatuplines—
Alex (@a_y_alex) May 21, 2012

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2005. Are you free next Saturday? #TPAchatuplines—
Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) May 21, 2012

Assets aren't the only thing I'll be stripping tonight. #TPAchatuplines—
Emma Burnell (@Scarletstand) May 21, 2012

Even the report’s spinners were getting involved:

I've always liked dynamic models #TPAchatuplines—
Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) May 21, 2012

Harder, Faster, Deeper…

UPDATE: The report’s authors cracked in the end:

Keynes said "In the long run we are all dead". What are you doing tonight? #TPAchatuplines—
Allister Heath (@AllisterHeath) May 21, 2012

Your dress is like my ideal tax system. Cut low and with lots of transparency #TPAchatuplines—
Matthew Elliott (@matthew_elliott) May 21, 2012

Coalition disquiet is growing:

As a general rule of thumb, if Vince Cable & Lord Oakeshott are against something, it must be worth considering.—
Chris Heaton-Harris (@chhcalling) May 21, 2012

He has a point…

Guido has read Bruce Anderson’s Steve Hilton take down a couple of times now and has come to the conclusion that is worthy of an Order of the OTT. Anyone who has ever drunk in a bar in Westminster will know that Anderson takes personal credit for “discovering” Cameron and tipping him for great things when he was a mere backbencher. Since then he has been his avuncular defender in the press, though just as when he declared Dave to be “our Charles De Gaulle”, sometimes he over plays his hand. Is Steve Hilton feeding a few titbits on his way out of the door really “one of the most despicable instances of disloyalty in political history.” Probably not. And this one was filed before lunch…

UPDATE:

Well connected Bruce Anderson lunching solo in Bank Westminster. Just a bottle of red and a selection of broadsheets for company.—
Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) May 21, 2012

If you had got your Daily Star Sunday yesterday you would already be gossiping about Osborne’s dodgy growth, “green” government and Jeremy Hunt’s new SpAd. Caledonian co-conspirators will also enjoy this week’s offering…

Guido’s Sunday column is now online here.

Ed Miliband just revealed that he’d met with David Davis, saying that they agreed on an increasing number of subjects – an In/Out referendum is creeping up that list. Labour backing the plebiscite would be opportunistic, calculated and brilliant. It would drive the Tories round the bend and no effort has been made to shut down the speculation this weekend. Cameron has reaffirmed his position against the idea, putting the ball firmly in Miliband’s court. Ed also coughed that they both had some harsh words for the Prime Minister: “but, that is perhaps, another story”…

UPDATE: Liar Politicians got the video:

In January 2010 Guido gave a presentation at Microsoft’s HQ to the Online Journalism Association, the thesis was that newspapers as we know them will die and journalism would thrive. Guido’s pitch was that the old deadline based “news cycle” is being replaced by “news streams” and that newspapers as we know them will be replaced by “news brands”.

Today the industry trade body for the dead tree press, the Newspaper Marketing Association, accepted the thesis and announced it is renaming itself “Newsworks”, dropping dead entirely the word “newspaper”. CEO Rufus Olins says “We need to start thinking differently… It’s all about newsbrands, about delivering content through a range of platforms.” Guido thinks we can only measure the strength of news brands in terms of their mindshare. The broadsheets – Guardian, Times, Indy – all lose money and are more akin to vanity publishing than profit motivated businesses. It is about who they reach and how much they influence their consumers.

As the news industry and more importantly – from a financial perspective – the advertising industry comes to realise that online and print consumers are fungible, reality starts to hit home. In under a decade this blog has become as strong a news brand in our field in terms of readership and mindshare as the New Statesman, hell we’re part way through a reverse-takeover of The Spectator. The great thing for consumers is that because of low barriers to entry, we have an ever more competitive, pluralist, thriving free market in news. Without slaughtering trees…