Keynesian economics stripped bare…

Guido’s got that Friday feeling…

Don’t forget to catch up on today’s media news, as Scrapbook‘s Prezza conspiracy theories unravelled and Guido revealed the bitch fight of the the week.

Only over on Media Guido…

NBC‘s Dave Wyllie and Neal Mann of the Wall Street Journal square up:

@journodave it's not exactly for your benefit is it though—
Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) July 24, 2012

@journodave that's a ridiculous thing to say, we understand the law others with bigger followings than papers circulations don't, so helpful—
Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) July 24, 2012

Matthew Elliott has stood down as Chief Executive of the perennially sound Taxpayers’ Alliance after eight years at the helm. He will be replaced by current TPA Director Matthew Sinclair.

A worthy successor…

The ever irritating, yet strangely compelling, Matthew Oakeshott has spent the week trying to big-up his mate Vince Cable and a change in economic direction. Guido was particularly interested by one policy in his all-solving Plan A+:

“That’s why I’ve been saying we need a bold plan A+, making banks lend, especially RBS, the bank we own but disgracefully don’t control, and a firm government commitment to create 500,000 new jobs in construction by doing whatever it takes to build 100,000 more homes a year.“

Does this have anything to do with the fact that the good Lord has a small fortune relying on home construction as a property speculator? The petulant peer is the “joint investment manager” at OLIM Investments’ Value Income Trust and the chairman of OLIM Property, investment firms which make their money from – you guessed it – building homes. Very Tim Yeo…

Guido has a sore head from Political Scrapbook’s drinks last night. As revenge he has some bad news for them. They thought they were on to a winner earlier this week with a story claiming that John Prescott was the victim of a vicious Tory smear campaign. It was claimed that a series of questions over Prezza’s use of public credit cards were placed in MPs’ names without their knowledge. However, the Table Office have now conceded that the entire mess was down to a simple admin error by them, as the Tories insisted all along:

Dear Mr Elphicke,

I can confirm that the questions were wrongly recorded as being in the name of Sir Alan Beith due to an administrative error in this office. We took steps to correct this shortly after they were tabled, when we realised the error had been made. Unfortunately, when the questions were answered, some were returned under the original wrong name of Sir Alan Beith, which overwrote our correction. We have since corrected this again and I have just checked the Parliamentary records and confirmed that they all now appear correctly in your name.

I am very sorry for this error and the inconvenience it has caused you – please do get in touch if there is anything further we can do to assist.

Best wishes,

Sue Griffiths

Clerk, Table Office

House of Commons

Oh well…