If our magnificent athletes keep winning gold we will be able to replace what Mr Brown sold…!!#comeonGB—
Ian Botham (@BeefyBotham) August 08, 2012

Give that man a medal…

Along with being berated by a cancer patient for sending Indians into space rather than paying for her treatment, the PM weighed into the school sports debate on LBC this morning. Dave told listeners:

“The problem has been too many schools not wanting to have competitive sport, some teachers not really wanting to join in and play their part, and so if we want to have a great sporting legacy for our children. More competition, more competitiveness, getting rid of the idea of all must win prizes, and you can’t have a competitive sports day.”

A micro-row has brewed with one time shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham claiming the Tories were to blame for scrapping mandatory sports time. Either way, more sports activity for our children is out of the governments’ hands. Once again the unions are going to choke this off. Official advice given by the NASUWT teaching union in the build up to their autumn strike means that more sport will be impossible. Before strike action even begins, this is what NASUWT have ordered their members to do:

“Members should refuse to attend any meetings and activities outside school session times which are not on the school calendar and which are not within directed time. Members should refuse to agree to timetable changes where no sound educational reasons have been given for the change.

Members should refuse to undertake supervision of pupils during the lunch break.”

Well that’s that then.

Conor Burns warns Dave in the Speccie:

‘Some of us now fear that people are more interested in leading the coalition than leading the party they were elected to lead.’

Dave had a very tense moment on LBC earlier today as he was forced to explain to a cancer patient why the NHS could not afford to pay for her treatment despite billions being spent on foreign aid. His face told the whole story…

Given his track record for backing losers it’s probably a good thing that Labour Eddie Izzard has only half-heartedly backed Team GB:

Very well done to @teamGB but I've also noted that the European Union has won 68 gold medals so far – beating China l2012.cm/OzE860—
Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard) August 08, 2012

Has he seen the Commonwealth count?

James Delingpole on running for Corby:

“Though I can’t claim to have taken quite as many drugs as Louise Mensch apparently has, I did make a pretty heroic go of it in my younger, longer-haired days.”

This morning on ConservativeHome Alistair Thompson reported that beleaguered Tory chairman Baroness Warsi was both “on holiday” and “destined for demotion“. A few hours later CCHQ went out of their way to deny one of those claims:

In the comments Thompson says CCHQ emailed ConHome to refute that Warsi was currently on a summer break, but gave no such rebuttal that she is facing the chop in the Autumn reshuffle. Telling…

FOI data released by the Scottish Tories has revealed that Scotland has spent a staggering £14 million on ‘pilgrims‘ – taxpayer funded trade union officials – in the last five years. Scottish councils are paying the wages of dozens of employees who spend 100% of their time on trade union work, with many more working part-time. Almost £3 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on the £27,000 per year wages of Scottish pilgrims in 2011 alone.

If only Francis Maude were a Scot…

The Guardian have been forced to issue a climb down this morning after claiming that the capital of Israel is Tel Aviv, rather than Jerusalem. The paper initially sought to defend the ridiculous claim, before finally backing down:

It’s like there is a pattern to all this…

Piers Morgan has been given a royal kicking on twitter.

Read all about it on MediaGuido…