Ladbrokes are offering 50/1 that Strauss steps up to the crease and is made the Tory candidate for Corby, with the former England captain 16/1 to beat Andy Sawford and win the seat. A Ladbrokes spokesman said: “If the Tories send Strauss into bat in Corby their odds of securing the seat will tumble“. Only KP running for the LibDems could stop him…

UPDATE: The punters are piling their cash on Strauss for Corby and he is now 25/1 to be the Tory candidate.

UPDATE II: Odds have been slashed again – now 16/1.

Tory MP Brian Binley gives Dave two barrels:

“The country needs a full-time Prime Minister and not a chamber-maid for a marginal, irrelevant pressure group who have got him in a virtual arm-lock with a constant stream of threats to abandon ship.”

We shall miss her…

The back story…

…Only on Media Guido.

Trouble t’mill over at ‘Hacked Off’, the now defunct campaign for a judge-led inquiry into phone-hacking. The lobbying group for those that hate a free press is funded by the likes of Hugh Grant and Max “schlagen” Moseley. While reeling from an existential crisis as Leveson comes to an end, it seems their campaign co-ordinator Thais Portillo-Shrimpton has walked out.  It’s “no comment” from her when Media Guido got in touch, but it’s rumoured there was deep concern in the group about their hysterical over-reaction to the Sun printing the Harry photos. It’s notable that Portilho-Shrimpton is leaving before finding a new job. Perhaps it wasn’t universally agreed that the Sun’s decision signalled the death of the free press.

Having spent the last year picking up the bar-tab while the group coached phone-hacking victims before their Leveson appearances, Hugh Grant has formally taken up the role of director. He will join those other well-known freedom lovers Evan Harris and Brian Cathcart. They’re recruiting various staff for their, as yet, unclear future. Form an orderly queue…

The local press in Corby like the idea of Andrew Strauss knocking Labour’s Andy Sawford for six, as does one local Conservative councillor they have quoted:

‘Corby borough councillor Rob McKellar said: “I couldn’t rule out voting for Andrew Strauss as a Conservative candidate if the rumours were to be true. I would like our next MP to be somebody who lives in the constituency and who has Corby and East Northamptonshire at heart.

But that is not to say a high-profile candidate couldn’t achieve this, while raising the profile of the area at the same time.”’

Howzat?

The Prince of Darkness has today slammed the lack of Internet regulation which allowed Guido and others to publish the naked photos of Prince Harry last week. Moody Mandy also bemoaned the Guardian‘s future profit prospects:

“The bigger question is how the domestic media market can be made economic and subject to any form of regulation in an era when, a click away, there is access to information that respects no national boundaries and the laws of no single national parliament or the basic standards of conventional journalism. It is hard to see how some of the best-known sources of quality English-language journalism – the Times, New York Times, the Guardian spring to mind – will ever make money again. We come to grips with the fact that the internet is giving public access to uncorroborated, undigested and unmediated news, all in the name of free speech, is becoming one of the defining issues of the 21st century.”

How beastly that the establishment cannot censor and control what is news anymore.

Mandy can pluck Guido’s keyboard from his cold dead hands.

Many have been wondering why England captain Andrew Strauss has quit international cricket. While it’s probably has more to do with his bad couple of years at the crease and major dramas in the dressing room, it’s well known that Andrew is a Tory and rumoured that he has an interest in moving into politics. He raised £25,000 for the party at a 2011 fundraiser…

With the Tories struggling to find a candidate for the Corby by-election, perhaps it’s time for Strauss to serve again.

Selection meeting is this Friday, could he rise from the Corby ashes?

UPDATE: Strauss has retired not only from international cricket, but from Middlesex too. Coincidently Corby the tourism website says “the area has a long cricketing tradition.”

UPDATE II: Others are circling:

This seems an opportune moment to repeat my prophesy about Andrew Strauss one day becoming a Conservative MP.—
James Kirkup (@jameskirkup) August 29, 2012

Guido would rather bang his head against a brick wall than sit through a whole interview with Bob Crow, so thankfully LBC have clipped the important bit.  The RMT’s resident thug justifies living in his luxury central London council house, because he likes it:

Crow asked “do we really want social housing purely for those people that are poor?” Well yes Bob, that is what they are for. People who can’t afford houses get state help. People earning £133,138 plus expenses should not.

Crow asked whether he would be judged for having a council house if he didn’t earn lots of money, and declared wealth should have nothing to do with it. He’s clearly never heard of renting.

He argues that because he was born in a social house he should have one for life. The Frank Dobson mantra… 

Former Times hack Patrick Foster has we understand been nicked this morning by Operation Tuleta cops investigating the outing the previously anonymous Nightjack blogger in 2009. Earlier this year it was revealed that Foster had discovered the identity of the blogger through computer hacking. The media editor at The Times at the time was the Guardian’s current head of media, Dan Sabbagh.

Even after the Nightjack scandal broke Sabbagh continued to commission him with work for the Media Guardian  pages and judging by his tweet appears to still be in the loop with Foster:

…police came to his home this morning (unexpectedly) I understand…—
Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) August 29, 2012

What did Sabbagh know and when?

UPDATE:

- @MediaGuido @guidofawkes My knowledge of arrests consists of my tweets. Knew about it about 3 mins before tweeting. More on MG shortly.—
Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) August 29, 2012