Jose Manuel Barroso today announced his intention to “move towards a federation of nation states”. Over Farage’s dead body…

What could possibly make the Thatcher t-shirts that have been causing the TUC so much grief this week even more offensive? Well the fact they are paid for out of the public purse registers pretty high on the scale. Mark Wallace has exposed the fact that the Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centre who were selling the t-shirts are publicly funded organisation:

“According to the DUWC 2011 Annual Report, their Chairman is Cllr Graham Baxter MBE, the Leader of North East Derbyshire Council… On page 8 of the same report, the “Fundraising” section lists money received from Bolsover District Council, North East Derbyshire District Council and Chesterfield Borough Council, as well as grants from no less than 11 County Councillors.”

Why the taxpayer is picking up the tab for this lot remains to be seen, but Conor Burns MP, who is a close friend of Baroness Thatcher, is not happy:

“Whilst we are well used to these grotesque and deeply unpleasant sentiments from the left – something ironically that is absent in reverse from the right – this plumbs new shallows.

More than twenty years after she left office the left cannot forgive her for one thing above all else: she won.

To ask people to celebrate when Lady T dies is obscene. To ask the tax payer to pick up some of the bill to produce this Frankenstein merchandise is possibly unlawful.

I am asking the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to ask his Department to launch a full investigation as to whether this so-called “Unemployed Workers” (surely an oxymoron?) Centre has misused public money.

Lady T always belived in protecting the taxpayer.”

Sound.

On a day like today it seems relevant to reflect on the public’s general distrust of tabloids. A Populus poll commissioned by lobbyists Open Road and released today has found that the public distrusts the Sun more than any other tabloid. 59% of the public distrust the Sun either “somewhat” or “completely”. The findings don’t make happy reading for the other redtops either, with 43% distrusting the Mirror, 39% the Mail and 32% the Express. Guido is happy to accept that this blog was categorised alongside the other tabloids and report that we are, err, less distrusted than all our tabloid rivals. We’re feeling pretty superior…

Open Road’s client News Corp will no doubt be pleased with their lobbying firm choosing today to further blacken the name of their biggest selling newspaper. Doh!

Yesterday Guido reported on Bob Crow’s £100,000 delusion as the striking fat cat blustered: “I’ve got more in common with a Chinese labourer than I do with a City financier”. If Bob’s six-figure pay packet wasn’t enough to disprove this statement, perhaps a look at his family tree will. Crow’s brother is a day trader who lives in the stockbroker belt in Berkshire. Apparently they get on just fine despite their political disagreements:

“I have differences with him. He’s made a lot of money; he’s stock market, dividend first and the rest comes after. We’re good mates…I hate him much more for supporting Arsenal.”

Bob Crow has absoultely nothing in common with City financiers. Except blood that is…

Kelvin has apologised to the people of Liverpool.

Read what he said over on Media Guido…

“Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty three ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster. As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.”

Caveated to point out other papers ran the allegations, but with the correct level of scepticism of the sources.

Gaffe-prone Conservative youth chairman Ben Howlett has put his foot in it once again. Famed for claiming Gerry Adams was a hero, a move that went down well with Lord Tebbit, blundering Ben last night told us all to get over 9/11. On the aniversary of 9/11:

He also claims the death of over 3,000 people had the silver lining of bringing communities together. Yes, to kill each other. 

Video via The Commentator

Guido had hoped that Salma Yaqoob’s resignation last night meant we had seen the back of the now former Respect leader. Not so, if lefty types are to be believed. Loony left Labour tweeters have called on Yaqoob to join the party, while other prominent voices from the left have been praising Yaqoob to the hilt:

Labour right already hyperventilating at thought of @SalmaYaqoob joining party. No problem with Tories though #doublestandards—
Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) September 12, 2012

Just heard Salma Yaqoob has left Respect. She is an inspiration and has a huge role to play in the future of our movement—
Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) September 11, 2012

Really hope @SalmaYaqoob's resignation from Respect doesn't mean she's leaving politics – we need her clarity & vision bit.ly/RJ22ws—
Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) September 11, 2012

Guido is not quite sure why Labour would want someone like Yaqoob in their party. This is a woman who described the 7/7 bombings as a “reprisal”, and sees the Assange case as a “dubious” government conspiracy. A woman who folded her arms and refused to applaud a war hero who threw himself on a grenade to save his colleagues. A woman who fronts the anti-Israeli Stop the War Coalition. A woman who defended the Iranian state television channel after it was banned from British TV:

Iran's Press TV loses UK licence cos 'editorial HQ not in UK'.Nor is Fox, CNN, France24 etc-will they be banned too? gu.com/p/34q63/tf—
Salma Yaqoob (@SalmaYaqoob) January 20, 2012

Guido is fully supporting Labour’s overtures…

Comment in the comments please…

The PPS reshuffle is complete. Here is the new list of appointments in full:

• Sam Gyimah to David Cameron
• Duncan Hames to Nick Clegg
• Daniel Kawczynski to David Jones at Wales
• Damian Collins to Theresa Villiers at NI
• Alec Shelbrooke to Mike Penning at NI
• Harriet Baldwin to Mark Hoban at DWP
• Lee Scott to Chris Grayling at Justice
• Amber Rudd to George Osborne at Treasuary
• Ben Gummer to Alan Duncan at DfID
• David Burrowes to Owen Patterson at DEFRA
• Paul Maynard to Oliver Letwin at Cabinet Office
• Laura Sandys to Greg Barker at DECC
• Gavin Williamson to Patrick McLoughlin at Transport
• Lorley Burt to Danny Alexander at the Treasury
• Stephen Gilbert to Ed Davey at Energy and Climate Change
• Simon Wright to David Laws at DfE
• Andrew Jones to Andrew Mitchell at the Whips’s Office
• Jessica Lee to Dominic Grieve as Attorney General
• Paul Uppal to David Willets at BIS
• Therese Coffey to Michael Fallon at BIS
• Jake Berry to Grant Shapps
• Stuart Andrew to Francis Maude at Cabinet Office
• John Glen to Eric Pickles at Communities
• Mark Menzies to Mark Prisk at Housing
• Eric Ollerenshaw to Sayeeda Warsi
• Mary Macloed to Maria Miller at DCMS
• Simon Kirby to Hugh Robertson at DCMS
• Claire Perry to Philip Hammond at Defence
• Kris Hopkins to Andrew Rothaban at Defence
• Damian Hinds to Mark Francois at Defence
• Gavin Barwell to Michael Gove at DfE
• Mel Stride to John Hayes at Energy
• Keith Simpson to William Hague at FCO
• Tobias Ellwood to David Lidlington at Europe
• Richard Graham to Hugo Swire at FCO
• Rob Wilson to Jeremy Hunt at Health
• George Hollingberry to Theresa May at Home Office
• David Rutley to Damian Green at Home Office
• Guy Opperman to Mark Harper at Home Office
• Julian Smith to Justine Greening
• John Howell to Andrew Lansley
• Nigel Adams to Lord Strathclyde
• Julian Sturdy to Simon Burns at Transport
• David Mowat to Greg Clark at Treasury
• Andrew Selous to Iain Duncan Smith at DWP
• Ben Wallace to Ken Clarke

By Guido’s count that’s six rebels promoted…