Guido couldn’t believe his eyes when he read what Tim Yeo had to say about the Tory party conference today. Apparently:

“Conference has become too dominated by lobbyists and special interest groups, and it is driving away those genuinely interested in party matters.”

This from the same Tim Yeo who makes over £100,000 a year from green “special interests” while chairing the Energy and Climate Change select committee. The same Tim Yeo who quit a lucrative green job after a series of conflict of interest allegations. The same Tim Yeo who called for more flights to China on the same day his company agreed a huge contract with the Chinese government. He’s got some nerve…

Look who’s just joined Twitter:

If this tweeting stuff is good enough for the Prime Minister, then it's good enough for me!—
Peter Bone MP (@PeterBoneMP) October 10, 2012

Something else for Mitchell to worry about…

A significant Pilgrims development from yesterday. Liam Fox suggested that unions are basing their calculations for facility time allocations – how many hours taxpayer funded trade unionists are allowed to spent on union acitivity – on a 40% exaggeration of the real figure:

“The picture may actually be worse than appears at face value since the Facility Time allocations - the delightfully obtuse name for official trade union activities — is based on full departmental headcounts not the union membership within a department. For example,the PCS website claims that there are “more than 55,000 members” within Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HM RC). Yet, elsewhere on their website they explain that the HM RC Facility Time allocation for the current year is being based on the departmental headcount of 75,456. In other words, they base their calculations for their union time – and ultimately public remuneration - on a 40% exaggeration of the actual number of members they actually serve.”

Potentially meaning that the unions are raking in huge amounts of taxpayer cash against the rules. This one has legs…

Interesting that Labour attack dog Michael Dugher is rowing back on Millionaire Miliband’s tax spin this afternoon. Dugher is refusing to repeat the absurd idea that Cameron has written himself a £40,000 cheque, now nuancing the argument by noting that only 8,000 millionaires will benefit. Might be something to do with Dave slaughtering Ed on tax during his speech:

“Did you hear what Ed Miliband said last week about taxes? He described a tax cut as the government writing people a cheque. Ed…Let me explain to you how it works. When people earn money, it’s their money. Not the government’s money: their money. Then, the government takes some of it away in tax. So, if we cut taxes, we’re not giving them money – we’re taking less of it away. OK?”

An important distinction…

 It was good, but it wasn’t that good…

Via Guardian.

Why is Laurie Penny leaving the Indy?

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