███████████████████████████████ Chris Huhne ██████████████████.
████████████████████████████████ tomorrow ██████████████.
████████████████████████████████.
████████████████████████ former bi-sexual, ████████████████████!
██████████████████████████████!
Not many talking points from this afternoon’s snooze-fest mid-term review, though Dave and Nick’s failure to take a single question from a female journalist was noted by many. No. 10 told the BBC that “none of the TV or newspaper political editors there” were female as an explanation. To be fair to them the Lobby is hardly brimming with females. Some chauvinist media outlets are particularly guilty…
The Mirror’s all-male political team is made up of James Beattie, Tom McTague, James Lyons, Mark Ellis, Paul Routledge and Kevin Maguire, with the Sunday Mirror’s passholders made up of Vincent Moss and Nick Buckley. As for that bastion of feminism the New Statesman? Jason Cowley and Rafael Behr have Lobby passes, but there is a grand total of zero for the Staggers’ female staff. As an ardent feminist, Guido says shame on them…
UPDATE: Guido was not the only one to notice:
Over a hundred million pounds over budget, four years late and the subject of a National Audit Office investigation, the BBC’s revamp of Broadcasting House was a disaster from start to finish. The ten year renovation project, which was supposed to be completed in 2008, was still haemorrhaging money right up until the day it was completed last year.
Media Guido can reveal that as the project drew to a close in the first six months of last year, the BBC blew close to a further £6 million of licence-fee payers’ money on the ill-fated rebuild. The £5.765 million finishing touches figure includes £3.2 million forked out for furniture and some £26,000 on “graphics”, presumably those aesthetically-pleasing billboards Lord Patten proudly did his TV pieces in front of at the height of the Jimmy Savile scandal. The Beeb are refusing to reveal how much they spent on individual decorative items, citing the feeble excuse that disclosure would weaken their “commercial bargaining position”. Nothing to see here.
Almost £6 million of licence-fee payers’ cash spent on the finishing touches of a doomed revamp that spent over a hundred million more than budgeted. 2012: a year to be proud of for the BBC…
Labour attack dog Michael Dugher went off on one in the Mirror this weekend, slating the “snobbery” of government arts cuts and the decision to award the British Federation of Brass Bands a grant of of just £23,000 last year. So how much did the Federation receive under the obviously less snobbish and much more generous Labour government? According to their accounts, in 2009 the Arts Council grant to the BFBB was a whopping £23,941, while in 2008 it was £23,313. Cuts? What cuts?
Strathclyde frustrated by behaviour of LD peers, before Xmas told a colleague that the ‘coalition had already broken down’ in the HofLords'.—
James Forsyth (@JGForsyth) January 07, 2013
Lord Strathclyde decided to quit during a reflective Christmas and New Year after a continuous 25 years on the Tory front bench, sources say—
Christopher Hope (@christopherhope) January 07, 2013
No10 insiders saying Strathclyde resignation "not a story"…..—
JamesLyons (@MirrorJames) January 07, 2013
Presumably Lord Hill told the PM he didn't want the job.—
Christian May (@ChristianJMay) January 07, 2013
If Cameron knew about Strathclyde resignation why release news now, hours before press conference. Why not Friday afternoon or Sunday?—
Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) January 07, 2013
Announcing a cabinet resignation on day of "relaunch"? The No 10 Press/Political operation must be spectacularly at sea.—
Hopi Sen (@hopisen) January 07, 2013
Labour pointing out Strathclyde oversaw 59 govt defeats since May 2010…—
Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) January 07, 2013
Strathclyde resignation quite simple. Ages in opposition, two interesting years in govt been there done it got the t-shirt, now make money—
Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) January 07, 2013
Whatever the reasons behind the departure, Downing Street can’t be that annoyed. “The Queen has been pleased to appoint the Rt Hon the Lord Strathclyde to the Order of the Companions of Honour.” Suggests a friendly exit…
Having been in the Shadow Cabinet or the Cabinet since 1997, the leader of the House of Lords Tom Strathclyde has just announced his resignation. Apparently he wants to pursue other interests. You have to wonder why the change of heart given the recent reshuffle. Intriguing…
UPDATE: And the Dear Tom from the PM:
It may be the first day back at school, but odd to resign on relaunch day.
UPDATE II:
Lord Hill – the minister who tried to resign at the last reshuffle – now promoted by Cameron to the Cabinet in latest relaunch shambles—
Labour Press Team (@labourpress) January 07, 2013
Hill was bored of education, not life, if Guido remembers correctly…
Hugh Grant’s lobbying group Hacked Off are trying very hard to pretend that they do not support statutory regulation of the press. Their draft bill, which would implement Leveson in full, is nicely dressed up as apparently defending “media freedom”, when in fact the opposite is true. They claim that ‘The Leveson Bill will enshrine press freedom in law. Political meddling will only debase it,” yet their “statutory underpinning” falls over almost immediately. In the third clause to be precise:
(3) Interference with the activities of the media by Ministers
of the Crown and public officials shall be unlawful
unless it is for a legitimate purpose and is necessary in a
democratic society, having full regard to the importance
of media freedom in a democracy.
So the government can’t intervene with the press unless it “for a legitimate purpose”. And who will be deciding what is and is not a “legitimate purpose”? Surely not the lawmakers? Back to the drawing board please, freedom haters.
The Ralph Miliband Lecture has been no stranger to some rather explosive characters recently. Readers will remember how in 2010 Ed’s mate at the LSE David Held invited Saif Gaddafi, the Butcherer of Bengazi to be, to speak as a “representative of the Miliband program”. Held buttering Saif up as a great reformer and humanitarian will surely go down as one of the most ill-fated welcomes of all time:
Almost as lavish as Ed’s own praise for the discredited lecture program:
Surely no self-respecting defender of the downtrodden would want to follow in the footsteps of Gaddafi?
This year’s Ralph Miliband programme is being headlined next week by Len McCluskey. The former Unite union baron will presumably be explaining how the general strike would work as he eulogises about the Labour leader’s late Marxist father. And just to round things off the following week? Laurie Penny will be sharing her pearls of wisdom. The whole thing has about as much credibility these days as the Orwell Prize…
As reported in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday:
JIM Davidson was praised by Iain Duncan Smith as “a true Conservative supporter” back in 2001, after the comedian bankrolled his victorious Tory leadership campaign. Davidson returned the favour, calling IDS a “very, very caring man” and helped raise cash for the party. Jim is still a member of the posh Carlton Club on London’s St James’s Street that’s favoured by Tory grandees. Guido’s mole reports that recently Davidson was noisily speculating in the club bar about who might be next on the Jimmy Savile cops’ list. The funny man isn’t laughing now he has been nicked flying into Heathrow on his way to the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Guido’s other favourite story from this week had to be Lembit’s New Year’s Eve:
HAPPY New Year to Lembit Opik, who welcomed in 2013 from the cloakroom of the Driver nightclub in London’s Kings Cross. New Year’s Eve revellers were shocked to discover the former Liberal Democrat MP dressed in black tie, checking IDs, tickets and taking coats. He told one partygoer that he wasn’t promoting the “secret agent-themed” party, just helping out as he was “at a loose end”. “It was all incredibly bizarre, as were his dance moves,” one told Guido.
Half a million people read it in print yesterday, and you can now read the blog’s Sunday column online here.
Getting to Know U-KIP | ConservativeHome
Farage Telegraph Advert | Political Scrapbook
Cameron’s Leadership in Trouble | Tim Montgomerie
Tories Need to Behave Like a Governing Party | Lord Ashcroft
Dave’s Mates Do Hate the Grassroots | Melissa Kite
Dave Can’t Rely on Party For Loyalty | Tim Bale
If Dave Were President He’d Have Resigned By Now | Alex Wickham
Loongate: What Happened in the Blue Boar Bar | Simon Walters
Feldman’s Tennis Days With Dave | Telegraph
How Geoffrey Howe Has Lost the Debate | Robin Shepherd
Dave Has Lost Control on Europe | Geoffrey Howe
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Tom Harris bemoans the public’s attitude to politicians…
“Mr Oborne echoes the lazy, anti-politics whine we hear so often these days, all based on the absurd notion that politicians were once loved and only fell out of public favour during the expenses scandal. He should take a walk to the Strangers’ Bar. But not to sup with the patrons he seems to despise so much, dearie me, no; he should instead look at the paintings on the corridor outside the bar, which depict the devastating fire which consumed most of the Palace in 1834. And he should reflect on the fact that on that dramatic night, as the Commons went up in flames, a crowd gathered on the South Bank to clap and cheer.”
The thing that Dave needs to work out is which group is more likely to vote Conservative. Mad swivel-eyed loons or mad homosexuals wishing to get married.
