Labour’s Brian Donohoe. Dot com.

Conversation in Westminster never seems more than two minutes away from reshuffle speculation, with attention focusing on the weeks after the European elections. The argument that Cameron should delay in order to keep wannabes in line over the summer is outweighed by the fact that in doing so he would be putting ministers in jobs for barely six months before an election. With No.11, FCO and the Home Office out of play, one question that keeps coming up is what to do about Michael Gove? With little time to reform another high spending department speculation is growing he could be given a more frontline role for the general election – as party chairman.

The theory goes that Cameron will need to throw an authentic Eurosceptic bone to the party ahead of 2015 after the UKIP drubbing, and Gove, as inner-ish circle, can be trusted not to go off the reservation. As ConservativeHome said this morning, there is a precedent for putting up pugnacious chairman in election years: “It’s worth noting that the nearer a poll got, the bigger a hitter the Chairman was likely to be: Parkinson, Tebbit and Patten were all pre-election chairmen.” Though the question that comes to Guido’s mind is, would he want the job?

And what would happen over at education? Osborne protege Hancock stepping up to replace Gove is worth a punt, with Liz Truss eyeing up Willets cabinet attending job at BIS. If Guido was a betting man…

It’s been a while, but panic not, it looks like Chuka has added yet another new watch to his already impressive array of giant timekeeping devices:

Inspiring to talk to social entrepreneurs working in our local community at launch of #ClaphamPark Business Incubator pic.twitter.com/Qn932W6oGf

— ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) April 23, 2014

Lucky Chuka spent last week visiting the White House. The real one this time, rather than his family’s villa in Ibiza that goes by the same name…

John Coles was nicked on 9 September 2012 by Operation Elveden cops on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office. 

19 months later, today he has been cleared.

The 13th arrested journalist not to be convicted.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey has today unveiled eight new major renewables projects which he says will be funded by £12 billion of private sector investment to “boost green growth and green jobs“. Renewable projects are guaranteed a price for the power they produce, meaning that the difference between the guaranteed price and the price on the market is subsidised by the taxpayer. Guido has been crunching the numbers to work out how much the subsidy for these new projects will cost taxpayers overall.

Wind

The wholesale price for power for winter 2015 is £53 per MWh. There are 5 offshore wind projects totalling 3,184MW, each guaranteed £140 per MWh if completed in 2017-18. That’s a subsidy of £87 per MWh.

If wind farms generate 35% of the time, that’s 3,066 hours per year. At £87 per hour on 3,184MW of capacity that’s a subsidy of £849 million.

Biomass CHP

There is 1 Biomass CHP project providing just 299MW. This is guaranteed £125 per MWh. A subsidy of £72 per MWh.

If this generates 85% of the time, that’s 7,446 hours per year. At £72 per hour on 299MW of capacity that’s a subsidy of £160million.

Biomass Conversions

Then there are 2 Biomass Conversions totalling 1,065MW. These are guaranteed £105 per MWh. A subsidy of £52 per MWh.

If these generate 85% of the time, that’s 7,446 hours per year. At £52 per hour on 1,065MW of capacity that’s a subsidy of £412 million.

Overall, that is a total subsidy of £1.4 billion per year.

Davey said today that the new contracts for renewable projects will support 8,500 green jobs. At £1.4 billion, that amounts to £167,000 per green job. Or green crap as the PM likes to call it.

A confused Nick Griffin says Nigel Farage is a shill for the City, forgetting that City banks want to stay in the EU:

“Farage is a snake oil salesman, but a very good one. His supposed anti-immigration stance is all smoke and mirrors, as is his carefully cultivated image as a ‘man of the people’. The truth is that UKIP is a pro-immigration party that exists to lobby for the interests of the City of London.”