Why is Gordon looking so glum at his speech on Scotland to the LSE this evening?

Perhaps all these empty seats have something to do with it:

Tsk tsk, students. Some people would pay a lot of money to hear the Prime Mentalist speak…

UPDATE: Gordon has told the audience that he believes the bedroom ‘tax’ is “completely unacceptable”. If only he had some power as an MP to express his opinion – Gordon failed to turn up for the vote…

Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP who earlier this year was forced to make a grovelling apology for comparing the Israel-Palestine conflict to the Holocaust, is in trouble for her extreme views once again. Yesterday, as the damning Ofsted evidence of Islamic extremism in Birmingham schools was starting to become clear, Qureshi tweeted that the story was a “witch hunt”. Today, the following tweet about Oldknow Academy’s school trips to Saudi Arabia, on which the Ofsted report found that non-Muslim pupils were banned from going, has mysteriously disappeared from her timeline:

Curiouser and curiouser…

[jwplatform src=”http://content.jwplatform.com/players/1zhTrroM-dwaBVFtT.js”]

Sir Michael Wilshaw appeared to go nuclear on Newsnight by claiming that he had called for unannounced inspections two years ago only for these to be rejected by Gove:

“I called for it and it’s been rolled back, but we need to do it now for some schools”. 

This is killer interview. Lands gove in very sticky position if true #newsnight

— emily m (@maitlis) June 9, 2014

Now the Ofsted Chief-Inspector has had his balls put in a vice and is singing a very different tune. The Department of Education confirm:

“The Secretary of State and the Chief Inspector have today discussed the issue of no-notice inspections. The Chief Inspector confirmed that the Education Secretary did not ask Ofsted to halt its plans for no-notice inspections in 2012.”

Gove appears to be slotting enemies one by one today as he attempts to reaffirm his authority after his own humiliating climb down earlier in the week.

Select Committee Chairman are dropping like flies. First James Arbuthnot quit Defence, and now Stephen Dorrell is standing down as chief Health Department overseer. Both of these MPs are quitting parliament after the election in 2015, so why would they not want to keep the coveted posts, as well as the extra pay, for their last year in the Commons? Nothing to do, Guido is sure, with the fact that anti-corruption Cabinet Office rules state that politicians have to spend a year ‘cooling off’ before they a can go to work in the lucrative private sector in an area they have acquired expert knowledge in through their position in public office. Any six-figure consultancy contracts and directorships they take up after the election would more than compensate them for their temporary short-term loss this year. A coincidence, no doubt.

The latest runners and riders to replace Dorrell include NHS reformer Charlotte Leslie, her close friend Dr Philip Lee, Speaker’s pet Dr Sarah Wollaston and homoeopath David Tredinnick. There is also a rumour doing the rounds that Spelman is interested.

I have written this morning to the Chairman of the Charity Commission asking them to investigate Oxfam's highly political advertising

— Conor Burns (@ConorBurnsUK) June 10, 2014

Tory MP Conor Burns is off on one over the latest tedious Oxfam campaign, reporting the international poverty charity to the Charity Commission for their nakedly political, domestic trolling today:

https://twitter.com/oxfamgb/status/474917151653244928

To be honest, this is probably what they wanted – going down the shock PR route so loved by Save the Children and the green lobby. Who cares what the statistics show when you’ve got photoshop?

When Oxfam is not swanning around Davos, pouring charitable giving down the drain, they are resorting to cheap electioneering. Whatever happened to actual poverty?

Pity to see such a once respected charitable brand sell out. 

Arnie Graf, the controversial US ‘community organiser’ who was illegally working in the UK to overthrow the government, has been spotted travelling from St James’s Park tube station to the One Brewer’s Green HQ of the Labour Party:

The UK Border Agency would like to find this man, sighted yesterday at St James's Park station: pic.twitter.com/0v39E5GvPQ

— UKBA (@UKBA_Press) June 10, 2014

Arnie Graf, white, 69, grey hair, blue eyes. Believed to be working illegally in the UK to overthrow the government: pic.twitter.com/xTqbqbEZDv

— UKBA (@UKBA_Press) June 10, 2014

Have you seen this man? If so, contact UKBA immediately. Seen outside One Brewer's Green yesterday. pic.twitter.com/8cKKjLiC0v

— UKBA (@UKBA_Press) June 10, 2014

Labour bigwigs assure Guido that Graf’s paperwork is order – this time – saying that he is on the same business visa he was on last time. A Labour spokesman says:

“Arnie Graf is back in the  UK. He’ll be meeting Ed, Douglas as well as organisers and activists across the country.”

Is he being paid though?

Guido understands this is a flying visit unlike his last stay when he was working in the country without a work permit. A purely cosmetic trip after being forced out by Wee Dougie…