This picture was taken at St. Paul’s just before lunch today after the service to commemorate the efforts of British armed forces who served in Northern Ireland, remembering those who gave their lives.

The Tory press office is, quite rightly, treating bloggers at their conference the same as the rest of the media (including charging us £150 for an internet connection and £95 for a power socket). Guido however will be unplugged and wirelessly blogging from his shiny new iPhone-killing, Blackberry-beating, all-singing, all-dancing, sat-naving, “beam me up Scotty” Sony Ericsson Xperia X1* phone, saving himself a couple of hundred quid.

Nice of CCHQ to offer bloggers a dedicated base to work from… the bar works best for Guido…

In a breach of internationally accepted convention, Gordon has openly backed Obama in an article under his byline. The story got picked up last night by Drudge and followed up by the news wires.

The McCain campaign has been in contact with the British Embassy in Washington to “express concern”. William Hague has queried the wisdom of the PM taking sides. Downing Street is desperately back-pedalling, claiming the article was written by a junior underling.

The first meeting Obama had with Gordon resulted in McCain inching ahead in the polls. This is more good news, get your money on McCain. Barring an act of god, the curse of Jonah Brown means Obama is now doomed…

UPDATE : Team McCain are trying to keep a straight face – see the campaign’s piss-take “The Coveted Gordon Brown Endorsement“. Loser backs loser…

Guido believes in the power of advertising and so clearly do the Camerons. Dave had as his primary mission on becoming leader the “decontamination of the Tory brand”. Which he has successfully achieved judging by the polls. Samantha has as her primary mission the flogging of upmarket luxury handbags for the Smythson brand. Sam with the prominent yellow handbag is on the left, flanking Dave on the other side is fellow handbag queen Anya Hindmarch, who if she could, would have put her bag in front of Dave’s face.

The product placement in this photo is from last night’s launch party for Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones. It is all about the marketing…

UPDATE 20.30 : Mrs Fawkes: “the yellow one looks quite nice” – giving meaningful sideways look.  Sam, if you are reading… will pick it up in Brum.  No questions asked (she means mustard, please).  You look after Guido’s other half…

You would, wouldn’t you?* Guido couldn’t help noticing when watching the Democrat and Republican conventions that the Republicans were better groomed and better looking. Forza Italia look like they have just come off the catwalk. Are right-of-centre types universally better looking than their left-of-centre counterparts?

1 – Shaun Bailey, 37, 2 – Mark Clarke, 31, 3 – Joanne Cash, 38, 4 – Annunziata Rees-Mogg, 29, 5 - Peter Lyburn, 24, 6 – Charlotte Leslie, 29, 7 – Jeremy Brier, 27, 8 – Nicola Blackwood, 28, 9 – Helen Whately, 32, 10 – Kulveer Ranger, 33.

This picture, taken outside HM Treasury, sent in minutes ago by co-conspirator Maria Fort*. A metaphor for the direction HM Treasury is taking us in…

*A co-conspirators T-shirt is in the post Maria.

Polly is whining again about the verbal kicking she gets after almost every column:

…my most constant hate-swipes on Comment is Free and in rightwing political blogs is for being middle class.

Guido frequently questions her judgment, but he has never accused her of being middle-class, for the simple reason she is not. Mary Louisa Toynbee is in fact part of the rarefied metropolitan media elite, she has a comfortable six-figure income and a villa in Tuscany to go with the London townhouse. She is not middle-class by any stretch of the imagination.

Her income is not middle-class, it puts her in the top 1% of earners.

The great grand-daughter of the Earl of Carlisle was privately educated (Badminton), went to Oxford (St Annes) and on to the BBC. A classic metropolitan elite career path. Toynbee is the daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee and grand-daughter of the famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee, his uncle was the philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee after whom Toynbee Hall is named. She was born into three generations of metropolitan elitists.

She is perfectly entitled to point to the toffs on the Tory front-bench, but Guido is not going to let her pretend to be middle-class. She is the enemy of the aspirational middle-classes, the high priestess advocate of taxing them to pay for her social democratic utopia.

N.B. See also this for an example of Polly’s consistency, prescience and judgement over Gordon Brown. This “rightwing blog” must have got under her skin…

An advertisement is not an endorsement.  However in the case of the British Legion campaign for better treatment for servicemen Guido is happy to give his support.  The treatment of ex-soldiers by this government is disgraceful.  Whitehall bureaucrats have gold-plated index linked pensions, MPs vote themselves phenomenal benefits and pensions to keep them in the manner they are accustomed to when they retire (courtesy of the taxpayer).  These are the people who determine the pensions of ex-servicemen.

An estimated one third of ex-servicemen are in poverty.  Something is very wrong.