As Guido suspected they would, Steve Morgan and Phil Taylor are blaming each other for the non-reporting of donations to Hain’s campaign. Guido has had run-ins with Hain’s ex-SpAd Phil Taylor before. The betting is that Phil is the one telling the truth, Morgan has a history with funding irregularities. Sleazy lobbyist Steve Morgan claims that when he took over in the middle of Hain’s campaign it was “complete chaos”. Phil Taylor denies this emphatically, “Not on my watch” he says “by the time I left we’d received legally and had declared £37,000 of donations and we hadn’t received a single penny in donations that was not declared at the time I left, so there was no chaos of any kind.” So that leaves a lot of unaccounted for cash raised by Morgan.

“Morgan the Organ”, as he was know in his days as George Galloway’s membership secretary and henchmen at War on Want in the late 80s, has had brushes with campaign funding irregularities in the past. Gorgeous George’s tenure at the left-wing campaigning charity led to a subsequent investigation by the Charity Commission over funding irregularities that were a foretaste of scandals to come.

His expenses and parking tickets were paid for out of WoW charity fundraising sources rather than his own pocket – and he regularly parked on the double yellow lines outside WoW’s Great Guilldford Street offices. Lefties who gave money to combat poverty in the Third World would not have been pleased to know their donations were going to offset Morgan’s anti-social laziness.

Guido wonders if some of the donors to Hain’s campaign might be just a little bit too embarrassing for a campaign that was positioned on the left. If it turns out to be case that say, a private equity baron or a hedge fund trader were donors, people will wonder if it really was incompetence or political embarrassment that was the reason for non-declaration of donations.

Morgan is currently helping on Hillary’s campaign so Guido feels it to be his duty to warn young impressionable American interns. He was known as “Morgan the Organ” for obvious reasons and to this day has an eye for young ladies…

As Speedbird pointed out in the comments earlier, the BBC has Jonathan Beale, Justin Webb, Kevin Connelly, Matt Frei, Jon Sopel and David Grossman covering the primaries.

All reporting on the same thing, all giving the same (incorrect) analysis. Actually to be fair, David Grossman for Newsnight was different, telling us how he’d accidentally put diesel in the car and even filming his own cameraman and producer. At any minute he seemed to be on the verge of saying “Hello mum, I’m in America, on the telly!”

Does the duplication of efforts produce anything of value? Well it gives us clear evidence that the BBC has no budgetary discipline, massive over-staffing and a lot of West Wing fans in News & Current Affairs.

The BBC is hardly likely to get a scoop unless it can track down Steve Morgan, Peter Hain’s fundraiser who is in hiding, hopefully doing for Hilary what he did for Hain…

UPDATE : Comment makers point out that Simon Mayo is a long way from the Radio 1 Roadshow, he is reporting the primaries for 5 Live. Radio 4′s Jim Naughtie is there as well. Kevin Connolly is padding out 5 Live’s coverage as is somebody called Rhod Sharpe. Jonathan Marcus and James Coomarasamy are covering for the World Service.

Any more Beeboids across the Atlantic?

How Did We All Get This So Wrong? in the Speccie sums up the pundits this morning. All the pundit talk of double digit leads for Obama have come to naught, there was even talk of Hillary pulling out of the race yesterday.

If you really want to have a good laugh, pick up a copy of the print edition of the Indy and compare it to the hastily re-written articles on their website. Slight change of tone and direction in their punditry.

Guido is sticking to sticking it to Westminster politicians…

Brown has “expressed anger and disappointment at Peter Hain’s failure to disclose the full extent of donations to his deputy leadership campaign” according to the Guardian.

Gordon gave Hain a telephonic bollocking for ruining Brown’s New Year re-launch and blunting the intended counter-attack to Cameron’s welfare reform plans as announced by Chris Grayling. Grayling stingingly responded to Hain’s “Tory sums don’t add up” line with “Someone in Peter Hain’s position should be very careful about accusing anyone else of getting their sums wrong.”

Hain’s prospects in any cabinet reshuffle now look bleak. His department is obviously suffering from having a distracted Minister, a press release put out by the Department for Work and Pensions today has the headline “Brits struggle to make ends meet in the New Year”. The release contains their own polling figures showing that more than half of people in the UK (55%) spend more than they can afford and are “struggling”. Hardly the official message Brown and Darling are spinning of national economic strength. Perhaps if more Britons took out a loan from Picture Financial Services plc, sponsors of Peter Hain…

According to Pink News, David Beckham is happy with his status as a gay icon, insisting he’s proud to be a pin-up for gay men who desire him. The L.A. Galaxy hunk is so comfortable with his sexuality, “he never recoils when a lusty homosexual casts an amorous glance in his direction”. He says, “I’m very honored to have the tag of gay icon.”

Despite renouncing celebrity culture Gordon is trying to co-opt David Beckham into a photo-op. No doubt we will soon see Gordon pictured at Beckham’s Football Academy, surrounded by photogenic boys in tight shorts. Maybe not as tight as David’s choice here…

Gordon Brown’s press conference is going on now. The political press pack is coming to dread Gordon’s repetitious droning. Iain Martin in the Telegraph said Gordon Brown’s speech on the NHS yesterday “went on, and on, and on… The content is very much downtown Havana and the presentation style also has Cuban echoes, like one of those speeches by Castro it goes on, and on, and on.”

John Harris in this morning’s Guardian reckons it is hard to distinguish Brown from a crypto-Stalinist parody -

“We will strengthen the democracy and unity of our country. Our priority at all times, our guiding purpose: one Britain of security and opportunity … With unbending determination, we will steer a course of stability through global financial turbulence … with firm conviction and resolve, we will make the case for the United Kingdom … I pledge my resolution to continue the work of change.”

Simon Hoggart criticises his descent into into verb-free sentences. Most Lobby journalists are bored with Gordon already, his colourless technocratic rhetoric. The automatic repetition of phrases and keywords such as “change”, “long term”, “tough decisions”, “my vision” and “getting on with the job” seems to be orally excreted on an endlessly looping tape. It going to be a long time until the next election…

UPDATE : Ben Brogan seems to have become bored and disenchanted with the Brownies as well. He even calls Gordon dishonest.

The world of young political researchers is notoriously underpaid and full of risk from sexually predatory employers. A co-conspirator has emailed with details of possibly the most ironic job advertisement Guido has seen.

It is a job ad for the soon to be launched “Fair Pay Network” backed by UNISON, OXFAM (UK), New Policy Institute, Child Poverty Action Group, One Parent Families/Gingerbread, Mayor of London, London Citizens, NUS, Unite the Union, Equanomics, UNISON, Counsel and Care, TUC and the New Policy Institute.

The position involves general office admin and researching into low-pay. It pays expenses only…

Peter Hain’s sleazy lobbyist fundraiser, Steve Morgan, told Radio Wales this morning that he had been brought in to the campaign to “bring order to chaos”. A source retorts “bollocks”. Every donation, they insist firmly, was properly accounted for up until the moment Phil Taylor walked out after falling out with Morgan. The documentation Guido got hold of in May seemed very precise and backs this up.

Hain’s allies are furious at Morgan’s audacity. Guido hears so many bad things about Mr Morgan. Do email more to Guido.Fawkes@Order-Order.com.

Carol Vorderman charges a fortune to advertise debt consolidation company FirstPlus. Peter Hain got a donation of £5,000 from rival debt consolidaton company boss, Neville Allport, his Picture Financial Services plc offers easy credit – “You can even borrow up to 125% of the value of your home” says the website “something that traditional lenders won’t consider.” They won’t consider such gearing because it is financially reckless.

Prominently displayed all over the company website is Hain’s ringing commerical endorsement. Guido can’t recall a serving minister’s endorsement ever being used to advertise a company in this way. Guido is sure that Hain’s endorsements and the £5,000 donation are entirely coincidental.

The 10.9% APR charged to credit maxed out debtors is very profitable, which probably explains why Ronnie Cohen’s Apax Private Equity is the biggest investor in Picture Financial Services plc. Remind Guido again where Hain stood on the Private Equity issue during the deputy-leadership campaign…

UPDATE : Looks like Hencke and Wintour on the Guardian are joining the chase this morning, with a front-page splash on Hain’s missing declarations. They are (rightly) fingering sleazy lobbyist Steven Morgan, identified by Guido in May 2007 as responsible for raising the cash.

The story points vaguely to an undeclared circa £10,000 from “City or business people”. Hain is said to be personally auditing the figures. Don’t forget the benefits-in-kind Peter…