First Fergie, now David Beckham has retired from professional football. Gordon strikes again…

Fair, balanced and impartial Ian Katz will have no trouble fitting in at his new role as Newsnight editor. He is reunited with former Guardian colleague Allegra Stratton and, in Paul Mason, he has an ex-Trotskyist Workers’ Power group member as his Economics Editor. Despite being a neighbour of Boris, Katz certainly has top drawer left-wing credentials. Back in 2004, he was editor of the Guardian’s G2 magazine during their infamous ‘Operation Clark County’ plot to swing the state of Ohio in favour of John Kerry and against George W. Bush. Katz organised thousands of letters written by lefty Britons to be sent to individual voters in Ohio, imploring them to cast their ballot for Kerry. The result was uproar, a near diplomatic incident, and victory for Bush. Slate magazine explained Katz’s humiliation at the time:

“The Guardian editor responsible for the project, Ian Katz, finally wrote a piece on Oct. 21 crying uncle… Katz said he knew all along that the letter-writing project could backfire. So, did it? Almost certainly, yes. In 2000, Al Gore won Clark County by 324 votes. And since Ralph Nader received 1,347 votes, we can assume Gore’s margin would have been larger without Nader on the ballot.

On Tuesday George Bush won Clark County by 1,620 votes.”

Add to that Katz’s support for various barmy climate change schemes, including the exploding children shock campaign 10:10. Throw in his views on the ’paranoia’ and ‘complicity’ of ‘idiotic’ Israel and you start to get the picture…

Star guest at this morning’s 10:00 meeting for Tory special advisers at CCHQ was Lynton Crosby. It opened with a warning from party chairman Grant Shapps that they would be “fired by the Prime Minister” if any SpAd was caught leaking the details of the meeting. At which point poor old Craig Oliver – who has been at the sharp end of plenty of leaks and briefings recently – turned around and gave each of them an individual “death stare”. That worked well…

Meet Eleanor Jackson: university lecturer, teacher and Labour’s loony lefty town councillor in the quiet Somerset town of Radstock. Hardly a hotbed of religious unrest, yet that hasn’t stopped Jackson from waging war against that menace of these inclusive, progressive times: the St George’s Flag. Radstock Council have banned the flag from flying over the town for fear that it might offend local Muslim residents. Apparently because it was used during the Crusades nine hundred years ago, Jackson says it has to go:

“My big problem is that it is offensive to some Muslims but even more so that it has been hijacked by the far right. My thoughts are we ought to drop it for 20 years.”

In its place will fly the far more friendly Union flag, alongside the rainbow flag in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride movement. You couldn’t make it up…

Hopefully the new Guardian deputy editor will be able to stir MediaGuardian from their slumber, it took a whole twelve hours from the story breaking to get anything up on their website about the departure of Ian Katz to Newsnight. Insiders are tipping two names to MediaGuido as his replacement. Dan Roberts, the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief, is a frontrunner, rivalled by their former media man and new National News editor Dan Sabbagh.

So it looks like Dan the man for the gender-balanced Guardian. Though one possible dark horse being touted is Helen Boaden of Newsnight fame, because the Beeb-Guardian relationship wasn’t cosy enough. Developing…

Colleagues

Friday 5^th July is the first Private Members Bills day.  Mr James Wharton was fortunate to secure pole position in the draw.  Could colleagues please amend their diaries to ensure that they will be here to support James. 

 

This is a THREE LINE WHIP.

 

Robert Goodwill

Government Pairing Whip

A cunning move by Ian Katz, jumping from the Guardian to Newsnight. The heir apparent is the latest lefty print figure to join the Beeb. Guido reckons he will return to Kings Place eventually, as the editor of a multi-platform, video-led converged Guardian. He can bide his time while Alan Rusbridger wrings his hands for a few more years as the print figures continue to crash and the mass sackings become inevitable. Smart...

The appointment has not gone down well with everyone. BBC types and government sources are moaning to the Speccie, while a Tory source tells Guido: “At this rate Alastair Campbell will be presenting. Given the huge salaries the Guardian pay, the BBC need to disclose how much they are billing the license-fee payer for Mr Katz.” Mr Paxman was unavailable for comment…

1. James Wharton
2. Paul Blomfield
3. Johnthan Lord
4. Sheryll Murray
5. Dan Byles
6. Sir Alan Meale
7. Andrew Gwynne
8. Karl McCartney
9. Sir Robert Smith
10.Graham Evans
11. Mike Crockart
12. Justin Tomlinson
13. Mark Williams
14. Sir Malcom Bruce
15. Caroline Spelman
16. Andrew Selous
17. Margot James
18. William Cash
19. Michael Meacher
20. Dr Matthew Offord

At least four anti-EU Tories in top positions.

Where there are unemployment figures, there is a chance to spin. Especially for Watson-trained Balls Political Adviser / bruiser Alex Belardinelli. There he was, gleefully tweeting killer stats to talk down today’s unemployment figures:

Apparently we should "celebrate" the fact that unemployment is higher today than when this government came to office—
Alex Belardinelli (@abelardinelli) May 15, 2013

You wouldn’t realise from that tweet that the unemployment rate is actually 0.2% lower: falling from 8% when Gordon left to 7.8% today. The total number of people in employment has risen 880,000 from May 2010. The total number of unemployed has risen by 100,000 from May 2010. With a growing population, Belardinelli knows exactly what he is doing. In reality the facts point to better employment figures today then three years ago, albeit hardly by much more than flatlining. There is spinning and then there is misinformation… 

Conversation re Conservative candidate with UKIP endorsement is right wing version of the same proposal by Nick Boles with Lib Dems—
Nadine Dorries MP (@NadineDorriesMP) May 15, 2013

Tories are pointing out that Nadine’s plan to stand as a joint Tory/UKIP candidate at the next election is not going to happen and that she is being very naughty.

Guido recalls that the outrage was a lot quieter when Nick Boles made a similar point back in the more optimistic golden days of the Coalition.

He even wrote a book suggesting a formal pact.

All be it with the LibDems…