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…

Miliband’s decision to cast Labour as the anti-referendum party will have upset one multi-millionaire donor in particular. John Mills is the founder of the JML shopping channel and the most prominent Labour leaning co-chairman of Business for Britain, he is also the major backer of the new Eurosceptic Labour for a Referendum group.

He has called for ”soul-searching and internal review” of Labour’s Europe policy, in no uncertain terms:

“While we differ on other policy areas, David Cameron should be congratulated for laying down markers on how the EU needs to change along the lines of flexibility and fairness to boost competitiveness… 

Mills gave £1.6 million worth of shares in his company to the Labour Party in January this year. Finally Ed finds some non-union support, with an agenda of his own…

UPDATE: Friends of John Mills say he is a Eurosceptic, however Labour for a Referendum is Euro-put-the-issue-to-bed-ist.

Hi @GuidoFawkes Could you please amend the part of your article which says we are a Eurosceptic campaign, we are not.—
LabourforaReferendum (@Lab4aRef) May 15, 2013

Glad we cleared that up…

(Click here to enlarge)

Well done to Private Eye for reading a story in the unpopular parts of the blogosphere, not bothering to check it, running it and subsequently discovering it was a poorly researched, lazy hatchet job with no basis in reality.

So not only second hand news, but second hand news that was wrong.

Are they even trying any more? 

A tetchy piece on ConservativeHome this morning by their new Contributing Editor called for Grant Shapps to be replaced as Tory Chairman. Putting the boot in, former Telegraph hack Andrew Gimson, concluded: “To leave Shapps there for the next two years would be to insult a party which already feels it has been insulted enough.”Tory sources are kicking back this afternoon, suggesting that the piece makes ConHome’s new hire “look pretty out of it”:

“Shapps should have a word. He’s pretty much the only minister taking the heat for the government at the moment. That piece makes Gimson look pretty out of it.”

Punchy…

One moment of amusement during today’s extremely dull, long, Deputy PMQs was Edward Leigh thoroughly embarrassing Clegg over that in/out referendum leaflet.

Painful.

Dave has decided that touring the States on a bus with Prince Harry is more important than allowing himself to be held to account in parliament. Despite the events of the past week. That means, farcically, it falls to Clegg and Harman to agree with each other across the despatch box this lunchtime. Comments in the comments please…

When Dave’s away…

The Men in Tights’ favourite method for blocking the release of awkward information about MPs is citing the Data Protection Act over and over again. Regardless of the fact that the Commons library is funded by the taxpayer, Guido has been told Parliament will not publish the names of books loaned by individual MPs over the last few months. Apparently letting the public know what MPs are doing with their money is a breach of those Honourable Members’ privacy.

Sadly, that means Guido cannot reveal the name of the curious MP who rented – and has not returned – rent boy scandal MP Mark Oaten’s “Screwing Up”, or the fact-finding digger who took out – and kept – Tim Tate’s “Child Pornography: an Investigation”. We will never know the names of the three MPs who are struggling to finish Janan Ganesh’s Osborne biography, they haven’t returned “The Austerity Chancellor” after several months’ hard work. Nor, of course, the would-be red-faced rookies who needed the low down on “How Parliament Works”, and thought it best to keep on to their copy, just in case.  As for the name of the MP who felt the need to lift “The Jew is Not My Enemy”? Guess we’ll never know if the recommendation was on the orders of Nick Clegg…

The line Labour types will be pushing today, the January to March figures compared with the previous three months:

Unemployment was 2.52m in Jan-Mar, up 15k on Oct-Dec. Employment was 29.71m, down 43k—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) May 15, 2013

And the saving grace for Osborne, this month compared to last:

Unemployment rate falls from 7.9% last month to 7.8%.—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) May 15, 2013

Select as per partisan preference. Those figures in full here. Essentially little has changed…