The Tories are very keen to push the comparison between the number of meetings held between Rupert Murdoch and various Prime Ministers, specifically within in the first two years of their premierships:

Tony Blair became Prime Minister on 2 May 1997. By 1 May 1999, he had met Rupert Murdoch 7 times:

1 June 1997 – Meeting
2 September 1997 – Meeting
13 November 1997 – Lunch
29 January 1998 – Meeting (with Mark Booth)
12 May 1998 – Meeting
21 January 1999 – Lunch
21 January 1999 – Dinner (with Gordon Brown, Irwin Stelzer and Les Hinton)

Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007. By 26 June 2009, he had met Rupert Murdoch 13 times:

6 October 2007 – Meeting
6 October 2007 – Dinner (with Sarah Brown and JK Rowling)
29 October 2007 – Lunch
22 January 2008 – Lunch
16 April 2008 – Meeting
6 June 2008 – Dinner (with Wendi Murdoch and Sarah Brown)
15 June 2008 – Dinner hosted by Gordon and Sarah Brown for around 36 people including Wendi Murdoch, President Bush and Laura Bush)
16 June 2008 – News Corporation Summer party and dinner afterwards (with other members of Murdoch’s family and Sarah Brown)
25 September 2008 – Dinner hosted by Mayor Bloomberg
26 September 2008 – Meeting
13 November 2008 – Meeting
13 January 2009 – Breakfast
13 June 2009 – The wedding of Rebekah Wade to Charlie Brooks (also attended by David Cameron)
22 June 2009 – Reception for Lord Paul
26 June 2009 – Dinner (with Sarah Brown and Lord Paul)

David Cameron became Prime Minister on 11 May 2010. As of 26 April 2012, he had met Rupert Murdoch twice and attended two social occasions with him:

18 May 2010 – Meeting
21 July 2010 – Dinner or meeting
16 June 2011 – News Corporation Summer Party
20 June 2011 – Times CEO summit dinner

Interesting, and we all know they were all up to their necks, but had the scandal not blown up in July 2011, do we really think Dave’s number of meetings would have stuck at four?

WOW. Jeremy Hunt lifeline right there. Murdoch calls Brown unbalanced…—
Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) April 25, 2012

While Hunt waves/drowns in Parliament Murdoch has been shining some light on Brown. The key quote from when the Sun switched to supporting the Tories in in late 2009 Murdoch confirms that Brown called to say:

“Your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company. It never occurred to me that our lack of support for Brown would lead to obstacles in our plans for a takeover of BSkyB.”

A claim denied at the time…

Though it looked like Dave might be developing shades of Jonah Brown about him when he landed in Indonesia to be greeted by an earthquake, Ed fans should not be laughing yet. True to his ideological father, Miliband seems to have had the reverse Midas touch with Aquascutum. Choosing the outfitters for his rushed wedding last year, the firm have now gone bust. Keep an eye on TM Lewin…

Dave arrives in Indonesia and moments later:

“A tsunami watch was issued for countries across the Indian Ocean today after a large earthquake hit waters off Indonesia, sending residents pouring from their homes in panic. The US Geological Survey said the 8.7-magnitude quake was centred 20 miles beneath the ocean floor around 269 miles from Aceh’s provincial capital.”

Can anyone remember another Prime Minister this sort of thing used to happen? Surely not…

When it emerged that Gordon Brown had made £1.4m since leaving office on the international speech circuit, his spinners were quick to point out claim that “not a single penny” had gone to Brown himself and instead it was all given to charity. But that’s not quite true.

The most recent set of abbreviated accounts for the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown (Ltd.) paint a different picture. Though they do not give a turnover, or how much actually went to charity, or how much was spent on “administration”,  they do show that at least 20,934,300 pennies are being held by the Browns in cash. No income tax on that…

A great spot by Emily Fox over at the Express:

Most unlike Gordon…

He may shun most of his backbench duties in favour of flying around the world for speeches and funnelling the fees through his shell company, the “Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown”, but the former Prime Mentalist has actually managed to turn up in Westminster today. Coincidently there is a state occasion rather than any pressing issue for the people of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath…

Despite shirking his responsibility as an MP, Gordon is still happy to use taxpayer-funded rooms on the Parliamentary estate. He’s got at least two booked today. Guido hears Gordon is having a small gathering after the Queen’s speech. Form an orderly queue Labour types…

Ed Balls causes an explosion in Kirkcaldy telling The Times…

‘Nobody is going to look back at any point in history and say that Gordon Brown was a great Prime Minister…’

Gordon Brown has resigned.

The Labour councillor quit Cannock Chase District Council this week.

Guido really enjoyed writing that headline once again. If only...

See if you can spot the difference…