Alistair Andrews Communications was the fictitious company created by the Telegraph and Panorama to string disgraced Tory MP Patrick Mercer. Its non-existent offices in Sydney and London and less-than-convincing website somehow duped Mercer, whose suspicions failed to be raised.

Deliciously, Mercer has just declared a £2,000 payment from Alistair Andrews Communications in his Register of Members Interests. Apparently he did two days’ “consultancy” work for them back in May. The fake name, fake Old Queen Street address and fake job all on official record. £2,000: the price to sting a corrupt MP…

One for Will Smith then. This is what happens when you lower the voting age…

Via Kebab Time.

Things must be bad for the increasingly troubled Department for Culture Media and Sport when a loathed Chairman of the BBC has to ride to your defence. Chris Patten told a Press Gallery lunch that the department must not be scrapped, despite the Olympics being over. Since then Maria Miller has driven press regulation into a brick wall and their only other significant project – broadband – is being rolled out at dial-up speed. Patten’s hand wringing will do little to convince Tories that scrapping the department is a bad idea.

At last a politician with the courage to stand up to the dangerously influential, scandal-hit corporation that dominates the British media. Harriet Harman’s proposed 15% market share cap would, once and for all, break the unrivalled power of the BBC, who are currently over three times that with a 47.2% share. No one else comes close, News International for example are well under the proposed cap at just 10.1%. As the Greek national broadcaster is shut down to save money, it is worth noting the huge multiplier effect of the £4.3 billion that would be in consumers’ pockets in this country without the Beeb. If they were first regulated by Ofcom rather than the tame BBC Trust, then Hattie had her way, the BBC could be cut down to size…

Welsh political establishment luvvies Rhuanedd Richards and Elin Gwilym had a good old chit chat at the Urdd, a nationalistic welsh language youth festival, this weekend. Rhuanedd is a former BBC Wales political correspondent turned chief executive of Plaid Cymru, while Elin is a current BBC Wales hack in the running, some say, to become their new political editor. Rhuanedd and Elin are mates, so much so that photographs together in a tent at the rainy campsite were posted on Facebook.  For some reason the photos uploaded to Rhuanedd’s Facebook page were mysteriously deleted after Guido pointed out the cosy relationship yesterday. BBC Wales and Plaid Cymru are getting ever closer…

Yet more frankly unbelievable waste from the BBC. New DG Tony Hall has called time on their Digital Media Initiative, which has by their own admission completely and utterly failed in its task of carrying them into the digital age. Hall’s scathing statement admits:

“The DMI project has wasted a huge amount of Licence Fee payers’ money and I saw no reason to allow that to continue which is why I have closed it. I have serious concerns about how we managed this project and the review that has been set up is designed to find out what went wrong and what lessons can be learned.”

The total cost is a staggering £98.4 million…

No end in sight for the scandal-hit BBC: now Today programme veteran John Humphrys has confessed to bribing a police officer… with a bottle of whisky as a 17-year-old reporter. Humphrys has finally come clean over how he was the mastermind behind the crime 50 years on: “Now they would be banging my door down at 5am in the morning”. Operation Elveden have their latest suspect…

Trip went well then…

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…

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…