Next’s week witness list for Leveson is a fiery one. Blair is is all day Monday and Hunt all day Thursday. Cable, Gove, May and Ken Clarke will also face a grilling. If this is the calibre of witnesses this week, expect the PM and Brown to be called in the first week of June. The Inquiry is not sitting in Jubilee week which gives the PM plenty of time with his lawyers and coaches…

“God bless Britain.”

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?

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a Labour students’ disco at party conference? Whose name do they still chant? ‘Tony’.”

“We are looking for outstanding individuals to undertake a 3 month internship to support our London team, which sets strategic direction for the projects overall, focuses on fundraising for the development and expansion of AGI, and provides logistical support to the teams. The ideal candidate would have excellent academic credentials with a proven administrative and numerical ability. Prior experience in an office environment will be an advantage.”

Sounds like an incredible opportunity, but what’s the catch?

“The internship is not paid, however you will be reimbursed for your lunch and travel expenses.”

The continuing mystery of his £8 million of “administrative expenses” obviously does not include intern pay. Guido isn’t too sure where this fits in on Tony’s “poverty-reduction agenda”…

Via @SaneLynch

Much to SamCam’s distress, Dave was forced cancel his Christmas holiday to Thailand in 2010. He was meant to have been the guest of fellow old Etonian, and then Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. However the little matter of a coup d’etat and the shooting of dozens of peace protesters made the trip a little tricky. Since July, Abhisit has been in opposition and is under investigation by the Thai Department of Special Investigations for over ninety deaths. That’s wasn’t enough to put one British leader off from pressing the flesh yesterday though:

Our Tone always pops up in the most interesting of places. Where next… Syria?

The Blairs’ former new age guru and shower sharer has won damages from the Mail.*

She kept repeating on the telly a moment ago that she was “nearly fifty”….

She could have fooled Guido…

*She never sued over her topless photos in The Sun.

Lakshmi Mittal the billionaire Tony crony who, after Prime Minister Blair lobbied on his behalf with the Romanian government, gave the Labour Party £4 million, has extensive interests in the region. Mittal employs 100,000 Kazakhs in local mines where an average of 30 miners a year die working for him. The Mail reports that a whole gang of Tony’s cronies are circling around the resource rich state; Mandelson’s friend Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, London-based Israeli Alexander Mashkevich an associate of Lord Levy, Lord Renwick of investment bankers JP Morgan – £2 million-a-year paymasters to Blair – coincidentally all attended an investors meeting addressed by Blair. Even Alastair Campbell is proffering advice on spin to the Kazakhs.

Blair says he isn’t making any moolah from the Kazakhs, yet he is opening an office. Presumably the £2 million a year from JP Morgan is for Blair to open high level doors to opportunities. So Blair is technically not lying, just being disingenuous…