Next month it will be decided, according to the Guardian, as to if Dave will speak at Nick’s party conference and vice-versa:

The issue is due to be discussed at a joint political cabinet at the end of July, when the two parties will also decide how to co-ordinate policy announcements at their respective conferences and how to sell the success of the joint government’s first few months.

Risky. Very, very risky. It could end in tears since the grassroots of both parties have fought viscerally for generations. A lot of booing won’t look good on telly…

Currently punters on specialist bookies Political Smarkets lean towards it happening, giving a 60% chance of Clegg addressing Tory conference and a 70% probability that Cameron will try to charm the sandalistas. Guido reckons they are asking for trouble…

Guido understands that an announcement tomorrow will say that CCHQ digital media guru and former parliamentary candidate, Rishi Saha has been made a civil servant running a to-be-merged Downing Street and Cabinet Office online team as Deputy Director of Communications. Rishi, a close ally of Steve Hilton, was the coordinator of the Tory’s successful digital campaign and will continue his work online without his blue hat on. Rishi first came into the limelight with the “Pimp My Party” website.

Given that pre-election the Tories announced they would be cutting down on the number of political advisers and strategists they would have, shuffling them into the Civil Service seems a cheeky loophole, though Guido understands there isn’t a new job being created, he is replacing a civil servant who has come to the end of her contract. Interesting to note that Mark Flanagan, a Brown-era hire, brought in from the private sector by Stephen Carter, hasn’t been dumped but instead booted upstairs to a “strategic role”…

UPDATE: Saha’s closeness to the Cameron project should not be underestimated, which will make the jump to neutrality interesting. He was there from day one.

Quite literally.

The very real effects of no longer receiving Short money are beginning to hit the LibDems. Twenty staffers whose salaries were all covered by it have been fired from their press and research teams, as well as from Nick Clegg’s office. There was some speculation that the Tories were keeping their staff for an extra few months just in-case the coalition went wrong though Guido understands that redundancies have started taking place in CCHQ.  Clearly the Liberal Democrats and the Tories are not expecting an election anytime soon.

Given the Short money is essentially a kitty divided up based on number of seats, because there is only one large party now to take the cash, Labour will be getting almost as much as Tories and the LibDems combined got in the last Parliament. No wonder so many former Labour SpAds are still loitering around while in opposition.

Guido has been chewing over the numbers. Given that a lowly CCHQ researcher or press officer would have been lucky to be on around £35,000, the jump to government for the lower rungs of the SpAd list has come with an extremely handsome pay-rise. Nearly 100% rise for those now touching £60-70k.

Though Coulson & Co. at the top have in some cases taken a pay cut, the coalition has brought some serious pay rises for others. Take the MPs in the Cabinet for example, they have had a 107% rise from their standard MPs salary. Backbenchers who are now Junior Ministers have had a 50% rise, even after Dave decreed that they would all have a 5% pay cut. All sharing the pain.

Cameron pre-power promised a cut down on SpAds. The New Dawn of Politics has managed to reduce the number from 78 to 68. There are still vacancies yet to be filled though. In this age of austerity some SpAds will be glancing over the list shocked that their rivals in other departments managed to negotiate more. Meanwhile the voting taxpayers will be looking at the whole get up with utter scorn.

CCHQ staff were given a gift of a DVD at last night’s drinks reception in the Downing Street rose garden. The “Team for Change” box included a personalised letter from Dave and Guido hears the disk is behind the scenes banter and the stuff that didn’t quite make the WebCameron final edits. If one of those said staffers would care to share then please do get in touch…

As the sun shines, the scene of Dave’s first public date with his new love Nick will be the place to be this evening.  The PM is turning on the charm tonight in the Downing Street rose garden and throwing a soirée for the assorted CCHQ wonks, spinners and organisers that got him there. For many of them it will be their first and last trip into Number 10 before they are fired.

Despite the small hiccup of not quite getting there without a little yellow help, it has been noted over at Cowley Street that they are yet to get an invite for drinks and nibbles.  No one is quite sure whether the DPM will pop in and it seems there is a concerted effort to keep the party on the down low and relatively exclusive. When Guido phoned one former staffer-turned-lobbyist earlier to ask for details there was a marked silence before “Party? Tonight? …bastards.”

UPDATE: Some tuts and mutterings that they are all getting kicked out at 8.30.

Civil Servants and Downing Street staff breathed a huge sigh of relief as Brown walked into the sunset.  Finally a chance to close to door on the culture of bullying, tantrums and rage. But just as that door was closing, a recycled Converse clad foot jammed it open. Fresh from a sprint down Whitehall, Steve Hilton, out of breath and panting, created a formidable presence as he entered, mentally eyeing up a corner to build his temper controlling zen area.

Despite his blue sky thinking and change mantra, Hilton is actually cut from the same school of man management as the previous occupant of Downing Street. Famed for temper tantrums, the dynamics of his small/bald man complex play out on his sometimes tearful underlings. The knives are being quietly sharpened, though he is determined to keep his feet under the desk and his influence on government policy direction.  ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie is already describing some of Hilton’s previous actions as “unforgivable“. It can’t be long before the sniping begins…

While the helicopters were trailing every move a government made yesterday evening, the Tory hacks descended on the Red Lion, just a stones throw from Downing Street. From the moment Gordon left, until the small hours this drunken throng grew and grew. CCHQ staffers who were congregating outside before heading down to the hired basement to watch the speech, looked on wistfully as press secretary Gabby Bertin, best buddies Steve Hilton and Coulson, along with Dave’s diary and events staff all legged it down Whitehall and into the Cabinet Office so they could be there to greet the new Prime Minister.

As the night wore on and the champagne started flowing, one or two press officers were still on campaign mode and dispersed those holding Conservative signs in one hand and Veuve in the other, just as the snappers arrived. As Cameron’s meeting with his MPs wrapped up, the new intake let their hair down. Clearly not having found the subsidised bars inside they joined the still growing crowd. No wonder Cameron was given such a rapturous welcome inside, it had clearly been a long evening for some of the old hands, though there were distinct grumbles about junior Minister jobs going to the Liberal Democrats. Didn’t stop the gins coming though.

Even Cameron’s suit and shirt joined the party at one point, a loyal team member carrying the dry cleaning casually stopped off for a drink.  A late star turn came from famous-for-Westminster Nick Robinson who tried his hardest to pretend he wasn’t flattered having booze soddled drinkers asking to take photos with him. After a quick briefing from Gabby Bertin, who had re-emerged from somewhere, Robinson and ITV chum Mark Austin disappeared off in a blacked out car with a mysterious gaggle of women… Most intriguing.

Yesterday mid-level staffers at CCHQ yesterday were waiting to find out if their contracts were being renewed with the prospect of a second election ahead. They were playing the blame game, or as one told Guido, “Who was shitter? Hilton or Coulson?”

Hilton’s hissy fits are legend – he has even been nicked for calling a copper a “w****r” – he disappeared for a while after the ‘Big Society’ was derided as unsellable in the same way that “social responsibility” was unsellable on the doorsteps. Treating underlings badly is a dangerous habit, he can expect a less than glowing press when the history of the campaign is written up. His great enemy, Andy Coulson, is blamed by some for being a booster for the TV debates, which the Tory sponsor Lord Ashcroft blames for the LibDems being put into contention – though given they lost seats, did it really put them into contention?

Tim Montgomerie’s review of the campaign is an opus, it is critical of the money and poll lead squandered as well as attack Steve Hilton’s “unforgivable” errors.  Lord Ashcroft must wonder what went wrong and where his money went.  Give it a weekend or so and the Sunday newspapers will be doing their inside-the-campaign stories…

Looks like the Tories reckon we’re going to do it all over again in the autumn…