The Crazy Water Park, which was at the heart of Gaza’s vibrant tourist scene, has been destroyed by fire. Gazans used to be able to swim and relax by the pools and there were water slides for the young children. It was a happy place once but the Middle East News Watch reports:

“40 gunmen tied up and blindfolded a nightwatchman before setting fire to an administrative building and restaurant. The fire engulfed different parts of the club, including an administrative building, and then spread to the main restaurant and cafeteria, which is three storeys high.”

No, this was not the repressive IDF attacking the strip, it was Hamas terrorists who were outraged that the park had “hosted parties in which men and women mingled.” Nice bunch.

Farewell then Prince Roy of Sealand, leader of the free micro-state based seven miles off of Suffolk coast. The pirate radio guru,  former British Army Major and libertarian poster-boy Paddy Roy Bates has died aged 91. Prince Roy seized Sealand in 1967, and declared it an independent nation in 1975. After various coups and run-ins with the British Navy, Sealand was finally recognised as a nation after the Germans sent a hostage negotiator to the 5,920sq ft former civil war fort after an attempted coup in 1978.

After broadcasting pirate radio across the south-east of England, the principality has latterly made its money out of hosting servers and selling titles to the likes of Neo-Guido, a Baron of the free-land. Prince Roy is succeeded, after a minor power struggle with Princess Joan, by Michael, the new regent and head of state. There could be a challenge though by one Johannes Seiger who is head of the shadow Sealandic Rebel Government, based in Germany, since his father was forced out after the failed coup of ’78.

A major film is in production about the nation’s history, until then Guido will leave you with the motto of this concrete paradise: “E Mare Libertas”

If you missed the much-maligned Professor David Nutt on Radio 4 this morning, then Guido would highly recommend catching up on the interview here. His research into using drugs like ecstasy and magic mushrooms to treat depression or to allow victims of trauma to open up about their experiences was fascinating. It’s now emerged that former LibDem MP Evan Harris will be taking party in Nutt’s Channel Four show which will look at the effects of MDMA. The usual crowd are shocked and appalled that a former MP will be dropping a bean live on TV. Guido had always presumed Evan Harris was on drugs anyway…

Last night Guido infiltrated the Russian Embassy for the Conservative Friends of Russia launch party. The vodka was flowing as lobbyists, businessmen, wonks and Conservative MPs mingled with Russian diplomats and pals of Putin. Guido gathers that the decision to set up Conservative Friends of Russia was not taken lightly, with the Tory hierarchy expressing concerns that the group was being established the week after the Pussy Riot girls were imprisoned. Perhaps that was why the advertised keynote speaker Malcolm Rifkind didn’t show…

Replacing Rifkind was John Whittingdale, who awkwardly noted that “sometimes our country will not agree with your country, and sometimes your country will not agree with ours“. With the pleasantries dealt with the Russian Standard booze was wheeled out and tongues were loosened. One champagne-swilling Russian reader told Guido that he would be locked up if he ever decided to relocate the blog to the motherland…

UPDATE: CFoR have got in touch claiming that Rifkind is in Scotland and was never due to speak at the event. Despite being their Honorary President…

UPDATE II:  Guido has independently confirmed that Rifkind was in Edinburgh yesterday and was never intended to be there.

So far no British media outlet has run the naked photos of Prince Harry’s Vegas bender. Clarence House confirmed the photos were genuine over 45 minutes ago, yet neither the Mail or the Telegraph is running the story with the pictures.

Correction… Probably the most influential political blogger in the UK has put Harry pictures on line. No 'old media' as far as I can see.—
Keir Simmons (@KeirSimmonsITV) August 22, 2012

This situation illustrates the threat to a free press in Britain. The truth is the old media have been scared into submission by the Leveson Inquiry. This is the third in line to the throne, the son of Prince Charles and one of the biggest names in British public life. Yet not one British newspaper is reporting the story with pictures. Nevertheless everyone in Britain will be searching online for these pictures and will find them regardless. The old rules won’t work in the internet age. Fortunately for this blog’s readers, Guido doesn’t care what Brian says…

UPDATE: A Sunday Times royal reporter reveals that Clarence House has asked the British press not to reprint the photos:

The naked Prince Harry pictures are real but British newspapers have been asked not to reprint them. #royal #Harry—
Kate Mansey (@KateMansey) August 22, 2012

A Labour MP’s son charged with selling legal highs has failed to turn up at court…because he was on holiday. Sean Ellman, the son of Liverpool MP Louise Ellman, was supposed to appear in the dock yesterday but his barrister told the court he was abroad with his “respectable family“.

The irony was not lost on the judge, who described the excuse as “utterly unacceptable“.

Meow… 

There was only ever going to be one winner…

UPDATE: The soulless killjoys at the IOC have demanded the video of BoJo’s finest hour be removed from YouTube, so here’s a gif instead…

Louise Mensch admitted on Question Time last night that using Class A drugs had “messed with her brain“. Guido would never have guessed…

Via @liarpoliticians.

He is on £240,000 bail put up by a coalition of right on types including; Michael Moore, Jemima Khan, Ken Loach, John Pilger, Tariq Ali, Sir Phillip Knightley; magazine publisher Felix Dennis, Nobel prize winner Sir John Sulston, former Labour minister and chairman of Faber & Faber publishing house Lord Matthew Evans and Professor Patricia David.

@iankatz1000 Yes. I had expected him to face the allegations. I am as surprised as anyone by this.—
Jemima Khan (@Jemima_Khan) June 19, 2012

Oh well, it is only money…

UPDATE: This in from the Embassy of Ecuador:

Statement on Julian Assange

June 19, 2012
This afternoon Mr Julian Assange arrived at the Ecuadorian Embassy seeking political asylum from the Ecuadorian government.

As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito.

While the department assesses Mr Assange’s application, Mr Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorian Government.

The decision to consider Mr Assange’s application for protective asylum should in no way be interpreted as the Government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden.

Last month Assange sympathetically interviewed the socialist Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa for his TV show The World Tomorrow, broadcast on Russia Today. Ironically Ecuador has a poor record on human rights and freedom of the press… 

An interesting snippet from Damian Thompson’s new tome on addiction – The Fix:

“As with heavy drinking, there was an aspirational aspect to it. Dope smoking was associated with public schoolboys and especially Old Etonians. An acquaintance of mine smoked quite a few spliffs with David Cameron, the future Prime Minister. Whether Cameron tried anything harder at Oxford isn’t clear, but it’s interesting that, in 2012, neither the Prime Minister nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer had denied snorting cocaine. Neither, come to think of it, had the current President of the United States, nor his predecessor. One of these days someone should write a book entitled Tory MPs Who Have Done Drugs. It wouldn’t necessarily be a slim volume. One former MP whom I know for a fact has a nose like a vacuum cleaner recently told his local radio station he’d never touched anything stronger than alcohol.”

Guido reckons he could  write a similar ”Politicians I Have Done Drugs With”…