If George Osborne were not putting his feet up he would surely be gloating about today’s latest unemployment figures, which show that the jobless rate has dipped to the lowest level since July 2011. Unemployment fell to 8% last month while over 130,000 new jobs were created. But Chancellor Zero should not be feeling too pleased with himself.

Stats released by the EU last night show that Britain’s economy is performing worse even than crisis-hit Spain. The UK shrank by 0.7% in the last quarter, more than Spain’s 0.4% decrease and outdone only by bankrupt Greece, Portugal and Cyprus. Meanwhile London’s businesses have reported an unexpected decline in sales during the Olympics, with the two-week tourists failing to make up for all those who deserted the capital. Recovery will be a marathon, not a sprint…

In an interview with Kay Burley the PM has just confirmed that Osborne is not going to be reshuffled. Apparently he’s “not going anywhere”. Shocker…

As for Hunt, it was more measured. His lack of clear answer would point to a move for Hunt. Dave was very evasive and pointedly refused to back the Culture Secretary. His whole department could be scrapped…

 UPDATE:

Turns out George isn’t heading for a fall, yet…

George Osborne has taken a major kicking in the papers this morning. The left-wing press have naturally been twisting the knife, but perhaps the headline that will hurt the Chancellor the most is The Sun appearing to call for him to be sacked. When Vince Cable is being touted as a potential replacement you know things are bad…

Nadine is stirring too:

For the sake of country and Conservative party, most trusted politician in UK, William Hague, needs to become Chancellor. #wonthappen—
Nadine Dorries MP (@NadineDorriesMP) July 26, 2012

Given who is wielding the knife, this could well result in a shoring up of the Chancellor’s position…

Speculation is mounting this afternoon that George Osborne has been relieved of his role as Tory party strategy chief. When asked earlier if he had given up the role the Chancellor revealed: “I only have one job“.

Guido put it to Osborne’s people that their man no longer holds the stategy role within the Conservative Party. His spokesman said: “He’s only ever had one role – Chancellor. Not signalling any change“. That explains it…

UPDATE:

A No.11 source gets in touch in regard to Osborne being in strategy meetings: “There’s nothing wrong with having a Prime Minister and Chancellor who get on and work together. The last lot could barely speak to each other and look where that got us!“

Chancellor Zero says there are no excuses.

At least he did the TV interviews himself this time…

As the 10pm vote deadline approached last night, Francis Maude was celebrating his birthday with a soirée in George Osborne’s offices in Parliament. Guido understands that Mad Frankie was slightly upstaged by his then PPS Angie “they’ll have to sack me” Bray. Sources in the room whisper to Guido that Whip Mark Francois made no efforts to cajole Bray at the party despite being there and chatting to her for some time. So much for that aggressive whipping…

Apparently Maude was angry though, not at the fact his PPS was rebelling, but concerned about finding a decent replacement for Bray given that almost all of the potential talent pool had rebelled.

At least any replacement will be über-loyal.

If they voted with the government last night, they’ll vote on anything…

George Osborne’s Treasury has wreaked revenge on high-earning hookers after a £1,000-a-night tart was jailed over a £120,000 tax fraud. Donna Asutaits will go down for 16 months after being found guilty of evading taxes over a two year period in which she earned over £300,000. UKuncut will be happy…

Osborne is responsible for the HMRC cracking down on high-earning tax evaders, demanding that high-class call girls pay a whopping 45% of their earnings, making him the harshest and most lucrative pimp in Britain. Guido can’t imagine how George ever got involved in such a sordid business…

There is a right old bunfight going on in the Chamber between Osborne and Balls over the LIBOR scandal. Guido noticed that defending the Brown era of financial regulation on the Opposition front bench were; Brown’s former SpAd Ed Miliband, Brown’s closest aide and henchman Ed Balls, as well as Chris Leslie, Brown’s (uncontested) leadership campaign manager. The government always wants to remind everyone that the people who were in charge of banking regulation when the scandals and collapses happened are still around. Leading the Labour Party…

UPDATE: Osborne has just said the same thing:

Osborne: 'The Brownite cabal with all their tactics are alive and well in the Labour Party and have taken over the leadership'—
James Chapman (Mail) (@jameschappers) July 05, 2012

This morning the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet and in all likelihood order another £50 billion of Quantitative Easing, or money printing. This will again be used to buy government bonds, artifically holding down long term interest rates. This deliberate policy is approved by George Osborne and allows the Treasury to finance government over-spending via sales of government gilts to the Bank of England. It robs the old of the value of their savings and the young who will have to finance the future taxation which the government has effectively deferred.

This monetary experiment will have totalled some £375 billion, it is unprecedented in scale and there is no clear exit strategy to unwind QE. The Bank of England’s balance sheet is now loaded up with gilts that were not sold in the open market, holding down interest rates and allowing George Osborne to point to the bond market and claim the UK is a safe haven. In reality we have an artificial bubble in the bond markets that could pop disastrously if confidence was lost. If it goes wrong, we will look back on QE as the biggest rate-fixing scandal of all time.

After resigning as CEO of Barclays this morning, Bob Diamond may yet exact some revenge on the government when he testifies tomorrow in front of the Treasury Select Committee.

There are two LIBOR fixing scandals – the first involves traders massaging the settling of LIBOR rates a few basis points, mere hundreths of a percent, off market reality to flatter their trading books. It appears to have been going on for years and not just at Barclays. This was not so petty corruption.

The second LIBOR fixing scandal is of a different order altogether – it involves the wholesale systematic substantial misrepresentation of true LIBOR, with the encouragement of the Treasury, the FSA and in particular the Bank of England. The policy was to under-report LIBOR rates at much lower levels than were actually trading in the market. This deliberate policy was to cover-up the increased risks to the UK banking system revealed by higher LIBOR rates.

It is emerging that Gordon Brown’s economic adviser in Downing Street, Shriti Vadera, an ex-UBS investment banker, circulated a paper on ”Reducing Libor” at the height of the banking crisis, which she argued would be “a major contribution to the stability of the banking system and to the health of the economy”.

That message will have gone out to the Treasury in Whitehall, the regulators and the Bank of England. They in turn will have given a nod and a wink to the investment banks. Bob Diamond is reportedly furious that the “lowballing” of LIBOR rates by Barclays – which was explicitly encouraged by the authorities  to stabilise already panicked markets – is being used against Barclays. Bob Diamond is expected to testify tomorrow that the Bank of England’s deputy governor Paul Tucker encouraged the “lowballing”.

The politicisation and manipulation of interest rates is ongoing even after Gordon Brown and Shriti Vadera are long gone. The £275 billion Quantitative Easing (QE) programme implemented by Mervyn King with George Osborne’s blessing is designed to artificially lower interest rates. We currently have a false market in Gilts, it is arguably the biggest bubble since the South Sea Bubble. It is cheating pensioners and savers of income on an unprecedented scale. This is a robbery organised from within the Bank of England …