This time Lord Ahmed’s comments about that old classic, the Jewish conspiracy, have forced Labour to act. The Times quotes Ahmed’s theory for why he was locked up:

“My case became more critical because I went to Gaza… My Jewish friends who own newspapers and TV channels opposed this”

The LibDems could learn a thing or two from Labour about dealing with race rows…

Yesterday’s supposed Gove grilling by Labour’s Education select committee bunglers turned out to be a damp squib, with Bill Esterson not knowing the difference between the department’s permanent civil servant and the education editor of the Indy. Afterwards fellow Labour MP Ian Mearns wrote to Gove trying to salvage some dignity. He probably shouldn’t have bothered:

Some might say he floats like a butterfly…

The Tories’ big new attack poster (click to enlarge) has “little brother” Ed snooping into your home, with Labour’s homes tax seeing clipboard-carrying government agents looking round houses up and down the country. It claims that “a new homes tax would allow Labour to send government snoopers in to revalue your house…No home is safe under Labour”. That line would be all well and good if Whitehall departments did not already have the right to enter homes – without a warrant – thanks to more than 1400 different powers of enrtry. Big Brother Watch’s Emma Carr explains why CCHQ aren’t quite being straight:

“This snooping power is already law. The Conservatives promised that in Government they would change the law to clamp down on these powers yet since the election the number has gone up.”

Now if the Tories repealed the snoopers law, trapping Labour in a position where they were calling for it to be reinstated, they might be on to something…

How refreshing of Ed to actually take a stand on an important international issue. He has declared himself a proud Zionist, supporter of Israel and opponent of boycotts:

“I take antisemitism very seriously. Any kind of delegitimisation of Israel is something we should call out for what it is and not tolerate it. I think the boycotts of Israel are totally wrong. We should have no tolerance for boycotts. I would say that to any trade union leaders.”

But is he as good as his word? Last year TUC fat cat Brendan Barber blustered: “there are parts of the settlement trade that consumer pressure simply cannot reach, such as the wholesale and catering industries, and that’s why we need a total ban. The TUC does not support a ban against Israel, but we do support a boycott of goods from Israeli settlements”. Unite has passed a motion to boycott Israel, as has Unison. Will Ed stand up to the bigoted union barons or was yesterday’s speech just weasel words?

With James Purnell off to the Beeb, Labour wonkshop IPPR have signed up another party thinker as his replacement. Andrew Adonis is their new chair of trustees.

A big name…

On the left: Ed speech, February 14. On the right: Dave speech today. A Labour source tells Guido: “We are sending an invoice to Craig Oliver for speech backdrop consultancy”. 

The PM is finally turning the Mid Staffs fire towards Labour. Still standing by David Nicholson at PMQs, Dave seethed over the despatch box:

“It is an important point because everyone has to think of their responsibilities with regards to the dreadful events that happened at the Staffordshire hospital, including the fact that part of the problem was people following a very top-down, target-led agenda which led to patient care being put on the back burner. Now David Nicholson has made his apology and wants to get on with his job of running an excellent NHS, and other people, frankly, should be thinking of their positions too.”

Andy Burnham, who had the position of Health Secretary when 1,200 died at Mid Staffs, is in his sights. Labour are throwing their toys out of the pram over the Tories “politicising” the scandal. This time they mean it…

Peter Hain’s trip to open a school in Sierra Leone last week seems to have gone well: he managed to land yet another job along the way. He’s just been appointed as a non-executive director at Amara, a major mining company that has subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Mali and the Ivory Coast. Sounds like a nice little earner…

MPs have been deluged with emails from the obviously completely non-partisan “progressives” 38 Degrees over the last few days, opposing Jeremy Hunt’s “privatisation plot”. Tory backbencher Andrew Jones has rooted out the logic behind the campaign:

Dear colleague,

I am sure that, like me, you have received many standard emails via the 38 Degrees website on supposed NHS privatisation.

I thought you may be interested to know that the author of the 38 Degrees independent legal advice is former Labour MP, David Lock QC, who was the MP for Wyre Forest until losing to Dr Richard Taylor, the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern candidate. Mr Lock remains active in Labour politics as Chair of the West Midlands Labour Finance and Industry Group.

Regards

Andrew

Andrew Jones MP
Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough

As David Nicholson takes a battering at his select committee hearing this morning, it is worth noting the 38 Degrees campaign has absolutely nothing to say about the failings at Mid-Staffs…

As revealed in Guido’s Sun column yesterday, Lord Sugar has a new hire in Ed Miliband’s office. The pair have had their differences over the last twelve months, most amusingly when Sugar suggested Labour voters ignore Ed Miliband and ditch Ken at the London mayoral election. That hasn’t stopped the Apprentice host from forking out £51,000 towards the staffing costs of Ed’s office for the coming year. Guido makes that the biggest single donation directly to Ed.