After Ed’s weird attack on job-creating producer and Simpsons character Mr Burns during today’s Google Big Tent speech, Guido brings you The Milibands. With thanks to Matt Groening.

Ed is on his feet right now at Google’s “Big Tent”. He asks who is the odd one? Its you Ed, it is always you..

UPDATE:  Does Ed need Craig Oliver’s televisual skills? No because no broadcaster is showing him.

Ed's people let him stand in front of a picture of Willy Wonka. And there are people who think the Tories are the swivel-eyed loons.—
Dan Hodges (@DPJHodges) May 22, 2013

Just one problem with Ed’s Google-bashing this afternoon:

Google shouldn't be going to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes. My article for @HuffPostUK huff.to/1a0NDFY—
Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) May 21, 2013

Guido readers will know that HuffPoUK is owned by AOL Limited, whose parent company is the Luxembourg-registered AOL Europe Sarl.

In 2010 AOL UK Limited, HuffPo’s esteemed owners, had a revenue of £78 million. Despite that they paid just £122,000 in corporation tax, cleverly moving £30 million out of the reach of the UK tax authorities by “repatriating” a dividend payment to a tax avoidance special purpose vehicle (SPV) AOL Europe Sarl, registered in the tax haven of Luxembourg. This meant, despite returning 38% of revenue to shareholders, they had an effective tax rate of less than 1%. Guido looks forward to Ed’s article attacking AOL and HuffPo for “going to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying taxes”. His spokesman insists that “all companies need to be responsible.”

Further reading on HuffPo’s tax avoidance hypocrisy:

• Introducing Tax Avoiding HuffPo Luxembourg
• HuffPo’s Luxembourg Tax Dodge Bonanza Part II

Dave dodged the opportunity to ask Google supremo Eric Schmidt about his company’s commendable methods of legally maximising their shareholders’ profits when the pair met yesterday. Surely tomorrow Ed will keep his own promise and grill Schmidt about Google’s tax bill, when he is a guest of honour and keynote speaker at their Big Tent tech conference in Hertfordshire.

Presumably he won’t be repeating Margaret Hodge’s line about how Google “do evil” to his generous hosts, however…

Clegg’s strategy in coalition has been to promote the LibDems as the party of fairness. Apparently with no sense of irony, he has attacked the Tories for failing to “adopt the politics of fairness”, told Martha Kearney he is the “voice of fairness” in government, and dreamt up that catchy-as-it-is-believable slogan “Building a fairer Britain”. Unfortunately for Nick, repeating something over and over doesn’t mean the public will believe him.

A YouGov poll out this morning finds only 6% think Clegg would be the most effective leader at making Britain a fairer place. Nearly double that, 11%, choose Nigel Farage as the fairest party leader. There’s bad news for Ed too, he comes second to Dave by 21% to 19%. Topping the poll is public apathy: 29% said no leader could deliver a fairer society. People might disagree about what fairness means, but nearly everyone agrees Clegg won’t deliver it…

A study by two Danish and American universities has confirmed what we knew all along: strong men are likely to have right-wing political views, while lefties tend to be weaker. Professors Michael Bang Petersen and Daniel Sznycer say that men with greater upper body strength and bicep size are more likely to oppose redistribution, while weaker men are more likely to support the welfare state. It’s official, girly boys vote Labour…

Miliband’s decision to cast Labour as the anti-referendum party will have upset one multi-millionaire donor in particular. John Mills is the founder of the JML shopping channel and the most prominent Labour leaning co-chairman of Business for Britain, he is also the major backer of the new Eurosceptic Labour for a Referendum group.

He has called for ”soul-searching and internal review” of Labour’s Europe policy, in no uncertain terms:

“While we differ on other policy areas, David Cameron should be congratulated for laying down markers on how the EU needs to change along the lines of flexibility and fairness to boost competitiveness… 

Mills gave £1.6 million worth of shares in his company to the Labour Party in January this year. Finally Ed finds some non-union support, with an agenda of his own…

UPDATE: Friends of John Mills say he is a Eurosceptic, however Labour for a Referendum is Euro-put-the-issue-to-bed-ist.

Hi @GuidoFawkes Could you please amend the part of your article which says we are a Eurosceptic campaign, we are not.—
LabourforaReferendum (@Lab4aRef) May 15, 2013

Glad we cleared that up…

Socialist France has fallen into a triple dip recession this morning, Francois Hollande marks his first anniversary of being sworn in with his economy shrinking by 0.2% in the first quarter this year. One thing you won’t be hearing this side of the channel today is any more talk from Ed Miliband of a “united front” with France’s enterprise-destroying tax-obsessed corruption hit growth killer. Nothing of last summer’s Hollibande agreement for a “different way forward”, or Ed’s ill-fated praise for the French leader’s “determination to create jobs and growth”. Come 2015, don’t say they didn’t warn you…

See also:

• After Merkozy, Whatever Happened to Hollibande?

The two Eds will have been following Alistair Darling’s Lobby lunch very closely this afternoon. Darling laid down the gauntlet to Balls, showing a fair amount of leg about a possible return: “At the moment I’m totally focused on the referendum. After that I’ll see where I stand. I will maintain an interest in wider affairs.” 

Some choice words for Miliband too. Darling says Ed “needs to do more to argue case for staying in the EU”, but at least apparently he’s “doing better than people give him credit for” and there is “no need for line by line manifesto” with two years to go. He was coy on Gordon: “I have never provided a running commentary on any conversations I may or may not have had”, but was willing to jokingly flirt with another foe: “there are times I have been tempted to join UKIP”. The tease…

So that Obama endorsement Dave was smiling about last night went well then. The PM is getting savaged this morning after jumping on his backbenchers’ bandwagon, only to be told by his new masters that his draft bill is not enough. For all the talk of parliamentary graffiti and time wasting, there is one small silver lining for the Tories; despite the short term pain there is a dividing line here. The LibDems look likely to vote against their 2010 manifesto, yet again, and Miliband is going to have to actually make a decision for once.

It’s not going to wash for Labour abstain or refuse to make a decision either way. They can let off steam today and are right to point out the ridiculous predicament Cameron is in, but it’s make your mind up time for Ed…