Margaret Hodge rightly criticises parliament’s long recesses today and accuses MPs of not working hard:

‘Members of the public would be forgiven for thinking that it is MPs who are lazy and that it is Parliament that is failing to provide good value for money.’

Yet, like with so many of her other headline grabbing wheezes, she fails to practice what she preaches. So, does she show up much herself, when the House is sitting? It would appear not from the data:

Has spoken in 9 debates in the last year:
- well below average amongst MPs.

Has received answers to 1 written question in the last year:
-well below average amongst MPs.

Has voted in 60.86% of votes in this Parliament with this affiliation:
-well below average amongst MPs.

Below average “value for money”…

Labour are getting into a spin over this morning’s Indy splash claiming they will pledge to outspend the Tories in 2015. Balls has told LBC the story “is an exclusive but it’s wrong”, blaming a report from the Fabians: “it is not our policy, it is not our position”. As Damian McBride speculates, the Indy front page is manifestly true, Labour just won’t confirm it until they release their manifesto in two years’ time.

I'm struggling to decipher the Indie splash on Lab spending: False flag op by the Blairites? Self-puffery by the Fabians? Or just, er, true?—
Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) April 19, 2013

One thing's for sure: no sensible, loyal person in Labour wants that story out now, so whoever briefed it is either a snake or a half-wit.—
Damian McBride (@DPMcBride) April 19, 2013

Labour pledging to spend more is a case of when rather than if. They say they don’t have a position now, but you can bet the scoop will be confirmed by election day…

Powerful stuff from John Prescott in his Sunday Mirror column where he frothed about Maggie one last time. Prezza went off on one about the Tories hijacking her funeral:

“Even in death, she is spinning from her grave. She claimed she never wanted a state funeral, but she planned to give herself the same ceremonial one as the Queen Mother. And her “children”, the out-of-touch Tory Boys Cameron and Osborne, are getting YOU to foot the £10million bill for the biggest political propaganda exercise this country has ever seen. This is what “Operation True Blue” is about. It’s not a remembrance. It’s a rebrand.”

So what does he have to say about the news that the full funeral plan, including scale and therefore price-tag, was signed off by both Tony Blair (who Prezza was Deputy to) and Gordon Brown? The biggest political propaganda exercise this country has ever seen” – devised under his Labour government. 

Thrasher has found the perfect job to fill his empty hours now he is only a mere MP, and bide his time before he departs for Europe. Guido can reveal that the former chief whip has been appointed a senior adviser to Montrose Associates, a strategic intelligence  firm specialising in dealing with reputational damage. He will be raking in £36,000-a-year in his new post. Michael Crick is going to be busy…

Another Lambeth Labour poster, another Lambeth Labour propaganda own goal. This time they are claiming the credit for freezing council tax, despite the fact that it is a Tory policy consistently opposed by Labour in parliament. For some strange reason that isn’t mentioned.

Awkward…

More from Conor Burns today. On discussing the state of politics with the late Lady T:

“She made the observation that one of the problems, not just in Britain but around the world today, is that a lot of politicians think if they’ve made a speech, something has happened. She said the only thing that’s happened is they’ve made a speech.”

What was that “big speech on Europe”? How did that “big speech on immigration” go? 

On Radio 4 last night, Labour lobby fodder Jamie Reed revealed the solution to reforming the entire welfare state and recalibrating handouts depending on what people have paid into the system in the past. This huge, costed and clearly well thought out overhaul announced by Labour at the weekend will be paid for by, you guessed it, a tax on bankers’ bonuses:

Now correct Guido if he is wrong, but haven’t Labour already promised to spend money raised from a tax on bankers’ bonuses? He recalls promises to use it to reverse the VAT rise, increase capital spending, reverse Child Benefit cuts, reverse cuts to other Tax Credits, boost the Regional Growth Fund, turn empty shops into community centres and build more houses. After this thirty billion splurge, and the fact bankers’ bonuses have been severely squeezed, how much money does Jamie think will be left over?

How convenient that “fascist” Di Canio gave David Miliband the perfect chance to loudly leave his £25,000 job at Sunderland Football Club on a matter of principle. How convenient too, that the former Labour-leader-in-waiting is getting away just at the time widespread anger is boiling over in Africa at the club’s sponsor: a sponsor that David Miliband secured. Regular readers will remember Tullow Oil.

According to the Guardian, David played a vital role in forging the Sunderland deal with Tullow, the African oil firm who have been humiliated this week after accusing the Ugandan President of being involved in a $50 million bribe, leading to the company making a grovelling apology.

This sort of hiccup cannot have gone down too well with Miliband’s other employers – he is an advisor to African leaders through Tony Blair’s African Governance Initiative. Along with his escape to New York, a cynic would say Miliband saw a perfect excuse to spin this one…

Alex Belardinelli, long-time Political Adviser to Ed Balls, ‏is moving to lobbyists Tetra Strategy - where his girlfriend Ellie Gellard already works on digital strategy. The move is scheduled to happen in the autumn after Labour Party conference.

Speculation is mounting that he could make way for a rehabilitated Damian McBride following party conference, when McBride is aiming to complete his public rehabilitation with the publication of his memoirs.

Labour sources say Balls has been unnerved by persistent speculation that he might be replaced by Alistair Darling in a re-shuffle by Ed Miliband ahead of the General Election. Bringing back heavy-weight Damian McBride would put rivals on notice that he would not go quietly and there would be consequences. An implicit threat they understand all too well…

Last year Belardinelli was humiliated when emails leaked in which he admitted a “screw up” meant Labour failed to vote against the reduction in the 50p rate of tax. The emails revealed he concocted a false line to spin to the media to cover up the screw up. Belardinelli worked for Tom Watson before Ed Balls and knows his way around Westminster and the media. In the event of Labour returning to government he will be able to cash in on his extensive contacts.

UPDATE: Important note.

The news that McBride’s book will upset Labour conference has caused a flutter today. Many of his old allies have popped up to help the re-branding exercise. No doubt they will be salivating at the prospect of the serialisation rights, hence why no one has noted that the deal will earn Mad Dog far more than the royalties he has pledged to give away. Looking back at his recent blogposts shows the level of detail we can expect about the Brown years; one thing stuck out about his latest musing though:

“As our internal polls used to tell us, there were a number of Tory leaders who could potentially have beaten Tony Blair in 2005, and Hague was arguably one of them.”

You have to wonder what a Civil Servant at the Treasury was doing having access to “internal polls” in 2005. What internal polls? Surely the Treasury were not polling this sort of information? A Labour source familiar with that particular period does not recall any Labour Party poll commissioned on the subject. Was this done by that famous impartial charity the Smith Institute? If not, who paid for it and was money declared? What else will Damian let out of the bag about doing Gordon’s leadership dirty work on the taxpayer?