Speaking of uninformed commentators and trial by Twitter, George Monbiot has been in full grovelling mode today.

Though I didn't make direct allegations, I think I was wrong to hve mentiond McAlpine on Twittr, as contribtd to febrile atmos. I apologise.—
  (@GeorgeMonbiot) November 09, 2012

Possibly something to do with the heavy threat of legal action at the end of McAlpine’s statement. Monbiot’s now-deleted tweets included:

I looked up Lord #McAlpine on t’internet. It says the strangest things.

I can confirm that Lord #McAlpine was Conservative Party Treasurer when Mrs Thatcher was prime minister.

Historical fact of the week: Lord #McAlpine was a well-known treasurer of the Conservative Party during the Thatcher era.

What was that about evidence-based science…

The Fire Brigades Union have released a nice inflammatory poster for bonfire week. In an uncharacteristic bout of originality, they have rounded on “the cuts”. Unsurprisingly, their rhetoric is nothing more than a load of hot air:

“The stark reality is that these cuts will kill people. Fire service or funeral service? Let your MP know which you’d prefer.”

Only that isn’t the stark reality at all. Government statistics show that fire-related deaths have been on a downward trend for three decades and now stand at their lowest level since the 1950s. In the last ten years alone the number of fire-related incidents in England halved. What’s more, fire and rescue authorities have been asked to find savings of only 2.2% in 2011-12 and just 0.5% in 2012-13.

Union scaremongering? Whatever next…

Troubled times at the department for windmills and other omni-shambles. Guido hears that the hunt is on for a new Special Advisor for the DECC – a suspected nark for No.10 to keep an eye on Greg Barker and John Hayes. Despite his high-Toryism, Hayes is felt to be “wandering off reservation”. Ed Llewellyn is said to be particularly unhappy with the larger than life Minister after telling the Prime Minister that he “wouldn’t hear a peep” from Hayes just hours before last week’s wind-farm mess. Meanwhile one source says that “Barker’s lost in all this green deal crud”.

The LibDem SpAds – Chris Nicolson and Kate Waring – are said to not like the idea of a spy one little bit, and Guido understands they have kicked up a mighty fuss. What was that pre-election promise about cutting the number of advisers? 

After various rows at the Home Office and UK Border Agency Dame Helen Ghosh departed the Civil Service for the National Trust. In a great scoop by the Standard, it seems she’s been letting off some steam with her new found freedom:

Nothing to do with the fact that she was blocked from promotion to the most senior level of the civil service, pipped to the post by Sir Bob Kerslake of course. Revenge is better served subtly…

This was just sent to Tory MPs:

We hear and we take notice, as always, of what Parliament has said.

MPs on both sides of the vote want to see EU spending kept down as effectively as possible at a time of restraint and reductions at home. The only difference is about the tactics of doing so.

The Prime Minister has taken the toughest position of any Prime Minister in history – a freeze has never been achieved before – and when you realise 17 out 26 other countries are net gainers from the budget these will obviously be difficult negotiations.

The Prime Minister will continue to do everything possible to achieve the best deal we can deliver for the British taxpayer.

This is all in contrast to a Labour Party who never achieved a freeze, never even asked for freeze and allowed vast increases to British contributions to the EU budget. For them this has been about cheap politics rather than taking responsibility for how we get the best deal for Britain.

Licking the wounds…

Susie Squire, formerly of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, has made it to No. 10 via DWP and CCHQ – the glamorous brunette will be covering for another glamorous brunette, Gabby Bertin, while she is on maternity leave as Dave’s political spokesman. There also appears to be movements on the new Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman:

I understand Treasury man Jean Christophe Gray will shortly be announced as Steve Field's successor as PM's official spokesman. V. good pick—
Tim Shipman (Mail) (@ShippersUnbound) October 31, 2012

Craig Oliver remains the Director of Government Communications…

Not content with distributing planted questions, it seems the Government is really scraping the barrel over the Peoples’ Brexit:

Govt whips apparently asked pro-EU Dennis McShane if he cld speak against my Bill to quit EU. Hilarious!—
Douglas Carswell MP (@DouglasCarswell) October 25, 2012

When you need a thief to fight your corner, you know you’re on the wrong side…

Taking time out from listening to his £467 stereo paid for on expenses, Labour’s Corby campaign manager Ian Austin has been following orders word for word from his Brownite boot-boy flatmate Tom Watson. Back in August Guido revealed how Watson had ordered his Corby campaign team to brief that they expected to lose Louise Mensch’s old seat, despite being dead-cert favourites. Despite Lord Ashcroft’s comprehensive polling calling the result for Labour already, the Austin spin-machine is in overdrive:

“No one should be under any illusions: we lost this seat in 2010, and winning it back will be a really tough challenge…The truth is that we lost this bell-weather constituency in 2010. Winning it back will be a really tough fight for us and we are not taking anything for granted.”

Not only that, but Austin implies that Corby constituents outside the town itself will be harder to win round. Because they’re rich:

“Corby is the main town but half the voters live in places like Rockingham, Oundle, Irthlingborough and Raunds: picture-postcard market towns and rural villages dotted across East Northamptonshire. Average incomes in these areas are higher than Mid-Sussex and on a par with places like East Hampshire, Woking and West Berkshire.”

Not very One Nation of you, Ian…

Instead of spending money on important things like cancer drugs and nurses, some bright spark at the Department of Health has come up with the idea of bringing in an external PR agency, at great cost, to create a “NHS Change Day” out of thin air.

PR Week report that tender has gone out from the absurdly named ‘NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement’, or ‘Ni!’ for short, to come up with a day on which changes within the NHS can be celebrated by their staff. Here’s a better idea, why don’t they spend that money on saving lives? They can have that one for free…

Final Special Adviser appointments have been confirmed:

• Health – Sam Talbot Rice.
• BIS (for Fallon) – James Wild.
• Justice – Will Gallagher
• Home extra SpAd –  Stephen Parkinson.
• Culture – Joanna Hindley

The full list is available here.