Pretty good week for the blog, Monday’s CCHQ floor-plan was an object of fascination to thousands of readers and revealed that Ashcroft was out of Tory HQ.  To the Tory staffer who claimed that it was out of date, Guido has to tell him that it is more likely to be his version that is out of date.  Guido was first to report that Transport Minister Sadiq Khan had been caught lying and ordered to repay thousands. Thanks to EyeSpy.MP we were first to reveal (Sarah’s Discreet Tête à Tête Tweeted) that the dodgy non-dom Lord Paul was having lunch with Sarah Brown – before she had even finished her dessert.  The Race to Be Dave’s Downing Street Mouthpiece was the post that resulted in the most, errrm, ‘feedback’ from the Westminster politico-media village.

The email that tickled Guido the most was the one from a Jehovah’s Witness complaining that Guido had compared the LibDem theme tune to “a Jehovah Witness recruitment ad“.  They attached an MP3 of their choir and Guido confesses that it was in comparison Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

If you were not one of the 57,785 visitors viewing 384,508 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:

• Cash Carrying Charlie Whelans Pop into Downing Street
• On and On and On
• Yes Wee Can
• Beware the Whelan in Sheep’s Clothing
• Lib Dem Choir Clanger
• Liam Gets His Fingers Byrnt
• EXCLUSIVE : Sadiq Khan Caught Lying to Lyon
  Tells Standards Commissioner He Can’t Remember ‘Mistaken’ Claim

You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…

If you were not one of the 59,667 visitors viewing 387,114 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:

• Gordon’s Scottish Snowstorm
• Voters Want Clear Tory Policies
• Absolutely Brilliant Feminists
• Do As They Say, Not As They Do
• Baroness Uddin – No Charges
• Troughing Labour MPs Plead Not Guilty
• Nick Hogan Freed by the Blogosphere

You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…

If you were not one of the 61,252 visitors viewing 417,935 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:

• So Gordon, About Your Dodgy Non-Doms
• The ‘Donkey Jacket’ Remembered
• Flashback : Has Tony Gone Offshore?
• Jonah’s Pharmaceutical Omnishambles
• Michael Foot Has Died Aged 96
• Ashcroft Admits Non-Dom Status
• Graphic Example of Media Influence

You’re either in front of Guido, or you are behind…

Today has been a rather heavy day for evidence based blogging, but one more graph:

Every time Labour show a whiff of recovery the pound crashes.

More evidence based blogging to discover how much do the respective Tory and Labour non-dom peers claim off the taxpayers on an average day on the red benches?

A Guido co-conspirator in the comments points out that between 2001 -2008 Lord Ashcroft attended parliament 285 times at a total cost to the taxpayer of £0.00 in expenses, with an average cost of £0.00.

During the same period Lord Swarj Paul attended parliament 1047 times at a cost to the taxpayer of £281,263 in expenses. The average cost per visit was £268.64 and in 2008/9 this jumped to £405.58 per visit.

While Lord Ashcroft was setting up the extremely successful Crimestoppers organisation, Lord Paul was raiding the pension funds of hardworking British steel workers.

Which one is more patriotic?

Source : here.

Labour and the Tories are duking it out over non-dom donations.  So time for some evidence based blogging:

Since 2001 Ashcroft has given £5,160,915 to the Tories and Labour’s troika of of non-dom donors, Mittal, Cohen and Paul have given £6,734,250. Mittal bought a bit of corporate lobbying for his £4 million. Tony Blair lobbied for Mittal’s business interests when he was still Prime Minister…

Source data from the Electoral Commission.

Almost forgot to do the numbers for the short month of February: 1,576,691 page views from 914,466 visits by 166,205 visitors plus an additional 890,571 views via feed readers.  So a total just short of two and half million page views…

There was a lot of hysterics concerning Gordon’s appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories last night with talk about it having “cut through” beyond politics.  Evidence based blogging tells the real story. The  Prime Mentalist was the least popular guest, bar Boris Becker, to ever appear on the show and be reduced to tears by Morgan’s gentle probing:

The widely trailed interview was meant to be a chance for the public to see Gordon’s human side.  The fact that almost double the amount of people cared more about the life of Jordan or Sir Cliff Richard shows just how far he is willing to demean the status  of his office for a couple of thousand swing votes…

If you were not one of the 67,148 visitors viewing 360,088 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:

• Sunday Sleaze
• Bad Al Campbell: Class Act or On the Edge?
• School Children Exposed to Balls
• Guess Who is First Up for PMQs?
• How the New IPSA Quango Costs £6 Million
• Pigs Might Fly
• Gordon’s Bananas

If you were not one of the 57,385 visitors viewing 381,867 pages over the last seven days, here are the seven most popular stories (in order of popularity) that you missed:

• Labour Will Have a Khrushchev Moment of Truth in the End
• Jim Devine Explains Everything
• Tim Yeo’s Green Networking in Parliament Pays Off
• Another Day, Another Fluffed Tory Announcement
• The Defendants
• Brown Under Pressure for Misleading House, Again
• Kirsty Makes NewsnightMore Exciting

You are either in front of Guido, or you’re behind…