Things have got so bad for one disgruntled Tory voter, going only by the name ‘Martin’, that he has taken out a full page advert in today’s Times laying into Cameron and Osborne as a “desperate and expensive cry for help”:

Click to enlarge.

“I am a natural Conservative voter who has become very disillusioned with my party over the last 3 years. I realise you are both terribly important and you really cannot afford the time to actually think about us mere taxpayers and citizens, which is why you have correspondence units and a phalanx of staff to shield you from the unpleasant realities of the real world. I am rather hoping however, that you read the newspapers. That is why I chose this rather unusual mechanism for trying to remind you that there are real people out here. Call it a desperate and expensive cry for help.

… Finally, no Mr Miliband. This does not mean that you, or indeed Mr Balls, would be likely to do a better job. Your party, in the form of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, got us into this mess by exploding government spending for little positive benefit. There is no reason to suppose that you would do any better.”

Ouch.

You could hardly imagine a busier first day in the office for Tim Montgomerie as the Times‘ new comment editor. It must also have been some baptism of fire for his replacement over at ConHome, Paul Goodman. Meanwhile not only did the prolific Peter Oborne tell us to marvel at Maggie in the Telegraph, he also managed to pen an obituary for the Mail as well. At least they were both consistent…

A must read…

Interesting news: Tim Montgomerie is standing down as editor of ConHome to become the Times’ comment editor:

“It is with mixed emotions that I report that Sunday 7th April will be my last day as full-time Editor of ConservativeHome. The following day I start an exciting new chapter in my working life. The Times newspaper’s new editor John Witherow recently asked me to edit The Times’ comment pages and I have decided that it was right to say yes to this exciting new opportunity.”

He will still be contributing weekly to ConHome and advising the site. Congratulations…

This from today’s Sunday Times magazine. Talk about amateur media management…

H/T @wallaceme

Date: 19 January 2013 13:36
Subject: Tonight
To: All Sunday Times Users
Dear All,

As you know, this is John's last day as ST editor, so he 
would like to invite anyone who is still here after the 
first edition is put to bed to come by his office and have 
a farewell drink. It's also a chance to celebrate the 
appointment of Martin as the new Obergruppenfuhrer 
(kommissarisch).

Liesl
Liesl Wickins
PA to John Witherow
Editor, The Sunday Times

Ivens surely isn’t that right-wing…

The editor of The Times, James Harding, resigned after becoming aware that he no longer enjoyed the confidence of Rupert Murdoch. John Witherow, the long-serving editor of The Sunday Times, is the front-runner to be appointed editor of The Times. News Corporation is reported to have taken legal advice on whether it could merge the two newspapers into a more economic seven-day operation. During the Harding era broadsheet newspaper circulations have collapsed:

When he bought the paper in 1981 Rupert Murdoch gave an undertaking “to preserve the separate identities of The Times and The Sunday Times.” Given that The Times is losing nearly a million pounds a week that is an undertaking that is no longer viable in the digital age. In the circumstances the government is unlikely to stand in the way of a rationalisation of the papers into a 7-day operation, like its tabloid sister The Sun…

The Sun’s business editor Steve Hawkes is off to the Telegraph to become their consumer affairs editor. The Standard diary had prematurely reported he was off to the Times, but the Telegraph have got their man this morning.

Still a step down from the Bank of England job though…

Guido went back to his sources yesterday after some denials about Dave’s angry words to one Tory rebel. This morning Downing Street have all but confirmed it. According to the Times:

“No 10 conceded that Mr Cameron may have confronted one of the Tory rebels, Andrew Bingham, the MP for High Peak, at a drinks reception in Downing Street the previous evening about his support for the rebel amendment.”

Apparently the “this is not a sixth-form debating society” line is one of Dave’s favourites for admonishing unruly rebels. The 53 would agree: the EU and it’s budget matters to their voters.

The Lobby will be losing one of their more familiar faces after conference season. Though nothing has been confirmed Media Guido understands that the Times politics desk will be shaken up with Sam Coates moving to become Banking Editor. Some will see that as a sideways move. Though it’s a higher profile beat these days and the Times business desk will perhaps benefit from having someone with Treasury contacts.

If Coates is thinking beyond a career in journalism, knowledge of the financial sector never did highly paid lobbyists any harm…