Alastair Campbell got all high and mighty with Toby Young yesterday:

@toadmeister would you care to withdraw your libellous tweet claiming I leaked my Leveson statement, and apologise?—
Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret) May 10, 2012

@toadmeister think if you are sensible you will just accept and apologise. My last word for now.—
Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret) May 10, 2012

@campbellclaret Man of your exp must have known that if you circulated your statement to various journos beforehand it wld end up in press—
Toby Young (@toadmeister) May 10, 2012

@campbellclaret Seems like your definition of "leak" is narrower than mine — or, indeed, most people's—
Toby Young (@toadmeister) May 10, 2012

Campbell should not be so cocky about this, he is as he was forced to admit to Leveson, the original source of the leak if not the direct leaker to Guido. Given his job in government was effectively Leaker-in-Chief some may doubt his protestations. He should listen to himself on “The Case for Self-Doubt in Creativity” rather than be so sure…

Mystery over delay in top-rate tax cut bbc.in/GCSGlI—
Robert Peston (@Peston) March 20, 2012

For self-assessment top-rate tax cut takes effect on April 1 this year – see end of blog. bbc.in/GCSGlI—
Robert Peston (@Peston) March 20, 2012

Of course I meant to say cut in 50p rate of tax applies from April 6 this year (not April 1) for self-assessment—
Robert Peston (@Peston) March 20, 2012

Oh gawd, I am no longer sure about start state for cut in top rate of tax. Apparently its complicated. Pls call me blithering idiot—
Robert Peston (@Peston) March 20, 2012

I meant "start date" of course MT Oh gawd, no longer sure about start state for cut in top rate of tax…Pls call me blithering idiot—
Robert Peston (@Peston) March 20, 2012

The Reithian qualities of Robert Peston have been much remarked upon here. Yesterday evening he gave us the benefit of his contacts and insight into the budget. As you can see above over a two hour period last night on the Twitter he invited us to call him a “blithering idiot”. Peston, you are a  blithering idiot.

We, along with many people in the City and business, just wish he’d shut up. Today is a good day to try CNBC’s coverage or Jeff Randall on Sky…

After his little cock-up yesterday directing his followers to a Viagra shop, Guido has been thinking of ways he can help former MP and journo Siôn Simon. There was some talk of him running for Mayor of Birmingham but as that job doesn’t yet exist, perhaps he could follow the route of another has-been politico Bob Dole and actually start advertising for Pfizer:

Sadly the original TV advert doesn’t seem to be online anywhere,  but we all know Siôn has a video camera, why doesn’t he give it a go?

Guido has in the past, you may have noted, said that “Twitter is s**t”, “Twitter is a passing fad” etcetera.

Strongly held opinions have never in the past prevented Guido from trying to maximise his ubiquity.  Eagle eyed co-conspirators will have spotted that the masthead has changed today and that the Guido twitterstream is now incorporated into the masthead at the top right.

Never let it be said that Guido wouldn’t change his opinion, some eleven thousand co-conspirators following him can’t be wrong….

For all their talk of engaging online and being so technically advanced, sometimes politicians painfully show just how of touch they really are. Most Twitter users at some point in the last week would have received a message from one of their followers or friends that said “haha is this you?” with a link. Classic spammer trick, it then spreads to all your followers. Harriet Harman has gone into full hysterical mode claiming in the House of Commons that her account had been “hacked” when Alan Duncan, a new gaffe-potential convert to the Twitterati, replied to what he thought was a genuine message from his old sparring partner. Far from Twitter proving this lot are in touch, more often than not it makes them look like morons. Perhaps it would be a more appropriate use of MPs time to be working on fixing that £178 billion deficit rather than messing around trying to look like they are down with the kids.

Professor Prezza is very excitedly Twittering about the government’s announcement that they plan to do some pump priming  on the home building front.  John Healey announced today that 47 councils will share in  a grant of £127 million to build what amounts to about 30 homes per council.

They will be completed by 2011.  So Prezza is, in a sense, wrong when he tweets that you won’t get this from a Tory government.  He is also wrong in the wider sense, after all in’t it under the Tories that the most council homes have been built?  Harold Macmillan promised to build 300,000 a year and ended up building a million.  A building programme unmatched by Labour. In fact Labour this year are actually knocking down 3,000 homes.

Professor Prezza needs to study a bit more history…

First things first, if you want to message use @guidofawkes. Better still, use email.  Ben Brogan has joined Twitter.  God knows why, suspect it might be something to do with Paul Waugh claiming Twitter-lead “scoops“.

How many million did the Telegraph lose last year? Don’t you have a paper to write Ben?

You ain’t gonna tweet your way to profitability…

Guido is starting a new occasional blog feature highlighting some of the idiocy that appears on Twitter.  If you find any examples, please email them to twitter@order-order.com.

Email ‘em, don’t Tweet ‘em, please…

@foreignoffice Opium cultivation, production and prices are down according to @UNODC report

Why, if you are trying to eradicate supply in Afghanistan, proudly boast that opium supplies are cheaper?  Is that supposed to be a success?

@John Prescott If Adam Boulton insisted empty chairing every politician he asked on his show he’d need to do a deal with Ikea!

Boulton would need only one empty chair.   Once filled, it would by definition no longer be an “empty chair”.  Back of the maths class Professor Prezza, doh!