It’s that day again and numerous SW1 denizens spent the morning with a sweat on their brows attempting to work out what was an April Fool’s joke and what wasn’t. Has anyone checked in on Peston?
Some of the highlights:
UK Defence Journal published a series of articles, including details of the “introduction of a new fleet of stealth inflatable warships, designed to be rapidly deployed and almost invisible to enemy radar.” It could be worth giving an inflatable Prime Minister a go too…
Guido exclusively revealed CCTV footage from the moments before Morgan McSweeney’s phone containing his messages with Peter Mandelson was ‘stolen’ in Westminster. It’s jaw-dropping stuff…
Ex-GB News presenter Dan Wootton revealed details of The Farage Factor: “GB News is partnering with Reform UK to launch a new reality talent show hybrid where the winner will become a guaranteed candidate in a safe constituency in the general election.” Would probably be more effective than the current vetting…
Sunday Sport produced a front page nib:
Pollster More In Common’s director Luke Tryl advertised its new product for domestic disputes like who should do the dishes: “Now you can end those rows with our new service “Settle It” & let the public pick who is right in a nationally representative poll.” If you want something done right, use a poll…
The official X account of the Israeli government issued a statement: “In an unexpected development, the UN has issued a statement today that does not blame Israel. Delegates are currently investigating how this happened.”
A dishonourable mention goes to Dawn Butler for the most egregious yawner: “I have been appointed as Minister for Hope and Positivity in the Cabinet Office.” Fellow Labour MP Stella Creasy put in a bit more effort by posting about her new job as GB News presenter…
The latest transparency data shows Gordon Brown met four ministers across two departments in the space of just 48 hours in December. He met David Lammy in the MoJ to discuss “devolution“, and then had a chat with prisons minister James Timpson. At the Cabinet Office, he met Darren Jones and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the latter logged as a “general discussion on current UK politics“. His old friend and / or nemesis Tony Blair still gets his kicks in too. Pat McFadden met him in December for “a discussion about current affairs”. Yvette Cooper even had a private chat with him about “the Middle East” just before Christmas. As if he’s the man you want the Foreign Secretary listening to…
As Guido has previously reported, the New Labour old guard is embedded across Whitehall. Michael Ellam, Brown’s former director of communications, sits as Second Permanent Secretary for EU and international economic affairs in the Cabinet Office. Steve Field, another Brown-era Treasury comms director, was moved over as a Director General beneath him, leading on US trade and the G20. Justin Forsyth, a longtime Blair-Brown SpAd, has also been spotted hanging around Jonathan Powell in the Cabinet Office. When’s the last time bringing in a New Labour alumnus ever went wrong…
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Pinging around dead tree press newsrooms since the start of the week:
“IPSO has today been contacted by a representative acting on behalf of the immediate family of Zack Polanski.
Mr Polanski’s mother, father, brother, and sister ask that the press do not attend their homes and do not approach them by phone or email, as they do not wish to give comment to the media. For any media enquiries, please contact the Green Party press office at [REDACTED] or on [REDACTED].
We are happy to make editors aware of his request. We note the terms of Clause 2 (Privacy) and 3 (Harassment) of the Editors’ Code.”
Guido is an unregulated publication.
Preston Byrne, known to co-conspirators as the 4chan lawyer who last week trolled Ofcom with a picture of a giant hamster, has co-authored a model ‘Free Speech Bill’ that would function as a British First Amendment.
Published by the Adam Smith Institute, the bill would repeal the Online Safety Act, Public Order Acts, and Malicious Communications Act in their entirety. In their place, it would establish a broad statutory right to expression including speech that is “offensive, grossly offensive, insulting, abusive, shocking, blasphemous, indecent, or otherwise objectionable”. It would also gut Ofcom’s content regulatory powers. Basic protections you’d expect in a free society…
Byrne has published an overview of the bill here. The key lines:
“In a free society, fools, bigots, and assholes get to speak and remain free men. That is not the price of liberty. It is liberty, and the rest of us get it too. The Model Bill’s authors are aware that this Model Bill, if enacted, would decriminalise expression that we find morally repugnant.
We accept and embrace that consequence. But we ask the reader to consider who these laws actually catch. Overwhelmingly, victims of the UK’s censorship state are not hardened extremists, who operate in encrypted channels beyond the reach of any statute, but ordinary people. The present state of the UK, where expressing an opinion that gives rise to even mild offence may result in arrest, and does result in arrest, for tens of thousands of people per year, is a heavy price that this country has been paying for two decades.”
Spot on. Good luck convincing Labour to listen…
Read the full bill below…
Continue reading “ASI Publishes First Amendment-Style British Free Speech Bill”
Angela Rayner potentially faces an extremely long wait before making a leadership push, figures uncovered by Guido reveal.
Figures from HMRC show that in the last four years the average length of time that Stamp Duty Land tax (SDLT) investigations have taken to complete is an average of 35 months. Rayner admitted she may have paid the wrong tax on 5 September last year, only seven months ago…
The best yearly performance is a whopping 27 months, posted in the 24/25 financial year:
| Tax year | Average length of time of closed cases had taken to complete (SDLT) |
|---|---|
| 2021/22 | 31 months |
| 2022/23 | 39 months |
| 2023/24 | 43 months |
| 2024/25 | 27 months |
Since Rayner’s operation conceded that the investigation would have to be finished before she made any attempt at the Labour leadership, the former DPM’s annoyance at HMRC for taking so long (she ‘offered to help‘ at one point) has made frequent appearances in the press. Some actually oppose the complex and overbearing tax burden – Rayner is not one of them…
Rayner has now “taken new legal advice which argues that she did not need to pay the higher rate of stamp duty” and handed it to HMRC. Despite her contestation the Times was helpfully told: “Rayner will accept the outcome of HMRC’s investigation and pay any fine that is due”…
Rayner is hoping HMRC will finish its investigation in May, which would be the best timing for her. The taxman points out those average durations “represent the entire lifecycle of an SDLT enquiry, from the point a case is opened to its final closure. This includes any time spent in appeal and review
processes or litigation, where applicable. These stages can extend the length of an enquiry and are often influenced by actions taken by customers or their agents, rather than HMRC alone.“ Rayner may have shot herself in the foot with that helpful new tax advice…
Were the taxman to conclude her investigation in only eight months despite its apparent complexity, eyebrows would be raised regarding the agency’s hands-on treatment of the former DPM. You’d have to ask the question…
See the figures below:
Continue reading “HMRC Stamp Duty Investigations Take 35 Months on Average in Blow to Rayner”
The Met has arrested three people on suspicion of arson following the attacks on four ambulances in Golders Green:
“Two British men, aged 19 and 20, and a 17-year-old boy with dual British and Pakistani nationality have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life following an attack on the four Jewish community ambulances.”
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”
