Simon Hughes is celebrating the dirty Bermondsey campaign that got him elected 25 years ago. He made his name in the early 80s winning working-class Bermondsey from Labour in a vicious battle. The gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was his Labour opponent. Hughes made it clear in this election pamphlet that he was the “straight choice”. Ironically it turned out he wasn’t…It took some twenty years for Simon Hughes to apologise to Tatchell for that campaign, and that was only after he was outed himself.

Hat-tip : Guido is grateful to the Bermondsey Labour Party for pointing this out.

The resignation of the Speaker’s spin doctor over the “mis-briefing” of the £4,000 in taxi expenses for Mrs Speaker caps a bad week for Speaker Martin.

The charge-sheet is getting longer and the voices getting louder, if he had any sense he would stand down before a way is found to push him out. That he was involved in efforts to hide MP’s expenses from Freedom of Information requests shows he is clearly the wrong person to lead parliament into a more open and transparent future. The revelation that the Speaker claims mortgage subsidy allowance for a property without a mortgage when he already lives in a grand manner at the public expense is a fiddle too far. This is an abuse fo the system which Martin has been using to featherbed his lifestyle and subsidise even his family’s lifestyle. Time to say “goodbye” Mr Speaker…

Guido is showing Wikileaks some love with Google-Juice. The IP address http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks is the internet postcode for Wikileaks. A judge has ordered the web authorities to remove the website URL address from the internet so this is the only way directly access it now. This is where Guido uploads important documents (like that Northern Rock memo) and others they don’t want you to see…

Coincidentally Guido will be in London on Tuesday to speak to the Manifesto Club. The theme is “Thought Crime – from the Lyrical Terrorist to Beenie Man”. Guido will be putting the case for the freedom to offend everyone except the truth – alongside Hari Kunzru, novelist and deputy president of English PEN, Aki Nawaz, the front man of the group Fun-Da-Mental (famous as a ‘suicide bomb rapper’) and Brendan O’Neill from the Spiked clique of lefties turned libertarian

Apparently there will be readings from literature that has been banned over the past century. Guido might even try to crack a few Bernard Manning jokes.

When: Tuesday 26 February
Time: Doors open 7pm; event begins 8pm; bar open till 11pm
Where: Corbet Place bar, 15 Hanbury St, London E1 6QR
Cost: Free to Manifesto Club members; £5 non-members (pay on the door) – or join the Manifesto Club.

“1984 1/2” who actually remembered it was supposed to be about Gordon’s ideal day, the entry begins:

Awoken by Yvette Cooper. “Blair is Dead”, I am to preside at his funeral and every world leader is coming. Merkel telephones. Says ‘”Can you be EU president and Prime Minister now there is a vacancy? “ I say I can. Des Browne calls. Iraq have declared war on the Taliban, now we are allies!!

It carries on and is worth a read as a satire that contains some innate truths. Some of the other entries were amusing and of a much better quality than you webmongs have achieved in the past. (Particularly enjoyed the Beatles parodies.) If “1984 1/2” could email Guido, he will dither about a book prize…

It is Fair Trade fortnight next week, let’s be honest, fair trade coffee is not renowned for its great taste. Guido can recommend one fair trade coffee that tastes good and does good. Contra Café buys its coffee from a cooperative of 500 small-scale farmers in the north of Nicaragua. In the late 80s, many of the cooperative’s members fought with the Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense to defeat the Sandinistas. In 1990, these farmers laid down their arms when Violeta Chammoro defeated Daniel Ortega at the polls.

Today, the farmers live in peace side by side with former Sandinista fighters. They cultivate coffee on their small mountain plots. In caring for their coffee, they aim to produce a quality bean, to maintain the environment on which they depend, and to provide for their families. Unfortunately, they often struggle to meet the needs of their families on the small and volatile profits from their farms. Contra Café aims to make their earnings larger and more consistent.

Rest assured that this is a premium, tasty coffee that also pays producers more than the Fair Trade price, but unlike Fair Trade, isn’t a handout, it is paying what this outstanding coffee merits.

There is also the pleasing ideological angle for those of us who supported their struggle for freedom when we serve it to our dinner party guests.

You can, as you pour for them, say that at the height of the Cold War, the Contra rebels bravely fought for political and economic freedom in Nicaragua against a Cuban-backed dictatorship. Their heroic efforts forced democratic elections and led to the fall of the Marxist Sandinista regime. Today, the cooperative of former Contras grows an exceptional coffee high in the mountains of northern Nicaragua. Contra Café roasts this outstanding coffee and delivers it fresh to your home. In addition a portion of Contra Café revenues are donated to Ollie North’s Freedom Alliance charity which provides scholarships for the children of active duty service members killed or disabled in the line of duty in Iraq.

Of course you should really drink it out of a Free Trade Coffee Mug, in the Fawkes household we won’t drink it any other way. So order the coffee online and help third world farmers who fought for freedom.