Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, says…

“There is no doubt that Kaminski is a strong friend of the State of Israel. He himself has spoken out against anti-Semitism on several occasions during the past decade. It is a grotesque distortion that people are quoting me to prove that Kaminski is an anti-Semite. Portraying Kaminski as a neo Nazi plays into the painful and false stereotype that all Poles are anti-Semitic. I would also like to clarify that the headline of James Macintyre article of July 29, 2009 entitled: “Jewish Leaders Turn on Cameron’s Tories: Poland’s chief rabbi and others call on Cameron to sever ties with Polish MEP” does not represent what I said to the author. I made no political statement and this headline is misleading and untrue.”

Splashed across the opinion pages of Britain’s lower-circulation, loss making newspapers the punditocracy claims Blair is The Only Man for this Job. Steve Richards, Oliver Kamm, Jackie Ashley, Matthew d’Ancona (“the former PM is certainly the best candidate available”), John Rentoul “Yes, Oui, Ja“, and most of the rest of the Islington chattering classes are agreed:  Blair should be president.

For a reality check let Guido quote the Süddeutsche Zeitung

The chances of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair going to the post of President of the European Council’s are zero…  At the meeting of Socialist leaders before the start of the EU summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was not listened to in his plea in favour of his predecessor… Thus Blair is in fact out of the race, because for this task no one wants to trust him.

Also overlooked by our somewhat delusional and europhile media elite is one glaring inconvenient fact; centre-right parties are politically dominant in Europe currently, the President is likely to come from their ranks.

Yesterday Brown fibbed in Brussels that “People would be pleased if a British person became president. I think most people would prefer a British person taking this job rather than citizens of other countries.” Polls show that less than a third of Britons support ‘President Blair’.  Brown has perhaps the worst case of delusion, out of touch with the will of his own people.  Guido knew that Blair would definitely not get the job once Brown cursed threw his backing behind him…

Simon Hoggart describes Tory policy on the Lisbon treaty as

“Give us time to think!”

There was a lot of speculation when Guido personally served papers on Damian McBride on behalf of Nadine Dorries that it was merely some kind of publicity stunt (yes, that means you Mr Brogan).

What Guido knew, and many ill informed commentators did not, is that the smears about Nadine were placed with journalists and some pretty offensive questions were put to her as a result.  The fabricated stories did not just remain private in emails sent to Derek Draper, Charlie Whelan and Kevin Maguire.  Even before Smeargate became public, Nadine was furious that smears were in circulation and senior political reporters put the complete fabrications, of a sexual nature, to her.

There are other emails which have not been made public, again from Damian McBride, where he admits to spreading untrue rumours and suggests to the recipients that they claim to have heard the story “from within Tory circles”.  Those stories and allusions to those stories appeared in newspaper diary columns and elsewhere.  In short Damian did not have a leg to stand on.

Nadine might not be finished yet.  She has not halted her case against the government.  Gus O’Donnell is the formal respondent because as  head of the civil service he was the employer of Damian McBride, who as the PM’s Press Adviser, was line managed by Gordon Brown.  What is panicking the government’s lawyers is that Damian placed smear stories in newspapers about opposition politicians, sent from his desk in Downing Street, from his government computer, during working hours.  In the course of his job…