If you can’t beat them then join them. Old Holborn suggests that the Europhiles should be played at their own game; keep asking them the same question until you get the answer that you want. Guido is inclined to agree:
Sign here if you do too…
The News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was up for re-election by shareholders last week. Tom Watson MP led a campaign, backed by commercial rivals The Guardian, to unseat him from the board. Tom travelled to Los Angeles (courtesy of union subs) to vote union pension fund proxy votes. Watson’s attempt failed with Rupert Murdoch getting 86% of the shareholder vote, which compares favourably to Watson’s mere 46% of the vote in his West Bromwich East constituency at his re-election (his share of the vote sank 9.2% at the general election). To add insult to injury, News Corp shares have rocketed up 16% this month alone. Hold on to those shares comrades, no one went poor betting on Murdoch…
http://twitter.com/#!/tom_watson/status/127620669897846784
http://twitter.com/#!/brian_and_maria/status/127667231801868288
Never mind, in consolation he got a night out partying on tequila and singing “Come on Eileen” in La La Land…
The CCHQ press office email press clippings and media snippets to MPs some four of five times a day. They don’t normally make for much of read, but their surprisingly candid verdict on today’s proceedings has brought a smile one chunk of the Tory benches:
Lead Story: David Cameron suffers biggest Conservative rebellion over Europe
Clips: PM, Nick Clegg MP, Adam Holloway MP (debate footage), Tim Montgomerie (Conservative Home)
Commentary: The PM says there is no bad blood or bitterness over Conservative Commons rebellion over Europe. Back bench motion prompted after petition signed by 100,000. In total 81 Conservative MPs defied three line whip voted for referendum. Mr Cameron said opposing vote right thing for the country.
The full briefing then quotes various pundits and hacks before concluding:
Verdict: PM loss
That would explain the “no bad blood, no rancour, no bitterness” bridge building then…
Straight after the 7pm vote in the House tomorrow, surviving Tory PPS Aidan Burley will redeem himself for his voting behaviour yesterday. He has tabled an Adjournment Debate on a favourite subject: “Funding from the public purse of trade union officials”.
Burley will get around fifteen minutes to speak and is guaranteed a Ministerial reply. Though the promise to end the practice of tax-payer funded officials was made at Tory conference, it’s not as if the government have had a good week for doing what they once said they would.
Good to see that the pressure is being kept on…
Guido has two prizes to give out from the last couple of caption contests. Well done to LabourNutter who wins two tickets to see the stage adaptation of Chris Mullin’s diaries with:
“Try blaming the Missus…”
The winner of a copy of Just Boris from last Friday is Steve Miliband with:
The standard of entries was unbelievably dire. Get in touch with Guido to claim your prizes…
When asked after his speech this morning about yesterday’s promised repatriation of powers from Brussels, the Deputy Prime Minister stuck his oar in:
“We should stop tilting at windmills about threats and challenges which simply aren’t there right now… You don’t change Europe by launching some smash-and-grab dawn raid on Brussels…”
If Clegg promises something won’t happen, that means it will, right?
