A US journalist has been forced to resign from the New Yorker magazine after being caught making up quotes from singer Bob Dylan. Jonah Lehrer first tried to contest the allegations but yesterday conceded that he had falsified quotes from the sixties legend: “I said that they were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. I then continued to lie and say things I should not have said.” Seems Johann Hari took his old tricks with him when he fled across the pond…

Kevin Maguire on Chancellor Zero:

“Where did they find the 2% of Tories who still thought Osborne could be leader? Must be his family.”

Pint sized French President Francois Hollande has stuck the boot in on the Olympics. It’s good to see France is shedding it’s international reputation as a sore loser – London beat Paris to host these Games:

“The problem is that there are simply too many corporate seats. It will be up to French organisers to sort out this problem if a bid for a future games is to be successful. I am not here to announce a candidacy, but we will present an extremely strong bid: we don’t talk of money, we talk of gold. The British have rolled out a red carpet for French athletes to win medals. I thank them very much for that, but the competition is not over. We will put the French medals into the Europe pot, so that the British will be happy to be European.”

Are you going to take that, Dave?

Another day and another Twitter user silenced. Before the dust has even settled on the Twitter joke trial, a 17 year old kid has been arrested, apparently after some seriously poor taste Tweets sent to Team GB diver Tom Daley. While his arrest over night is splitting opinion, its worth bearing in mind that while the messages sent about Daley’s dead father were disgusting, it was probably the threat to “drown” the diver that crossed the legal line and got the police involved.

That pertinent fact does not seem to be getting much traction though…

Incidentally, Guido gets regular online death threats and abuse. He doesn’t dial 999. He does sometimes find out the threatener’s phone number and call them. They never sound very brave in person…

No word from the social network yet, but the Indy are telling their side of the story:

https://twitter.com/kevinjrawlinson/status/229979491454304256

Twitter and journalists don’t seem to be having a very good time at the moment…

Not content with cashing £1500 meant for comms equipment and nearly three grand supposedly for a colleague’s leaving present, it seems even a general election provided an opportunity for Tory councillor Robert Morritt to play his missing money game to a new level. On 7 April 2010, Morritt was issued with a cheque for the sum of £2,000 to pay for “candidate deposits” in the approaching general election. Deposits are £500 per constituency and there are only three constituencies in Wandsworth. So what was the other £500 for? No explanation, it would appear, so we can only assume “expenses” again.

All those Tory candidates in True Blue Wandsworth got their deposits back at the election. Morritt was refunded £1,500 by Wandsworth Council shortly afterwards. No doubt he quickly repaid the amount to Wandsworth Conservatives, right? Nope, he kept it for himself. What’s more, if you’re a Tory reading this in Wimbledon, he pulled the same trick on you. £500 of your money for Stephen Hammond’s deposit never came back. “Expenses” are very expensive these days.

By Guido’s reckoning that’s nearly £8,000 gone on unexplained “expenses” for agent – now councillor – Morritt. It’s no wonder he’s on Wandsworth Council’s audit committee. He knows every trick in the book.

When Guido put these allegations to Morritt last week he claimed “In the course of my duties I naturally incurred a number of expenses that have all been satisfactory accounted for.” Yet as you can see his explanations are more than a little shakey. We haven’t even got on to the cheques written out with an explanation…

Guido spoke to one senior Wandsworth Conservative earlier who lamented: “I was present at a meeting shortly after the 2010 elections where it became obvious that we were basically bankrupt. No one could understand why. Now it seems we are finally getting an explanation.” When Guido approached another senior official at Wandsworth Tories, who is believed to have unearthed all of the wrongdoing, he refused to comment. However, when pressed with the details Guido has revealed today, he declined to deny they were accurate…

To be continued…

See also: Justine Greening’s Agent in Addison Lee Fraud Mess, Wandsworth Tory Auditor in Voodoo Accounting Mystery,  More Questions Over Morritt’s Missing Money