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When Margaret Hodge went off on one about the ‘Big 4’ professional services firms this morning, she awkwardly forgot that half the shadow cabinet have employed staffers from PricewaterhouseCoopers during the last year. Could there be anything else languishing deep down in Hodge’s memory that she needs reminding of? Something that happened before she became an MP, perhaps? Maybe to do with a past career choice?
Between 1992 and 1994 Hodge worked as a senior consultant for, you guessed it, PriceWaterhouse, as they were known before the 1998 merger with Coopers & Lybrand. Guido would ask what her duties were, but she’d probably just dodge the question…
The Liberal Democrats are claiming that their vicious briefing against their coalition partners was sent out “in error”. Apparently it was an update to an old briefing. Guido is calling bullsh*t. Firstly the briefing was deliberately sent from a party branded account, separately from a coalition friendly briefing moments before. When the LibDems slag off the Tories they do it with the bird logo. When they are behaving they do it, rather splendidly, with a blue version of their logo:
Secondly it went out on their website. Hardly a case of bad trigger finger. They have quietly deleted it online now, but have not corrected their original email. They tell Guido “we may feel the need to issue a print retraction” in due course, but for the time being they are only telling anyone who asks. When it was put it to the masters of spin that their explanation did not “have the ring of truth to it” they promptly and swiftly cleared the whole matter up: “well… [PAUSE] that’s what we are saying.” Not just Balls that is having a bad day…
Luckily Brian Leveson is off to Oz so he can clamp down on this blagging of private information…
Clegg was shaking his head during the mansion tax discussion in the House and he’s clearly still smarting. LibDem HQ have just sent out a stinging briefing against their coalition buddies:
Conservatives tax cuts for the richest
The only tax cuts the Conservatives support are ones for the very rich. At the General Election, their priority was to cut inheritance tax for millionaires. In the Coalition, Liberal Democrats have blocked these plans and instead we are cutting taxes for millions.
Handbags!
A full house of criticism for Ed Balls dire response to the Autumn Statement. He fluffed his first line and it was all downhill from there…
Ed Balls sounds a bit uncharacteristically floundery. #AS2012
— gabyhinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) December 5, 2012
Must be nightmarishly difficult to respond on these occasions and Balls is usually a v strong performer. But he's having a shocker today
— Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) December 5, 2012
Ed Balls hopeless. National debt is going to be higher at end of Parl. Of course it is. Deficit inherited from Lab £156bn a year.
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) December 5, 2012
Ed Balls struggling to get heard…#AS2012
— Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) December 5, 2012
Osborne laughing in Balls' face as the shadow chancellor struggles. Not sure that's wise. #AS2012 #AutumnStatement
— Kiran Stacey (@kiranstacey) December 5, 2012
Balls repeatedly stumbling over still-falling deficit sounds like he cant actually believe it. Whole line of attack was re-rise of deficit
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) December 5, 2012
Labour MPs remarkably quiet. Shadow Chancellor needs more support
— Tom McTague (@TomMcTague) December 5, 2012
Ed Balls is finding this tough going – House rowdiness is almost drowning him out, and he appears more shaken than usual.#autumnstatement
— anita anand (@tweeter_anita) December 5, 2012
Not Ed Balls finest performance so far.
— David Ottewell (@davidottewell) December 5, 2012
Balls is normally bravura on these occasions but this is very flat
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) December 5, 2012
Andrew Neil: "Ed Balls taking 20mins to reply to George Osborne's 15 minute statement" … miaow
— Brendan Miller (@brenkjm) December 5, 2012
He had an open goal, all he had to do was keep it simple…
