Sad news for Andy Burnham this morning as his landmark speech at the Institute for Fiscal Studies attracts about 100 viewers. It’s not as if there’s any other news today…
The King of the North has been hitting the Westminster circuit hard in January, appearing at the Institute for Government last week to talk about rewiring the state and so on. This time round he talked up his vision of “Manchesterism” and “massive change for the British state” to gear it towards devolution – he also touted the new idiotic Tourist Tax. The war on the Treasury continues…
Burnham, fleshing out his pitch for the top job, said: “We can’t stay where we are, we are in a rut,” and said “bottom up devolution” is required for growth. Not that anyone noticed – the livestream hovered between 90 and 105 viewers throughout the stream…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”