BBC journalists are moving on to pastures identical after its Head of News and Director-General were forced to resign over accusations of the corporation’s left-wing bias. They’re now working on a nationwide story to whinge about people flying Union Jacks…
BBC Breakfast and BBC News at One hacks have fired off a mass email to every regional outpost today asking colleagues to find material on council workers being ‘abused’ for taking down flags in their area. Should make for gripping TV…
As Guido reported, Essex Council have already offered support to staff feeling “unsettled” by the very sight of a St George’s flag. Wonder if the BBC will flag that…
It is one week before the Winter Budget in which Reeves will hammer the economy once again with a smorgasbord of manifesto-breaking tax rises. Something she promised last time she would never do again…
Politicians like Reeves cannot be trusted with voters’ cash, and neither can their promises with regard to tax. This is why Guido is today launching the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written guarantee to those voters…
The pledge binds each elected official to the following promise:
“I believe that Britain is heavily over-taxed. I will oppose new taxes and increases in existing tax rates which raise the overall tax burden and work to bring it down in the future. I support, where possible and fiscally prudent, the repeal of existing taxes and cutting tax rates and will work toward this aim.”
Guido will be running this project for the foreseeable future and into the next election. MPs and elected officials who wish to sign the pledge can inform Guido of this at team@order-order.com…
The pledge can be downloaded for printing and physical signing here:
Numerous politicians have signed on to the pledge on launch, including Badenoch and a large part of the Shadow Cabinet, Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice, and party Chief Whip Lee Anderson. The pledge extends to mayors and councillors – Tory mayor Ben Houchen and Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns have signed on…
The pledge database:
The pledge is non-partisan and Guido invites politicians of all parties to make the commitment. Woe betide those who break it…
The broadcasting watchdog-turned online sheriff Ofcom has declared it has “sovereign immunity” from a lawsuit filed by US-based site 4chan, after the site sued the regulator for violating its First Amendment protections. It is the latest in a free speech clash sparked by (what else?) the Online Safety Act, which Ofcom used to fine 4chan £20,000 earlier this year. A fine 4chan is refusing to pay…
In response to 4chan’s latest counterattack, Ofcom filed a notice in federal court in DC:
“Ofcom is a UK public regulatory authority and has substantial grounds for seeking dismissal of this lawsuit based on sovereign immunity.”
4chan’s lawyers argue that since Ofcom operates as a “commercial enterprise” , it should not benefit from sovereign immunity. Ofcom, meanwhile, still insists 4chan is not protected by the First Amendment and is demanding the cash. It’s all out war…
An effort is ramping up in government to defocus from the China spy trial collapse while publicising threats towards the UK from the Chinese state. The Chinese mega-embassy decision on 10 December is a focal point…
A government source tells Guido that “yesterday’s Security Minister statement in Parliament is part of a number of upcoming sequenced ‘events’ to balance out wider arguments and the debacle around the non-trial and to give the government as strong a national security public narrative as possible.“ These will be in advance of the decision on the mega-embassy and will have the effect of covering Labour if it goes through…
Insider sources say Whitehall officials are increasingly focussed on China through senior-level meetings. Jonathan Powell is still running China policy from No10…
The decision is upcoming. Broadly, FCDO is fretting about the quid pro quo for its embassy in Beijing, HMT is fretting about growth and the “consequences” threat issued weeks ago, the National Security Committee has provided assessments and mitigations for security implications the mega-embassy at the Royal Mint site, and MHCLG is angry that it was given the decision in the first place. No10 will not be able to pretend this is a decision they did not have some control over, not least because Starmer said it himself…
YouGov has just dropped a poll on Britons’ views on the economy ahead of the Winter Budget. Quite literally no one thinks it’s in a very good state under Labour…
A whopping 77% say the government is doing a bad job at managing the economy, while only 4% say the economy is in a fairly good state, and 0% say it’s in a ‘very good’ state. The vast majority (64%) blame Labour’s policies, including 24% of current Labour voters. Meanwhile, just 45% of Brits think freezing income tax thresholds is the “right thing to do”. Some grim reading for the Chancer of the Exchequer…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”
