There was a lot of crowing in the week leading up to the release of Liz Truss’s new book “Ten Years to Save The West” as the wokerati lined up to take shots at the “stupidity” of anyone willing to buy it. No doubt the snowflakes are having a meltdown now that it’s hit number four on Amazon on the morning of its release…

Nobody is going to g to buy your stupid book it currently ranks 55172 on Amazon ….and all you do is blame everyone else for the fact that you are a mindless fool

Rank
#55,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#38 in European Politics Books
#67 in Democracy (Books)
#165 in…

— Professor Danny Blanchflower economist & fisherman (@D_Blanchflower) April 10, 2024

Looks like Gordon Brown’s economics guru has got his forecast wrong again...

Guido was browsing Amazon.co.uk for top January deals this afternoon and noticed James O’Brien’s “Mystery Hour” board game had been bought over 1,000 times by hapless Christmas shoppers looking to part with their hard-earned cash. The self-satisfied LBC host’s hundred or so fans can bring his inane insights into their homes for £19.95 with the “the informative, witty, conversational, argumentative board game based on James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour” which features questions like “Why don’t Cadbury Flakes melt in the microwave?”. ‘James O’Brien’s Misery Hour’ might be a better name…

Reviewers who tried to play the game, which is made up of about 250 trivia cards, say they “doubt it will make it to the table regularly. There just isn’t that much to it and it just doesn’t have that wow factor“. On Amazon, a dissatisfied shopper has branded it “probably the most boring & badly designed board game I’ve ever played“, while another says “this isn’t a board game, it’s a bored game. Because that’s what you’ll be after five minutes of playing it“. In that case it sounds like an accurate recreation of O’Brien’s show…

A cabal of left-wing MPs have, predictably, smelt blood and are going after Jeremy Clarkson. For anyone waking up from a four-day coma, Clarkson is under siege for writing a Sun column railing against Meghan Markle. One paragraph parodied a Game of Thrones scene:

“At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.”

Given Markle is the least popular member of the royal family bar Prince Andrew, Guido guesses many Brits may have been inclined to broadly agree with the sentiment of the piece. Instead the London-centric Twitter-sphere is apoplectic; getting the column taken down and forcing Clarkson into a sorry-not-sorry climbdown.

Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 19, 2022

For some reason, lefty MPs feel that this important issue is today’s national priority. Rather than the strikes, the economy, war on our continent, or at the very least just logging off ahead of Christmas…

Tory-in-name-only MP Caroline Nokes has spearheaded a letter on behalf of those “hurt” by Jezza’s “#NotAnApology”, demanding he instead issue “an unreserved apology… to Ms Markle immediately”. 

“We further demand definitive action is taken to ensure no article like this is ever published again.”

The letter is signed by 64 MPs, mainly Labour and SNP. Guido notes that whichever of Nokes’s staff formatted the letter isn’t particularly savvy, given the top name of the second column is Clive Lewis. An MP whose primary contribution to feminism thus far was telling a woman to “get on your knees bitch”.

Guido’s no stranger to defending Clarkson in times of career trouble. The BBC, despite dismissing him for a fracas in 2015, often stood by him during rows about things he’d said or written.

Guido’s not so confident that the likes of Amazon – American distributors of his brilliant farming show – will have the same backbone this time around…

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the official letter from MPs accusing the Sun of editorial sloppiness includes signatories spelt as follows:

• Mary Kelly Fox [sic]
• Claudia Webb [sic]
• Hanna [sic] Bardell
• Andy Macdonald [sic]
• Alan [sic] Doran [sic]

Chapeau…

According to a source officials from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have contacted Amazon asking them to remove fake police IDs, wallets and warrant cards currently available on the website. At the time of going to pixel the police-style paraphernalia is still available for purchase on amazon.co.uk. Impersonating a police officer is an offence, Amazon enabling the offence is not…

In a move that absolutely no one could have predicted, Amazon have announced the government’s 2% Digital Services Tax is to be passed straight onto consumers. Guido presumes the government line on this one will be full Brass Eye: ‘This is the one thing we didn’t want to happen’…

A post on the Amazon Services forum announces that, while the legislation was being passed, the company “absorbed this increase”, however now the law has been implemented they

“will be increasing Referral fees, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) fees, monthly FBA storage fees and Multichannel Fulfilment (MCF) fees by 2% in the UK to reflect this additional cost”

UK businesses who rely on goods from Amazon will now have to fork out for the rise, with the government not getting a penny from Amazon’s coffers. The government should take this tax policy failure into account before considering the rumoured online sales tax for a moment longer…