Guido hears Sir Keir has been brushing up on his public speaking skills with the help of some much-appreciated media and speech training. His stilted delivery wasn’t cutting the mustard, so expert help was drafted in to make him (a bit) more interesting. Whether he’s had lessons in handling glitter bombs is another question…

While he may not be the next Martin Luthur King of oratory, he is at least better than a year or two ago. Those lessons don’t come cheap… 

It looks like Rachel Reeves has been caught copying someone else’s homework. The Financial Times reports this morning that it has found at least 20 instances of plagiarism in the Shadow Chancellor’s new book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, with whole paragraphs ripped from other sources… including Wikipedia. This is a book which supposedly laments how women often don’t receive credit for their own work… 

The book’s publisher, Basic Books, have already thrown up their hands:

“When factual sentences were taken from primary sources, they should have been rewritten and properly referenced. We acknowledge this did not happen in every case.”

Here’s just one example – try to spot the difference…

Reeves: “Keynes’s key argument was that aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment from which the economy would not automatically rebound.”

Wikipedia: “He argued that aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment, and since wages and labour costs are rigid downwards the economy will not automatically rebound to full employment.”

A spokesperson for Reeves has already told the FT “these were inadvertent mistakes and will be rectified in future reprints“. The book only released this morning, and already they’re talking about reprints. Should make for an interesting Q&A session at her launch event tonight – the one Reeves had to rely on seat-filling services to bulk up the numbers…

Starmer’s urgent trip to South Wales Islamic Centre – hastily organised after realising he’d upset hundreds of his own party members by backing calls for a siege of Gaza – has backfired in spectacular fashion: it turns out the Centre didn’t invite Starmer, the Imam had no idea who he was, and now the left are piling on even more. What was supposed to be an emergency photo op to stop the left shouting at him has unravelled into a PR nightmare…

This is utterly shocking & must be shared far & wide – Starmer tricked the Imam into his visit to wales: the Imam speaks little English & didn’t know who Starmer was & what he stood for.

He’s been brought to tears after being horrifically & shamelessly exploited by Starmer. https://t.co/7uyPWauyyy

— Jess.M.F 🚩#BLM & Free 🇵🇸 #CorbynWasRight (@Jessthelefty) October 23, 2023

Apparently Starmer was “grateful to hear from the Muslim community” of the Centre, which he proved by sharing a few solemn pictures of him shaking hands with people who didn’t want him there in the first place. TrotsApp has lit up with criticism; one lefty outlet claimed the Imam “cried” when he realised what had happened… 

A Labour candidate’s electoral campaign is in a death spiral today, with the party vowing to “take action” against parliamentary hopeful Darren Rodwell for hanging a banner from gravestones over the weekend. Rodwell, the candidate for Barking, was spotted tying the banner to the two headstones using “abseiling gear” on Saturday. When confronted by a local Labour member, Rodwell reportedly claimed it was “only temporary“, and his ropes were “not on the grave“, just the gravestones. As though that made it any better…

Labour have recognised the grave situation, and admitted Rodwell’s actions were not in the spirit of fair campaigning. They are deadly serious, telling The Times:

“This was clearly the wrong thing to do and we’ll be taking action.”

Not the best way to urn votes…

It turns out Sir Keir isn’t the only one trying to acid wash the Corbyn friendship away. Helene Reardon Bond, his Deputy Chief of Staff, has quietly removed the references to her days as Director of Jeremy’s office from her LinkedIn CV.  Helene is also the mother of Jack Bond, who was a key member of Corbyn’s team for some years – responsible for Jezbollah’s social media output. Her husband was Corbyn’s driver to complete the left-wing family’s close links to the friend of Hamas. Now she’s referring to the Corbyn years as her “freelance consultant” era…

At the time of Reardon Bond’s appointment to Corbyn’s office in 2019, Corbyn’s team told LabourList she would “bring her experience and expertise to the leader’s office to step up our preparations for government.” Look how that turned out. Guido can’t really blame her for erasing it from her CV…

It’s all kicking off up in Ashton. Locals are fuming after photos emerged of Angela Rayner’s Mirror-sponsored battle bus parked directly on double yellow lines. Parking on double-yellows usually nets you a fixed-penalty notice…

According to the traffic warden on duty, who took to a private Facebook group today to defend herself, the vehicle was moved to a loading bay whilst management “confirmed what was happening“. She said she was “unsure” if Rayner had been fined…

Guido’s old enough to remember when both Starmer and Rayner considered FPNs resignation offences. Guido has approached Labour for comment…

UPDATE: “A parking ticket was not issued as the bus was moved within the standard five minute observation period that is carried out on all commercial vehicles breaching parking restrictions.”