12 hours after setting up The Radicals, the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe has hilariously quit the party:
It is also clear from the — entirely unanticipated — scale of this unplanned experiment that taking this forward would not be compatible with my job as Berlin Bureau Chief for The Economist. But I do not want this remarkable network to go to waste. So having spoken to a number of supporters this morning I am arranging to hand it over to a committee in Britain that might, if it opts to do so, advance the Radicals to a next stage. Details of the committee will follow soon.
The shortest lived political movement in history?
Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum is addicted to banning. He wants to ban chocolate bars containing more than 250 calories, because he has decided that is a “quite sufficient snack for anybody“. A typical Mars bar contains 260 calories. Two Twix fingers is 286 calories. A Milky Way has 264 calories. Tam would ban them all.
The nannying nonsense doesn’t end there. Fry also wants a blanket ban on products with added sugar for hospital inpatients. And the serial banner has come up with a catchy slogan for his crusade: “Sugar is the new tobacco: ban it”. The UK’s leading anti-obesity campaigner calling for sugar to be banned. He’ll have to pry Guido’s 274 calorie Bounty bar from his cold, dead hands…
Gary Lineker is among a group of celebrities who have lost a court bid to overturn a £700 million tax bill. The achingly right-on footballer turned self-appointed current affairs expert claimed the press were pursuing a “vendetta” against him over his involvement in the Ingenious film investment scheme, where tax reliefs were claimed on artificial movie losses. It was all media lies, Gary insisted…
I have always paid my taxes on time and in full. The Daily Mail continues its vendetta against me because they don’t agree with my views.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) February 9, 2017
Seems the courts do not agree. HMRC argued that the scheme was an aggressive kind of tax avoidance and yesterday a tax tribunal judge ruled the tax relief claims were not “allowable deductions”. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.
With crushing inevitability, John Bercow has told Sky News he is going to break his promise to stand down as Speaker after nine years and instead go on until 2022. Bercow says laughably that “we’re in a very different situation” and that because Theresa May changed her mind about calling an election he is within his rights to change his too. A pitiful excuse even by his standards.
Guido has dug out Bercow’s manifesto circulated to MPs when he ran for Speaker in 2009. Bercow told colleagues that “as a matter of principle” he believed Speakers should not outstay their welcome, and promised that
“if you do me the honour of electing me, I will serve for no longer than two full Parliaments and, in any event, for no more than 9 years in total. I say this because any Speaker should be able to make a mark in that time”
He has gone back on his word, and it is going down very badly among MPs…
Scourge of Bercow James Duddridge tells Guido:
“He said he would only serve until the 22nd June 2018. He has broken his manifesto promise to to go at this date. He is a disgrace and should not be reelected as Speaker if he is returned as an MP. He is a self-serving parasite of the worst order.”
Karl McCartney adds:
“He does not command loyalty across the House, except from those who owe him, and has used up any goodwill any of my colleagues may have had for him in the past.”
And Andrew Bridgen tells Guido:
“Speaker Bercow has already ripped up every page of the rulebook on impartiality, and now he has ripped up his manifesto pledges.”
Another Tory candidate says:
“It is about time Parliament had a truly independent Speaker rather than anymore of this third rate third Labour supporting Speaker. He has brought the exalted position into disrepute with his personal life and opinionated pontifications and his fellow MPs do not like being taken for granted, or for fools.”
Four extra years of Bercow coming up if he wins reelection after June 8. No one will be more annoyed than Chris Bryant and Lindsay Hoyle…
Twitter’s most pompous attention-seeking lawyer Jolyon Maugham has jumped the shark – he is setting up a new political party called “Spring“. The poor man has gone quite mad:
“Theresa May has an enormous majority. And is a relatively popular local MP. Nationally she is divisive. And Maidenhead voted overwhelmingly to Remain. Labour is non-existent in the seat. And it is not being targeted by the LibDems. For an independent, without a local infrastructure, the seat is in practice unwinnable.
But.
There are local pro-Remain groups. The seat has great symbolic value. And – most importantly – if we can inspire people with our celebration they will come again. They will come early, tomorrow. And knock on residents’ doors, and smile, and talk.
The celebration will lay the foundations for a new political party. The strength of those foundations are our metric of success. We will collect members. We will build a brand. And we will raise funding. Spring. A new start. A brighter future. Spring is a party of the radical centre. Solutions for the world today and tomorrow. Not yesterday.”
Jolyon has accidentally published his plan for electoral success, dripping in self-importance and referring to himself in the third person:
Step One: Jolyon announces to The Maidenhead Advertiser that he’s standing. It filters out to the National Press. The website goes up, with a short biog, a teaser, a ‘register’ button and a ‘donate’ button.
Step Two: We announce the festival and some acts.
Step Three: We begin to release policies.
What next: There is a lot to do. But. If you build it, they will come.
You’d need a heart of stone…
UPDATE: Jolyon has changed his mind:
I’m very lucky. I have some great friends in the music and creative industries. Serious people. “It’s a wonderful idea,” they said, “but completely impossible to execute in the available time.”
I have at last, with great reluctance, accepted they were right. And I will not be standing.
That de-escalated quickly…
How is Neil Hamilton getting on as leader of UKIP in Wales? A politician you could never accuse of being out-of-touch, Hamilton this week announced he is opening a new office in his constituency. Unfortunately Team Neil spelt the name of the town and county wrong in the press release. Not once. Not twice. Not thrice. But four times.
“People wanting to know more about the party and speak to either Neil Hamilton or his advisors will be able to do so at Whitlands (sic) Town Hall, in Whitlands (sic), Camarthenshire (sic) from Monday January 16… Neil has been busy planning where to site an office in his constituency and is delighted that he is now being able to open one in the town of Whitlands (sic)”.
Aides blamed computer issues for the faux pas. Fel rhech mewn pot jam…
