Boles Confirms Mayoral Ambitions

As Guido reported a few weeks ago, Nick Boles has confirmed to ConservativeHome that he wants to run for mayor of London. A friend of Dave and head wonk at Policy Exchange, Guido believes a plank of his platform will be to bring back in some form the much loved London Routemaster bus. Londoners loathe the long bendy-buses so he is on to a vote winner with this idea.

No news as yet as to if Peter Stringfellow plans to stand. Guido is willing to be his campaign manager if he does...

UPDATE : Nick emails to say in true Cameroonie fashion that he is making no policy commitments at this stage. However "The Routemaster had fantastic qualities which its replacements conspicuously lack. Livingstone has shown a lack of imagination and nerve in giving in to the Routemaster's detractors at TfL without demanding that they come up with a new bus design which combines the advantages of the Routemaster with better disabled access. I would not be so easily browbeaten."

Prescott : Sexual Harassment Writ andPolice Confirm Corruption Investigation

Prezza is under more pressure* ahead of becoming the cowboy in charge of the country. As reported here two weeks ago, the Yard has received two formal complaints regarding alleged offences under the 1889-1916 Prevention of Corruption Acts. The complainants are George Bathurst, a Windsor based Tory businessman and the LibDem MP, Norman Baker.

The Met Police's Press Office is only now confirming that police are studying claims that Prezza could have broken anti-corruption laws by staying on US billionaire Philip Anschutz's ranch.

Elsewhere the writ from Tricia McDaid, who worked for Prescott when he was the transport shadow has now been filed in the High Court and formally served on Prescott. In papers filed with the court, Ms McDaid says: "I am bringing a claim for damages and my consequential losses as a result of my former employer's negligent behaviour."

Some of her allegations:

• At a party at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in 1992. She said: "He started to kiss me. He pulled my dress out, looked down my top and said, ‘What have you got on under there? How come you can’t see anything?’ I was wearing a body stocking as opposed to a bra and knickers... It was embarrassing for him to have done that in front of so many people."
• In 1993, after Labour’s defeat in the 1992 election, McDaid was recruited to work for the party. One of her tasks was to help Prescott in his role as shadow transport secretary. “He was wary from the start because he was aware his behaviour had been inappropriate”
• “I just hated it. He said that since I wasn’t a member of the Labour party I must be a spy. He made a fuss because he had harassed me and he didn’t like the fact he was under my brief.”
• "He was a boastful, arrogant, nasty pig. He just jumped on you when he felt like it at a party. He had no manners whatsoever. Several times I nearly slapped him in the face."
• He “jumped” on her at parties hoping for sexual favours. “He just leapt on me at one party and his tongue was halfway down my throat.”
• She had to wear trouser suits to avoid his wandering hands in the lifts at his Westminster office. She added that she was too afraid to protest at the time for fear of losing her job.
• “He started to kiss me. He pulled my dress out, looked down my top and said, ‘What have you got on under there, how come you can’t see anything?’. I was wearing a body stocking as opposed to a bra and knickers. It was so embarrassing for him to have done that in front of so many people... A few weeks later he came to my house. He just turned up on the doorstep at about 12 o’clock at night. I was in East Dulwich and he lived in this seamen’s union flat in Clapham and he just came over. I cooked him dinner and sat there and chatted. He was looking for sexual favours but what are you going to do? It was sexual harassment but I never made a formal complaint. If you complained about sexual harassment, you would have never worked again. We did not have sexual relations. But he used to get really drunk on whisky and would say he had a dossier about people in the Labour party sleeping with one another.”
• “Afterwards I worked as a political journalist for the Irish News. I remember him at a party at the Irish embassy. I was surrounded by people but he kissed me on the lips and started to put his tongue down my throat. I laid into him. I got quite aggressive and there was a scene. He accused me of being a Tory spy.”
• She said he also turned up at her house uninvited at night looking for “sexual favours”.
• “It was all about sex. That’s all it was ever about with him. He saw women as wee girls and would just grab their arses. He would do it to anybody in a skirt. I started wearing trouser suits so I wouldn't get groped. We would have meetings in his office and he would put his hand up his secretary’s skirt while everybody was there.”
  

Tricia McDaid endured a campaign of harassment for two years, afraid to complain for fear she would be sacked.

*Yes Sir Michael, round two has begun...

Friendly FoEs

Anna Mitchell from the Friends of the Earth press office was on the phone to Guido and he got on his bike and went back to their offices.

Anna looked me in the eye and said "that is not our rubbish". Guido pointed out that it was outside their office and had a Friends of the Earth sticker on it. She said it was not their bin, the rubbish must come from their neighbours and she offered me the chance to come view their extensive recycling facilities. Guido declined the offer. Anna clearly was genuine and Guido is a sucker for a pretty face - so will accept their claim.

However, there is clearly a missed recycling opportunity here for them literally on their doorstep. All that paper waste and their handy recycling facilities...

Not So Friendly to the Earth

Guido's friends have noticed that he is riding about on a bicycle - not in some emulation of Cameron but because his scooter has been stolen for the third time this year. Since it is sunny and baby Ms Fawkes enjoys riding in the safety seat on the back, it seems like a good idea, as well as being healthy and green.

Bicycling along earlier this morning Guido passed by Friends of the Earth's offices. The "holier than thou" crowd who campaign for more recycling had their rubbish outside dumped in a commercial waste dumper bin awaiting collection. That was surprising in itself - you would expect a recycling bin or even a composter. As well as all the cardboard boxes, office paper, cardboard wine case (Spanish red, non-organic) and other easily recycled materials there was even a Starbucks coffee cup. Ironic that CCHQ has fairtrade coffee inhouse and someone at FoE sups from the cup of the devil itself.

So Guido's first attempt at actual muckraking uncovers a hypocritical mini-scandal at the Green HQ. Guido has checked and there are recycling facilities only a few hundred yards from FoE's offices.

Don't Like Mondays?

Just remember that our ruling classes have 11 weeks off and won't be back in their offices until October 9th. MPs will of course be on full pay...

Nominations Open:2006 Press Plagiarist of the Year

This unique, specially commissioned, beautiful trophy and conceptual artwork representing the until now under-recognised journalistic skills of cutting and pasting will once again be awarded to the journalist nominated by blog readers to have excelled in this under-recognised area.

This year we are making two changes to the award - an international category to recognise the efforts of foreign journalists. The winner of the UK award will, in addition to the trophy, also receive a specially drafted Claim for Monies Owed from the Courts.

Let Guido remind you of the nomination criteria: a story has to be pinched from an original blog source, either verbatim or in essence, and no credit / payment given to the original source. This qualifies as plagiarism. Similar stories on subjects eliciting similar comments do not pass this test, since even lazy journalists can have the same ideas as brilliant bloggers.

International interest in this award is high, nominees will be nerve wracked. Get nominating...

2005 winners here. More about the awards of last year.

Handbags at Brown : Gordon's SpAd Attacks Gay Paper

Following Pink News' investigation which revealed that Gordon has consistently failed to turn up to vote for gay rights, his SpAd Damian McBride went off on one: "This is a ridiculous, irresponsible and shameful piece of garbage from a newspaper which does not understand the parliamentary process. If The Pink News wants to portray Gordon Brown as homophobic, can they explain why he has done more than any politician in history to reform the tax system in favour of gay couples".

Editor Marc Shoffman said: "Pink News does not believe the report was irresponsible, whilst we understand the time pressures of the Chancellor, the fact is that if the Whips believe the legislation was 'flagship' this suggests that someone who themselves seeks to become Prime Minister should also attend... The Treasury is a 5 minute walk from the House of Commons, if you passionately believe in something you can take some time out of the day to vote for it, especially as many of the votes were conducted outside of office hours."

Gordon has on 14 separate occasions failed to vote when issues relating to gay equality were voted on. He has failed to support the government's equalisation of the age of consent, the abolition of Section 28, gay couples being able to jointly adopt, civil partnerships and the Equality Act. Tony Blair made the votes...

Snouts in the Trough : Peter Hain Again

Guido does not begrudge Peter Hain his boy-racer passion for fast cars. In his own younger days Guido was known to race about in a Lotus Elise and do the odd handbrake turn in a rally car. As these pictures show Hain enjoyed himself immensely dressing up and racing cars at a Rally Ireland event in Sligo.

Unlike Peter Hain, Guido paid for his boy-racer jollies out of his own pocket rather than charge it to the taxpayer. Guido's flights and helicopters were at his own expense. Peter Hain charged to the taxpayer the £10,754 costs of his flights and expenses. There is no political justification for this, he is just enjoying himself at the taxpayers expense. No doubt he will claim some bogus "security" justification. Look at his smile in these pictures, he is laughing at you the taxpayer.

Since when has a playboy lifestyle been the chargeable expense of a minister of the crown? He should get his turbocharged snout out of the trough and pay back every penny.

See also Snouts in the Trough : Peter Hain

Lost Constituency

Labour's approved candidates have received two emails in the last two days from HQ:

Dear NPP applicant,

CONSTITUENCY LABOUR PARTIES SEEKING CANDIDATES FOR THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION

You are receiving this letter/email because you applied to the National Parliamentary Panel by the end of March deadline set by the NEC for early selections. If you have not provided the NPP co-ordinator with an email address, please forward these details to legal_queries@new.labour.org.uk in order that the party can stay in regular contact with you, update you on training, interviews, selections and other relevant information.

Please note that these details are also available on the members-only area of the Labour Party website - www.labour.org.uk - as a potential candidate, you should check this page regularly.

Applications for seats must be in the format of a standard two page CV which is also available from the members' only area of the website, or directly from Procedures Secretaries.

You are reminded that the candidates' code of conduct must be adhered to at all times. Following the publication of a timetable for a constituency (and once aspiring candidates have formally expressed an interest in a seat) and on payment of £20, potential candidates are entitled to branch secretary and membership lists.

If you have not logged on to the members' area of the party's website before, you will need your membership number. The log-in box is on the left hand side of the web-page.

The following CLPs are currently seeking candidates for the forthcoming general election. Details of the CLP, the Procedures Secretary (to whom applications should be addressed) and the deadline by which all applications should be with the Procedures Secretary are also attached.

PS: Please note if you change any of your details you should inform Membership Services as well by calling 08705 900 200.

General queries on parliamentary selections and the National Parliamentary Panel should be made to the Compliance Unit on legal_queries@new.labour.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Melanie Onn
Head of Compliance Unit

Current Parliamentary Selections : 26 July 2006

Seat: Shrewsbury & Altringham
Currently held by: Conservative
Majority: 1,808
2nd Place: Lab

Not long after that went out a correction was sent out renaming the constituency:

Seat: Shrewsbury & Atchum
Currently held by: Con
Majority: 1,808
2nd Place: Lab

All women shortlist: No
Deadline for applications: 29 August
Shortlisting meeting: 21 October
Hustings meeting: 4 November

Guido believes Labour HQ will find it is actually called Shrewsbury & Atcham.

Wonkette Goes Back in Time

Ana Marie Cox is to become Washington editor of TIME.com next month. In her new role she will be coordinating political coverage as well as continuing to create features and essays for both the print and online editions.

Cox was the founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, which was great in her day, but is now worse than Recess Monkey. Guido has no intention of following in her footsteps and taking over at the Economist...

How to Send Kosher Pizzas to the Israeli Defence Forces

From the one-sided BBC reporting you would never realise that Hezbollah is launching sustained rocket blitzes day after day on Israeli towns. Guido has stopped watching the BBC coverage and has switched to the more balanced Sky News.

Whereas once Britain's grannies knitted woolie hats and gloves for our boys in the trenches, nowadays modern technology means that you can give your support online to those fighting against Hezbollah's Islamo-fascism just by clicking on a link. Guido has independently verified this and it is a genuine way to show support for Israel's frontline troops. PizzaIDF.org organise the delivery of pizzas and Pepsi to troops risking their lives searching for rocket firing terrorists.

Google Geeks Get a Move On

This blog is hosted by Blogger.com, part of Google. Blogger has been having unexplained problems and has driven Iain Dale to attempt DIY repairs. My own geeks say (a) it is nothing to do with them and (b) it is fine if you are using the Firefox browser. Guido uses Firefox because it is quicker and allows him to open tabbed pages simultaneously. Download and switch to Firefox and your life will be better.

Iain warns that if they don't sort it out he will drop using Blogger. Google's Rachel Whetstone has promised Iain things will be sorted. Quickly please.

LibDem Backer Guilty - Judge Says "Jail Him"

Appearing at Southwark Crown Court, Michael Brown admitted committing perjury and making a false declaration to obtain a passport. Brown also faces other fraud charges involving the HSBC bank.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC suggested the LibDem's biggest backer will face a jail sentence when he is sentenced on 25 September. He has been on remand in Wormwood Scrubs for months.

Maybe he'll get to talk at some date about the future of political financing with Lord Levy. The not too distant future...

Gordon's Gay Friendliness Questioned

According to research by PinkNews, Gordon Brown, has consistently failed to support gay rights in parliament since the Labour party was elected in 1997. Research by them shows that he has never attended parliament when gay rights have been voted on whilst Labour has been in power. They say:

Mr Brown has on 14 separate occasions failed to attend Commons votes when issues relating to gay equality were voted on. He failed to support the government's equalisation of the age of consent, the abolition of Section 28, gay couples being able to jointly adopt, civil partnerships and the Equality Act. The registration of civil partnerships are the responsibility of the Treasury, the department that Mr Brown heads.

In late July, the Labour rebel John McDonnell, MP for Hayes & Harlington declared his intent to challenge Mr Brown for the leadership of the Labour party. Unlike Mr Brown, Mr McDonnell has voted positively in every one of the fourteen divisions relating to gay equality held since 1997.

Mr Brown could possibly argue that he was "too busy" to attend the votes. However, even with his greater work load, Mr Blair managed to attend four divisions relating to equalising the age of consent and allowing gay couples to jointly adopt.

Indeed, Mr Brown could be considered to posses a worse record than David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives.

Odd that Brown has been "too busy" to vote for gay rights. You'd thought he be happy to help out...

Balls Goes Ballistic

A co-conspirator emails about a recent lunch organised by sleazy lobbyists LLM. Ed Balls spoke and went completely mad about criticism of the spending review. He ended up shouting that if the CBI and the TUC didn't like what he was doing they should get on and do their own. Is the heat getting to him?

Snouts in the Trough : Peter Hain

The Belfast Telegraph's David Gordon has highlighted Peter Hain's penchant for expensive taxpayer-funded flights to sporting events in Ireland.

Hain flew in specially chartered planes to a Dublin rugby international and two Sligo motor racing events within the past year. The bill for Hain's costly jollies comes to £10,754. Hain, a keen motorsports fan, flew with one official last October to Sligo to attend a motorsports event. The cost of this one-day trip was £2,491. In February he flew to Dublin to attend an Ireland versus Wales rugby match. Three officials went with him and the bill for the one-day trip came to £5,002. In March, he was back in Sligo again to attend another Rally Ireland event. Two officials flew with him on a charter plane for a two-day stay which cost £3,271.

The use of taxpayer-funded charter flights to attend jollies has even provoked the Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman, David Lidington: "Everyone accepts the need for Ministers to travel, sometimes at short notice, but these three trips sound like costly jollies at taxpayers' expense." Guido thinks Hain can get a bloody Ryanair flight to the rugby at his own expense like the rest of us.

Onslow : Strategic Thinker

The Tory Earl of Onslow and the LibDem's Lord Holme were on Today this morning discussing the Lords Constitution Committee's call for an end to the Government’s unfettered power to deploy British troops abroad.

Onslow pointed out that if France were to attack Dover we would need to respond quickly and there would not be time for a debate in the commons. Exactly.

All the more reason Guido thinks for Britain to develop a truly independent of the Yanks short-range nuclear deterrent. Onslow knows...

Oaten Dumps Winchester

The news that Mark Oaten is dumping his politicial career has hit hard. The loss of such a rich source of double entendre and innuendo will be keenly felt. Guido feared for Mark's sanity - the Hello interviews, the reality TV escapades, at last some sense has prevailed. His transparent attempt to spin his way back into the frontline of politics with daytime TV-style victimhood psycho-babble failed, so he is off to help the third world. God help them. Farewell Mark. Guido will miss you.

Des Smith Hits the Bottle

Des Smith hit the bottle hard last week under the pressure of the police inquiry into the cash for honours scam. He broke down in tears yesterday in court as he was sentenced for drink driving at Redbridge magistrates. The police evidence to the court was that he was three times over the maximum limit. Guido has a lot of empathy for a fellow hard-drinking Catholic. Will the school governors feel the same?

It can hardly be good for school discipline that the kids know the headmaster has been arrested in a corruption investigation and that he now has a criminal record as well. His involvement in fund raising for Sleazy Levy, who has also been arrested and is himself the primary target of the investigation, offers a way out. Clearly the Sleaze Master General is the one the police really want to nail.

Currently Des Smith is in denial and protesting his innocence. Guido's advice, in the best of Catholic traditions, is that Des should make a full confession to Yates' Operation Ribble.

New Media Totty

Pictured with Bill Thompson is Jo Twist, a judge of the New Media Awards who some of the younger readers will recognise from her days as a CBeebies television presenter. She is now a new media pundit / IPPR wonk and top totty. Look at Bill's body language...

Guido bumped into her lucky man and explained that we once had a fierce difference of opinion. "Oh, you don't want to do that, she is a bloody nightmare..."

In an effort to redress the totty gender balance, above is Alan Connor, the Daily Politics' blog guru covers online affairs for the BBC. Does he qualify as totty? His dark secret is that he used to present C4's The Word. He is witty and of indeterminate availability girls, so if you like what you see..

When Guido met Georgina

A merry Mrs Recess Monkey frogmarched Guido across the New Statesman party on Monday night towards someone who looked vaguely familiar. "Guido, this is Georgina". Ahaaa, we were all smiles. The Guardian online editor said she didn't get the "cut my grass for free" crack until after the phone call. She also claimed to have missed seeing the news about Guido getting more traffic than the whole of Comment is Free. Of course...

She generously blandished offers of money towards Guido and seemed to misunderstand, perhaps deliberately, or perhaps because she wasn't sure if Guido was teasing. No really, Guido has no interest in writing for Comment is Free, it is, like Open Democracy, a conglomeration of variable quality writing from various perspectives. CiF has no personality - successful newspapers have personality, the best blogs have personality - people want to know what they are getting. The smorgasbord approach doesn't seem to work very well. Why do bloggers need a single corporate platform anyway? For readers a click to another page or another site is seamless - so being on a shared platform is of no advantage to the writers, in fact it means they are subject to editorial whims. If you have your own blog you are free to write what you want, if you blog for a newspaper you submit yourself to editorial veto. That seems a retrograde step.

Blogging collectives only really work for the readers when the editorial line has some focus - Samizdata or Harry's Place forinstance take a line and have a community of writers with broadly similar views (Samizdatistas think private gun ownership is good and want to liberate Iraq through firepower. Over at Harry's place they think gun ownership is bad and want to socialise Iraq through firepower.) Good writers who are unable to follow a line are far better off doing their own thing. Guido is forever grateful to Samizdata's Perry De Havilland "losing" article submissions in his spam folder, it led directly to the creation of this blog.

So unless you particularly need £75, give the CiF a miss, write for yourself, do your own thing. Remember, you can make the news now, the technology is available to you and it is beyond their control.

MiliBlogger Contorts

Haven't had time to today to properly blog the New Statesman New Media Awards, so will just mention the strange contortions of Miliband. He has a nervous energy about him. These are a few positions into which he managed to contort, some of them were a lot more weird and unfortunately Guido failed to capture them - on stage his facial expressions had the air of someone on amphetamines. As reported elsewhere he managed to have a go at Guido in his speech for "reycling Westminster rumours" (trans. telling the truth). He did a public reading of posts from Devil's Kitchen during his speech - just as well he didn't do a reading from his own yawn inducing blog of wonkery which costs the taxpayer a pound a word.

Miliband, if I recall correctly, basically exhorted Guido to blog in the service of a higher noble purpose. Not a chance. The day when a government minister praises Guido is the day he thinks it might be time to quit

Charity Breaks Law Supporting Dari Taylor MP

Why is a charity hosting a Labour MP's party political propaganda?

An eagle-eyed co-conspirator spotted that the CRY charity website was hosting Dari's promotional leaflet:

http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/Spring%202005%20Parliamentary%20Report.pdf

Globalisation Institute Totty Report

Despite the Globalisation Institute already having had a summer party they had a second one last night. DFID shadow Andrew Mitchell launched the Conservative's big new idea for development - a Pan-African Free Trade Area to encourage intra-African trade through the removal of protectionist barriers and tariffs. All very worthy. David Davis' former campaign manager has obviously realised that he too can do Cameroonie. "Enterprise-based development" is the the new ideological mantra to make poverty history in Africa.

Guido swigged a quick champagne and surveyed the room which was overseen by G.I. chairman Howard Flight. The crowd was overwhelmingly CCHQ boys and girls, wonks, A-listers and a smattering of MPs. As well as the shadow international development team Guido thought he saw a few DFID types around the room ingratiating themselves with their future political masters. The Oxfam, CAFOD and Christian Aid apparatchiks in attendance were no doubt spluttering into their champagne at the thought of free trade for Africans, by Africans, with Africans.

Picture credit : Brian Micklethwait

The totty quotient was high...

Too Hungover

Guido was drinking Stolichnaya in the early hours of the morning after unwisely convening the New Statesman Media Awards after-party at the Gore on Queens Gate. Have to go out to lunch now for a hair of the dog.

Will report on the totty, the strange contortions of Miliband, the wandering hands of Geofrey Robinson and what happened when Guido met Georgina after lunch.

Normal Service Will Be Resumed Shortly

Guido woke up this morning on the sofa with his hair being pulled off his head by baby Ms Fawkes, this was nothing compared to the throbbing pain inside his head. Back soon with totty reports from the Globalisation Institute reception and New Statesman New Media Awards - which surprisingly Guido failed to win in the "contribution to civil society" category. Need to find the Nurofen first.

Questions for the PMOS

Guido can't be arsed to gatecrash the farce that is the PMOS' Lobby briefing today. Could one of the fearless pack ask the questions we really want answered....

Why didn't Cherie attend? Is it true she can't stand Anji? Did Tony stay for the disco? Did the disco play Simply Red because Mick Hucknall was there? Did the DJ think "Money's Too Tight (To Mention)" would be an amusing choice? Doesn't Mick Hucknall play tennis with his mates? Has Hucknall ever played against Lord Levy? Enquiring minds want to know.

Guido wishes the happy couple well.

Blogalypse Now III

Guido is, as you can see, taking advertising. Soon Guido and a few of the other leading high-traffic bloggers will be represented by an online advertising company. The politics site that has hitherto got most of the online political advertising is ePolitix.com. Useful, but dull. Advertisers should compare how much traffic ePolitix ("The UK's premier politics website" is their outdated and misleading claim) gets relative to say Guido or Iain..

Since the beginning of last quarter Guido has been beating ePolitix, Iain Dale has been ahead of the site since the beginning of this quarter. Contact sales@Order-Order.com for more information.

See also Blogalypse Now, Blogalypse Now II

email us Wireless Networks, Consultancy, Hardware & Software

Not So Funny in Hindsight?

A co-conspirator just pointed out this old anecdote to Guido:

In the summer of 1996, the satirist Rory Bremner had a curious encounter with Tony Blair that showed the youthful premier-in-waiting was already lining up a circle of celebrity courtiers to cast a reflected glow of glory onto his government.

Bremner, holidaying in the south of France, had learnt that the Blairs were staying in the next village. To his astonishment he received a telephone call from Cherie Blair. “She asked me whether I wanted to play tennis,” he recalls. “To this day I don’t know how that came about.”

After a pleasant game with Blair and making a few jokes at the expense of John Major, then prime minister, Bremner raised a serious point. “I said, ‘We’re laughing at John Major now, but if you get into power the boot will be on the other foot and you’ll be on the receiving end.’

“Blair laughed rather nervously and said, ‘Uh, um, how does Lord Bremner sound to you?’ ” It was a joke, Bremner emphasises, “but he was aware of patronage and bringing people within the circle”.

Not so funny now?

Dave Does Afghanistan

Cameron is doing a photo-op with our boys in Afghanistan this morning.

UPDATE : A Tory whip, Tobias Ellwood, is calling for the legalisation of opium this morning. A sensible idea in the circumstances:

Six British soldiers have died in Helmand province over the past six weeks, most in the former opium market town of Sangin where they are fighting a fierce insurgency of Taliban warlords who have gained the support of local farmers.

"The poppy crops are the elephant in the room of the Afghan problem. We're in complete denial of the power that the crops have on the nation as a whole, and the tactics of eradication are simply not working," Mr Ellwood told Guardian Unlimited.

"Last year we spent £600m on eradication and all that resulted was the biggest-ever export of opium from the country."

He said that opium farming should be licensed so that the harvest could be sold legally on the open market, bringing in income for Afghan farmers and helping to plug a global shortage of opiate-based medicines.

Opium is a luxury drug which could bring much needed hard currency and employment to Afghanistan. Shame that the political veto of the Taliban wings of the U.S. Republicans and British Conservatives, with their abhorrence of free choice in personal matters, will mean that the poor farmers of Afghanistan will be driven into the hands of the real Taliban at the cost of British soldiers lives. What is the Afghanistan military plan anybody? Didn't Doc Reid say they probably wouldn't be involved in any fighting - they seem to be dying now - for what?

Some Experience Necessary :Guardian Unlimited Needs a New Politics Editor

That is not just a cruel Guidoesque jibe, they really do, Guardian Unlimited Politics is looking for a new editor who

"will ensure that the site remains the place to go for up-to-the-minute news and comment on the political scene.. Ideally, you are currently working in a political news or research environment and can demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the subject. You should have excellent writing and editing skills and a proven track record of working in a fast-changing environment, which has prepared you for the unique time pressures involved in working on the web."

As part of your application, please list five ideas on how you would improve the Politics site.

So email them your five best ideas for what to do with Guardian Unlimited Politics, they clearly desperately need them : georgina.henry@guardian.co.uk.*

Elsewhere today on the Guardian's Comment is Free (editor G. Henry), Sir Michael White writes a spirited defence of his friend the DPM, in the comments he says "I don't read Guido as often as I should, I'm afraid his site crashes the software on creaking Guardian kit".

*Never say Guido doesn't own up to mistakes. The recent story which referred to a "Guardian intern posh product of media studies course" was mistaken, it was not an intern, it was in fact Georgina Henry, online editor. She did not take a media studies course nor would she cut my grass. Guido has made an appropriate donation to charity.

Guido Welcomes New Readers

Not ev