£15 is also the cost of joining the Conservative Party. Clearly there's a going rate for being screwed by someone who doesn't care about you.
s salivating.The exchange took place at this year's Labour Party conference during a reception hosted by the GuardianObserver, where Levy took it upon himself to act as an unofficial "meeter and greeter".
Levy and I started talking, particularly about a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on the "cash for honours" affair which I had presented and had been broadcast that same night.
Levy was his legendary charming self. Disarmingly, he told me that his wife had watched the programme and found it very fair. I was delighted, but said there was one matter I felt I had to raise with him. What did he make of the general point I made in the programme: that the loans from wealthy party supporters were not intended as loans, but were to be converted into donations?
He gripped my arm like a long-lost friend and said, by way of answer: "Only some of them." I asked him what he meant and whether he could point to any specific loans. He volunteered the name of Lord Sainsbury, the billionaire former science minister who had lent the party £2m.
The point is that large donations, under this government's own legislation, had to be declared, but loans did not. So what exactly was Levy saying to me? Did he misunderstand my original question? That is possible, but he had gone on to give me an example. Was he joking? Again possibly, but it's an odd matter to joke about. Or was he merely expressing his hope that the loans would be converted into donations?
The next NEC meeting?As Christmas approaches it is the traditional time to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. You know, the hopeless, friendless and soon-to-be bankrupt. Someone has established a blog to Keep Tony Blair as PM. I'm not quite sure why, as the link was received by Your Servant via multiple intermediaries. Heavy irony suspected.
Staff and passengers now permitted to wear crosses, crucifixes, St Christophers, lucky amulets, voodoo dolls to ward off the Evil Eye etc etc.The comments on LabourHome say it all;
Surely somebody else could be put up to doing PMQS. Prescott has had most of his other jobs taken from him. Usually, it's a laugh (mostly at him, but he can crack a good joke every now and then), but even by his own awful standards, it was an embarrassment.
I firmly believe that John Prescott should have been sacked and should not even be in the position.
JP had been encouraged to be "off sick"
"Blogs are increasingly used as a political tool. Political blogging has risen rapidly in the last 18 months and will no doubt be important in next year's French elections. The most visited political blog Guido Fawkes is as popular as Private Eye magazine. Fawkes publishes his server logs on his site to show that politicians go there and use the site.
"There are stories that appear in the media that we tracked using traditional press cuttings services, but blogging is not tracked by cuttings agencies. Monitoring news is important as so much affects us as a government.
"We see a number of newspapers are crediting the blogs that gave them the lead. The Home Office used its library current awareness service to track blogs.
Karen George, head of the Home Office library told them how the blog monitoring was done -
"In July 2005 they had a meeting with the press office to set up a montoring service on a trial period of six months.
"As news of what we were doing for the press office spread we were asked by lawyers, IT and all areas of Home Office made requests. Issues like ID cards produce a peak in blogs. In November of this year we already on 1888 alerts. We have 12 librarians that monitor blogs on a daily seven day week basis. These come in as feeds, the tools make the job easier, they cannot replace the skills of the professionals. Fundamental information professional skills of knowing your audience really comes to light. In just over a year it has become a key part of our department service, the benefits include a public enquiries unit that we can alert to media campaigns that are Home Office issues. There is now an enquiry department that is ahead of the news. As a result the department has a better relationship with its users."
Bates apologies for hand gesture
Nov 29 2006
A Welsh Assembly member apologised today after his rude hand gesture was captured on film and posted on the internet. Liberal Democrat AM Mick Bates was seen holding up his middle finger during a debate in the Assembly chamber yesterday.
A video of the incident appeared on the Guido Fawkes blog, accusing Mr Bates of directing the gesture at Assembly Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas. A Lib Dem spokesman said Mr Bates, the AM for Montgomeryshire, was in fact engaging in some “light-hearted banter” with Plaid Cymru AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas.
In a statement Mr Bates said: “My gesture was not directed to the Presiding Officer, for whom I have enormous respect and affection. “I was showing Rhodri Glyn Thomas which finger he should use to operate the Assembly’s modern push-button voting system. “If anyone has taken offence then of course I apologise for that.”
"We are today a nation in a state of shock, in mourning, in grief that is so deeply painful for us. (Gulp) It was the People's Party. (Pause. Stare into middle distance.) It was a wonderful and a warm human party, although often sadly touched by tragedy. (Extract onion from pocket, wipe tears from eye). It touched the wallets of so many others in Britain and throughout the world with .... etc etc."
"A fantastic networking opportunity bringing together public, private and voluntary sector managers, race equality professionals, community leaders, government representatives and celebrity guests."
The Electoral Commission has just released the new loans figures for the parties - showing who needs to sort out their debt problems.If you call the New Statesman you get an automated response system, which at the end directs callers to the Smith Institute. The Brown-backing New Statesman is owned by Geoffrey Robinson. Guido is making a wild guess here, but would be willing to bet that the Smith Institute gets a substantial amount of financial and other benefits-in-kind support from Geoffrey Robinson. Geoffrey is Gordon's great long time cheerleader and paymaster-general.1(1) If any person accepts or obtains or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person, or for any purpose, any gift, money or valuable consideration as an inducement or reward for procuring or assisting or endeavouring to procure the grant of a dignity or title of honour to any person, or otherwise in connection with such a grant, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
Guido is off to New York now and onwards to Vermont to meet with the local militia and hopefully find snow. You will be left you in the hands of Bobby Catesby, a co-conspirator from the old days. So Guido will be popping in for the afternoons only (maybe). I suppose this means the taxpayer will end up footing the bill for Anschutz's film about Wilberforce?
Catesby Esq
Revised lyrics by Greg Clark MP; revised music by Aretha Peter Franklin
How embarrassing. There we were, gathered in secrecy in the cellars beneath the House of Lords. We'd drugged Blunkett's dog and I was just about to light the fuse on our cunning bomb when Master Winter tugged my elbow and said "I say, Catesby old chap, are you sure this stuff's really high explosive?" And, um, it turned out it wasn't. I was trying to detonate 36 barrells of talcum powder. That's the last time I buy anything off E-Bay."..we then had to sit through a whole empowering women blurb - yadder yadder yadder. More alarmingly, Katy-Taylor Richards and Teasy May both had the same patent red shoes on. But everyone seemed to be praising Bernard Jenkins who was sitting smugly in the front row - despite his, well rejection as leader of candidates."
The news that the destitute Labour party is running a protection racket on local councillors, effectively forcing them to tithe their expenses (tax free) straight into Labour's central coffers is no surprise. The CID is investigating a complaint after the former leader of Sunderland council resigned from the party over the issue.
Is it just Guido or does the demonic personification of the inner tosser from the video bear a resemblance to Nigel Morris (pictured in the middle), the mega-rich co-founder of Capital One Financial Corporation, the firm which plagues our letterboxes with credit card offers targeting potential customers with "impaired debt histories". The same tosser who "lent" Labour £1m?After the conflict ended, cluster bombs used in Lebanon by Israel had resulted in 159 casualties, including 23 deaths so far. In Geneva last week, why did the UK not support calls from the UN Secretary-General, the International Committee of the Red Cross and 27 nations for urgent action? In Oslo next year, will the Prime Minister push for a ban on those indiscriminate bombs, or does he agree with the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, who has responsibility for the armed forces, who strongly advocates the use of such bombs?
Willie should know all about cluster bomb manufacturing as a result of his association with Raytheon. He was a spin-merchant at McEwan Purvis who had the merchants of death Raytheon - the weapons manufacturer as their client. They make those indiscriminate cluster bombs. This is a picture of him taken at the weapons firm's Scottish plant after he was elected.
Here is a picture of Willie meeting the boss of Raytheon taken from a press release drafted by his former workmates at McEwan Purvis. The F-18 pictured over Willie's shoulder carries the very same cluster bombs. As you can see Willie is giving this death merchant a stern dressing down and urging him to support the UN/Red Cross call for a cluster bomb ban.
Clark writes: "The traditional Conservative vision of welfare as a safety net encompasses another outdated Tory nostrum - that poverty is absolute, not relative. Churchill's safety net is at the bottom: holding people at subsistence level, just above the abyss of hunger and homelessness. It is the social commentator Polly Toynbee who supplies imagery that is more appropriate for Conservative social policy in the twenty first century."
It is Tuesday and that means at 6.30pm in the studio at Resonance, Piers Gibbon hosts The Knives Are Out, with Recess Monkey and Guido. Tonight we will be playing your calls on air and the main subject in the wake of Matthew Taylor's outbursts is blogging. Our guest is Paulie from Never Trust a Hippy. Baby Ms Fawkes will not be appearing due to appearance fee issues.
Ros Taylor has been humiliated, the Guardian has apologised. I am Chris Bryant.
