Beermatters
Not a photoshop job, genuine campaign beermat from Blears. Wonder where they were when thought up that idea?
Not a photoshop job, genuine campaign beermat from Blears. Wonder where they were when thought up that idea?From: Edemocracy@lse.ac.uk
Sent: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 2.31PM
Subject: David Miliband Blog Evaluation Survey
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee today told Dave he had been "ill-advised" to link funding to access to his office. Guido has been told that the modus operandi for the "Leaders Group" was to have proven donors over for PMQs on a Wednesday, have them watch the show and then give them lunch and a few drinks to loosen their wallets. Dave would do a bit of glad handing and not be around if and when they were directly hit up for dosh.
Much as Guido hates to add to his troubles given his current mental state, Sleazy Levy had a very similar routine, although a little more direct. If he smelt money off you at a social or party event, he would invite you to visit him at the Lords and hit you up for dosh there. Perhaps, given the circumstances, we should skip the rap on the knuckles from the parliamentary authorities option. He has enough to worry about as it is...
Robert Philpot, director of Progress and editor of their magazine has just been appointed as the new SpAd to Peter Hain, replacing the departed cheating Phil Taylor.
Well the live interview was definitely a mistake and against my better judgement, as was the in-the-shadows idea of the Newsnight editor, but nice to have Sir Michael White go to full-frontal-abuse.Interviewing Prezza for the Guardian on the 10.05 out of King's Cross yesterday I was startled, not for the first time, by his resillient energy. It was his 68th birthday, which makes him eight years older than me and a good deal more energetic. Why hasn't he got any white hair, I found myself wondering? What's his secret? Pauline's cooking? Grecian 2000? Tracey? Croquet? A zeal for the public good?Incidentally - want to clarify something immediately re Nick Robinson - that last line about Nick being the source, did not mean he was the source for the original much contested Guido "email" second system story. Nick has never been a source. We had a discussion re the Ruth Turner document after doing his interview. That was what the reference was to, pretty sure that came over all wrong, and genuinely apologise for any embarrassment caused to Nick. Good night.
Guido occasionally gets calls from producers asking him to go on TV and turns them down. Newsnight have tried a few times without success. But they finally made Guido an offer he couldn't refuse, his own production team, a free hand with the script and five minutes of prime time to do whatever he wanted. So despite never wanting to get his face on TV, Guido decided to take on our political broadcasters; Nick Robinson, Adam Boulton and Paxman. Crick's old job is up for grabs after all...
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A co-conspirator called to draw Guido's attention to a comment by Owen Barder, formerly Blair's economic private secretary, latterly a mandarin at DFID and not a person unknown to the Miliblogger himself. He says of the Miliblog "..this is excellent value for money. People should be impressed that a Cabinet Minister is blogging at all, not whinging about the very reasonable costs." Now that is sock-puppetry of the highest order...
Why not run the ad officially? Because firstly it breaches Zephyr Film's copyright, it is also a little bit risky in that humour can often have disastrous and unexpected consequences. Gweirdo (James Mason) carefully takes responsibility for it in case Benn's team need to avoid getting any backwash. Humour has hitherto been sadly lacking in political videos, now that anyone with a laptop and a digital camera can make one, that is going to change. This one works and won't harm Hilary Benn at all, but as Sion Simon's anti-WebCameron debacle proves, it can backfire badly.
Consider the blog to be in Beta version...
Over 70,000 people have so far watched Gordon's two minute bogeytastic excavation via YouTube, making it by far the most watched political video outside the US. Guido put the video together in a bit of a hurry and looped the Twilight Zone theme tune on repeat.
When the Treasury finds out it is paying for this someone is going to be in big trouble. How did this get through moderation? If you have a civil servant paid a pro-rata rate of some sixty grand to do the moderation you'd at least expect them to be attentive given the controversy.
Jack Straw is obviously going to need to top up Gordon's male dominated team with some women to give it a more inclusive feel. Why not people he has some experience with? Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP who sat on the EU convention's 13-strong presidium has experience, and Oona King has a younger funkier appeal with the bonus of ethnicity thrown in. She also charmed Gordon at the Fabian conference recently with the improbable (pre-Kylie) claim that "If you want celebrity and glitz, Gordon is not your man." No harm in boosting Gordon's campaign with some female talent...
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the Better Off Out campaign is holding a Better Off IN reception (junket) tonight at the Old Bank of England from 7 until closing time. The theme is that politicians, not the people of Europe, are better off in the EU....he has an official effectively acting as his blogging assistant who does about 10 hours work a month at a cost of £300. Now if that was equated to a full time equivalent that would be say 40 hours a week at £30 an hour for 52 weeks which is a whopping £62,400 salary.
Miliband has, in an incredibly revealing fit of pique, now removed his link to this blog from his blog-roll, (he only added Guido to his blog-roll a month ago for some blogospheric street cred). This follows the New Statesman recently removing their blog link last month after Guido criticised them for not covering the Smith Institute scandal, despite them sharing an office with the Sith. Is Guido bovvered?
The government can find time in the busy legislatory calendar to drive Catholic Adoption agencies out of business, but it can't find time to amend anti-Roman Catholic bigotry enshrined in statute. Lord Falconer told Lord Patten that "The Government already have a heavy legislative programme and therefore have no plans to legislate in this area."
Dave is an occasional reader of this blog, so he'll no doubt be familiar with the legend. You don't think he was having a little dig on his blog here, do you?It'snot just the British horrified by Gordon's two minutes of public nose excavation. Brown's bogeytastic behaviour has gone global. Guido has had an overnight traffic surge following the Brown Bogey Man's behaviour being re-broadcast on French television and trans-Atlantic interest is massive. See it all on Guynews.Don't do this children - it is dirty, disgusting and weird to do in front of millions of viewing voters. The Bogey Man thrice picks his nose, watch him eat it and then subtly wipe his fingers on the back of his tie.Miliband has just deleted the blog post (see below) where he broke the civil service rules and used his ministerial office to further party political goals. Given he gets his civil servants to deal with his blog, taxpayers were harmed in the making of this, he should refund the cost out of Labour party funds. By Guido's count this makes the score two-nil.
Miliband is the intellectual future of the Labour party and their next leader after Gordon? God help 'em...Viewer caution. Not suitable for children. Release time 5pm.
UPDATE : 5pm ish.
When Miliband started his ministerial blog he got a lot of criticism that it was party politics at the taxpayers expense, he promised that "because this is a Government site I won't lapse into party ranting". It would be a breach of the Civil Service Code if he did.Leader, Thursday March 22, 2007
For richer, for poorerYou don't have to be one of those obscenely overpaid City analysts to recognise that the number one thing on Gordon Brown's mind yesterday was politics.
So out goes the dour Scottish Presbyterian, mincing, psychologically flawed, vindictive sulking socialist loser. In comes the smiley, touchy-feely, Kylie loving, British, loving father-of-two and premier. Yeah, right.As sent out TO BROWNITES:
XXXXXX Welcomes 11th Brown Budget
XXXXXXXX MP XXXXXXX has welcomed Gordon Brown's 11th Budget as a 'magnificent deal for Britain'.
XXXXXXX added that the Chancellor's budget proved Labour is the Party of low taxes and safe economic management.
He said: "For the environment, for families, for businesses, pensioners and children, this was a Budget that delivered brilliant benefits.
"Corporation tax cuts will help XXXXX businesses, while rises in spending on schools, hospitals and defence of £17 billion will see us all safer, more secure and better educated.
"Above all else though, Gordon has delivered an amazing reduction in the basic rate of Income Tax which will see huge savings for XXXXXXXXXXXXX people.
"I was also delighted to see measures introduced to help the fight against global warming, as well as a major increase in the fund to help people who have seen their pensions demolished.
"On top of all these measures, the doubling of Capital Gains Tax allowance for couples will make a significant difference for thousands of XXXXXXXX families who have been responsible with their incomes.
"This is a golden budget for Britain and a clear sign of the great Prime Minister Gordon Brown will soon become."
Before you protest, anarchy is right-of-centre if you are an anarcho-capitalist."No government is a way of life. No government means to trust your friends. I know who I am, and you know who you are. If everybody knew what they wanted, There'd be nothing, nothing left. People would do what they wanted, And there'd be no government."
It is going to be all Gordon, all day today. He will be telling us how we live in a heaven on earth and tractor production in the Urals is up 500% since the last 5-year plan.
Climate change denial is bonkers, the evidence shows that in recent history temperatures have risen, but the argument that carbon causes climate change seems to be based on suspect science. Nevertheless the Greens have chosen to blame carbon emissions for causing climate change because of their supernatural hatred of industrialisation, the automobile and urbanisation, derived partly from their misty-eyed romanticisation of peasant life. It suits their political objectives to blame carbon emissions for climate change.
