Because the dirty mind is a perpetual feast (and because I know you've all got dirty minds), we're going to start with this frankly ROCKIN' headline from LabourHome: "Gordon has his best PMQs for months and satisfies Joanna afterwards". Saucy devil! [Cue Leslie Phillips style sniggering];
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Alex Smith, David Cameron, Demos, Derek Draper, DNA database, Gordon Brown, hazel blears, Iain Dale, Joanna Lumley, Jonathan Myerson, Kerry McCarthy, LabourHome, LabourList, Luke Akehurst, Matthew Parris, PMQs
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It's thirty years since Thatcher became Prime Minister, and the entire blogosphere has gone Maggie ker-AZY! ConservativeHome appears to have a "Margaret and me. But mostly meme" on, with this from John Bercow on how she inspired him to join the Young Conservatives, and Liberal Lord Alton tells all about his part in her triumphs. [...]
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged A Very Public Sociologist, Anton Vowl, BBC, BNP, ConservativeHome, Dailyy Mail, David Dimbleby, Don Paskini, Evening Standard, Frank Owen's Paintbrush, Gordon Brown, hazel blears, Hopi Sen, Jackie Ashley, John Bercow, John Rentoul, Lord Alton, Margaret Thatcher, Paul Burgin, Robin Day, Tom Harris
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Well done the comrades on the Gurkha debate yesterday! The comrades, I hear you roar? THE COMRADES?! For was it not David Cameron who posed with Joanna Lumley outside St Stephen's Entrance for the cameras with wee Nicky Clegg? (Yea!) Was it not the Government that was defeated at the vote and promised to bring forward the review of the guidance to before the summer recess and put a moratorium on deportations? (Yea!) Why yes, to all of the above. But it was actually the LABOUR backbenchers by and large - who actually care about the Gurkhas and have been lobbying for years for justice - who put on the pressure to bring about the changes (although hon menshes go to Ann Widdecombe and other Liberal and Tory members of the APPG on Gurkha Rights). The rest is just vacuous grandstanding by two leaders with pretty hair for the benefit of headlines involving the words "BROWN" and "CRISIS." Guess it depends whether you think politics should be about process or progress, I guess.
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged David Cameron, Giles Coren, Gordon Brown, Gurkha, Hopi Sen, Joanna Lumley, Laurence Robertson, Mike Smithson, Nick Clegg, Paul Sagar, RecessMonkey, Rod Liddle, swine fever
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Justice Minister Jack Straw engages with the consultative process on Titan prisons. And gets roundly berated for it. It's like all those howls of "CONTROL FREAK" from the Tories and meedja under the Tonemeister never happened, isn't it?
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Daily Mail, Equalities Bill, Giles Coren, Harriet Harman, ID cards, Jack Straw, Photoshop Disasters, Stephen Byers, Taxation, Tom Harris, Trident
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And that's where we start: the reaction of the MSM and the blogosphere over the revelation that Jacqui Smith's husband spent a tenner on porn which was accidentally charged to the taxpayer is as apocolyptic as you might expect. The Sun gets extra Misogyny Points for asking, rhetorically, why the husband of a "Blair babe" would need to watch porn (answer: because they're all mingers innit? Hur hur hur!).
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Chris Paul, Donal Blaney, G20, George Orwell Awards, Inheritance Tax, Jacqui Smith, Laurie Penny, McDonalds, Nick Cohen, Policy Exchange, Starbucks, The Sun
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Universities push the Government to raise tuition fees (those rugby dinners don't fund themselves yer know) in the hope that if they do, our institutions of learning can subsequently claim that it was all the Government's fault/idea. S'wot usually happens, innit? "Thanks a lot!" mutter MPs and bag-carriers of all parties, whose journey to work will now [...]
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Bloggerheads, Daily Quail, David Cameron, David Hughes, Dunblane, EPP, Gordon Brown, Kevin Maguire, Leila Deen, Paula Murray, Peter Hitchens, Telegraph, Tim Ireland, Tom Harris
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HSBC, the bank at which your correspondent's overdraft is stabled, asks for shareholder bailout of £12.5bn.
RBS reports record losses of £24.1bn. There's more here and here, but it will all be alright as long as Sir Fred Goodwin's gives up his mahoosive pension. This would fill up that hole AND leave enough for trebles all round for the taxpayer - except he won't, will he? Selfish bastard. This is certainly the impression you would have got had you, like me, listened to the searing economic analysis that makes the Today programme the agenda-setter it is.
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Amnesty, Cath Elliott, Daily Mail, Damian Green, Heathrow, Lord Ashcroft, Paulie, Phil Cowley, RBS, Revolts, Sir Fred Goodwin, Today Programme
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