Knock one out for Nancy at Big Weekend Brighton

On the 27th and 28th February the Conservatives will be holding their spring conference in Brighton. Hundreds of their party members will be coming to the city and many will be doorknocking in the three local Labour-held marginal seats: Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown and Hove and Portslade. These are all target seats that Cameron needs to take if he is to win the General Election. Can you help Labour's Nancy Platts, Simon Burgess and Celia Barlow with some campaigning this weekend using the Virtual Phone Bank?

Can you knock one out for Nancy?

Full Facebook page here

Children 'over-exposed to sexual imagery'

... and we can't have that.

Let's teach them how to read aswell.

Read the full BBC News article here

Charity Commission investigates National Bullying Helpline

The Charity Commission is investigating the charity at the centre of a row over claims of bullying at Downing Street.  It said it had received more than 160 complaints about the National Bullying Helpline and had moved to prevent any more details of calls being disclosed.  Helpline chief executive Christine Pratt was criticised for saying it had been contacted by Downing Street staff amid claims about the PM's behaviour.  The helpline was suspended on Wednesday while the service considers its future.

The Krankies.

Full BBC News article here

UPDATE at 10.33am
The helpline has now re-opened.

Ronaldo, Nike and Battersea Power Station

Cristiano Ronaldo unveils the new Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly II boots he will wear for the rest of the domestic season, and at the World Cup, at Battersea Power Station.

 

Yes, Cristiano, the new lilac and tangerine boots will look great with Portugal's red and green kit!

Vast iceberg may disrupt ocean currents

An iceberg the size of Luxembourg knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe.  While the impact would not be felt for decades or longer, a slowdown in the production of colder, dense water could result in less temperate winters in the north Atlantic, scientists said.

Full BBC article here

Tory lead falls to just five points

Although it pains the Telegraph to report, the headline figures are Conservatives 37%, Labour 32% and Lib Dems 19%.  Assuming a uniform national swing, that would leave Labour as the largest single party in a hung parliament, 33 seats short of an overall majority. Even if the Tories perform disproportionately well in the marginals, the latest figures put us on course for the first hung parliament since 1974.

It could be you.

Full Telegraph article here

BBC signals an end to era of expansion

The BBC will close two radio stations, shut half its website and cut spending heavily on imported American programmes in an overhaul of services to be announced next month.  In a wideranging strategic review, he will announce the closure of the digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network and introduce a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events of 8.5 per cent of the licence fee, or about £300 million.  He will also pledge to close BBC Switch and Blast!, leaving the lucrative teenage market to ITV and Channel 4. But BBC Three, which is aimed at 16 to 35-year-olds will not be touched.

Cuts at the BBC - sounds good so far.

Full Times article here

Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland

In keeping with Kenny Everett's 'Let's bomb Russia' theme, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad [holy war] against Switzerland, as an ongoing diplomatic row between the two nations heats up.

"Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," 

said the Betty Legs Diamond of Libya.

Full Guardian article here

Wayne Bridge withdraws early from England selection

I didn't realise he was aware of such practice.

Lucky bitch.

Read the full BBC Sport article here

RBS to pay £1.7bn in bonuses despite £3.6bn loss

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 84 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, will pay out up to £1.7 billion in bonuses to its bankers after reporting a £3.6 billion pre-tax loss for the past financial year.  The loss for the 12 months to December 31 is less than the £5 billion expected and far below the £24.3 billion loss that RBS reported for 2008, a record for any British company.  Stephen Hester, the chief executive of RBS, who replaced Sir Fred Goodwin, said that he was obliged to pay out commercially competitive bonuses to retain staff, adding that the “thousands of best-performing people” who left last year could have increased the banks’ profits by £1 billion.

FULL TIMES ARTICLE HERE

George Osborne's brother, a doctor, suspended for giving drugs to his prostitute lover

The charges relating to the woman, Miss B, stem from an "encounter" on May 12 2008 when she met Dr Osborne in the car park of his hospital [dogging, I believe they call it]. She was having hallucinations and displaying psychotic behaviour because of her cocaine use, the GMC was told.  Rather than take her into the hospital with him, Dr Osborne went in alone and wrote out a prescription for her but made up a surname because he did not know her real one.  The doctor was denied the drugs because staff could not match the patient's name to anyone registered at the hospital, so he drove to a pharmacy where he handed over a second prescription without a name or address and obtained the drugs.  He then proceeded to shag her senselessly doggy-style in the back of his Cortina.  No, I made that bit up.

Christ, you'd need drugs, wouldn't you?

George Osborne's doctor brother suspended - Mail Online

I had to laugh ...

... as Nigel Farage unleashed a volley of insults at the EU president Herman van Rompuy. Well, it's only what we were all thinking.

BBC News - Tirade against 'damp rag' EU president shocks MEPs

Even faggots get to vote these days!

LGBT Labour will be campaigning hard for a Labour victory and will be supporting Labour candidates across the country. They will also be organising campaigning events for LGBT candidates.  Follow the link for details.

LGBT Labour

Tony Cameron/Dave Blair/Tony Bear/Tory Blair whatever

The pudgy-faced opportunist reveals his true self.  Taken from Armando Iannucci's Time Trumpet (2006).  Watch here.

Tories attract double the funds raised by Labour

New figures released on Wednesday confirmed that the Conservative party is raising vastly more money than Labour in the run-up to the UK general election this spring.  The Tories attracted £10.5m in the three months to the end of December – more than double the £5m for the governing Labour party. The Liberal Democrats attracted barely £1m.

Donald and Ivana Trump

FT.com - Tories attract double the funds raised by Labour

PLANETPMC supports the Labour Party. You can too here.

National Bullying Helpline press release

Swindon's not near Dewsbury, is it?

Read the press release here

Former police commander Ali Dizaei assaulted in prison

Shamed police commander Ali Dizaei was assaulted while in prison, sources said today.  The senior Metropolitan police officer is serving a four-year jail sentence for assaulting and falsely arresting a young businessman before trying to frame him.  Another inmate at HMP Edmunds Hill, Suffolk poured a slop bucket over Dizaei's head on Monday, the Daily Mirror reported, and the former police officer was then punched in the face and knocked out.

Well, what can you say?

Ali Dizaei assaulted in prison -guardian.co.uk

140 MPs stepping down at next election

Peter Kilfoyle, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, is the latest honourable member to get out while the golden handshake's still good - health reasons, dontcha know.

This brings the staggering totals so far to:

Labour 89
Conservatives 35
Lib Dems 7 [that just leaves Nick and Vince, no?]
Others 9

MPs stepping down and retiring at the 2010 general election

ROXY MUSIC 2010

Held at Victoria Park, London over 16th, 17th and 18th July, Roxy Music will headline on the Saturday.

Watch the 'advert' on youtube

Tickets available here from Ticketmaster

.

Senior bishops call for gay weddings in churches

In a letter to today's Times, a group of senior clerics, including the Bishop of Salisbury, the Dean of Southwark and four retired bishops, have suggested that religious denominations should be allowed to choose whether to register civil partnerships on their premises.

"Straight couples have the choice between civil marriage and religious marriage. Gay couples are denied a similar choice. To deny people of faith the opportunity of registering the most important promise of their lives in their willing church or synagogue, according to its liturgy, is plainly discriminatory," they write.

Well, bugger me.

Bishopric bukkake

It’s discrimination to stop gay couples taking vows in church -Times Online

Hung parliament looms as Tory support crumbles

Support for David Cameron's Conservative party has crumbled to its lowest point for nearly two years, according to the latest monthly Guardian/ICM poll, leaving Britain on course for a hung parliament at the coming general election.  The survey, showing the Conservatives holding only a seven-point lead, will come as a relief to Gordon Brown as he continued to fend off potentially lethal claims over his complex character, including suggestions that he bullies staff.

Bullied Britain

Hung parliament looms as Tory support crumbles - guardian.co.uk

Brighton Pavilion

A poll for the Brighton Argus last Friday brought some surprising news for the Greens who, if their own publicity machine is to be believed, thought they had it in the bag!

Seems like a change of bag is required.

Graph courtesy of cravenite

Odeon cinemas will not show Alice in Wonderland

... apart from the Royal Premiere at Leicester Square, obviously.

Alice in Wonderland will not be shown in Odeon cinemas

Anne Widdecombe becomes third bullying helpline patron to quit over Downing Street row

The story so far:

Extracts from a new book by Observer chief political commentator Andrew Rawnsley, being serialised in the newspaper, claim Downing Street staff were intimidated by abusive outbursts from Gordon Brown;

No 10 says it has looked into the allegations and they are not true;

Lord Mandelson also dismisses the claims, saying the book shows a man "who gets angry but chiefly with himself, who doesn't bully people";

Christine Pratt, chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline, says several people in the prime minister's office had contacted the anti-bullying charity in recent years;

She later clarifies that none of the allegations was about Mr Brown;

Prof Cary Cooper, an expert on workplace stress, resigns as a patron of the charity, saying Mrs Pratt had breached confidentiality.

Sarah Cawood resigns.  No, i'd never heard of her before either.  Her wikibio explains why: wikibio Sarah Cawood

 
BBC News - Second bullying helpline patron quits over No 10 row

And the patron of the National Anti-bullying Helpline is ... ?

YES!  It's Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe; and it quotes support from David Cameron on its website. Widdecombe said she would have preferred the helpline to stay out of the row, as its cases should remain confidential [yeah .. but ... ?]. The charity has another Conservative patron, councillor Mary O'Connor, but Widdecombe defended the organisation as "utterly non-political". However, government sources questioned the charity's credentials, suggesting it had made no contact with No 10 and operated only two doors away from the local Conservative party.

Gordon Brown hit by fresh bullying allegations Politics - The Guardian

Observer to re-launch tomorrow

I was looking forward to this.  However, following their decision to run with Andrew Rawnsley's sensationalised account of Gordon Brown's temper, they can stick it up their arse.

Besides, we can all do a re-launch.

Observer to relaunch - the Guardian

Austrian monastery offers weekend visits

A monastery near Vienna, Austria is offering men the chance to be a monk for a weekend. Franciscans from Maria Enzersdorf, site of a monastery since the 15th Century, are opening their doors as they need recruits. During the weekend they will have the chance to work and pray with the monks.  The Franciscans say they want to provide people with a realistic impression of life as a monk, and are accepting men up to the age of 40 (how gaydar is that). The scheme, which is free, started in October last year and since then, the chaplain says, three people are now considering becoming monks. And it is not just for men - an order of Franciscan nuns is also offering weekend introductions to the sisterhood.

Maybe if James Purnell has a spare weekend ...

BBC News - Austrian monastery offers weekend visits

Obituary: James Purnell

Asked to define what he would do differently to Gordon Brown and what specific policies he was advocating, Purnell replied:

"I think what we need to do is to renew ourselves and I think that goes through idealism. I think it goes through going back to our basic principles and articulating them for today."  LOL

The government, the party and the taxpayer will be better off without you.

Good riddance to James Purnell - the Guardian

ICA Fundraiser Gala Party 2010

Bryan Ferry is to perform at Koko, Camden on 24th March as part of the ICA Fundraiser Gala Party. Lesser mortals may join in the fun for a mere £95. Oh yeah.

For your pleasure.

Institute of Contemporary Arts : Music : ICA Fundraiser: Gala Party 2010

David Cameron: I love Guinness, darts and Sky+

... which goes some way to explaining why he's a complete twat.

David Cameron: I love Guinness, darts and Sky+ - th Guardian

Co-operative plans for Lambeth Council

A south London council has unveiled plans to become a co-operative - where residents who help run services would get council tax rebates.  Lambeth Council hopes the scheme, based on the business model of the John Lewis Partnership, will save it about £30m.  Under the proposals, residents could vote to turn services, such as primary schools, into citizen-led groups.

Good luck with that.

BBC News - Lambeth Council plans to be a cooperative

Not to be outdone, Cameron turns on the tears

The Tory leader, talking to the Scottish channel STV, apologised for breaking down. He said: 'I took some time off. Probably not enough, actually.  I probably should have taken a bit longer and had a good stop to think about everything. It is something that just hits you in an incredible way and it takes quite a long time before you can even start to put things back on track.

Is there anything this man won't do?

After Gordon Brown's tears, David Cameron breaks down on STV Mail Online

Kings of Leon to play Hyde Park

Kings of Leon are to play their biggest ever UK headline show this summer when they take over London’s Hyde Park on June 30 for a gig promoted by Live Nation Entertainment.

Music Week - Kings of Leon to rock Hyde Park

Doctor Who tried to bring down Thatcher

while the Wombles of Wimbledon brought down the wall.

In an extraordinary claim, Sylvester McCoy, who played Doctor Who from 1987 to 1989, and Andrew Cartmel, the then script editor, have both admitted that it "seemed the right thing to do".

"Critics, media pundits and politicians certainly didn't pick up on what we were doing. If we had generated controversy and become a cause célèbre we would have got a few more viewers but, sadly, nobody really noticed or cared."

Indeed.

A spokesman for the BBC said it was "baffled" by the claims.

Doctor Who 'had anti-Thatcher agenda' - Telegraph

Tories right on cuts, say economists

Leading economists say the government lacks a credible plan to cut Britain’s budget deficit and that action to reduce the country’s borrowing should start immediately after the election.  In an endorsement of the Conservatives’ position and an attack on Labour — although the economists insist they are non-partisan — they warn that a failure to act could trigger a loss of confidence that could push up interest rates, undermine the pound and threaten the recovery.

Tories right on cuts, say economists - Times Online

Hmmm, funny that. Bridget Rosewell is a former advisor to Ken Clarke; Roger Bootle a Conservative peer; Anne Sibert former member of the Conservative Party's Commission on the Independence of the Bank of England; Thomas Sargent, a friend of John Redwood and known for his extreme free-market views (i.e. criticising Obama's stimulus package); Ken Rogoff, cited in George Osborne's speech to Conservative Conference; David Newbery, the former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party; John Muellbauer, the current economic advisor to the Conservative Party; Sir John Vickers, former conservative politician and on and on and on.

These 'economists' are certainly not impartial, that is, no more impartial than the economists that Labour consults to support their policies. So, please, stop touting these people as though they offer an entirely objective analysis. They all have an agenda; and in this case it is Tory spin. 

 

 
The Times they are a-changin'?  No, still the same old shit.

Joan Bakewell condemns Tory 'death tax' poster

Tory posters claiming Labour is planning a £20,000 "death tax" to fund a national carers service have been condemned as "grotesque" and a lie by Dame Joan Bakewell, the former BBC presenter and the government's "voice of older people". She accused the Conservatives of "an insult to older people", and said the collapse of talks designed to reach a cross-party consensus on funding future social care will increase despair about politics.

Tory 'death tax' poster condemned - the Guardian

Cameron will be our next PM, but maybe not for long

"How can they be so hopeless? So many open goals missed, so many own-goals scored, and yet overflowing with more donations than they know what to do with: Cameron and his party are proving breathtakingly incompetent at seizing an election handed to them on a platter," writes Polly Toynbee in today's Gardening for Spinsters.

Cameron will be our next PM, but maybe not for long - The Guardian

Sven-Goran Eriksson: How I was conned at Notts County

Twenty-four hours after cutting his ties with the League Two club that has been his employer for the past seven months Eriksson opened his heart to the Guardian.

In a candid interview the former England manager has laid bare:
• How he was promised the players and facilities to guarantee Premier League football
• How he entered negotiations to help run North Korea's national team
• The circumstances behind the England defender Sol Campbell's abrupt departure from Meadow Lane
• When he had his first doubts about Munto Finance, the club's offshore-­registered parent company
• His anger at the vanishing act that left the club with vast debts and the threat of winding up

Sven-Goran Eriksson: How I was conned at Notts County - The Guardian

Labour attacks Tories over 'pro-hunt donation'

Nick Herbert, the shadow Environment Secretary, has received a £5,000 donation from a leading defender of foxhunting. The cash came from the Duke of Norfolk, who recently launched a legal attempt to ban hunt protesters from private estates. 

Labour attacks Tories over 'pro-hunt donation' - The Independent

Baroness Tonge removed as Lib Dem health spokeswoman in the Lords

The Liberal Democrat leader has sacked his health spokeswoman in the House of Lords after comments she made about alleged organ trafficking in Haiti. Jenny Tonge told the Jewish Chronicle there should be an inquiry into claims that Israeli troops sent there after the earthquake were trafficking organs.

'Jihad Jenny'

BBC News - Lib Dem health spokeswoman sacked

Homophobia not high on the FA's agenda

Professional Footballers Association chief Gordon Taylor has told the BBC that the issue of homophobia is not high on the sport's agenda.  Taylor has explained why no Premier League footballers were featured in the FA's new anti-homophobia video, which was pulled earlier this week.

Watch the Newsnight report

As gay rights come to the fore in the election campaign, with Labour launching anti-Tory advertisements on the issue this week, the only out gay member of the shadow cabinet has demanded greater action to tackle homophobia.

Guardian article

£6.6million

... facto

General Synod extends pension rights for gay partners

The Church of England may not allow its clergy to have their civil ­partnerships blessed in church but it voted tonight to allow the survivors of same-sex ­partnerships the same pension rights as other spouses.  The church's General Synod, meeting in London, voted in favour of what supporters of the move described as big-heartedness at odds with the church's public reputation for homophobia in its wrangles over gay clergy.

Church of England General Synod extends pension rights for gay partners - guardian.co.uk

Double take

Brown's beauties?

Labour is planning to install the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, who was convicted of a public order offence after a football match, in a safe Labour seat.  Ian Lavery, the union’s president who was on the front line of the miners’ strike in 1984-85, is likely to be selected on Monday as the party’s candidate in Wansbeck, Northumberland, which has a solid majority of 10,500.

Anti-police NUM leader Ian Lavery offered safe Labour seat at Wansbeck - Times Online

Prisoners' Facebook pages removed after victim taunts

"I'm afraid we're dealing with crooks [said Miss Marple]. Devious, manipulative people who actually have no respect for their own bodies so they push these mobile telephones into their body orifices."

Good Lord!

BBC News - Prisoner Facebook pages removed after victim taunts

Tory MP Andrew Mackay to join Burson-Marsteller lobbying arm

MacKay, MP for Bracknell and a former parliamentary aide to David Cameron, will become an international consultant and strategic adviser in the global PR agency's UK public affairs team.  Earlier this week, Cameron used a major speech to lay into lobbyists. He said: "It's an issue that crosses party lines and has tainted our politics for too long...an issue that exposes the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money. I'm talking about lobbying - and we all know how it works.  The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business find the right way to get its way.  In this party, we believe in competition, not cronyism. We believe in market economics, not crony capitalism. So we must be the party that sorts all this out."  Right.

Andrew 'one suit' Mackay

Tory MP Andrew Mackay to join Burson-Marsteller lobbying arm

Interesting to note Burson-Marsteller's mission statement:  our mission is to create superior value.

and their code of conduct which includes:  We will not accept for our personal benefit goods or services of more than nominal value from suppliers, potential suppliers or other third parties.  haha!

Burson-Marsteller.com

Senior Tory clears up Lord Ashcroft tax mystery … or does he?

A senior source said Sir George Young had "mis-spoken" when he told the BBC that Ashcroft was a "non-dom" – ­allowing him to avoid paying British tax on ­overseas income and assets. The admission ­provoked immediate ­accusations that David Cameron, the Tory leader, was making a mockery of his claims to be a reformer and forced the party to say that the peer's tax affairs were a private ­matter – a day after Cameron had insisted this approach was out of date.

Crooks away!

Senior Tory clears up Lord Ashcroft tax mystery … or does he? - The Guardian