Beau Bo D'Or

Conservative lead falls to two year low

David Cameron suffers a fresh blow today with a new opinion poll showing the Conservative lead over Labour falling to a two-year low and suggesting the party will fall well short of winning an outright majority at the general election. The Conservatives (38 per cent) are seven points ahead of Labour (31 per cent) in the ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph, down from a lead of nine points last month. The Liberal Democrats are up one point to 21 per cent. Repeated at the election, widely expected on 6 May, and with a uniform national swing, the Tories would be the largest party in the House of Commons but still 30 seats short of an overall majority ... and that's from the Daily Telegraph!

The poll findings follow two jittery months in which the Tories have struggled to set the agenda and have been hit by a series of setbacks, including revelations this month over the “non dom” tax status of Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the party. At its height, the Tory lead over Labour was 20 points.

Take great pleasure in reading the full Daily Telegraph article here

Scarfe, Sunday Times

Samantha Cameron: My love for Dave

“I think that ever since the day I met Dave he has obviously taken his job very seriously and he loves politics and I think so much of the Dave that I first met and fell and love with is Dave the politician.”

"I have to be quite firm about him not fiddling with his phone and his BlackBerry too much, because it can be you know quite annoying.”

Samantha Cameron: 'My love for Dave' serialised all this month only in theTelegraph

Ex-Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems

Edward McMillan-Scott, who once headed the Tory grouping in Brussels, was unhappy with David Cameron's decision to re-align the party in Europe. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said he was 'delighted' to welcome an MEP who was 'respected... across Europe'. The Tories said Mr McMillan-Scott was expelled six months ago, 'he has not been a Conservative MEP since then.'

A senior party source told the BBC:  'They're welcome to him.' The row dates back to Conservative leader David Cameron's decision to pull his party out of the main centre-right grouping in the European Parliament, the European People's Party (EPP). Mr McMillan-Scott added: "My reasons for joining the Liberal Democrats are that in Nick Clegg they have a leader whom I like, admire and respect. They are internationalists, not nationalists. They are committed to politics based the values of fairness and change. From being a liberal Conservative I become a conservative liberal. Most of my family are liberals. I am pleased to join the liberal family."

BNP membership rules still discriminatory

The British National Party's new membership rules are likely to discriminate against non-white people, a judge has ruled. The BNP voted to scrap its whites-only policy after a legal threat from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. A judge at Central London County Court has ruled the party's new constitution is still indirectly discriminatory. The party is expected to comply with the ruling and rewrite its constitution for the 12th time.

Judge Paul Collins ordered the party to pay costs and said its membership list must remain "closed" until it complied with race relations laws. Delivering his ruling, he said: "I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within section 1b Race Relations Act 1976 in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under the 12th addition of their constitution."

BNP leader Nick Griffin was met by protests from anti-fascist groups as he arrived at court earlier. Speaking ahead of the hearing, Mr Griffin said: "The constitution was always legal." During a day of legal submissions on Tuesday, the BNP was accused of "indirectly" discriminating against black and Asian people even though the party no longer bars them from joining. The BNP denied the allegations and said it had a "waiting list" of black and Asian people and would welcome more applications from ethnic minorities. The constitution rejected by the court asked members to sign up to the party's principles. These included a duty to oppose the promotion of any form of "integration or assimilation" that impacted on the "indigenous British", and a requirement to support the "maintenance and existence of the unity and integrity of the indigenous British". It also stated that members have to agree to two party officials - one male and one female - visiting their home for up to two hours. A lawyer acting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said this could be used to enable potential members to be intimidated, although there was no evidence it had been used in that way.

BBC News

No expenses charges for baroness

Labour peer Baroness Uddin will not face charges over her expenses, the Crown Prosecution Service has said. She had been accused of designating a rarely-used flat in Kent as her main home so she could claim allowances for peers living outside London. CPS chief Keir Starmer said rules which allow peers to visit their "main home" just once a month would have caused a "very real difficulty" for prosecutors. The peer said: "I am relieved that this ordeal has finally come to an end. I only wish to say thank you to everyone who has supported me through this every difficult time and I now wish to turn back to my professional life and my public duties and my family."

And which house will that be in, dear?

Read the full BBC News article here

Amy Winehouse adds Fred Perry to her list of things she has ruined

Winehouse has designed a 17-piece womenswear line for the brand, which will be released in autumn and available at stores stocking Fred Perry.

The range will include a fifties inspired twin set and mini shirt dress, a short pencil skirt and a classic Fred Perry Harrington jacket in black and pink. The Back to Black singer has signed up to create three further lines for the British brand.

Separately, Fred Perry has also partnered with London department store Liberty to create “Blank Canvas”, a fashion line using two classic Liberty prints. The range which includes four Fred Perry polo shirts, a short-sleeved and a Harrington Jacket all printed with the paisley “Mark” and floral “Edenham” prints launches internationally in April.

British Airways union announces strike dates

The union representing British Airways cabin crew has said its members will go on strike for three days from 20 March and for four days from 27 March. The union confirmed it would not strike over Easter, but warned there could be further action after 14 April if a resolution had not been agreed. The union will also ballot its members on a new offer from BA aimed at preventing strike action.

Crew members voted to strike last month over pay and working conditions. Unite is not recommending BA's offer to its members. The ballot on the offer will take place straight away and if cabin crew vote to accept the airline's offer, the strike action will be called off. The airline is also in discussion with baggage handling staff at Heathrow, but a spokesperson for BA said any talk of strike action involving them would be 'extremely speculative and premature'.

Read the full BBC News article here

Disgraced MPs forced to sit in the dock just like other criminals

Three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer were made to suffer the ignominy of sitting in the high security dock of a courtroom as they made a historic appearance before a magistrate.

Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield became the first parliamentarians to be charged with abusing public money as they pleaded not guilty to expenses fraud at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, a short walk from the Houses of Parliament. The MPs’ barrister, Julian Knowles, said they did not consider themselves to be “above the law” but nevertheless asked for special treatment with an application for them to be allowed to sit next to their lawyer in the well of Court No.1. The Chief Magistrate, Tim Workman, said he was not prepared to exempt the MPs from “the usual procedure” in his court, which was packed with more than 40 journalists and members of the public.

Read the full Telegraph article here

Tories boycott Commons inquiry into Ashcroft peerage

Sources close to the committee have confirmed the three Tory members walked out, claiming the inquiry is pursuing a Labour vendetta. Some are under pressure from their leadership via the party whips, one senior source claimed.

It also emerged that Lord Ashcroft failed to meet a 9.30am deadline today to respond to an invitation to give evidence to the committee next Thursday. Gordon Prentice, a Labour committee member who has campaigned vociferously against the peer, made the announcement on his website. The committee has no powers to order members of the Lords to give evidence. Hague, who as Ashcroft's closest colleague sponsored his peerage and was subject to his promise to become a permanent resident, has been invited. Hayden Phillips, the senior civil servant at the time, has also received an invitation and Baroness Dean and Lord Hurd, who were on the scrutiny committee at the time of his appointment, are also understood to be on the list.

The three Tory members of the committee, David Burrowes, Ian Liddell-Grainger and Charles Walker, will not be attending any further meetings. An end of term lunch, scheduled for today, was cancelled after they failed to turn-up. Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater, confirmed to the Guardian that he had walked out. "I've served on that committee since I've been a member of parliament. Tony Wright has been a good chair but three weeks before a general election is called they have decided to make this committee blatantly political. It has been totally politicised and is therefore not able to function as a proper select committee any more." He denied he had been ordered to boycott the committee by the party leadership, saying he reached the decision himself. Burrowes, MP for Enfield, confirmed that party whips had been involved in the discussion about the committee but said did not need the whips to tell him to boycott it. He said the inquiry would become a "political circus" and argued that Lord Paul, the Labour donor and non-dom, should also give evidence. Walker could not be contacted last night.

A spokesman for the Conservatives said: "We don't believe that it [the Ashcroft inquiry] is an appropriate use of the committee." He said that the central party had not been involved in the MPs' decisions to leave the committee. Tony Wright, the Labour chairman of the committee, defended the decision to conduct the inquiry. He said: "We are not interested in the party political dimension of this but we are interested in trying to get to the bottom of an issue about propriety that has remained unresolved for the best part of a decade."

The Guardian

Lib Dems recruit porn director

No, you're not about to see Vince Cable knock one out in their latest party political broadcast (and that's one weapon none of us particularly want Nick Clegg to whip out in the future), however a female pornographic film director has been selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Gravesham, Kent.

Anna Arrowsmith, managing director of adult entertainment firm Easy on the Eye Productions, has directed hundreds of films under the pseudonym Anna Span.  Mrs Arrowsmith, 38, who has an MA in philosophy, believes women are under-represented in Parliament and thought that Margaret Thatcher's performance during the 1979 general election campaign had sparked her interest in politics while the current expenses scandal had spurred her on.  She said: "If people don't know what I do for a living then they would never know.  The local party and the local people who I have so far met have seen that I'm very driven.  I'm not campaigning on behalf of my old industry. I'm campaigning on behalf of the people in the Gravesham area.  When people get to see me, they will realise that I'm used to project managing and that I'm driven to achieve change rather than just promising it."

A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said: "The Liberal Democrats are proud to have candidates throughout the country with a great diversity of backgrounds and life experiences.  Anna will be a strong candidate for Gravesham, and with her family links to the area we believe she is the best person to bring fairness to local people."

Just as long as she stays behind the camera, that's all I ask.

Re the green and gold scarf

Manchester United are so concerned about the increasing success of the green-and-gold anti-Glazer protests that the club have effectively forbidden Sir Alex Ferguson's players from speaking about it publicly and imposed a series of other measures aimed at counteracting the kind of publicity generated by David Beckham's endorsement of the campaign.

Beckham's parting statement after United's 4-0 defeat of Milan on Wednesday, leaving the pitch with a protest scarf around his neck, is being described as "an iconic moment" by the Manchester United Supporters' Trust (Must), and senior figures at Old Trafford are worried about the significance of the most famous sportsman on the planet attaching himself to a movement aimed at deposing the ruling Glazer family. In response the club have already:

• Banned players from discussing the campaign in the media.

• Forbidden the in-house TV station, MUTV, from referring to the rebellion and edited questions about it from broadcasts of Ferguson's press conferences.

• Ejected a supporter from the audience of an MUTV show after he refused to remove a green-and-gold scarf.

• Sacked a steward after 19 years' service for attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner to its owners.

Sentimental fool

145 MPs to retire at the forthcoming election

93 Labour
35 Conservative
7   LibDems
10 Others

http://www.epolitix.com/election/retiring

Labour MP Mark Fisher to step down

Labour MP Mark Fisher is to stand down at the next election for health reasons, the BBC has learned. Mr Fisher said he was suffering from a condition called hydrocephalus - also known as water on the brain. He was appointed as arts minister after Labour came to power in 1997. In June last year, Mr Fisher joined a group of MPs calling for Gordon Brown to step down as prime minister. Educated at Eton and Cambridge University, Mr Fisher is the son of a former Conservative MP, Sir Nigel Fisher. He served as arts minister for just a year, being sacked in a 1998 cabinet reshuffle after voting against the Labour whip on the Competition Act. At the 2005 general election, he retained the Stoke Central seat with 52.9% of the vote.

Prior to becoming an MP in 1983, Mr Fisher worked in the film industry.  Well, it was never going to last.

I will not let you down, vows Brown

"We have got through this storm together, but there are still substantial risks ahead, there will be bumps in the road and I believe the only way to overcome them is by displaying the same strength and resolve that we did during the crisis and I will not let you down."

"I believe that character is not about telling people what they want to hear but about telling them what they need to know. It's about having the courage to set your mission and the courage to take the tough decisions and stick to them without being blown off course, even when the going is difficult. With me what you see is what you get - and the stakes are high, we dare not risk the recovery for our task above all else is to preserve and expand the jobs and lift the standards of life of the British people. We are weathering the storm [hang on, I thought we'd just got through it together - Ed]. Now is no time to turn back. We will hold to our course and we will complete this mission [let me guess, but there are still substantial risks ahead? - Ed]."

He also said the Budget would be held on 24 March and confirmed a pay freeze on senior public employees.

Corey Haim dies

The Hollywood actor Corey Haim has died. The 38-year-old star of eighties hit film The Lost Boys is reported to have passed away today. It's believed to have been a possible accidental overdose. People.com reports that he was found unresponsive at his apartment and was pronounced dead at St Joseph's hospital in Burbank, California, shortly before 12 noon GMT.

BBC News

Northern Rock reports lower losses

Northern Rock has said that it made 'good progress' in 2009, as it reported a sharp fall in its annual losses.  The bank lost £257.4m last year, compared with £1.36bn in 2008. It said it had seen an increase in mortgage lending across the year, while the amount of money people saved with the bank was largely unchanged.

Since 1 January, the Rock has been split in two, with savers' money held by a 'good bank', Northern Rock PLC, which will eventually be sold. The sale will recoup some of the billions of pounds of public money that was injected into the bank to keep it going. The other half of the old bank - renamed Northern Rock Asset Management - holds most of the bank's old mortgages.

Northern Rock said it was paying staff £14.9m in staff bonuses after its losses narrowed - though chief executive Gary Hoffman had waived his bonus. His long-term incentive scheme would only pay out after the bank returned to profit or was sold, the company said. The Rock said that the percentage of those in arrears with their mortgages had risen to 4.28% by the end of the year, compared with 2.25% a year earlier. But it said insisted it was working to help those in debt, and that it had repossessed 2,061 homes, down from 3,620 in 2008.

The collapse of the Northern Rock in the autumn of 2007 signalled the onset of the banking crisis. The government stepped in with funds to try to stop a run on the bank, and Northern Rock was subsequently nationalised. Last month, it was announced that savers with money in the Northern Rock would lose the government's 100% guarantee on their deposits from 24 May. Savers will still benefit from the £50,000 guarantee to all savers under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)."

BBC News

Arsenal 5 - 0 FC Porto

A stunning goal from Nasri and a hat-trick at last for Bendtner. Even the Sun apologised!

WOOP!  as they say at football stadiums all over the world. 

TEN MEN

Not a magazine I'd heard of before but then that's probably the idea of doing a photo shoot with David Beckham.