TV's TB - 7pm Sky News

TB will be doing some Chancellor's Debate warm up on Sky News tonight with Jag Singh from

YouFundMe.uk

. Tune in from 7pm.

Labour Posters

The broke Labour Party can't afford posters, they can't afford an ad agency and it seems they can't even afford in house designers. They have had to resort to some lame spin about opening sourcing their new poster which will be displayed for about forty five minutes this weekend. Obviously it's not just been Labour folk offering their views. Some classics around.
 From 

Billy Blofield

:

From

Guido

:

Busy Bear

TB has been out filming all this morning. Osborne's big day started well with the smoothies and cookies press conference. The new CCHQ press room was lookig good. TB then bounded back down Millbank to make it to Stuart Wheeler's

Trust Party

launch and he is now trawling through the new IPSA rulings.

He will be live blogging from the spin room Chancellor's Debate tonight so come back later.

More like it...

If you didn't laugh you would cry. More of this please.

You're Not Fooling Anyone Mr Brown

As the sun sets on the Brown's government, Labour have resorted back to the old 1997 pledge card tactic. The image even has a setting sun on it. The problem is it seems the Labour have nowt to offer this time. The vacuous pledges consist of pickled sound bites and government speak.

The thing TB found most amusing though was the rather familiar logo on the card. Even though Washington has stopped returning No10's calls and Obama runs a mile every opportunity he has to meet Brown, the desperate fan is still trying to copy even Obama's campaign logo. It's pathetic.

Whory Bear

Don't you dare say TB actually looks like Byers.

TPA skewer Unison

The Taxpayers' Alliance

 Research Director Matthew Sinclair stitched up union thug Dave Prentis from Unison on today's Daily Politics good and proper:

Hasn't been a moment like that on the show since the Draper days.

Quote of the Day

"Policy wonks, SpAds and people called Crispin need not apply."

-W4MP Advert

You Couldn't Make It Up

Via

Hyena

Beat Balls!

Hypocritical Labour Hack Laments

Thomas Graham, a prominent Labour hack and President of Edinburgh University Students Association has been forced to grovel after a stunning drunken outburst, as reported here first on Sunday. Edinburgh newspaper The Journal has

caught up with the story

:

"Witnesses say he became aggressive and made some “inappropriate comments” towards door staff before being forcibly ejected.

“I have apologised for my behaviour to the staff involved in this regrettable incident. I accept full responsibility for my actions; clearly my behaviour was not acceptable. I will ensure that it does not happen again.” Vice President of Services James Wallace said: "I cannot comment specifically on this incident. But I have full confidence in the staff and security who did an exceptional job on Saturday night.""

Ouch. Sadly no mention of the assault witnesses confirmed to TB though.

One thing that had to make TB laugh is just how hypocritical, in line with his true colours, Thomas Graham has been about all this.

Another story

from The Journal from September aes for an interesting read these days:

"The head of EUSA has criticised the university's student Conservative association following the chairman's run-in with the police last week for drunken misconduct.President Thomas Graham told The Journal: “It is clear that the Conservative Club have not changed their attitude towards Scotland’s drink culture and have let the Students' Association down.”

Thomas Graham, President of EUSA, expressed his disappointment to The Journal, saying: “He is an individual student in a position of responsibility and we are very disappointed he has decided to act in this way. “We feel sorry for the Conservative Club who have to begin the year dealing with this. It is a great disappointment especially after the success of Edinburgh’s Fresher’s Week which had such an emphasis on non-alcohol related events.""

Well worth a

read

. Those who laugh last...

"I am a Cider Drinker"

And an unhappy one at that. Cheers Darling.

Labour Dodging Purcell Questions

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy has just pulled out of doing Question Time this week in Glasgow. Last time he did something significant in Glasgow it was attending a Labour Party fundraising dinner with Gordon and Steven Purcell, who then mysteriously resigned. Liam Byrne has been put in as a replacement - crucially he has deniability as he has no connections to the Scottish Labour Party. See latest in the saga here.

Why is Murphy running away from difficult questions about sleaze in Glasgow? What does he know?

Guy News Budget Special

Not sure about the social media guru look, but we knocked this out in an hour:



Why not check out the 

Drinkers Alliance.

What's in the Budget?

Well as

ConHome

 notes, pretty much the whole thing has been leaked:

Darling to freeze income bands in 'stealth tax' - 

Telegraph

Darling is today expected to steal another flagship Tory policy by scrapping stamp duty on homes worth up to £250,000 - 

Daily Mail

"Drivers will be clobbered with a 1p increase on the price of a litre of unleaded or diesel next month. They will face a further hike of 1p in October and a final 0.76p by the end of the year." - 

The Sun

Nuclear and wind power will be at heart of Alistair Darling’s Budget - 

Times

There will be "new bank taxes" - 

FT

The Budget will involve a new legal obligation for banks and building societies to offer a basic bank account - 

FT

"Drinkers will be clobbered with a 10 per cent hike in the cost of cider. All other alcoholic drinks will go up by two per cent. Smokers will be hit by a one per cent rise in the cost of a packet of cigarettes and tobacco." - 

The Sun

Government for Hire

Another day, another CCHQ press stunt involving those masks.

What Did Gordon Know and When?

A scandal far from London is edging closer and close to the door of Number 10. In amongst the plants and moans that normally take up the latter stages of PMQs there was a rare gem of a very intriguing question from the SNP's Angus Robertson asking Gordon about a conference call to discuss the suitability of Labour's disgraced cocaine king

Steven Purcell

as the candidate in the Glasgow East by-election in 2008. As the Screws

reported

a 'Labour insider' claimed:

"At that point, rumours about Steven had reached the party headquarters. So a discussion was had with him - and he was asked outright about the drug rumours. And after that, any idea of him being the candidate was ABANDONED immediately."

Robertson asked:

AR: "Given that the Prime Minister will have looked closely at the tragic case. Will he confirm whether a Downing Street staffer took part in a conference in July 2008 which discussed the suitability of Stephen Purcell?

GB: I know nothing of what he says but I shall look at it.

Always one for a dodging a question, what was Gordon so coy about? Why so subdued? Surely this was a great chance to attack the SNP for appalling smears, as they are so often, and tell them to put up or shut up. TB understands that at the post-PMQ briefing afterwards Scottish journalists were palmed off with: “There are more important questions”.  For once someone doing the briefing was correct. There are some very interesting questions still surrounding this case indeed.

Could it be that Brown knows more than he is letting on? The story of Steven Purcell's resignation has led to a constant drip drip about just what was going on at Glasgow City Council and its relationship with big donors to the Labour party. The Scottish Sunday papers are having a field ay about big Labour donors and lucrative public sector contracts. Million pound

deals

, quango

donors

and Purcell

linked

to shady companies. And it goes further than that -

blackmail and organised crime

.

What TB can't understand is why the caledonian editors are so reluctant to get down and dirty and blow the lid of this story once and for all. It's not like they

didn't know

: "Politicians, journalists and lawyers alike, apparently, had direct or indirect knowledge for years about the personal habits of the leader of Glasgow City Council and chose to ignore it." Great.

But this whole saga has plenty more questions that are still needing to be answered. Not just about Labour donors getting taxpayers cash but about Labour donors and their connections with gangsters. "The Digger", a small A5 Glasgow newssheet has just revealed that Labour donor James Mortimer is the uncle of the common law wife of a well known Glasgow gangster.

As well as being a high profile attendee, along with the Prime Minister, at the Labour fundraising dinner the day before Steven Purcell's little moment of cirsis, Mr Mortimer has entertained some intriguingly high profile people at his

Club 29

in Glasgow.

Such links between the Scottish Labour party and the mob have been raising eyebrows for the

last few years

. Like the Red Rose Dinner attended by Labour First Minister Jack McConnell and John Reid. It was also attended by a drug dealer by the name of Justin McAlroy who ended up dead six days later. James Mortimer also attended that dinner.

His father, Tommy McAlroy, who is a close friend of Labour whip Frank Roy, has also been

implicated

in drug baroncy. And it’s also not the first time John Reid – a former Home Secretary for goodness sake – has had family connections reported that

raise eyebrows

 - his father in law was arrested in a drugs bust.

So you might be getting an idea why Gordon Brown was not exactly keen on drawing attention to the UK media about a story which has him and numerous senior Labour leaders wining and dining with people who have some seriously dodgy connections and backgrounds. If its full implications broke before the sixth of May it may not just destroy Scottish Labour but bring down Brown. 

But there are three important questions that still remain unanswered over two weeks after these events broke. So TB will have to ask them publicly in order that the media in London do what Glasgow news editors have been too afraid to do.

1. Who is paying for Steven Purcell's bills? Public relations, top media lawyers, stays in rehab clinics and lengthy trips abroad cost money and Steven is now unemployed - his whereabouts still unknown. Most of his money went up his nose so how is he paying his way. Why did he turn down the help the council's media officers offered?

2. Under Steven Purcell's leadership of Glasgow City Council what deals have the council,

City Building LLP

and any other arms length organisations set up by the council done - particularly with major Labour donors like James Mortimer, Brian Dempsey and Willie Haughey?

3. Who was sitting at the top table with Gordon Brown and Steven Purcell at the Labour party fundraiser the night before Steven Purcell's announcement to his colleagues and did anything happen at the dinner to hasten his departure from the council?

Dig dig dig.

Caption Contest - Unemployment Rising Edition

Getting ready for life post May 6th.

Quote of the Day

"Margaret Moran is a lying bitch."

-Iain Dale

2,000 Speak Out Against Byers

The Sunlight Centre have had 2,000 people sign their petition since this morning:

Stephen Byers MP, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1998), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1998–2001) and Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (2001–2002) was caught in a Sunday Times sting operation in which he offered access to the British government for up to £5000 per day. He referred to himself as a "cab for hire" and has disgraced himself.

We believe, in light of these revelations that his membership of the Queen's advisory body, the Privy Council, is wholly and utterly inappropriate.

We, the undersigned, call on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, to strip Stephen Byers MP of his membership of the Privy Council due to his involvement in offering to sell access to the British Government for personal profit.

SIGN