If you don't like the West Wing, look away now.

As many have pointed out, there is only one profession with a lower public opinion rating than politicians, and that's journos. A vicious pack of hacks are a formidable bunch and no one will know that more than the White House press spokesmen. For West Wing fans, CJ's sometimes effortless put downs to this feral bunch were some of the best moments of the whole show. But now that the West Wing is gone, TB has to fill his days with watching the actual White House in action.

There is a fascinating insight

here

into how the seats in Obama's press briefing room have been allocated and exactly what this pecking order means. Here is the layout from February:

And here is March:

Interesting to note the creeping rise of

Politico

from sixth row to fourth. The further forward you are, the more likely Press Spokesman Robert Gibbs will answer your question. Politico, though it does have a small print edition, is seemingly leading the blogging revolution right to the heart of the White House. Not even the Obama worshipping lefty love-in the

Huffington Post

gets a seat.

In just three months of this administration, a blogging news service is almost at the front of the press pack, how will things look in a year?

Gordon has a friend!

LabourList is orgasmically proclaiming an apparently fantastic

endorsement

from an international statesman. Yes the man who lost the Cold War is now endorsing an equally successful lefty. TB wouldn't be too proud of this proclamation if the ball was in the other court:

Speaking during a visit to the Evening Standard Newspaper, Mr Gorbachev - the former Soviet leader whose Glasnost policies brought new freedom to Europe and helped end the Cold War, said he felt the Tory leader is too wedded to the policies of the Eighties:

"To me, the Conservative Party is not ready to give up the policies of the Reaganomics era. Maybe they would like to take the initiative but they are not ready for that yet."

Speaking of Gordon Brown, however, Mr Gorbachev said "I think he has made several really wise decisions that have been taken up by his partners in other countries."

David Cameron is clearly on the right track if failed former communists don't want him to be the Prime Minister.

The Royal Bank of the Glorious Democratic People's Republic of Scotland

RBS and the FSA have some serious explaining to do after Fraser Nelson's breathtaking expose, the details of which can be found

here

. You can quite clearly hear the state owned Royal Bank of Scotland employee ask Nelson, before he can open an account with them, whether he is a member of a political party:



Do you hear the people sing?

Revolution used to be cool.

TB is quite proud of the fact that despite working on this sodding dissertation for a fair few months now, he has only today, for the first time typed his subject matter into Wikipedia. What a treat greeted him when he did - once again proving what a reliable and steadfast source Wikipedia is, this 1982 song by The Kinks is stated as a historical source:



And rightly so.

Classic.

Dolly is getting a lot stick from the

Twitter

masses today. Firstly he denied that his account was suspended, then he claimed that it hasn't had any contact from Twitter, then he claimed if he was suspended, he was restored because he did nothing wrong.. blah blah blah. Classic bit of old school NuLab spin.

Hence why TB nearly choked on his jaffa cakes when this popped up on his twitter feed.

Oh dear...

Well it's

not quite happily ever

after now is it - The news has emerged that Bristol, the wild child daughter of Sarah Palin has split up with the father of her child, and forced fiance Levi Johnston.

TB is really shocked, he really thought those kids actually wanted to get married.

The fall out continues...

TB has a eyes and ears everywhere but he doesn't envy his little friend in Lib Dem HQ today though. Apparently the whole email leak has gone down like a cup of sick with the Returning Officer of the Liberal Youth elections. A full scale witch-hunt is now under way to determine who the source was. Well Elaine certainly knows how to "wind up" the organisation in every sense of the word.

The party's press office had very little to say on the subject. TB put some questions to them earlier and they finally got round to replying:

Q. Is it true that the Cowley Street IT department are attempting to find the source of the leak?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

Q.What would the consequences for any person found guilty of this?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

Q.Do the Liberal Democrats officially condone the repression of free speech and the right to a free press by banning journalists from their youth forums, with false accusations?
A. "This won't be something we will be commenting on."

We'll take that as yes then.

An unbelievably helpful bunch! It's almost as if they are seriously contemplating taking up Elaine's helpful suggestion of scrapping the whole organisation.

Something tells TB that this whole saga isn't quite over yet... watch this space.

Totty Watch: Behind every great man...

As the dust settles from the ground breaking news that

Cities of London and Westminster CF

Chairman Ed Hallam had finally cut his hair, the reasons behind the chop have become clear. Regardless of the wrongs and rights, it has to be accepted that in these modern times, politics is increasingly focused on image. Political leaders go through makeovers, some work and some don't, (Nick Clegg looks about six years old now!) However newly appointed campaigns director of CLWCF, one Lucy Roblin, is shaking things up...

Tory Bear understands that Miss Roblin stood over the personal stylist bought in for the makeover, clipboard and blackberry in hand, giving orders. It has also been confirmed by sources that Ed is now the proud owner of a pair of hair straighteners, and uses a range of products to keep his hair smooth and smart, all on the recommendation of his new PR guru.


Is Mr Hallam building his team, and image, for that long expected leadership bid?

+++Nottingham President feels the heat+++

After it was exposed that Nottingham Student Union President Nsikan Edung had abused his taxpayer funded trip to China, TB's sources have confirmed that he was last night officially censured by the student council.

A motion of censure was put forward and 28 voted in favour, 3 against and 1 abstention. The matter has now been referred to the Union executive for investigation.

+++Developing - more later+++

Not so Liberal now are you!?

So just as Tory Bear was getting into a good ol'chat about the whole email leak thing on the

Liberal Youth Forum

, this charming message popped up:

It seems that Elaine has got her little ferrets to block TB and attempt to silence him in light of his last post. A ridiculous course of action given that TB was merely discussing the issues with him. This is a pathetic attempt to silence him and if anything is only going to make him even more likely to target Liberal Youth. Who know's what else there is to fall out of the tree, now that TB has shaken the branch.

Grow up. Don't try bury this story, respond to it!

Yeah but no but. Oh dear.

Just when he thought that the Liberal Youth elections couldn't get any more farcical, TB is laughing on so many levels at this leaked email. Once the initial surprise passed that a member of the Liberal Democrats actually has an opinion on something, just how damaging this email is, began to sink in:

It cracks TB up on so many levels. It's hilarious that in the same email that someone states they believe that leaders who fail should fall on their swords, they go on to admit that the organisation they run is a failure. Here we have

Elaine Bagshaw

, the current chairman of

Liberal Youth

, who is seeking re-election, put in writing that she believes the organisation she is seeking to continue running should be shut down. Having had to work hard for respect amongst her liberal buddies, after she defected from the Labour Party, it's hard to see how she can come back from this.

PR disaster.

Owned.

Derek Draper has been

removed from

Twitter:

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

It's official...

Rumours were flying, speculation was mounting, but now TB can confirm that Ed Hallam, of

TYC

fame, has cut his hair:

Apparently the first hair cut since the millennium.

Daily Show on Brown

This is well worth a watch if you have five minutes:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Brown in the USA

Daily Show Full Episodes

Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor

Economic Crisis

Rinses them both.

The mud slinging continues

This open letter just caught TB's eye on Facebook. Is it a precondition of being a Liberal Democrat to have faux piety pour from your mouth at the drop of hat? What's with the whole holier than thou bullshit coming from the Bagshaw campaign? Both camps are as bad as each other.

Open Letter in response to events in Harrogate

During the opening rally at the Lib Dem Conference at the weekend Liberal Youth Chairperson, Elaine Bagshaw, made a speech. Her adversary in the current Chairperson election, Sara Scarlett, decided to heckle her. This is the response from Leeds Liberal Youth:

Dear Sara,
Given the events of the rally in Harrogate on Friday we, Leeds Liberal Youth, feel we should share our viewson your behaviour.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms your decision to heckle Elaine Bagshaw during her speech. Not only was your outburst rude but it drew the reputation of Liberal Youth into disrepute in front of the rest of the party. We do not know the history of your and Elaine's relationship, which has clearly deteriorated and we are not interested in knowing it. Our protest is against the heckling incident.
Firstly you completely misjudged the situation in which your interruption took place. The rally was an upbeat occasion with powerful and inspirational speeches from all sides of the party. It was, with your exception, a great way to celebrate the 21st birthday of the Liberal Democrats and kick off Conference. Your heckle was the one thing that dampened the occasion.
Secondly Elaine was not making a speech to promote her Liberal Youth Presidential campaign. It was about the achievements of Liberal Youth throughout the year and she was not boastful about her contribution in any way. While you are entitled to your view, the achievements she mentioned are true and she has done a great deal of consultation on the education policy papers from this Conference. Nevertheless this was not the right occasion to debate these issues. Given this, it is a shame you didn’t turn up to the Liberal Youth fringe event where you could’ve discussed your concerns, nor the student campaign meeting, organised by the campaigns department and Greg Mulholland MP.
Finally we do not believe your behaviour could be considered ‘Presidential’. If elected President you will have to represent Liberal Youth in front of the rest of the party and the public. Behaviour like this cannot be tolerated under these circumstances. One of our members sat near you during the rally and reported that you were giggling afterwards. We hope, given the condemnation you have received since the event, that you now consider your actions to be less funny.
Given these concerns we feel it would appropriate for you to offer an unreserved and public apology to Elaine. If you are unwilling to do this perhaps you will consider stepping down from the election to save any future embarrassments to Liberal Youth.
Yours,
Liberal Youth Leeds & Leeds University Union Liberal Democrats

Word on the street is Elaine yeah-but-no-but Bagshaw is a bit of an elephant. As in she doesn't forget things, and if you cross her, boy do you pay.

What did you think TB meant?

Exclusive: Disgraced student President faces revolt after fact-finding trip rampage.

TB understands that those

YBF

boys have been rather busy today, doing what they do best. It seems that their army of campus spies is really growing. Student unions around the country have a seemingly insatiable desire to waste money, but it's always nice when you can nail them for doing so with hard proof and that's where this YBF investigation comes in...

The President of one of the UK’s largest student unions has admitted to “getting smashed” and “wrecking the landscape” on an official trip to China. Nsikan Edung wrote on a friend’s Facebook wall that he was having a “totally inappropriate time” on a trip in his official capacity as the President of Nottingham University Student Union. He had flown to China as part of a project to establish cultural ties. In his manifesto aims Edung stated that building up a relationship with Nottingham University's China campus was at the

top of his priorities

. It seems to TB that no one bothered to ask him quite how he was going to do it though.

The outrage felt on campus has spread to those outside the university who hate to see money wasted in such a ridiculous fashion. Tim Aker, Grassroots Coordinator of the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Nottingham Graduate, said: “This is a ridiculous use of the University’s funds. With his union’s members struggling to pay their bills, it’s wrong that this supposed student leader is partying on the other side of the world at taxpayers’ expense. Students are being forced to pay costly fees to go to university, but it seems some academic institutions are happy to throw money away on free jollies.”

CF and YBF's Christian May, slammed Edung’s jaunt as a complete waste of money. “Did this trip, paid for by the university, add any value to the education of ordinary Nottingham students? I very much doubt it. These are the kind of publicly funded jollies that must be stamped out during a recession. People are very loose with money when it isn’t their own. Just look at Derek Simpson of the Unite Union – living in luxury whist his members lose their jobs.”

Edung went on to boast that he planned to “check out some house parties, ruin diplomatic relations and spend a night in a Chinese cell.” A source close to Nottingham University Student Union claims that plans are underway to hold Edung accountable for his “inappropriate boasts” and to press university authorities to take further action. The source added, “this is what happens when union officials get too big for their boots.”

TB has been trying to get a straight answer out of the university all day. Firstly the President is not taking calls or returning emails. The university press office refused to comment on whether they paid for the trip and referred to it as a union matter. The union press officer was equally unhelpful. She stated firstly that she would look into it, then that she couldn't find out who had paid for the trip, or what it's purpose was. Finally she admitted she wasn't going to give out the information.

TB reckons they know they have cocked up here. His sources have confirmed that the trip was paid for by the University, so out of essentially public money. They seem to be determined to brush it all under the carpet.

You've got some explaining to do Mr President...

Pyongyang style retraction #23

It seems that Sara Scarlett, the heckler of Harrogate, has been getting some flack for her very public outburst against her opponent for Chairman of Liberal Youth:

TB would have stood by his words. Over to you Elaine.

Slipping banter past the sub-editor.

It seems that

The Times

has a headline writer with a sense of humour...

Especially given the photo!

A hoody you might actually want to hug...

So those trendy kids down at Exeter have a entrepreneurial streak. They have gone into business making "Life's better under a Conservative" hoodies for their campus association. You can customise them for other places

here

.

TB was promised seductive and rather naughty photos to advertise these goods, but it seems the rumour going about that the young ladies of Exeter Conservatives had been sporting these hoodies, and only these hoodies, was rather wide of the mark...

Good to see the ugg-boot, black tight and hoody uniform of many a campus tory girl is now officially branded though.

ABB resigns. Again.

Since she quit the Conservative Future National Executive last October, very little has been heard of the controversial and divisive Anastasia Beaumont-Bott. She disappeared under the radar, but continued to be in charge of the Social Action network. However in a brief and blunt email sent a 2am on a Saturday night, it seems ABB has had enough of the political game playing for good. When such a master of the dark arts herself decides to call it a day, you have to wonder what she was eluding to...

Word has reached Tory Bear, however, that this all might not be as a simple as ABB just walking away. A certain someone is appearing in an interview in this months New Statesman and apparently this has irked some of her colleagues, who believe that Miss Beaumont-Bott is getting above her boots and were frankly sick of her temper tantrums. Apparently we are all due another dose of ABB self engrandisment and some pretty strong words in the interview against the Party. A source told TB this afternoon that there were those behind the scenes fuming at the bull in a china shop way she goes about things with the media - "Did she contact the press office before she did this, like fuck she did!"

Did she jump the tory ship before she was pushed? Or are the rumours that she has been poached by the new

Jury Team

true?