Category Archives: Labour

Dodgy statistics minister Grant Shapps proves that he can’t count

1:57pm Mon June 11th

Grant Shapps has been accused of misleading parliament and breaking the ministerial code by making up housing statistics as he goes along. His series of blunders include claiming housing stock decreased by 45,000 under Labour, then saying it was 200,000.

Spinning Shapps also told parliament the number of new builds in England rose by 25% in 2011 compared to 2009 — attempting to cover-up official figures showing they were actually down 4% from the previous year.

Taking to Twitter to hit back at Jack Dromey MP, who has complained to the UK Statistics Authority, the best Shapps could do was bleat that a Labour Party press release had referred to him as “minister for Daybreak“.

Perhaps the publicity hungry minister should have checked his own Twitter account, where he has bragged about being on the programme at least three times:

David Cameron’s inability to count is obviously contagious.

Candidate photoshops his Jewish mother out of leaflets for non-Jews

7:10pm Wed May 23rd

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A United States congressman fighting for re-election has been caught photoshopping his Jewish mother out of a picture on leaflets going to non-Jewish voters. Voters with Jewish surnames in California’s 27th congressional district would receive a leaflet with Brad Sherman’s smiling mother — but others received a version in which she had been digitally removed.

The cynical gaffe recalls an incident in 2007 in which the culture secretary James Purnell was (badly) edited into a photo call. Purnell turned up too late for the photoshoot outside Thameside hospital — so agreed to, erm, pose for a snap which would be merged with the original.

If only government ministers could be airbrushed away so easily.

Angry Cameron calls Ed Balls a “muttering idiot” during PMQs

1:18pm Wed May 23rd

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David Cameron was reprimanded by the Speaker during PMQs this afternoon — after calling Ed Balls a “muttering idiot”.

“… using our hard-won credibility, which we wouldn’t have if we listened to the muttering idiot sitting opposite me.”

Marking the return of his Flashman tendency, opprobrium heaped on Cameron has been greater as Ed Balls suffers from a stammer.

Naturally, the Chancellor led the boorish cries of “More, more!”

Leveson Inquiry QC asks questions about Political Scrapbook

12:14pm Tue May 22nd

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This morning saw Political Scrapbook raised at the Leveson Inquiry, with Tom Watson forced to deny he was part of the “management” of this website — a ridiculous notion to anyone with knowledge of the UK blogosphere.

The questions asked by Robert Jay QC were put to the inquiry by a core participant — an individual accorded special rights to view witness statements and suggest lines of questioning.

The bizarre exchange left the Scrapbook office wondering which core participant we have offended such that they would put these questions to the inquiry.

We’ve obviously been ruffling some feathers somewhere.

More: Full list of core participants »

Speaker orders Jeremy Hunt to face Parliament over BSkyB fiasco

3:43pm Mon May 14th

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John Bercow has effectively skewered Jeremy Hunt’s weak delaying tactics over his BSkyB bid fiasco — in which he has attempted to use the Leveson Inquiry as a ruse to dodge awkward questions from MPs.

Harriet Harman raised the following point of order in the Commons moments ago:

“it is in order for the Secretary of State to say that he won’t answer questions from Honourable Members because he’s going to tell Leveson”

“whether it is in order for the Secretary of State to say he won’t place documents in the Library because he’s giving them to Leveson.”

The Speaker has spoken: Jeremy Hunt is accountable to Parliament and not Leveson.

More: Clegg backed delaying tactics this morning »

Ed Miliband dodges the bullet

2:24pm Fri May 4th

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Miliband’s opponents on both sides of the chamber were hoping that today would be the moment things got very sticky for the Labour leader (see this cartoon from ConHome).

But with the SNP failing to snatch Glasgow City Council and and Ken Livingstone’s defeat balanced by a strong showing on the London Assembly, Miliband-aligned Labour sources are digging their heels in: “None of those looking to destabilise Ed can deliver the change the party needs.”

Or as one Glasgweigan MP put it:

“This is astonishing. The SNP have been well f**ked!”

No wonder David Cameron wants to talk about porn.

Fight! Tom Watson and Louise Mensch at daggers over Murdoch report

10:17am Thu May 3rd

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The fallout from the CMS Committee’s report into phone hacking continued this morning, with private committee discussion spilling out on to Twitter after Louise Mensch revealed details of MPs deliberations on this morning’s Today Programme.

In acrimonious exchanges, it was revealed that Mensch had withdrawn an amendment critical of James Murdoch, while Watson seemed to imply that Rupert’s son had been tipped off as to MPs’ concerns — sending the committee a letter addressing issues raised in private.

Being forced to apologise by her peers for levelling unfounded hacking accusations clearly hasn’t tempered Mrs Mensch’s self-rightous indignation.

Chicken! Did Danny Alexander refuse to debate Ed Balls on Newsnight?

9:19am Thu April 26th

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It appears that Treasury spinners may have told BBC producers that Danny Alexander would not debate with Ed Balls on Newsnight. With his department stewarding the economy back into recession, Alexander did not engage directly with the shadow chancellor late yesterday — despite being one of the most senior figures in the government with an annual salary of £134,565.

In bizarre scenes, Balls and Alexander were sat opposite each other but never exchanged blows, with the segment split into two seperate interviews with Kirsty Wark.

Danny: if you can’t stand the heat then get back to the Cairngorms National Park press office.

Category Archives: Labour

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