Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

Last night on Question Time James Purnell, Work and Pensions Secretary*, made a claim which caused me to scurry onto BBC News to search through their archives:
"We were always clear [the 10p tax rate] was a short-term measure."

Verification of this claim found I none, so it’s good to know Channel 4’s FactCheck blog has come […]

[Read more →]

Cannabis will be upgraded from a Class C to a Class B drug, in a shock reversal of Tony Blair’s reclassification just four years ago.
The move comes shortly after a concerted campaign by the Government’s drugs advisory board, Associated Newspapers, to upgrade the substance. The board were concerned about the mental health of its readers, […]

[Read more →]

Binyam Mohamed, the last British man left in the US’s terrorist holiday camp in Cuba*, is asking the UK if they wouldn’t mind awfully providing him with the evidence that he has been a victim of torture and extraordinary rendition**.
Mr Mohamed needs this evidence so that he can defend himself in a prosecution before […]

[Read more →]

Madame Tussauds is asking its visitors whether they should create a figure of Gordon Brown*:
"When Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair last year, for the first time in a 150 year history, Madame Tussauds took the decision not to immediately create a figure of the current Prime Minister.
"Instead we chose to wait for a […]

[Read more →]

Charles Clarke MP, former Home Secretary and prowling Blairite attack lion, has crept off the savannah to kick Gordon Brown whilst he’s down on his knees sobbing for fiscal stability and better than third place in elections.
In an article for Progress, he writes:
"We should abandon proposals to increase the period of pre-charge detention to 42 […]

[Read more →]

The BBC’s Nick Robinson, not usually known for major howlers, has dropped the ball somewhat on the Government’s proposals to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days:
"Unlike on the 10p tax, the PM knows that the public is, largely, on his side on this one."

Err… is this the same public that said in a recent opinion […]

[Read more →]

The new edition of Politalks, your weekly satirical news roundup, is here. This week we rip into Labour’s latest worst week, as the Tories and Lib Dems utterly fail to capitalise on the Government’s bad fortune:

Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who are interested, here’s the transcript:
It was David versus Goliath […]

[Read more →]

Hot on the heels of Boris Johnson’s announcement that Labour MP Kate Hoey will join him in City Hall (should he win) as an unpaid advisor on advise on sport and the 2012 Olympics comes the Ken Livingstone smear campaign. Speaking on LBC radio he said:
"But I’m surprised he’s going to take her advice on […]

[Read more →]

Bruce Kent, writing on The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog, argues that Brian Paddick should name his second preference:
"The Lib Dems have earned a reputation for independence and radical politics. If they do not make it quite clear that they understand and reject what Johnson stands for they will be throwing away, not just in […]

[Read more →]

The new edition of Politalks, your weekly satirical news roundup, is here. This week we discuss Labour’s obsession with controlling every aspect of our lives, alongside a less-than-healthy obsession with Jacqui Smith:

Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who are interested, here’s the transcript:
Jacqui Smith and her knee-covering breasts were out in […]

[Read more →]