True to promise today details of hospitality and gifts received by ministers and special advisers, ministerial meetings with external organisations and all overseas trips by ministers across government are published on the Cabinet Office website.

This is the first time special advisers’ gifts and hospitality has been made public. We’re going to get it published quarterly. Steve Hilton got the champagne, which was banned from Tory Conference by Andy Coulson…

Last week ten deficit-denying Labour MEPs voted against a freeze in the EU’s budget. What is it that  could possibly make them want to defend the status quo? Well in the last year alone the the luddites have claimed £786,478.66 between them from the taxpayer. Even more infuriating is the fact that over a hundred grand of that went to the MEPs wives and families.

Michael Cashman who claimed £92,028.27 in expenses last year, Richard Howitt (£78,248.42), Stephen Hughes (£86,951.70), David Martin (£64,458.76), Arlene McCarthy (£88,168.31), Brian Simpson (£79,326.21), Peter Skinner (£78,082.73), Catherine Stihler (£64,324.39),  Derek Vaughan (£75,765.10) and Glenis Willmott (£75,765.10) all voted to keep the gravy train flowing. Given that half of them supported Red Ed, yet again the new leader is put in an awkward position by his party, his Shadow Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is in disagreement with them. Ed’s silence over Ken’s explosion worthy behaviour, the growing union stranglehold over his party and now the ongoing troughing behaviour of ten members of his thirteen strong European delegation, five of whom voted for him, adds to the mounting proof of what a lame duck leader Ed is turning out to be.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is looking for an exceptional individual to lead a strong and independent BBC. Or so the advert goes for the new Chairman of the BBC Trust.

The broad post is responsible for strategy and standards across the vast, over-burdening leviathan, and with a radical choice of candidate the BBC could finally begin to overhaul the bias and waste that so damages the organisation. So who could be brought in shake things up?

Rumour and whispers say that Paul Dacre isn’t long for the Daily Mail editor’s hot-seat. Rothermere was in the front row of Cameron’s conference speech and Guido hears that eyebrows have been raised at the increased attacks on the paper’s reputation. As one of the BBC’s fiercest critics, why not let Dacre put his money where his mouth is, and instead of merely shouting from the sidelines, see if he can do any better?

Kelvin MacKenzie has a wealth of broadcast experience, setting up L!veTV and the hugely successful TalkSport. He is a polished performer in public and could bring some much needed private sector efficiency to the Beeb. If anyone can put a bit of stick about it would be Kelvin.

It doesn’t look like Andy Coulson is being forced out anywhere fast, but after a third bottle at lunch the other day a former spinner in-the-know let slip that it is likely he will bow out next year in an “offer he can’t refuse” situation. Common sense would have him returning to News Corp at an extremely senior level, but perhaps after juggling the entire government comms strategy, one last public service could tempt him…

Guido is sure any of these candidates would be welcomed with open arms by the Beeboids, better than their nightmare scenario of TV reviewer Gary Bushell at the helm at any rate…

Former union boss Jack Dromey tries hard to keep up his man of the people act, even now he is a Member of Parliament. Back in July he promised to take part in last Saturday’s Birmingham Half Marathon and press released the fact to his local rag. On Friday night attendees confirmed that he was as fit as a fiddle at a Compass event at which he spoke at in Birmingham. Yet on Sunday Dromey was a no-show at the marathon, citing a cold and the fact he was on antibiotics. However the drugs and Harriet gently mopping his brow must have had a wonderous effect since he had made a miraculous recovery in time for Sunday’s Politics Show.

After an audible gulp Jack’s office assured Guido that Jack hadn’t actually raised any money for the race, but that anything pledged will be rolled over to a fun run next year. Unless of course there is a chance to get on the telly…

Andrew Mitchell was David Davis’ leadership campaign manager, a gut right-winger he was grateful to survive in the shadow cabinet when the Cameroons took over.

Of late he has tried to get with the new normal, filming tear-jerker videos of himself in disaster zones, giving touchy feely speeches that would bring a warm feeling to Steve Hilton.

All very well but the world’s poor would benefit from the ex-banker bringing them a little capitalist prosperity. At DfID he has a Herculean task clearing out the right-on stables.

On the evidence of this poster for a seminar in his office, DfID is still run along the lines of a student union staffed by wild-eyed kids back from their gap year. Guido doesn’t think the mitigation of the effects of the climate is a wimmins issue, nor is it gender-sensitive. Rains, floods and drought don’t care if you are a boy or girl.

Tonight is the Public Affairs News Awards where the spin-industry pats itself on the back. Shortlisted for “Trade Body of the Year” is the Local Government Association. Given that Pickles has just successfully gouged out 27% from local councils in the spending review, Guido would love to know what could have gone worse for that trade body. The LGA is not exactly the most successful lobby of all time…

The LGA wastes £14 million of council taxpayers’ money every year lobbying Westminster from a posh Smith Square office. Even Caroline Flint, Pickle’s Local Government shadow, thinks the “LGA should be handed a revolver“. Local councils would better off taking Eric out for curry…

UPDATE : Believe it or not the LGA won.

A usually reliable source emails to say contrary to speculation (see below) Boris hasn’t been thrown out by the long-suffering Marina. He has left her and is under the delusion that the latest love interest is “The One”. Here we go again…

With the news that Boris has been kicked out of his family home and is now living in a rented house down the road from his wife and kids, it seems he is not letting women get in the way of his day job. There was barely a sign of distraction when he met an extremely important visiting  international delegation yesterday:

Sometimes Guido wishes he could be the Mayor..

The expenses crisis, lobbying shame and six Labour MPs being investigated by the police has caused the UK to plummet in the rankings of the most corrupt countries in the world, dropping to a humiliating 20th place. Guido has been highlighting the problem for years without fancy weightings, equations, interactive maps and graphs but Transparency International have really put the boot in. The UK is sandwiched between those two beacons of democracy Chile and Qatar.