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Telegraph Publishes 17 Stories About Love Island in 24 Hours

Remember when MediaGuido uncovered the Telegraph’s “trash traffic” strategy to game Search Engine Optimisation and secure millions of extra Google juice clicks? Well, in the last 24 hours the Telegraph website has published a grand total of 17 articles about Love Island, the popular ITV2 reality show featuring scantily-clad ladies and on-screen romps. This is the sort of “premium content” lucky Telegraph subscribers get to read today:

16 things Love Island taught us about sex
Love Island’s Caroline Flack: ‘It’s not about sex’
How Love Island convinced me to stud my poodle
The top 10 cringiest moments from this season’s Love Island
Viagra sponsorship: how will Love Island contestants will make their millions?

A reminder that at the Telegraph it’s the SEO Chartbeat monkeys, not editors, who call the shots…

July 26, 2017 at 1:10 pm

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Corbyn Deletes Another Wrong Tweet

Yesterday Corbyn tweeted out a Telegraph article, crowing: “As school holidays start today, many will struggle to meet childcare costs, which have doubled under @conservatives“. Amusingly, this contradicted even Labour’s own data released that very morning, which claimed “the average weekly cost of childcare has risen by over 50 per cent from 2010 to 2017.” A 50% increase is not a “doubling” in costs. The tweet was deleted…

It’s the latest deleted Jez tweet: last week he got a tweet attacking the Tories over car parking charges at Welsh hospitals wrong (Labour runs the NHS in Wales and is responsible for the charges). Is a summer intern running his account?

July 26, 2017 at 12:07 pm

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CBI Survey: Everything is Awesome for Manufacturing

The ONS Q2 fall in manufacturing is due to a significant drop in the manufacture of cars. Elsewhere it’s a different picture if you read the new CBI Quarterly Trends survey, a long-standing survey of 397 blue-chip manufacturers which shows the state of Britain PLC. This quarter is astounding when you remember the predictions of economic disaster rolled out by George Osborne last year. The numbers are awesome:

32% of manufacturers said employee numbers with headcount increasing at the fastest rate for three years and hiring intentions for the coming quarter also improved.
Expectations for growth in export orders improved to a four-decade high.
Export optimism is strong, 43% of firms said the volume of output over the past three months was up – the highest since January 1995.
35% of businesses reported an increase in total orders.
Domestic orders were up +19%, with export orders growth remaining strong at +17%.
Alongside robust expectations for demand, firms accumulated raw materials at the fastest pace in forty years and stocks of work-in-progress expanded at a record rate. Strong confidence levels saw stock building of raw materials (+20%) which was the strongest since April 1977 (+22%), whilst stocks of work-in-progress rose (+16%).

By any measure these are good numbers, in the context of Osborne’s predictions for an immediate economic collapse, job losses, a collapse of business confidence and investment, these numbers are awesome. Reading the FT you’d never know it…

July 26, 2017 at 11:17 am

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GDP Would Need to Collapse 5% in Next 12 Months to Meet Osborne’s Treasury Predictions

Worth reading the new growth figures in the context of the Treasury’s pre-referendum projections. HMT warned that in the two years following a Leave vote, the UK would enter recession with GDP falling by between 3.6% and 6%.

There has been growth in each quarter following the vote to leave: 0.6% in Q3 2016, 0.6% in Q4 2016, 0.2% in Q1 2017 and 0.3% in Q2 2017. That means to meet Project Fear’s two-year prediction, GDP has to fall by over 5% in the next 12 months. Let’s see…

July 26, 2017 at 10:49 am

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Sock-puppet “charity” the IEA slapped down by regulator for general election bias

Somehow, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) enjoys charitable status, which means they are not required to disclose who funds them. This allows the IEA to carry out its work of lobbying for deregulation without being accused of a conflict of interest.

Charities, of course, are not permitted to be politically partisan. So, the IEA decision to publish a report with the Taxpayers’ Alliance on “Policy Proposals for a Conservative Manifesto”, and to put out a press release entitled “Labour’s manifesto pledges would add at least £40bn to public spending”, were in breach of Charity Commission guidelines. As a result the regulator insisted that these were withdrawn.

The IEA’s report “The Crack Cocaine of Gambling?”, which called into question the demonstrably addictive features of £100 a spin FOBTs in betting shops, suggests a commercial relationship with the bookmakers that the IEA’s charitable status has concealed.

It is laughable that the report’s author, Chris Snowdon, writes for Spectator Health when he is effectively a lobbyist for the tobacco, sugar and gambling industries by proxy. It says a lot about the Association of British Bloodsuckers (aka Bookmakers) that only the IEA are prepared to make their case for them, an organisation for whom freedom only means freedom for corporations.

The BBC should cease inviting anyone from the IEA onto its programmes until the IEA declares all funding sources.

Content produced and sponsored by Stop the FOBTS.

July 26, 2017 at 10:00 am

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A Classic of the Genre

Yesterday’s hat-trick of Brexit good news is covered the only way the FT knows how…

July 26, 2017 at 9:06 am

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Gove: No to Chlorine Chicken

Michael Gove flatly ruled out chlorinated chicken in Brexit Britain’s supermarkets on the Today programme, hours after Liam Fox insisted there was no health issue with US-style chemically washed poultry. Fox is right that this whole row is confected and that the science doesn’t justify the ruffled feathers. Scaremongering by opportunistic Remainers maybe, but regardless of the facts chlorine chicken is always going to be unpopular, will cut through to the public and not help the PR for Brexit. The story should have been shut down days ago, it is distracting from Labour’s student debt row and what should have been a very good week for the Tories…

July 26, 2017 at 8:49 am

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BBC Making Foreign Office Documentary

The BBC has commissioned a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the inner workings of the Foreign Office, Guido hears. The Beeb has wanted to produce a behind-the-scenes film revealing the inner workings of the FCO for a number of years, and Guido understands they have finally been given the sign off. A Michael Cockerell-style doco like his Inside the Commons series would be worth a watch; he did an episode on the FCO in his 2010 Great Offices of State series and also made a film about Boris Johnson in 2013. Sure Boris won’t do a Seumas and say anything unguarded with the cameras still rolling…

July 25, 2017 at 5:19 pm

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Amazon, Mini, EasyJet in Brexit Good News Hat-Trick

A hat-trick of #DespiteBrexit good news today, as three major employers strengthen their commitment to Brexit Britain. EasyJet has announced its largest ever intake of new cabin crew, recruiting an enormous 1,200 extra staff. More than half of that number will be based at London Gatwick. EasyJet became notorious for its sky-high levels of Remain rhetoric before the EU referendum; chief executive Carolyn McCall said Brexit “would not be good at all” for the airline. Good for those extra staff, though…

From the skies to the roads: BMW have announced that the new electric model of the iconic Mini will be manufactured in the UK, not in Germany. The car will be built at the firm’s Cowley plant, near Oxford. Business Secretary Greg Clark said the move was a sign that the UK is now “the go-to place in the world for the next generation of vehicles“. BMW were involved in a letter from car industry executives ‘leaked’ to the Guardian which claimed:

“For BMW Group, more than half of Minis built and virtually all the engines and components made in the UK are exported to the EU, with over 150,000 new cars and many hundreds of thousands of parts imported from Europe each year. Tariff barriers would mean higher costs and higher prices and we cannot assume that the UK would be granted free trade with Europe from outside the EU.”

But now BMW is building its new Mini in Britain…

Amazon, meanwhile, is undertaking a massive expansion of its UK headquarters. The online retailing giant says it will take up the entire 15 floors of a newly constructed building near the City. The firm had planned to only occupy 11; now 450 new staff will work there. Doug Gurr of Amazon UK said:

“The U.K. is a fantastic place to find talent and we feel good about building a global R&D center here. We’re very confident we’ll be able to recruit everyone we need.”

In a staggeringly self-contradictory sentence, Bloomberg reports:

“Amazon is expanding its space in the new building, which features a roof garden and surrounded by new cafes and restaurants, amid nervousness in the property market created by uncertainty over the nature of the U.K.’s divorce from the EU.”

Three more reasons to believe in Brexit Britain…

July 25, 2017 at 3:56 pm

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Team Jez: Labour Frontbenchers Were Mistaken

George Osborne’s Evening Standard has splashed on Guido’s student debt scoop from this morning. Team Corbyn have a new line: that frontbenchers Imran Hussain and Sharon Hodgson were “mistaken” about Labour’s policy and shouldn’t have said that Jez was planning to wipe out debts. If Corbyn’s own top team were mistaken, not sure how voters were meant to understand it. Almost as if the Corbynistas are lying to cover their tracks…

July 25, 2017 at 3:37 pm

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Momentum Activists Threaten and Jeer Councillors Over Antisemitism Motion

This is the moment hard left activists backed by a London Momentum branch threatened, heckled and jeered Haringey councillors as they voted to adopt a standard definition of antisemitism. The agitators disturbed a full council meeting last night during a cross-party motion to adopt the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which is officially recognised by the government and widespread in the public sector. The Jewish Chronicle reports that a Haringey Momentum Facebook group encouraged its activists to attend the meeting. Reportedly the group said:

“The campaign for councils to adopt these guidelines – which is not Labour Party national policy – has been ramped up in the context of the denigration of Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.”

After the meeting, Labour Councillor Joe Goldberg tweeted how he had been “threatened” and “shouted down” by “momentum people“, and squarely blamed the Corbynista group for “hosting a lobby” against the motion:

The entire incident was recorded on video; one heckler is heard to shout: “We’ll see you in your constituency Labour Party”. Menacing…

July 25, 2017 at 2:21 pm

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Chorley Not That Long Ago

Westminster’s favourite wit Matt Chorley writes in his Little Read Box email this morning:

“Next month it will be 13 years since I joined Twitter.”

Odd since Twitter was only founded 11 years ago and Matt’s own feed says he signed up in 2009:

On the other hand, colleagues remark it feels like he’s been on WhatsApp forever…

July 25, 2017 at 12:38 pm

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Commonwealth Nations Ask: How Much Longer Can Baroness Scotland Continue?

News of Baroness Scotland’s abject humiliation with the IPSO press regulator yesterday has travelled quickly around the Commonwealth. Caribbean News Now has published an editorial today headlined: “How much longer can Baroness Scotland continue as Commonwealth secretary-general?” The site accuses Scotland of “questionable appointments”, “attempted suppression of press freedom” and “allegations of profligate spending“, warning: “The resulting implications of her continuing in office for much longer are now of active interest in a growing number of Commonwealth capitals”. It concludes:

“The question now is will United Kingdom exert any influence and shield the Queen from further damaging controversy as Head of the Commonwealth at the London Summit next April.”

Commonwealth nations are getting jittery…

July 25, 2017 at 11:30 am

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Starmer Forced to Turn Down Mishcon Second Job

Sir Keir Starmer has bowed to pressure and been forced to reject a lucrative second job at anti-Brexit law firm Mishcon de Reya. A win for Tory MP James Cleverly who wrote to Starmer last night pointing out the conflicts of interest the job would entail. Corbyn voted against second jobs and had a veto on the appointment, did Jez stop Sir Keir from taking the gig?

July 25, 2017 at 10:15 am

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Shadow Minister: Every Existing Student Will Have All Their Debt Wiped Off

Let this put an end to the Corbynista spin that they never pledged to wipe out student debt. Here is Shadow Justice minister Imran Hussain speaking in a campaign video during the election:

“Just this morning Jeremy Corbyn has announced that the tuition fees will be abolished straight away from September if there’s a Labour government, and that we will bring back immediately EMA and also that every existing student will have all their debt wiped off. That’s fantastic news, isn’t it guys?”

That’s at least two Labour frontbenchers who made the student debt pledge during the election. Promise broken, Corbynista spin unravelled…

UPDATE: Schools minister Nick Gibb says:

“Day by day Labour’s top team are being found out for their betrayal over student debt. Their irresponsible offers to students are unravelling before our eyes. It is becoming abundantly clear that Labour’s election pledges were pure fantasy and they cannot be trusted to keep their promises – will they now step forward and apologise to this country’s young voters?”

July 25, 2017 at 9:56 am

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Corbynistas DID Tell Students “Vote Labour” to Get Debts Written Off

Corbynistas are disingenuously claiming they never let students believe their policy was to write off debts, and that the whole furore is an MSM smear. The above tweets from Shadow minister Sharon Hodgson reveal the truth: they did use the pledge as a reason for “All those in early 20s with student debt” to “Vote Labour”. And they are now lying about it. One more time, students: “Ohhhh Jeremy Corbyn…”

July 25, 2017 at 7:46 am

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Paul Mason’s Play in 60 Seconds

Paul Mason’s play – starring Paul Mason – was televised by the BBC at the weekend (Channel 4 must have been busy). Just in case you were out on Saturday night, Guido presents a boiled-down version in sixty seconds, preceded by Kirsty Wark’s hilarious introduction. Full Alan Partridge…

July 24, 2017 at 5:29 pm

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Greens’ Frequent Flyer Tax Slippery Slope

A tiny number of people take the vast majority of flights. We need a frequent flyer levy. Simple and fair. pic.twitter.com/uOfM1oYS91

— Green Party (@TheGreenParty) 21 July 2017

Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley has proposed a new tax to “penalise those who take flights multiple times per year“. Frequent flyers are already clobbered by air passenger duty: the state taxes flights on a sliding scale from £13 to a whopping £450 per passenger depending on service class and distance flown. As such frequent flyers already pay much more in duties than occasional travellers. The Greens’ tax isn’t anywhere near as progressive as they’d like to claim: frequent flyers are not just businessmen and jet-setters, what about migrant workers visiting their families? Do the Greens really want to go after them? The disincentives for business and trade are obvious. Chillingly, the proposal would require the government to spy on the flight patterns of every single citizen, treating every flyer as if they were on a watch list. Even Gordon Brown thought it was a bad idea…

Bartley’s tax isn’t a new idea: it’s supported by a coalition of environmentalist groups under the front campaign A Free Ride. The Greens might be pretending to be on the side of holidaymakers and non-frequent flyers, but the A Free Ride website reveals their true aim:

“The best thing for the climate would be if everyone were to stop flying immediately.”

Then Green Party leaders couldn’t jet around the world for those environmental conferences…

July 24, 2017 at 4:24 pm

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IPSO Throws Out Baroness Scotland’s Complaints

What remained of Baroness Scotland’s credibility lies in tatters after the IPSO press regulator threw out a litany of complaints she made about stories exposing her expenses shame. Last year the Mail titles, as well as Guido and other outlets, published a series of shocking revelations about Scotland’s expenses based on documents leaked by concerned whistleblowers. The Baroness denied everything and filed a vast number of complaints to IPSO about the stories. Today, after a nine month IPSO investigation, Scotland is left humiliated…

Baroness Scotland claimed she was the victim of a “partisan campaign” by the Daily Mail, that the paper’s articles about her were “distorted“, inaccurate and that the Mail had published knowingly false allegations against her. IPSO rejected all of this and threw out every single one of Scotland’s complaints against the Mail.
Baroness Scotland claimed reports recruitment rules had been bypassed to hire her friend Lord Patel’s company were untrue. IPSO found the standard recruitment process had been waived – the reports were true.
Baroness Scotland denied reports her spending figures, published every three months, had not been released on time. IPSO found they were not released on time, the reports were true.
Baroness Scotland claimed reports she had “brought in” interior designer Nicky Haslam were untrue. IPSO found Haslam had indeed been brought in by Scotland, the reports were true.
Baroness Scotland denied Haslam had “partly overseen” the planned renovations. IPSO found this was an accurate description.
Baroness Scotland denied that her advisers were “left-wing political fixers”. IPSO found they worked closely with the Labour Party and Labour figures and the reports were accurate.
Baroness Scotland denied reports of plans for a “swanky new dining area” in her Mayfair residence. IPSO found there were plans to relocate a chandelier to the dining room so this report was accurate.
Baroness Scotland denied reports staff had received a “sinister” notification from her office warning their communications were being monitored. IPSO found the reports were accurate.
Baroness Scotland claimed it was misleading to refer to Lord Patel as her “partner in crime”. IPSO found Scotland had herself referred to him using those words.
Baroness Scotland denied she had been “dubbed Baroness Brazen”. IPSO found that a Conservative MP had indeed dubbed her Baroness Brazen.
Baroness Scotland claimed newspaper reports suggested she had paid her sister for advice. IPSO found the reports made clear she hadn’t paid her sister.
Baroness Scotland claimed there was no evidence to suggest the Queen was “embarrassed” by her. IPSO found a well-placed Royal source said the Queen was embarrassed.
Baroness Scotland claimed there was no whistleblower, as there was nothing to blow the whistle on. IPSO found it was accurate to call the concerned source a whistleblower.
Baroness Scotland claimed it was misleading to say Downing Street had refused to give its confidence in her. IPSO found Downing Street would only give confidence in the role of Secretary-General, the reports were accurate.

IPSO ordered one minor correction, changing a headline in the Mail on Sunday about the sums paid to Lord Patel. This was the only breach found out of all the complaints made by Baroness Scotland against three titles. Her claims of inaccuracies, media lies and a vendetta against her have been exposed as fantasy – after such an unequivocal humiliation it is laughable that she can continue to hold public office…

July 24, 2017 at 3:12 pm

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100% Inheritance Tax: Stupid or Evil?

Abi Wilkinson in The Guardian has a “utopian idea”, a 100% inheritance tax. Guido thinks that sounds more like a dystopian idea, against human nature, and a totalitarian idea in breach of our most fundamental human rights. The only question Guido has outstanding: is the idea just stupid or is it evil?[…] Read the rest