The Greater London Authority have revealed they spent a whopping £219,143 on Khan’s cringeworthy “Maaate” campaign last year. The campaign sought to end domestic violence with an interactive video, where apparently saying a disapproving “maaate” to a sexist friend will magically banish sexism and misogyny from the capital forever. The esteemed advertising agency Ogilvy was paid £80,000 for the production of the campaign, which the London Mayoralty claim generated over £1.5 million value-in-kind from media spaces and content creation by influencers. Quite how they arrived at that figure is unknown…
In a response to an FOI request, the GLA was clearly embarrassed about the amount spent on the highly criticised campaign, pointing to the Home Office’s similar campaign, which has a projected budget of £8 million. Guido’s not sure a nation wide campaign involving online tools to report acts of domestic violence and sexism is comparable to the short interactive video…
Every councillor in the UK has been sent an email from two Kingston councillors demanding they sign a letter accusing Israel of “war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing“. James Giles and Jamal Chahan have organised the effort, giving their 19,102 fellow UK councillors until Friday this week to sign on. Otherwise, they will publish “the names of those who have been invited to sign but choose not to, in the interest of accountability”. Councillors across the country are reacting pretty angrily to the threatening letter…
Guido readers may be interested to hear James Giles is a longtime agent and collaborator of George Galloway, running various campaigns for him including Batley & Spen’s by-election in 2021. Giles previously hosted Galloway’s programme for Russia-owned SputnikTV and Galloway’s The Mother of All Talk Shows when it was aired by the now-banned RT. He also ran his grandmother’s campaign in a by-election for the same council, which the LibDems and Conservatives denounced as “dirty” for attacking their LibDem rival for being an Ahmadiyya Muslim. A pleasant character no doubt…
Meanwhile, Conservative councillor Jamal Chahan is the son of Tory donor and PPE provider Ashraf Chohan. Guido hears he’s on his way through the candidate process to become a Tory PCC. Guido wonders what local Conservative associations will make of that…
UPDATE: A CCHQ source tells Guido:
“The councillor in question has now been kicked out of the Tory group. He’s also not a party member, so any applications from him won’t be going very far….“
Swift action from the new chairman. Not seeing the same from Sir Keir with his own elected MPs…
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has confirmed new lax rules on travel expenses due to security concerns following incidents where the offices of MPs who did not support a ceasefire in last week’s vote were targeted last week. In a letter to all MPs, Hoyle said the independent expenses body, IPSA, will not disclose the details of new taxi journeys due to “security implications.” Not having to disclose taxpayer-funded taxi trips will certainly encourage MPs to jump in a cab more often…
Hoyle also pledged ramped up Met Police security outside Parliament, with a new focus on exits and entries. Might be trickier for co-conspirators to find an Uber in Westminster from now on…
Read his full letter below:
David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton has just been sworn in to the House of Lords. He’s facing the 1922 Committee later. Guido’s looking forward to his pronouncements from the red benches...
Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has appeared to make quite the u-turn on his Britain bashing views, now admitting “we have begun to draw lessons of Brexit”. The former candidate for French President called for national protections from EU law to grapple with “out of control” immigration, reiterating his view that France should establish a “constitutional shield” to prevent decisions from his previous employers. He also called for the “French people to decide” on these issues. Something Britain was bashed for letting its own people do…
In an interview with the Financial Times, Barnier said:
“For 30 or 40 years, there’s a kind of interpretation that is always in favour of the migrants . . . We have to rewrite something in the [EU] treaties or in the [European Convention of Human Rights]. We have to create a constitutional shield [allowing national law to take precedence], and to ask the French people to decide. The EU today is no longer the EU that the UK left. We have begun to draw the lessons of Brexit.”
He blamed the European Court of Justice for policies that limit states’ freedom in the name of national security and seemingly reflected Sunak’s stance on the ECHR, claiming current policies have been written in favour of migrants. In a warning to all Remoaners who want to rejoin the bloc, he said the EU is not the same as the one the UK left…
Brexiteer former minister Sir James Duddridge has announced he won’t stand at the next election. Guido makes that the fifty-fith addition to the list…
Duddridge has been MP for Rochford and Southend East since 2005 and served as Brexit minister under Johnson and Africa minister on either side of that, along with other roles. In his letter to Sunak, Duddridge says: “I think I have done my time. Forgive me for moving on to do other things“. The Tories will have to pick a fighter for the seat, it’ll be a tight battle…
