Not Just Barking

Out there on the right, there are many siren voices. From the National Front (NF) of the 1960s and 70s, which split when Messrs Tyndall and Webster fell out, to the British National Party, which also looks as if it may split, to UKIP, to the English Defence League (EDL), there is a tradition in this country of frightening white people by raising the spectre of brown and black people.

More recently, the frightening has moved on to the presently more fertile territory of Islamophobia. Here, the paranoid right try to sell the idea that white (and by default Christian) folk are being “colonised”, about to become a minority in their own country, and that Sharia law is being imposed. It’s complete drivel. It’s flagrantly irresponsible. And it’s peddled by quite rational and apparently sincere individuals.

So what should be dismissed as ranting wingnuttery starts to gain traction. And one individual typical of the breed is former UKIP parliamentary candidate Paul Weston. He contested Cities of London and Westminster last May, garnering all of 664 votes. He believes that the English are being ethnically cleansed, that there will be a civil war in the UK within the next 20 years, and that “we are being colonised here in the UK”.

Weston has just produced another tirade against what he calls “Socialist enabled Muslim fraud” on the Gates Of Vienna blog, which majors on the supposed war between Islam and Christianity. Links from Gates Of Vienna are provided to one Andrew Breitbart (he of heavily edited ACORN “sting” and Shirley Sherrod videos fame), and the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which features such luminaries as Geert Wilders and the EDL.

Weston kicks off with a neatly executed smear: he asserts that Barack Obama called the Muslim call to prayer “the sweetest sound in the world”. However, what the Prez said to the NYT was rather different: “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset”. And that’s the least of it: Weston describes Muslims in Pakistan as representing a “seventh century mono-culture”.

There is much more of this tedious flannel, but to save readers the trouble, and get to Weston’s real purpose, one can go directly to this part of his closing paragraph: “We are already witnessing the early stages of civil war in England, as the native EDL square [sic] up to foreign Islam and their Communist allies”.

And how did I discover this truly off the wall specimen? The heads up came from a Zelo Street regular – who had clicked on the first of yesterday’s Daley Dozen blog links. Yes, Iain Dale. And Dale called Weston’s post “disturbing evidence [my emphasis] of electoral fraud”. There’s mainstream and Tory for you.

Where’s Your Sense Of Humour?

Politics can be a funny old game. But not everyone involved has managed to retain a sense of humour. Best known for this trait – a total lack of sense of humour – in recent years was former PM Margaret Thatcher, for whom it must have been a strange experience reading out part of the Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch to gleeful response from conference, without understanding what the laughter was all about.

Together with her humourlessness, Thatcher would occasionally let slip double entendres which could render her audience as helpless as Pontius Pilate’s guards in the “Biggus Dickus” episode in Life Of Brian. The Guardian’s Simon Hoggart has quoted one magnificent example, from her post victory tour of the Falkland Islands. A soldier manning a huge mobile gun invited Thatcher to fire a round. “But mightn’t it jerk me off?” she asked.

This ability to say something mirth inducing while meaning to sound serious appears now to have settled on Thatcher’s successor. During the Tory conference this year, Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell drew David Cameron as he usually does, with a condom over his head. And the cartoon representing Young Dave’s set-piece speech was singularly unflattering, adding an unfeasible amount of flatulence, together with the finger.

Cameron caught up with Bell and Hoggart at the Spectator party. At first he was pleasant and cheery, but as Hoggart has told, he zeroed in on Bell’s caricature of him, warning “You can only push the condom so far”.

Finbarr Saunders was not available for comment.

The Leverages Of Power

It’s a phrase that fails to convey the real meaning of what happens to the takeover target: the “leveraged buyout” ends up with that target saddled with debt, sometimes so much debt that it has difficulty servicing the costs of it. And debt has been sitting on Premier League teams at both ends of the East Lancs Road for a while now.

At the east end of that road – and today posting a record loss of 83.6 million notes – is Manchester United. The numbers, at first glance, do not make sense: that loss comes despite an operating profit of over 100 million. But its total debts stand at over 520 millions, added to which the Glazers, who now own the club, owe 225 millions’ worth in Payment In Kind loans secured on the club. The interest on these is racking up at an eye watering 16.25% every year.

Man U was bought by the Glazers in a leveraged buyout, as, at the other end of the East Lancs, was Liverpool, whose owners are now approaching the moment that the Royal Bank Of Scotland (that would be the one owned mainly by we the people) will be calling in a loan that is most unlikely to be repaid or refinanced in time. Tom Hicks and George Gillett are as popular at Anfield as the Glazers at Old Trafford.

While Man U are still performing well on the field, Liverpool have had a grim start to the season, and resolving the ownership issue is not helping. So the news of a sale, now approved by the Premier League, might be thought to enable all concerned to move on. But Hicks has moved to block the transfer of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures (NESV). And the move appears perverse.

Unless Hicks can refinance the loan that RBS appear ready to call in, he and Gillett will not only lose their 140 million investment in Liverpool, but be liable for another 40 million in fees – maybe more. If they allow the sale to NESV to go ahead, they still lose the 140 million, but no more. And the club would have its acquisition debt removed.

Fans of Man U may gloat at the state of affairs at Liverpool, but with the Glazers poised to take more money out of the club to pay down those Payment In Kind loans, the future does not look ideal. Alex Ferguson looks to be placing a lot of faith in his senior players to keep going for another season, and the Glazers’ empire stateside is in poor shape.

If Man U were to stumble in the Champions’ League, and fail to get into the competition next term, a downward spiral could take hold.

Meanwhile, provided the sale proceeds, Liverpool will at least have their burden of debt lifted.

Well Foxed – 2

Chat show host David Letterman is probably not close to the right wing of US politics: after all, his recent guest list includes MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. So it was no surprise that, following the hoaxing of Fox And Friends’ A-Team the other day, he would pitch into the debate.



As I routinely enjoy putting the boot into Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), I have no hesitation in commending Letterman’s “Top ten signs there’s trouble at Fox News”. His addition to the Fox strapline was good, too: “We report, you decide ... we decide not to listen”.

[WARNING: the video has an advert in it!]

EXCLUSIVE: Talgo Saves The Day

High speed rail travel is advancing across Europe: even in the UK, provision is being made for a new link from London to Birmingham and beyond. In Spain, a high speed line from Madrid to Valencia will open before the end of the year, expanding that country’s network yet further. And another new line is under construction to link Madrid to Lisbon.

But here we reach a problem: my information is that the last part of the new line, to take the tracks over a new crossing of the Tagus into Lisbon’s distinctively roofed Gare Oriente, has fallen victim to spending cuts. The new line will now end at the village of Poceirão. Jokes are going the rounds that prospective passengers will be able to finish their journeys by cycle (Poceirão’s existing station has just one train each way per day).

Gare Oriente, Lisbon

Seriously, though, this is a big project that has been axed: the “Third Tagus Crossing” was to have carried a six lane motorway on its top deck – demand on the other two crossings is heavy for much of the day – as well as two broad gauge rail tracks, enabling trains to the Alentejo and Algarve to avoid the slower and congested existing route.

Fortunately, a solution to the high speed rail part of this problem is at hand, despite the new line and existing Portuguese network being built to different track gauges. As I described some time ago, Patentes Talgo have been developing variable gauge trainsets for decades, and in partnership with Bombardier, have recently introduced high speed trains incorporating their ideas.

At left, what you will not see, and at right, what you might

So, providing agreement can be reached with the various parties, trains displaced by the opening of new lines in Spain could be redeployed to run between Madrid and Lisbon. There will be a speed penalty – top whack of only 250km/h rather than 300 or 350 – and the existing, slower approach to Lisbon will have to be used, but at least a service will be possible.

As to journey times, well, the aspiration for an airline busting 2 hours 45 minutes cannot be even approached, but 3 hours 45 to 4 hours should be within reach. Given that the only train connecting the two cities right now runs overnight, and takes well over nine hours, that’s quite an improvement.

Let It Burn

Earlier this week, in Obion County, Tennessee, Gene Cranick was burning some trash. The fire got out of control and spread to his house. He called the Fire Department in the nearby city of South Fulton. They declined to turn out: Cranick had forgotten to pay an annual 75 dollar charge which residents outside South Fulton’s city limits have to stump up – in addition to their taxes – for fire protection.

Worse, when the fire spread to a neighbour’s property – someone who had paid the fee – the Fire Department turned out, put out the neighbour’s fire, but watched the Cranick house continue to burn. The thought that they might have cut the unfortunate Cranick some slack, especially given he offered to pay for them to turn out, does not appear to have entered.



But there was worse to come for Gene Cranick. Not only is he now reduced to living out of a trailer, the downmarket part of the national media have decided to mock him. And there is little further downmarket that one can go beyond the radio show of the increasingly wayward Glenn Beck, “star” of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).



Beck and his toadying sidekick Pat Gray defended the Fire Department’s refusal to help, accused Cranick of “sponging” off his neighbours, and all the while mocking his rural accent. No doubt Beck’s most passionate supporters will be egging him on to do yet more, but the impression is given that he is merely picking on the little people.

And, of course, you can afford to dump on the poor when you’re as well off as Beck.

Well Foxed

Another day, another example of the lamentable standard of journalism and editorial oversight that governs Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

As the LA Times has noted, the Fox and Friends A-team of Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocey and Brian Kilmeade were collectively well and truly hoaxed yesterday morning, reporting that the LA city authorities were investing in ten thousand jetpacks for their Police and Fire services – at a cool hundred thousand dollars a time.



That would have made the total bill a round billion – but this is a city that has resorted to sending cops home because it can’t afford to pay their overtime. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck confirmed “We certainly haven’t bought any jetpacks – we haven’t bought [squad] cars for two years”.

But this reality check evaded Fox and Friends’ finest. I am not surprised.

One Last Push, Men! Over The Top!!

After well over a decade in opposition, a Tory leader today gave his conference speech as Prime Minister. So how did it go?

Well, that would depend who was making the assessment. Cameron has been praised by the usual suspects: Iain Dale, a compliant and reliable conduit for Tory propaganda, obediently labelled it “A powerful, meaty speech”. Unfortunately for Dale, this view was not universally held.

The Guardian’s reader reaction worm, which tracks reaction to the speech as it is being delivered, hovered initially around the zero mark – neither positive nor negative – but then declined into forthrightly negative territory. PA political editor Jon Smith was clearly underwhelmed: “lacked conviction as much as inspiration”.

Even over at the normally sympathetic Maily Telegraph, Mary Riddell was also unimpressed: “much of what he had to say was small-minded, parochial, and vague”. Why should this be? Well, Young Dave is still banging on about the so-called “Big Society” idea. But Riddell says it all in the headline of her piece: “... remains as big a mystery as ever”.


And that despite Cameron shamelessly borrowing from Lord Kitchener, telling his audience that “Your Country Needs You”. Comparison with a war that left one and a half million British soldiers dead, and well over two million injured, does not sound a happy one.

Perhaps it is a signal that some of the less fortunate citizenry will in some way be sacrificed for the good of others. That, after all, was what the Great War was about: the last time that the lower orders did what their lords and masters told them.

Or maybe there is a message I haven’t managed to decode in Young Dave’s effort, which included in its peroration “So come on – let’s pull together. Let’s come together”.

Oo-er, Dave!

OMG! Clueless!!

The dust is now settling on the announcement by the Government that there would be changes to the previously universal Child Benefit. The proposal – to remove this from anyone earning enough to put them in the 40% income tax band – sounded straightforward, and would save around a billion notes a year.

However, when put under the cosh, ministers gave every sign that the measure had not only not been thought through, but had not even been communicated to most of that same Government. And then, as if to try and apply sticking plaster to the now open wound, Young Dave started talking of tax breaks for married couples, which, like the Child Benefit wheeze, wasn’t in the Coalition agreement.

The removal of Child Benefit from those in the higher income bracket would penalise families where one parent worked. Where both worked, but each earned just less than the 40% tax threshold, the benefit would still be paid. Did Cameron and his Chancellor not pick this one up? Why didn’t they discuss it at a full Cabinet meeting, where there would have been the feedback that informs decision making?

And, of course, there was on this issue none of the fabled interaction with the Lib Dems that we are constantly being sold. It was a mess, and the backpedalling that Young Dave and his jolly good chaps have been indulging in since – when seen alongside his caving in on free school milk recently – suggest that he has taken on board none of the Thatcher steel.

This is over one billion quid a year. The target for the Coalition is to save 83 times that amount. Having made such a shambles of Child Benefit, what may be in store over rather larger amounts does not bear thinking about.

What price General Election 2012?

Tea Party – More Hypocrisy

With a month to go before the mid-term elections, things are not going too well for the GOP in their battle to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada.

This contest might have been thought to be a straightforward one: the state has above average unemployment, the Democrats are losing popularity nationally, and the more partisan part of the media is backing the Republicans to the hilt.

But the candidacy of “tea party” supporter Sharron Angle has not been without its problems. Now it appears that there is another supposed “tea party” candidate on the ballot, and this could hurt Angle in a tight race. Latest polls suggest that a tight race is what it will be.

Now, into this race has been pitched a recording of a meeting last Sunday where Angle made adverse comment on the GOP nationally, citing its lack of principles. This is a bit rich: as I observed earlier, Angle has railed against Government mandated health care, while being in receipt of it herself.

At this point in the campaign, the last thing that a challenger such as Angle needs is to lose her nerve and her focus. But the impression given by her meeting last Sunday is that this is what is happening.

Don’t Be Vague – 5

One rumour going the rounds in the days leading up to this year’s Tory conference was that one of the papers had something on William ‘Ague, and that they were waiting until the conference was under way to whip the pin out of their recently acquired grenade and lob it wherever it would cause most damage.

And, as if to prove what I had suggested some weeks ago, things seem to be moving on that front. The only question now is who will be making the first move, the MSM or blogosphere. Contrary to what some may believe, both old and new media co-operate and coordinate their activities, rather than selfishly competing with one another.

Evidence of this was provided by Private Eye, in issue 1271 (Page 6, left hand column), where it reported the behind the scenes contact between Paul Staines, who blogs under the alias of Guido Fawkes, and the Daily Mail. The Eye also confirmed that Staines’ original story, far from being his own handiwork, had been fed to him by a hack unable to get it into his own rag.

Today it is Staines that has thus far made the running: he has noted that Master ‘Ague pulled out of a Maily Telegraph sponsored event this lunchtime, with “Oiky” Gove having to stand in. He then returned to the subject of Christopher Myers, subject of the original bout of nudge-nudgery, titling his post “Part 1” and stressing “more to follow”.

The latter post included examples of a trawl through chat room conversations, the level of detail which I doubt Staines would find time or enthusiasm for. So if he isn’t doing the intelligence gathering, who is? My first thought is that this, as with the original Myers story, is coming from the assembled hackery of a national newspaper.

Which brings one conclusion: that paper is either about to publish, which could beat Staines to the line, or its hacks believe that, as before, their editor will bottle it, so are feeding the story to someone who is more likely to run it. Either way, I do hope Staines makes sure of his facts in the event he decides to press the nuclear button.

Because if not, his barge won’t get him out of Birmingham fast enough.

Murdoch Is Served (22)

The morning after the Dispatches programme (Tabloids, Tories and Telephone Hacking), what if anything has changed? Well, that would depend on who is asked. Rupe’s troops will still be claiming that no new evidence has been presented, Young Dave and his jolly good chaps will hold to that line while hoping the fuss will die down, but anyone outside those two bubbles may be starting to get the point as never before.

Because Peter Oborne’s presentation put Phonehackgate in context: the unacceptably close relationship between the Murdoch press and the party in Government, the equally unacceptably close relationship between that same press and the Metropolitan Police, and elected politicians and their electorate cowed before an unelected, interfering foreigner and his hangers on.

And that isn’t good enough. The idea that the Fourth Estate should be able to eavesdrop with impunity, in the style of a Soviet-Era intelligence service, and then bully its servants and victims into keeping schtum, should have no place in any free and democratic society. Yet this is, more or less, what the Murdoch empire has done over Phonehackgate.

Moreover, the closeness to Rupe and his troops is not confined to any one political party: during the Blair premiership, those closest to Tone would always be asking themselves what the reaction of the Murdoch press would be to any new legislation. With the change of Government, we have Young Dave employing Andy Coulson, one of the Murdoch “family”, apparently to win over Rupe to his cause.

Nevertheless, with each new revelation, the impression is given that the lid is being prised slowly but inexorably off an unpleasantly large can of worms. The line of politicians, slebs and hangers on queuing up to be paid off by News International as a result of having their mobiles hacked merely reinforces that feeling. And in that queue is one individual who Rupe and his troops will not want to see there.

Because, on last night’s Dispatches, former MP George Galloway asserted that he did not need the money, and was therefore not interested in being paid off. His purpose in starting action against the Murdoch empire is to ensure that the case goes to court, something which thus far Rupe and his troops have been clearly reluctant to allow.

The saga of Phonehackgate rolls on. It has yet to reach its conclusion, but it will get there, whatever obstruction or intimidation is put in its way. Once the lid comes off this can of worms, there will be no putting it back.

Return Of The Three Stooges

Despite the welter of complaints to Ofcom following the election time antics of overrated presenters Kay Burley and Adam Boulton, Rupe’s troops at Sky News (“first for breaking wind”) are still – supposedly – working within the rules for UK broadcast media. This is in stark contrast to the regularly partisan behaviour of hosts at Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

But one might have wondered, following yesterday’s broadcasting from the Tory conference. Once again, Boulton – a staggeringly immodest man with much to be modest about – was in the chair. His panel of three pundits were unquestionably fair and balanced, but only if judged from a Tory viewpoint.



At right in the line-up was Paul Staines, who blogs under the alias of Guido Fawkes, and dislikes being labelled “right-wing”, but only if the BBC are doing the labelling. Staines, who confessed during a discussion on the champagne ban that he would “drink anything”, is becoming worryingly rotund – well, worrying for him.

In the centre of this supposedly wide ranging panel was Tim Montgomerie of ConHome, who was allowed to push his usual accusation that the broadcast media, and particularly the BBC, was agin him and his party. Making up the numbers was Iain Dale, a compliant and reliable conduit for Tory propaganda.

This convocation of the right leaning part of the blogosphere was allowed almost nine minutes of airtime in which to push its view of the world, with not a great deal of light being shed on prospects for the Tories. Typical of the level was when Dale reiterated his view that Young Dave was in total control of his party, while managing not to notice that Liam Fox is building a competing power base.

But the unintentional giveaway came from Staines, who admitted that “there may be one or two surprises” to come. He has, with the news of tonight’s C4 Dispatches programme on Phonehackgate, been shown for once to be remarkably prophetic.

Although he may not be up for taking the credit this time around.

Murdoch Is Served (21)

Previously, I had wondered if events might conspire to make the Tory Party conference a little less dull. I did not have long to wait: Nick Davies of the Guardian, who has been ferreting away on Phonehackgate for some time now, has today brought news that the investigation is not only continuing, but that it’s getting very close indeed to Andy Coulson, former editor of the Screws and now Young Dave’s chief spinmeister.

Coulson has, until now, denied knowing that voicemail messages were being listened in to. But a former executive from the Screws, at present unnamed, has told otherwise: Coulson, he asserts, asked to either hear intercepted messages, or see transcripts of them.

That would be consistent with Coulson being a hands-on editor who wanted to make sure that he had sufficient evidence to stand up stories – and also that his paper was unlikely to end up in court as a result of publishing them. Moreover, the revelations are being made not just in the Guardian, but also in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary tomorrow evening (2000 hours first broadcast, available afterwards on 4OD).

And there will be little use anyone in the Tory Party complaining about rotten lefties: the Dispatches programme is to be fronted by Peter Oborne, former political editor of the Spectator, a magazine not noted for socialist leanings. Oborne is of fiercely independent mind, and has previously been more than ready to go after anything he sees as corrupting politics and the political process.

The Dispatches programme, therefore, promises to be free of spin and direct in its analysis. This could be the tipping point in Phonehackgate.

Cheap Publicity, No Winners

An increasingly strident call nowadays is that there is a “war against the motorist”. Generally this is used by organisations that think it unfair that lawbreaking results in prosecution, that vehicles should be able to park where or when their owners wish, or that the rules of the road apply to others.

And now the phrase has been picked up by Government, in the form of Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. He’s committed to ending this war. So will we see the ending of fuel tax increases, 70mph speed limits, parking restrictions, and spot fines for drivers using hand held mobile phones? No, we won’t: that might curb the revenue stream and yield little publicity value.

What Hammond is going to do, in front of a sympathetic audience at the Tory conference, is to end the M4 bus lane. This will cost little, gain bucket loads of praise from the assembled hackery, and enable him to dump on “Shagger” Prescott (“traditional misbehaviour in a modern setting”). And the fawning publicity will, conveniently, avoid the facts.

When the bus and taxi lane on the city bound carriageway of the M4 was introduced back in 1999, it was part of a package of measures which, taken in total, reduced journey times on that stretch of motorway for all vehicles. As this news did not fit the agenda of Prescott bashing prevalent at the time, it was not widely reported in many papers.

And even the AA has conceded that removal of the bus and taxi lane will still see queues of city bound traffic. Spokesman Andrew Howard confirmed that “getting rid of the bus lane will simply move them 3.5 miles to the east”.

But the publicity will be useful, and Jeremy Clarkson will be happy. So that’s all right, then.

Sinking Ship Ejects Rat

Things are not going at all well at CNN, the original US cable channel. As I observed recently, the level of desperation is such that when Larry King bows out early next year, his slot will be taken up by Piers “Morgan” Moron, described in today’s Guardian TV guide as “an obnoxious toady with a misplaced sense of entitlement”.

But the thoughtful understatement of the Guardian pales into insignificance when compared to the car crash that ended the CNN career of Rick Sanchez yesterday. Sanchez, until yesterday the host of Rick’s List, went on Pete Dominick’s radio show on Thursday and called Daily Show host Jon Stewart a “bigot”. Just to dig himself in a little deeper, he then asserted that CNN and other networks were run by Jews.





Meanwhile, Sanchez had been sounding off at MSNBC, suggesting that hosts Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were cheerleading for the White House: “MSNBC is to Barack Obama what Fox was to Bush and Cheney” he asserted. Olbermann later correctly predicted, via Twitter, that Sanchez would be finished at CNN.

And so it came to pass: Sanchez did not appear on his own show yesterday, and CNN later stated tersely: “Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well”.

Can things get worse at CNN? With the advent of The Percy Moron Show, they certainly can.

Excuse Revoked

Industrial action called on behalf of workers at the BBC over changes to pension rights had previously got the right fired up: here was proof that the Beeb was a hotbed of leftism, as the action would coincide with the Tory conference. But it’s been called off.

So we’ll have no problem in seeing Young Dave and his jolly good chaps strutting their stuff in Birmingham next week. This is as it should be: let’s see just how appealing the larger part of the new and improved two-headed donkey really is.

The prosaic reality is that 95% of the coverage will be deathly boring, and not likely to garner any significant number of new votes, let alone members. The only thing likely to spice things up is a whiff of scandal from the Sunday papers.

Here’s hoping.

When Leaks Are Not Leaks – 5

The enquiry into an alleged leak of personal correspondence between Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Young Dave has not tracked down the culprit. Even with the involvement of the Military Police – thirty of them have been drafted in – the mole in the MoD has not been found. I am not surprised. My take is that the man they should be interviewing is Fox himself, and he’s not about to turn himself in.

But what of Cameron’s reaction to the ruckus? Well, he went on ITV’s This Morning and told that Fox had nothing to worry about. Given the scale of some of the cutbacks previously outlined, that means that some of the noises coming out of the Treasury are bluff – or that Young Dave knows there is going to be disquiet among the top brass when the cuts are revealed, and is putting off the inevitable showdown.

And that will only give opposition an opportunity to build a power base: Cameron has evidently not been reading his Machiavelli. Indeed, other ministers have begun to side with Fox, particularly Lib Dems Vince Cable and Michael Moore, the latter going in to bat for Scottish jobs. With the military lined up behind Fox, as I noted earlier, it will only get worse for Cameron the longer he leaves it.

For Young Dave to tell that “we are not going to take bad decisions” is no more than flannel: he isn’t addressing the central point of Fox’s letter. With the Maily Telegraph starting a readers’ poll asking if Defence should be exempted from the cuts, the issue will remain in the news, and Fox will remain a thorn in the side of his Prime Minister.

Cameron has to do the deed quickly, and never mind the upcoming Tory Conference. He has to sack Fox: any more drift and he risks being compared not to Margaret Thatcher, but Sailor Heath.

Get On The Bus

On Tuesday evening, an extraordinarily generous gesture was made on the Daily Show, although it was probably not the surprise announcement that some made out. Guesting for what seemed a promotion of her book Third World America was HuffPo founder Arianna Huffington, and she’s supporting Jon Stewart’s Rally To Restore Sanity on October 30.

In fact, Arianna is not just showing her support, she’s offered to put on buses, to take anyone from New York who shows up at the HuffPo office in SoHo, to the rally in Washington, DC. That could involve a lot of buses: at fifty people per bus, a thousand turning up would need twenty buses. Ten thousand – not outside the bounds of possibility – would need 200 buses.

But there’s method in what might look like madness: people from outside NYC are taking this as a cue to do their own organising. Groups from as far away as Chicago are mobilising, and that’s a long way to go. And endorsement of the gathering has come from the highest elected office in the USA: Barack Obama has indicated his backing.

Elsewhere, there have been 170,000 committing to attending on October 30. That’s twice the number that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s shameless hijacking of Martin Luther King Jr’s memory garnered.

It’s a powerful message: never mind those that shout loudest – let the 70 to 80 per cent who don’t have their say.

When Leaks Are Not Leaks – 4

Liam Fox was said to be “hopping mad” over the leaking of a personal letter from him to Young Dave. He’s called in the Military Police. They’ve turned over the MoD. The hunt for the mole has been thorough. And it’s a total sham.

At least one factually correct morsel has reached the media today: that Fox and Cameron do not trust one another. Bears crap in woods, Pope Catholic. One other fact is that the leaked letter was not copied to the Rt Hon Gideon George Oliver Osborne, heir to the Seventeenth Baronet.

Which means that Fox was trying to appeal to Young Dave over the head of the Treasury. And it appears not to have worked: the letter was sent on Monday last, but in a National Security Council meeting the next day, Fox was ordered to make further cuts. Then the letter was leaked.

That timeline is entirely consistent with my conclusion yesterday that Fox, or someone on his behalf, caused the letter to make its way to the Maily Telegraph. The leak has, according to the Telegraph, got the military lined up behind Fox, and some kind of confrontation appears inevitable.

And that is why, as I’ve already concluded, Cameron has to face Fox down and sack him. Cabinet Ministers are part of the Government, not some kind of informal opposition.