Westminster has been awash with speculation over who edited the Wikipedia entry of rising Labour star Chuka Umunna to include comparisons with President Obama.
Apparently the changes, designed to flatter the Shadow Business Secretary, were made from a computer at the very law firm where he was working before he became an MP in 2010. A coincidence, of course.
Now it seems Britain’s highest-paid councillor, the pompous Sir Merrick Cockell, has also had his online biography edited — to remove references to his legendary expenses.
Cockell, the leader of true-blue Conservative Kensington & Chelsea Council, is also chairman of the Local Government Association, on a combined salary for both jobs of £120,000. My mole at his town hall tells me that on March 25 the list of his expenses was taken off his Wikipedia entry by someone calling themselves ed17.
Conveniently, his many enemies kept a copy of the deleted words. It shows he spent £59.74 on a taxi from Heathrow Airport to the town hall and £129.53 on lunch with two people. His nickname, Pooter, which he hates, also vanished along with an article giving more details about his spending.
He lavished £60,000 on a Head of Office, and £40,000 on his PA; £115,000 on a Bentley with the number plate RBKC, which Cockell used to use to save on taxi fares; and £800,000 on creating four ceremonial roles, including a mace bearer, and decking their holders out in ruffs and silk coats.
Cockell is standing down as leader in May. Let’s hope his successor tries to save taxpayers’ money, rather than squandering it on vanity projects.
Is there an MP in the house?
The former Labour minister Margaret Hodge upset some of her colleagues when she said that they risked accusations of laziness and poor value for money because they work so few hours in Westminster.
But she has a point. Between the middle of March and the start of June there will have been just two sessions of the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesdays because of the length of the Easter recess, Lady Thatcher’s funeral, the Queen’s Speech, which falls on the same day, and the Whitsun recess to come.
Labour is Brown and out...
Lost numbers: It wasn't just the electorate who disliked Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister. It seems he upset his local Labour Party, too
It wasn’t just the electorate who disliked Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister.
He obviously upset his local Labour Party, too.
Mark Wickham-Jones, Professor of Political Science at Bristol University, told the One Nation Labour conference: ‘Gordon Brown’s constituency had nearly 1,000 members in the mid-1990s. At the time of the Labour leadership election in 2010 it had 163 members. Where did those people go?’
In the Ukip party political broadcast, it was hard to avoid a young man distinguished by his patriotic socks. Michael Heaver even excitedly tweeted about them: ‘Check out UKIP’s election broadcast going out tonight — I’m in it #MyBritain #MySocks.’ Heaver’s new-found conversion to Ukip is not all it seems. Since October 2011 he has been employed as the party’s Head of Online Engagement and has twice been chairman of the Young Independence, which is Ukip’s youth movement.
Has Red Ed Miliband done his homework on his new schools spokesman, the TV historian turned MP, Tristram Hunt? In March, Hunt wrote of Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove: ‘He is right to put British history at the forefront of teaching. The extraordinarily aggressive response by teachers and professionals to the Gove plans misreads history’s place in the education system.’
And the latest convert to Twitter? Lord Ashcroft, the former deputy chairman of the Tory Party, whose Twitter site is: @lordashcroft. Bearing in mind Ashcroft has announced he is giving away half his £1.2 billion fortune, he might get more tweets than he bargained for.
Members of the Liberal Democrats Lawyers’ Association are threatening to go on strike over £20 million cuts to legal aid. And which Government minister pushed for the changes? Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader.