CentreRight

It has emerged today that BNP leader Nick Griffin is to attend a Buckingham Palace Garden Party by virtue of being the guest of the party's London Assembly member.

Apparently all Assembly Members have been invited, with the opportunity to take a guest of their choice.

The Queen should put her foot down and block him from going. There are thousands of people from charities and voluntary organisations up and down the country who ought to get invitations to these kinds of events as an acknowledgement of their contribution to society and the country. Neither Nick Griffin nor his friend on the London Assembly fit that description and the Queen should not have to welcome them into the Palace garden.

As the Nothing British about the BNP campaign said this afternoon:

Iain Duncan Smith has written movingly today on ConservativeHome about the Holocaust Educational Trust-sponsored trip to Auschwitz which he, I and others joined a week ago.

It is quite a harrowing experience and helps you to comprehend the sheer scale of mass extermination undertaken by an evil regime which was in power in Europe during my grandparents' lifetime.

And it is a timely lesson that the Nazi ideology which resulted in the mass murder of Jews, Romany Gypsies and others is the very same ideology subscribed to by the British National Party.

BNP leader Nick Griffin has spoken chillingly about his "final vision" of a "genetically white country" and is, of course, also on record as having denied the Holocaust, despicably describing it as "the hoax of the 20th century".

All the more reason to remember that there is nothing British about the BNP.

David Chaytor, the Labour MP for Bury North, is the big target of today's Daily Telegraph, which reports that he managed to claim almost £13,000 in interest payments for a mortgage that he had already repaid.

He was on parliamentary business in America but is understood to be heading back to Britain to face the music - which is likely to see him suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party - confirmed as definite at 11.15pm by the Press Association - as was the case when Elliot Morley was found to have done the same thing.

But one of the more remarkable features of the story is that a reporter on Sky News has just told the nation from his constituency that she has met some of his constituents who had "never heard of him". Needless to say, they have now.

How can an MP represent an area for twelve years and go completely unheard of? It's a pretty damning endictment for a man who has been MP for the same constituency since 1997.

Mr Chaytor will defend a perilously thin majority of a little over 2,000 at the election - that is if Labour allow him to fight the seat again - and Conservative candidate David Nuttall will gain the seat on a modest swing of 2.5%...

Given how the news has been dominated by the MPs' allowances story all week, I almost forgot about an interview I recorded on Monday for Radio 5 Live about the Conservative MEPs leaving the EPP in Brussels.

It went out at 3am on Tuesday morning on Up All Night, but interestingly Caroline Jackson - who is retiring as a Conservative MEP this month - refused to debate with me on the very issue about which she has been so vocal these past couple of months: the fact that David Cameron is delivering on his pledge to take Tory MEPs out of the federalist EPP faction and form a new, eurosceptic, free market-oriented group in the European Parliament.

It's all online for a few more days if you click here: the feature begins at 2:06:38 with Mrs Jackson's interview and I hit the airwaves at 2:12:55...

I appeared on Question Time Extra on the BBC News Channel last night immediately after the most extraordinary edition of Question Time broadcast for many a year (Those links will only be live for a week).

After a whole week of daily revelations about MPs' use and abuse of parliamentary allowances, the sheer scale of the anger felt by the audience was remarkable, with only that one issue up for discussion. Theresa May for the Conservatives - not one to have been targeted by the Daily Telegraph - gave a measured performance and was relatively calmly received by the audience.

But the same cannot be said for Margaret Beckett and Sir Menzies Campbell - both of whose expenses claims have been highlighted by the Telegraph - who were constantly heckled and interrupted by livid members of the audience unsatisfied at the explanations being given.

Tim posted the news in a tweet earlier that Alan Duncan - an early target of the Telegraph - is no longer appearing on tonight's Any Questions on Radio 4, with Jeremy Hunt taking his place instead. I don't know whether that decision was made by Mr Duncan or the party, but I dare say that many politicians from across the political spectrum must now dread the reception that would greet them from the audience on these panel shows.

But shying away from such scrutiny is no solution and MPs are not going to be able to run away and hide on this one. The public - not to mention the media - simply won't let them.

Watch again below how the the audience in Grimsby treated the MPs on the panel last night:

You may not recognise the MP in the photo - and I can't really blame you if you don't, since he has never entered the House of Commons chamber, despite having been elected to it eight years ago.

It is Pat Doherty, who has twice been elected to represent the people of West Tyrone in the House of Commons - something which he refuses to do on the grounds that as a Sinn Fein MP he will not recognise the jurisdiction of the House of Commons over the affairs of Northern Ireland.

Yet he is happy to take British taxpayers' money - and lots of it - in expenses for that job, despite the fact that he refuses to participate in debates, ask questions and vote in the House on behalf of the 43,487 electors in his constituency.

I remain of the view that MPs not willing to carry out the duties of an MP should not be entitled to the associated allowances.

Yet further to this morning's Telegraph exposé of just how much the absentee Sinn Fein MPs are costing us, Mr Doherty has appeared on television this afternoon to defend his acceptance of the money on expenses.

At the beginning of last week, Labour MP Denis MacShane made a lazy attack in The Guardian on the Polish Law and Justice Party.

He branded as "gay-haters" the party which is among those set to join the new eurosceptic, free market alliance with the Conservatives in the European Parliament.

It has now been drawn to my attention that on Thursday the Guardian published a rebuttal of that smear in its letters page from Adam Bielan (pictured), a Polish MEP from the Law and Justice Party.

I reproduce it below: 

I've only just come across this clip, which is from last Thursday's Channel Four News and is being talked about in the Westminster village as a demonstration of how Gordon Brown "has flipped".

The highly respected C4 News political editor Gary Gibbon interviewed him, primarily about the climbdown on MPs' expenses, and what is remarkable is how Brown continually disputes the facts as put to him by the interviewer. Take a look:

The final countdown can finally begin.

As denoted by the nomenclature of the 6th May manifesto this morning, it is exactly a year to go until the date of the next general election.

Gordon Brown is clearly adamant that he will go the whole hog and stretch out his time in power for as long as he is able - because he knows that now he couldn't win an election, whenever it is held.

6th May next year sees the usual cycle of local elections across the London Boroughs and much of the rest of the country in any case, and so having a general election on the same day looks to me like a dead cert.

So we really can start counting the days.

And as we begin that countdown, I think especially of our candidates, many of whom have now been in place for a good two and a half years - and on red alert for an election at several points already during that time.

It has been a long, tough slog and I salute all of you who have been working tirelessly in your constituencies up until now. As we enter this final stage of the marathon, I trust that the prospect of victory, both locally and nationally, will drive you on in what will be a busy but extremely exciting twelve months.

I thought Downing Street had members of staff employed specifically to ensure that Gordon Brown's visits went smoothly and he avoided being photographed in front of signs saying "Exit" and the like.

So who will take the rap for letting him be snapped this morning - as the BBC records below - in front of a wall display containing swastikas?

What business is it of Barack Obama who mends the paving slabs on the streets of Worksop? None whatsoever, of course, but Gordon Brown is clearly desperate for some Obama magic to rub off on him.

Labour's latest party election broadcast uses lots of gratuitous footage of the Prime Minister and the US President during the recent G20 summit in London in a broadcast that doesn't actually make any reference to the local - or European - elections. Which is quite bizarre given that the party has only got the TV airtime for the film on account of an election taking place.

At least David Cameron did at least make more than a passing reference to the matter of local council finances and how Conservative councils will use taxpayers' money at this morning's local election campaign launch - before going on to lambast the Government for its national record, of course.

Watch the Labour broadcast below.

The above words come not from a Conservative politician, but one of the more thoughtful MPs on the Labour benches - David Cairns, the MP for Inverclyde in the west of Scotland.

They come from a piece he has written for the ultra-New Labour faction, Progress (President: Alan Milburn, Chairman: Stephen Twigg), and he uses the article to champion the instincts of ambition and aspiration as exhibited by so-called "Mondeo Man".

He states:

And he concludes:

Indeed so, I don't think I can disagree with any of that.

But Mr Cairns finishes by arguing that his party must speak again to "Mondeo Man". The thing is, though, I'm not convinced he's willing to listen to Labour any more.

Party chairman Eric Pickles' YouTube "War Room Briefing" is well worth a watch if you haven't yet seen it. His performance in front of the camera is infinitely better than the recent effort by the Prime Minister (although that isn't really saying much, is it?) and I can't imagine his Labour counterparts being so willing to take a video camera behind the scenes at party HQ right now.

And as we watch him sat as his computer, he unwittingly reveals the top five websites on his favourites list, which are entirely uncontroversial, but I thought I'd point them out anyway:

1. Benedict Brogan's blog
2. ConservativeHome
3. Er, Eric Pickles' website
4. Google
5. Guido Fawkes

Incidentally, watching Eric stand in front of the map pointing out some of the key electoral contests around the country made me wonder whether he had ever thought about pursuing an alternative career as a TV weatherman...

It was just over a year ago that ConservativeHome published this damning account of the selection process for Conservative MEP candidates, which rigged the vote in favour of incumbents over new hopefuls and in favour of female candidates over men.

In no way do I dissent from the justified criticism of the party contained in that piece, but if there is a small crumb of comfort, it is to say that at least we don't live in Italy.

Both The Times and The Sun have given coverage today to the way in which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has recruited new candidates for his People of Liberty party to stand in the European Parliament election in June.

The conclusion can only be drawn that it has not been an entirely meritocratic process.

They include:

• Angela Sozio - a former contestant in the Italian version of Big Brother
• Barbara Matera - a former Miss Italy contestant
• Camilla Ferranti - An actress in an Italian soap
• Eleonora Gaggioli -  Another TV actress

None is understood to have any experience of politics, but, as The Times reports:

I've been following the build-up to the Budget statement on the BBC News Channel and am utterly perplexed as to why the corporation has got a helicopter - presumably at considerable expense to the licence fee-payer - to hover above Westminster for most of the morning.

It attempted to follow the Chancellor's car as it made its way from Downing Street to Parliament (a journey of some tens of yards), complete with running commentary from presenter Jon Sopel.

I'm not as quick as many to bash the BBC (interest declared: I worked there for four years), but frankly this is an utter waste of money.

The following notice was posted on the Department for Work and Pensions website last week:

Need I mention that the first Wednesday morning in question is tomorrow, Budget Day? The very day that the latest unemployment figures are also released?

Would it be unfair to suggest that it might have gone through the minds of the powers-that-be in the DWP that footage of people queuing outside Job Centres, waiting for them to open, would have been even less desirable than usual tomorrow morning?

Or would such ideas only have come about in the "era of spin", which lest we forget, ended when Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair...

I noted earlier that the changes to the rules on MPs' second home allowances which Gordon Brown has hurriedly announced this morning are not set to apply to Northern Ireland.

This simply will not do. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and - as David Cameron is keen to do - we should be seeking to integrate the province's MPs into the work of the UK Parliament and not give them special treatment.

It strikes me that there are two reasons why the Government does not want to link the proposed daily allowance to attendance at the House of Commons for Northern Irish MPs:

• Sinn Fein MPs who refuse to attend the House of Commons would all forfeit that allowance at a stroke;
• Secondly, the attendance at the House by the DUPs - who saved the Government's skin on the 42-day detention vote - is very patchy, since all of them are also Assembly Members at Stormont and they would therefore be unable to claim the daily attendance allowance that regularly.

Neither of these reasons is good enough to treat MPs from Northern Ireland differently. MPs from the province owe it to their constituents to do their job representing them at Westminster on a full-time basis and as such should be treated in the same way as all other English, Welsh and Scottish MPs when it comes to expenses. Simple as that.

Goodness knows there are lots of things for which Alistair Darling ought to say sorry during the course of tomorrow's Budget.

But will he actually do so?

The bookies are running lively markets on which buzzwords will pass the Chancellor's lips, and the busiest concerns his use of the S-word.

Ladbrokes originally quoted 20-1 that Darling would say "sorry" during the Budget speech, but the price had been slashed to 7-1 as of 10.45am today.

Meanwhile, Paddy Power have been offering a mere 2-1 on him saying it once, 6-1 on him saying it twice, or 5-1 on the word passing his lips three or more times.

I have just done my bit to contribute towards Hammersmith and Fulham Council's admirable efforts to reduce council tax - by involuntarily adding £60 to its coffers after I was fined for doing something which inconvenienced no-one and was in fact contributing to the Hammersmith economy (and I live across the Thames in Richmond).

And it's all the more relevant that I write this on the day that councils' use of surveillance powers are under scrutiny as my supposed misdemeanour would not have been known about, had it not been for one of the many CCTV camera trained on King Street in Hammersmith.  

So what was it that I did? Quite simply, a few weeks ago, I parked my car (with me waiting inside it) for nine minutes in a loading bay, which - according to the letter I subsequently received (along with time-coded screen grabs of the CCTV footage) - was "not designated for that class of vehicle".

As I explained in my letter appealing against the fine:

When I heard what is being written up as Peter Mandelson's "latest gaffe", it rang something of a bell.

Mandy, up in Glasgow with the rest of the Cabinet, attacked the general public for being pessimistic about the world. He said:

And it reminded me of this blogpost written by Labour MP Tom Harris, then a transport minister, in June of last year, when he wrote:

Tom got rewarded for his comments with the splash in the following day's Daily Mail (as pictured) and a surge of outrage in editorials and from the public in radio phone-ins.

Given the state of the economy now ought to give people even more cause for misery than last summer, will Mandy get the same treatment?

The photo here is, as far as I'm aware, the only one in existence of me with the Prime Minister. It was taken a couple of years ago and look, there in the background on the right is the [insert adjective of your choice] Damian McBride.

Anyway, back to this week's events and it would seem that now that Mr McBride is no longer there to dispense advice (though I bet Gordon hasn't deleted his number from his mobile), Gordon Brown has been taking soundings from a wider set of advisers.

And he must have been reading ConservativeHome for ideas, because this is what I wrote yesterday morning:

The correspondents popping up on television today have seemed genuinely taken aback by the PM's decision to say the S-word this morning - not least because Downing Street had apparently still been briefing earlier that he had no intention of doing so.

Even Kevin Maguire at the Mirror - Brown's cheerleader-in-chief in the press - suggests that his belated apology may actually have "reinforced the Government's problems".

Maybe - but if the Prime Minister wants any more advice, I'll be happy to dispense it, as I'm sure will ConHome readers.

P.S. James Forsyth at Coffee House still reckons this apology isn't enough and that there are "still a few more shoes to drop"...

Yesterday Francis Maude posed a series of questions to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell (pictured) about the Downing Street "Smear-gate" affair, to which Sir Gus replied this morning.

What is now clear is that the Cabinet Secretary will not be conducting an investigation into whether Damian McBride breached the special adviser's code prior to this incident and whether others have been involved in such activities as this smearing operation.

Here's my take on how Sir Gus has answered Mr Maude's letter…   

1. Who was party to e-mail exchanges suggesting smear stories against Conservative MPs?

No answer. Sir Gus merely reports that the Prime Minister made a statement saying he "had been assured" that no minister or political adviser apart from Mr McBride had knowledge or involvement in the emails. Who gave him that assurance? Is his word really sufficient?

Day five of the "Smear-gate" saga.

Guido saved the story for what would otherwise have been a slow news bank holiday weekend, but could anyone have imagined that it would still be front page news in the middle of the following week?

The reason why it is still in the headlines, of course, is that Gordon Brown failed to do enough to shut the story down at the earliest opportunity.

When McBride went on Saturday afternoon, Brown could have summoned a TV crew to wherever he happened to be there and then in order to make an apology on camera. The story would have been all over the Sunday papers, but it would not have attracted anything like as many column inches into this week as it has.

Instead, an insufficient statement of regret was issued in Brown's name, followed then by insufficient letters of regret - all the while allowing the Tories and the media to continue demanding a proper apology (not to mention giving a parade of Labour figures the opportunity to go on air to settle some old scores).

That proper apology from Brown has still not been forthcoming, and until he delivers one to a television camera, he will not be allowed to move on. 

I blame his chief adviser. Oh, sorry, I forgot - he had to resign, didn't he?

Derek Draper will not emerge from the events of this weekend mired in glory, far from it.

Iain Dale has highlighted that Draper has been far from honest about the role that Damian McBride had played in their online ventures and Draper failed to grasp the gravity of the situation when he first wrote about it himself yesterday.

His post on Labourlist today appeared to echo the sentiments of Damian McBride from yesterday evening in terms of principally being angry that the emails ever reached the public domain, rather than being contrite for the fact they were written in the first place.

The single saving grace is that Draper finally managed to utter the word sorry, saying he was "especially sorry to Nadine Dorries, George and Frances Osborne and David and Samantha Cameron".

Will Gordon Brown follow suit?

Tim has already posted this morning on the alleged Downing Street operation to smear leading Conservatives, also covered in detail by Guido.

The Telegraph splash this morning suggested that emails emanating from Downing Street discussed the establishment of "a Left-wing version of the Guido Fawkes blog called Red Rag" but that the "website never appeared" - which has now been shown not to be the case.

The Telegraph erroneously links to this site called Red Rag, but Dizzy has identified another site called Red Rag which is unquestionably linked to whatever discussions were going on in Labour and Downing Street circles last November.
 
Here are the relevant registration details for that site:

That registration date is not insignificant: it is the very day that Iain Dale revealed that Derek Draper and others met at Labour HQ to discuss launching the party's "cyber war"...