12.48 More on Marmite v BNP. It appears that earlier this month Marmite posted spoof adverts on YouTube which featured the leader of a fictional 'Hate Party' opposed to their spread. Several of the scenes appear to be deliberate parodies of earlier BNP broadcasts. Did the BNP use a Marmite jar in revenge?
12.42. Well this is odd. Breaking on PA:
Marmite said it is "initiating injunction proceedings" against
the
More information when we find out what on earth that sentence means.
Update: The jar apparently featured in the top left-hand corner of a video shown on the BNP's website. The video has now been removed, but is stilll available on YouTube. Marmite, which is owned by Unilever, released a statement saying:
"It has been brought to our attention that the British National Party has included a Marmite jar in a political broadcast shown currently online. We want to make it absolutely clear that Marmite did not give the BNP permission to use a pack shot of our product in their broadcast. Neither Marmite nor any other Unilever brand are aligned to any political party.
"We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar from the online broadcast and prevent them from using it in future."
12.32 With many voters unable to receive Sky News, Telegraph.co.uk is live streaming tonight's debate from Bristol. We've also put together guides to the three leaders' chances: Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
12.23 An Ipsos Mori poll for Reuters, released in the last few minutes, has shown than Liberal Democrat support in marginal constituencies has more than doubled (from 11pc to 23pc) over the last fortnight.
Most of the new supporters were previosly undecided, and the Lib Dems still trail the Tories (down 6pc on 32pc) and Labour (down 5pc on 36pc) in the 57 seats polled.
12.16 Benedict Brogan has robustly dismissed Lib Dem attempts to characterise this newspaper's investigations into Nick Clegg's financial affairs as an attempt to "smear" the leader. He writes:
"A week ago in Manchester Mr Clegg did two things that helped turn him into the poster-boy of the anti-politics movement: he told us that he was not like the other two, and he talked up his party’s spotless record on expenses and matters of financial probity. These two assertions deserved to be scrutinised."
12.09 From factories to the interwebz in a matter of minutes... Gordon Brown will shortly be answering questions posed by Twitter users via the Tweetminster website. You can pose your own by adding #askGB to your tweets.
12.00 Gordon Brown has been visiting the Airbus manufacturing plant in
Filton, Bristol in an attempt to burnish his economic credentials. He
stressed that
"I plan to say what I want to say and what I think needs to be said. I plan to focus on what I think are the big challenges for the country and show that I've got the answers."
11.42 With tonight's debate - which you can watch live on Telegraph.co.uk - focusing on foreign policy, the shadow foreign secretary William Hague is doing the rounds of the TV studios, dropping hints about how Cameron will target Clegg. On News 24 he accused the Lib Dems of flip-flopping on Trident and insisted that the Tories are the only party who would pass legislation requiring a referendum on any proposal to hand more power to the EU.
Meanwhile, blogger
11.34 Lucy Jones, the Telegraph's Culture Blogs Editor, has found what must be the most hideous tie of the entire election campaign. The accolade goes to Chris Bramall, Lib Dem candidate for Stourbridge.
To be fair, it's almost certainly Nick Clegg's fault.
11.29 More quotes from Nick Clegg in response to our exclusive that Lib Dem donors wired money directly into his personal account:
"I received money from three friends which was properly given, properly received, properly declared, properly used to pay for part of the salary of a member of my staff. Any suggestion I did anything wrong is out of order and I'm going to publish the figures to prove it."
And:
"I hope people won't be bullied into, be frightened into not choosing something different. We have got a very exciting opportunity for real change in this country and I hope we will take it."
11.07 The Labour Party has posted its latest
party political broadcast on YouTube, and it's toe-curlingly awful.
Having bagged
It's basically a list of Labour's achievements in power, stitched together with the production values of early 80s schools programming. To illustrate the hunting ban they bought a soft toy, gave it to a blonde woman and filmed her five times.
The spot ends with Davison, digitally super-imposed onto a children's slide, for some reason, saying: "I don't see a broken Britain, I see a brilliant Britain, a caring Britain, a Britain with a future fair for all."
11.01 Nick Clegg has given his first personal response to the swathe of allegations made against him in this morning's newspapers, attempting to laugh off claims that an article he wrote in 2002 claiming that British post-war arrogance is a "greater cross to bear" than German guilt amounted to a "Nazi slur" on our war dead. He joked: "I must be first politician to have gone from Churchill to a Nazi in a week"
10.30 It will be no consolation to Liam Fox, but those Home Office figures have just shown that crime rates fell sharply across England and Wales at the end of last year. Burglary was down 12pc. Just look at the graph:
10.23 Even Sally Bercow, Labour council candidate and wife of the (Tory) Speaker, is showing sympathy with Lib Dems, joining in the #nickcleggsfault fun on Twitter.
10.18 As you might expect, David Cameron has said he feels "very sorry" for Liam Fox over his burglary:
"I've been burgled a couple of times and it's a horrible shock, the sense that someone has been into your house and taken your things, you feel completely invaded. I'm thinking, obviously, about him getting everything together and sorting all that out. I hope the police can find who did it but I'm sure Liam will want us to get on with the plan we have today for our armed forces manifesto."
10.04 Twitter users, known for their liberal leanings, are having fun with the press onslaught against Nick Clegg (Nazi slur on Britain?), suggesting other unlikely things for which the Lib Dem leader could be blamed. Search for #nickcleggsfault for the full list, but here are a selection of the best:
DanRaywood: Nick Clegg shot JR and
SirBob: Eyjafjallajokull is Icelandic for 'Nick Clegg' #nickcleggsfault
davidschneider: Kennedy assassination. New footage confirms hidden gunman on grassy knoll is Nick Clegg#nickcleggsfault
raheeln:
alexispetridis: Nick Clegg introduced the surviving members of Queen to
09.56 Apparently stung by the sharp drop in support from gay voters
since Chris Grayling said that B&Bs should be allowed to bar homosexual
guests, the Tories have announced that they will send Nick
Herbert, the shadow environment secretary, to
a gay pride march in
09.52
09.49 Satirical website The Daily Mash picks up on the Telegraph's Nick Clegg splash:
"NICK Clegg has pledged to clean up British politics as long as you can stick two hundred and fifty quid into his current account by the end of the week."
09.37 Ironically, Liam Fox's burglary comes just hours before the the
Home Office is due to release quarterly crime statistics. What are the odds
that Cameron begins one of his debate answers tonight with an anecdote about "a
man I met in
09.32 The Met Police have released a few more details of the Liam Fox
burglary. They received a call at 7.20 this morning, and officers from
09.27 The mystery of this morning's cancelled Tory press conference has been solved: shadow defence secretary Liam Fox was burgled this morning. Our sources indicate that he was in the property in SE1 at the time.
09.19 David Cameron is currently meeting military veterans in
09.10 The Tories are ratcheting up the pressure on Clegg over this
morning's Telegraph revelations that party donors paid money
directly into his account. This from
"Nick Clegg must produce the paperwork to clear up some serious questions about these donations. Having raised the issue of expenses in the first TV debate, Nick Clegg cannot leave these questions unanswered."
09.01 Telegraph blogger and wit Toby Young neatly sums up Fleet Street's sudden decision to subject Lib Dem policy and their leader's background to the sort of aggressive analysis that the third party is usually spared: Nick Clegg: Attack! Attack! Attack!
08.53 The Tories do work hard. Henry Macrory, their head of press, has posted a photo of their election countdown clock at 7am this morning. Exactly 14 days to go, to the second.
08.47 The Lib Dems seem a little rattled by suggestions that their
leader may not quite live up to his anti-establishment, anti-Westminster
billing. On the Today programme this morning
08.43 Breaking: The Tories have cancelled their planned press conference this morning on defence policy, due to 'unforeseen circumstances'.
08.30 If Nick Clegg is to become Britain's next PM - or at least a
major player in a
Not only did he wake up to a slew of negative headlines in the newspapers - led by the Telegraph's investigations into donations into his personal account, and his EU lobbying work - but he also faces the prospect of the second live leaders' debate this evening, with Cameron and Brown determined to give him a much rougher ride than last week.
- General Election 2010 as it happened: 21 April
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- General Election 2010 as it happened: 6 April
Vested interests in the press, nervous that the two party cosy duopoly will be broken? Bring it on.
I was going to buy your rag for the Dr Who audio books, but I'm so hacked off with the awful sight of the right wing press, showing just how desperate they are to do what their tax exile owners want, that I'll stick to laughing at you going bankrupt on the Net, the papers are losing influence as they treat the people with contempt.
It's hard for me to contain my Schadenfreude, as the papers start firing newsprint at Nick Clegg, while the Internet just makes him bigger and bigger! Keep up the good work, guys - he'll be PM at this rate!
He doesn't say that the British have a "greater cross to bear". Here's the original quote:
"All nations have a cross to bear, and none more so than Germany with its memories of Nazism. But the British cross is more insidious still."
"Insidious". It's a word. Look it up in the dictionary.
Has anybody noticed how every newspaper headline is attacking attacking Nick Clegg but with different stories.
What a coincidence, could it be that Cameron (most likely) or Brown have been busy smearing their opponent rather than concentrating on policy?
I'm warming to Nick more and more - if they are that afraid...he MUST be good.