MilerHS

When they ask, listen… Boycott Lush this Christmas 🎄

BREAKING: A man has lost his bid for an injunction against two media outlets to prevent the publication of allegations against him, a judge has ruled. Sky's @Mollie_Malone1 has the latest outside the High Court

I suspect that the 50 investors who lost £5million in a betting syndicate run by Rory Campbell ( son of Socialist gobshite Alastair Campbell) will be none to pleased to learn has has started a new venture. After all Campbell,38, is still on bail having been arrested back in September last year on suspicion of fraud by false representation relating to the syndicate. Campbell owns 60% of the new business. He gives his address as near Taunton, Somerset. There are two other directors owning 20% each. One is Aaron Edgeworth who is said to have broken the bad news to the investors that their money ( some had put in between £25,000 to £500,000) was unlikely to paid. Campbell’s people ( surprised he could afford comms) described these accounts as “ incomplete and inaccurate”. Not positive what the business will do but it’s called 6th Man Data Intelligence which may give a clue. Campbell hasn’t said a word since the scandal broke. Perhaps the next time his father is on a podcast or Question Time he might lift the lid on the murky goings on. And explain what his boy is doing now living in the rural hamlet of Wrantsge - 7 miles from Taunton- whereas his previous hangout was East London. All very odd.

🚨 NEW: Andy Burnham will appear on Channel 4’s Goggle Box tomorrow night with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram

Official figures out this morning report that last month, the UK government borrowed £24.5 billion. But the fineprint shows that almost £11 billion of that extra borrowing went on debt interest payments. That's more than £400 per household on debt service costs, in September alone. So far during this financial year, from April to September, the government's debt interest payments amount to £61 billion. Now, this number will barely feature in UK newspapers and across our airwaves. It may be mentioned in passing in out-of-the-way business sections, or on the odd business bulletin. But this huge debt interest bill won't register with the vast majority of our political and media class, or impact the national debate. Let me explain why that's so wrong and so dangerous ... £61 billion is a massive amount of money. It's equivalent to the UK's entire annual defence budget – the money we're paying, increasingly to foreign creditors, simply to service our national debt for six months, not to pay any of it back. £61 billion is equivalent to the money you'd raise over a year from adding a whopping 7 pence to the basic rate of income tax. For £61 billion, you could build around 40 large, state-of-the-art hospitals, or employ more than 100 thousand extra nurses for ten years. £61 billion would pay for free-at-the-point of use social care for everyone who needs it in the UK, for an entire year – three times over. Again, this is the debt interest bill on Britain's spiralling national debt – now more than 3 trillion pounds – over the last six months alone. The UK's public finances are close to meltdown – yet so many MPs and journalists continue blithely to view ever more public spending and borrowing as the answer to every problem. Those who highlight the dangers post by our hugely precarious national accounts are dismissed as cranks, ideologues or worse. But basic arithmetic has no ideology. And there is nothing "progressive" or "kind" or "right-on" about driving the UK ever closer to the fiscal cliff edge, provoking a crisis that will make the "austerity" years of the 2010s feel like a picnic, a crisis in which poorer households will suffer the most. Yes, Britain's national debt is lower than that of France. But because our borrowing has been rising so sharply, and because we're so prone to inflation, our debt service costs are much higher. The UK is spending a disgraceful 3.6pc of GDP on public debt interest, while France spends less than 2.5pc. Endless airtime and column inches are devoted to spurious conversations about a billion or two of additional "fiscal headroom" we may or may not have in three years' time. And, of course, any "extra headroom" is immediately pledged in new spending – which means yet more borrowing. These conversations are a waste of time – and, in fact, are deeply counterproductive. Three-year fiscal forecasts, even one- and two-year forecasts, routinely turn out to be askew by tens of billions of pounds. I'm not saying we don't need fiscal rules - we do, but we need more immediate rules, which actually bite, acting as a meaningful constraint on out-of-control borrowing and spending. Instead, political and media sages present the nation with spuriously precise discussions about fictional fiscal outcomes way into the future – using rules which are deliberately designed to kick arithmetic realities into the long grass .... An increasingly expensive, over-bearing, out of control state is not the answer to Britain problems. But unless we change course, it will certainly be our downfall. Please like/share if you think what I'm saying is important – and if fiscal realities should feature more prominently in our national debate. And for more sharp, plain-speaking economic analysis subscribe to: "When The Facts Change - economic and politics in a fast-moving world, with Liam Halligan"

Absolutely brilliant from Kemi Badenoch. Nice push back against one of the ‘journalists’.

Emily Thornberry gushing in her welcome to a visiting contingent of MPs from the Bundestag, telling them: 'Germany is, and always has been, a key ally...'

'Get over it': Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry's message on concerns about reopening 'divisive' Brexit debates. Thornberry tells @CathyNewman that the UK could re-join the EU without a second referendum if it was included as a manifesto commitment at a general election.

So there we have it. Foreign Office Minister, Stephen Doughty, confirms that Russian interference claim by Andy Burnham was a lie. Is this the same Andy Burnham who is against misinformation being spread online? I believe so.

Andy Burnham becomes first PM to confirm Russian interference in Brexit referendum @campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK's exclusive interview with @andyburnham on tomorrow's episode of Leading is out in full at midnight.