Well there’s Saturday’s front pages sorted:

Aww.

UPDATE: Hats off to Dizzy for the headline “Florence Meets the Machine”.

Another day and still the newspapers are poring over Hague’s statement. Many “experts” have been wheeled out to criticise the foolishness of opening up to such an extent with the Telegraph leading the angle. The also look at his voting record and the Indy suggests there is whiff of homophobia about the statement. Tory MPs are quoted criticising the judgement of sharing a room with an aide, especially given the rumours that have circulated for years.

The Mail and The Mirror both speculate whether Hague will walk.

The TV channels have turned their attention to speculation about the Sundays…

UPDATE: The New York Times questions the nuclear denial tactic.

The official line is that Gordon will not be commenting on Blair’s confirmation that he was indeed a dreadful PM and appalling team-mate, but then we’ve all heard that before. Instead he has chosen today, randomly, to announce the setting up of The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown that will be paid for by his after-dinner speeches. So it won’t be creating many jobs then.

In a dig a Tony his statement makes much out of the various, unpaid, international aid roles he  is taking up. There was some speculation he was taking soundings for Shadow International Development Secretary, but today’s statement gives no mention of that.  So still no news on whether he intends to turn up to Parliament next week…

Bad news for Lembit Opik – it seems that Cowley Street doesn’t have faith in his bid to be London Mayor. Much like the Tories were before Boris threw his hat in the ring, the LibDems are desperately seeking a decent candidate for the coalition’s first big election battle. A yellow spinner said “that’s not the way we would do it”, but Guido hears that senior LibDems have approached The Apprentice winner Tim Campbell and asked him to put his name forward…

A rather odd choice of candidate given a) Campbell is not a LibDem and b) he has just taken up a role advising Boris.

Guido is currently on holiday in France at the maison secondaire, last night we had 10 for supper and Mrs Fawkes was not amused with the constant interruptions from the Blackberry, it was for her de ja vu (Prescott’s mistress in 2006 interrupted her holiday). Guido had to explain himself to our guests. The French expect their politicians to be virile and have mistresses so this situation was tres amusant.

Guido is using his Blackberry connection to blog from intermittently and the connection is intermittently crap. On the other hand the set-up Mrs Fawkes has created is as grand as Peter Mandelson…

Am off to the beach now…

If Hague had kept an experienced press handler like William Littlejohn as his SpAd he wouldn’t be in this situation would he? He wouldn’t haven’t released that stupid statement on Monday, which brought him more unwanted press attention. He wouldn’t have released that cynical, Aitkenesque, “sword of fidelity” statement yesterday. All in all, he has only himself to blame for being ill-advised and has shown a staggering lack of judgement.

“Extraordinary”, “astonishing” and “startling” seem to be the words deployed by this morning’s newspapers in response to Hague’s nuclear statement last night. Nick Robinson was lost for words on News at Ten. The Sun manages to criticise the legitimate questioning of Hague’s judgement as the “debasement of politics” with a straight face. Over at The Guardian, the employment of Myers is questioned and The Mail join them in questioning whether it was necessary to divulge so much information and why this was done. The Mirror are somewhat on a high-horse asking if this is what Palmerstone would have done.

If the strategy of the statement was to kill the story on Blair’s big day, seven national newspaper have splashed it on the front pages and the news channels have gone into overdrive. Despite the expected Twitter storm, it seems most realise the questioning is legitimate after all. A dangerous tactic has been chosen by the government, that has set noses sniffing in Westminster. If anyone is giving this story legs, it’s certainly not blogs…

Coincidently William Hague is meeting with Guido later this morning and there will be a joint press conference at about 10.30. Guido Westerwelle his German counterpart that is.

Christopher Myers resigns from the FCO, citing “untrue and malicious allegations”.

Developing…

Hague statement:

“I feel it is necessary to issue this personal statement in response to press and internet speculation over the last ten days. Earlier this year a Sunday newspaper began questioning whether my marriage to Ffion was in trouble, and last week another media outlet asked whether there was a statement about our supposed separation. This seemed to be linked to equally untrue speculation surrounding the appointment of Christopher Myers as a Special Adviser. Christopher Myers has demonstrated commitment and political talent over the last eighteen months. He is easily qualified for the job he holds. Any suggestion that his appointment was due to an improper relationship between us is utterly false, as is any suggestion that I have ever been involved in a relationship with any man.

It is very regrettable to have to make this personal statement, but we have often said to each other ‘if only they knew the truth…’ Well, this is the straightforward truth. I will not be making any further comment on these matters.”

There are twelve Sure Start children centres in Westminster. The Bercows could have sent their kids to any one of them, when the live-nanny was away that is. Instead they demanded that a newly refurbished bar in Parliament was ripped out and replaced with a crèche. Something wrong with the local kids?

The project was over-budget and late, but it finally opened this week. It has hit its next problem though. An email boasted:

“Forty places are available for the children of Members, Members’ staff and House of Commons and PICT staff.”

Guido hears the crèche needs twenty kids to break even, but they couldn’t even find that. The scheme has now been opened-up to the kids of mandarins of all the Whitehall departments. Another stunning PR coup from the Squeaker.

No surprises that Tony showers praise on his loyal heir David Miliband. A good spot by Andrew Sparrow who notes:

“Blair says that Miliband was “fundamentally uncertain” in 2007 about whether he wanted the top job. But Blair also says: “Two years later he would be a different calibre of politician, with clear leadership qualities.”

Blair says “two years later”. But we’re reading this more than three years later. Is that sloppy editing? Or does it mean that Blair thought Miliband should replace Brown in 2009, before the general election?”

No other leadership candidate gets anywhere near the support. Ed Miliband is merely seen as one of Brown’s “folk”. Pure venom is spat at Ed Balls. Along side talk of him “behaving badly” was this gem:

“He has guts and he can take decisions. But he suffers from the bane of all left-leaning intellectuals. As I have remarked elsewhere, these guys never ‘get’ aspiration”

The other two candidates are barely mentioned in passing. Blair admits he knew Brown would be a disaster and had David preparing for a leadership bid in 2007. Things would have been very different if the prodigy had found the courage…