UKIP leader Nigel Farage has sent a rallying cry to disaffected Tories to join his party’s growing ranks as the Conservatives fight over Europe and gay marriage.

UKIP has taken out a full-page ad in The Daily Telegraph calling on those upset by David Cameron’s policies or those who have been insulted by a senior Tory figure’s alleged description of activists as “mad, swivel-eyed loons” to defect to his party.

The comments referring to “loons” are said to have been made by Lord Feldman, the Conservative co-chairman.

Lord Feldman denies having described activists as such, but will be asked to explain himself today at a meeting of the party board.

The drama is to be executive produced by CNN anchor and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

The Fleet Street drama will, according to Digital Spy, focus on the newspaper industry in Britain in the turbulent 1970s through the eyes of an American reporter based in London.

Fleet Street and the newspaper business is ripe for a decent drama with so many great characters, scandals and stories all located in one place. Fleet Street as a place also has echoes of Madison Avenue, home of the US ad industry, in that both encompass the heart of an industry along a few city blocks.

The CNN anchor said in a statement: “Imagine an industry where every single opponent worked in the same street, competing with each other by day – drinking, brawling, fornicating, night clubbing and cocaine-snorting with each other by night. A street full of the most ruthless and amoral people in the world existed, and it was called Fleet Street.

“Fleet Street in the ’70s was a hotbed of scoops, shagging, flairs and a devastating world that was also unbelievably exciting. Danny Brocklehurst has brought Fleet Street to life in a way that I believe will grip audiences.”

The show would follow the BBC TV drama ‘The Hour’, which ran for two series, and centred on a current-affairs show being launched by the BBC in June 1956, at the time of the Suez Crisis.

However, it didn’t prove a hit despite the strong cast of Ben Whishaw, Dominic West and Romola Garai. Unlike ‘Mad Men’ ‘The Hour’ mixed its period piece up with a elements of thriller.

The News of the World close almost two years ago, in July 2011, and its special Thatcher issue went down with the News International-owned newspaper.

via David Wooding

Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Labour supporting Daily and Sunday Mirror titles and the Sunday People, created a mock-up ad that takes aim at its Conservative supporting and pro-Thatcher rival The Sun.  

While the mock-up ads were created in the end Trinity Mirror steered away from using them. Probably wisely. However, they have since leaked from the publisher’s Canary Wharf headquarters.

The mooted ad was not going to win any awards and looks poor when compared to The Guardian’s amusing Margaret Thatcher and Marmite ad, which appeared on Friday. Created by BBH the ads won praise from many.

It features a headline at the foot “One woman, a nation divided”, but it is hardly needed when you have such a strong image that sums up perfectly how many feel about the former Prime Minister – loved by some and hated by others. Great advertising. 

Except the woman featured is Louise Cole who is an underwear model for brands like Berlei and  Nike, Gossard, Wonderbra, Toyota, Harley Davidson and M&S.

So hardly “an ordinary worker”. It’s worrying that the Lib Dems couldn’t find a real nurse.

More amusingly, Cole stood against the Lib Dems in Henley in 2008 for the Miss Great Britain Party. They were dedicated to making Westminster “sexy and not sleazy”.  She got 91 votes.

Cole said:  “I once did a modelling job as a nurse. They must have used that.

“I’m not very good with gore and blood.”

Labour MP Jessica Morden said: “That the Lib Dems struggle to find real people to endorse them is no surprise given how quickly they betrayed principles for power.”

The Guardian partnered with BBH New York to launch the new #VoiceYourView campaign which cleverly merges the Guardian’s editorial voice with its distinctive strategy of open journalism and social media.

The outdoor ad campaign uses the illustrations of graphic designer Noma Bar to depict both sides of a core political debate in the US: individual freedom versus government regulation. Specifically, the campaign addresses the thorny issues of internet privacy, gun control, women in the military and the use of condoms in the adult film industry.

The illustrations are appearing at key locations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco as outdoor ads and mobile billboards. Each illustration represents one side of an issue; when flipped it cleverly illustrates the opposite view.

The campaign is designed to help the Guardian in its quest to establish the site as a must read for Americans looking for another point of view.

People are being encouraged to take a photo of the side they support and upload the photo to Instagram and/or Twitter using the hashtag #VoiceYourView.

The Guardian has unveiled a VoiceYourView microsite to capture submissions and track votes on all the issues. The site will also include Guardian articles to introduce readers to open journalism and the Guardian as a whole.

The bus ads, which carried the tagline ‘There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life’, provoked 326 complaints to the ad watchdog.

Now they are for sale on eBay.

Some complained that the ad was offensive and disparaging of people with faith. Others claimed the ad was misleading because the advertiser couldn’t prove that God ‘probably’ doesn’t exist.

Now the ads are being sold off on eBay and you can buy your very own for a mere £155. The ads have already picked up a dozen bids. The auction closes in five hours so there’s still time to get yourself a piece of godless bus advertising history.

Those who won’t be bidding are sure to include the Christian groups upset at the time and who retaliated against The British Humanist Association campaign and booked their own pro-religious ads on London buses.

They included one from the Trinitarian Bible Society  carrying a line from Psalm 53.1: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”.

The cartoon, by renowned cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, depicted Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu paving a wall with the blood and bodies of muslims. It was published this past Sunday, which was holocaust memorial day.

Scarfe has also apologised saying it was not intended to be an attack on the Jewish people and that he was “stupidly completely unaware that it would be printed on Holocaust day, and I apologise for the very unfortunate timing”.

On Sunday night the Sunday Times issued a statement saying it was “a typically robust cartoon by Gerald Scarfe” that was “aimed squarely at Netanyahu and his policies” and not at Israel or the Jewish people.

Ivens issued a statement saying “the last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah or invoking the blood libel. The paper has long written strongly in defence of Israel and its security concerns, as have I as a columnist. We are, however, reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon and I will of course bear them very carefully in mind in future.”

However, the situation escalated after proprietor Murdoch branded it grotesque and offensive. He tweeted: “Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.”

The Guardian quotes a News International insider on the Ivens apology. He was only confirmed as the acting editor on January 21 as his boss and former Sunday Times editor, John Witherow, was appointed acting editor of The Times.

Duval Guillaume gave three top advertisers a free ride in a chauffeur-driven car so that, for one day, they could read their newspaper in peace and quiet.

As the marketers were chauffeured around the agency tried its best to distract them with a series of stunts. Take a look at the results.

HT @jamescuff.