David Blunkett's position as leader of the opposition (to Gordon Brown) was officially confirmed at the launch of his book, Politics and Progress, a volume best described as a modest offering immodestly offered. Peter Mandelson and Stephen Byers turned up, and so, in a rare daytime excursion from Downing Street, did Anji Hunter, the PM's personal envoy. To anyone who would listen, Brigadier Mandy disclosed that he is briefing Blair on the war against terrorism.
Party time at the party conference. At the Times's bash, Gordon Brown was in deep conversation with Peter Stothard, the editor, over the Mumm champagne. Is the Thunderer contemplating a policy shift on the euro? A high-ranking Eurocrat privately predicted that Blair will hold a referendum on the single currency in the spring of 2003. A khaki poll on the back of victory in the war against terror would have its attractions. Bernie Grant's successor as MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, surprised a late-night soul-baring event hosted by the Institute for Public Policy Research with a shocking allegation. "What have John Major and Peter Mandelson got in common? They both tuck their shirts into their underpants."
Wife of government minister after attending party at No 10 and meeting the PM's policy wonk Andrew Adonis: "Whoever gave him that name should be sued under the Trade Descriptions Act."
Rumours that James Mates, ITN's man in America, is to be spin-doctor to Iain Duncan Smith shocked his father - Michael Mates MP, who was prominent in the "Stop IDS" movement. I trust Mates will not displace Mike Penning, the ex-fireman in post. The latest Penningism: "This will be Iain's first debut."
Further intelligence from the Michael Howard file. When Jack Straw took over as home secretary in 1997, the staff in his private office stood to attention by the desks as he arrived for work. When the parade was repeated every morning, he asked why. "Oh, that's how Mr Howard liked to see us, sir," they chorused. Pompous git. Straw stood them at ease.
What can be read into Howard's favourite choice of make-up before going on television, French nude?
Estelle Morris, the imperious Education Secretary who failed her A levels, has upset Labour Party staffers and activists drafted into her Birmingham Yardley constituency for the election. There were fears she would otherwise lose, despite her Blunkett-sized ego. Five months later, they are still waiting for a note of thanks. Perhaps that is a job for her £90,000-a-year adviser, Chris Boffey. The lighthouse-sized Boffey, poached from the news editorship at the Sunday Telegraph, was not hitherto noted for his interest in politics, though friends point out that his wife is head teacher at a comprehensive school.
The mystery of the former Speaker's career as a hoofer has finally been solved. Ish. In Betty Boothroyd: the autobiography, she records going to London in 1947 for training with the Tiller School, and then appearing in Val Parnell's High Time! at the Palladium three times a day, as the show neared the end of its run. "My run lasted for just a few weeks and I never saw the whole show," she writes. "Mine was a fleeting appearance that has caused more subsequent comment than it deserved." Absolutely, ma'am. Sorry to have mentioned it. But who started the hare running, by writing "dammit, I was a Tiller Girl" in the Times in 1981? Alas, there is no photographic evidence in the book.
Tessa Jowell's indecisiveness is driving her staff round the bend, it emerges. Example: faced with the comparatively simple task of choosing her favourite and least-liked buildings for a radio survey, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport ordered a policy paper that eventually ran to seven and a half pages.
Paul Routledge is chief political commentator for the Mirror
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