The headline "Scottish Catholics no longer fear the SNP" is amusing for those who remember a time when SNP stood for "Soon No Pope". It is a depressing one for Donald Dewar. If the Scottish Labour leaders cannot count on the Catholics, who can they count on? In a close-run election, the defection of Scotland's 750,000 Catholics to the SNP could deprive Scottish Labour of an overall majority in the [...]

Gossip, so the Bible tells us, is evil. However, Shirley Brooks, a 19th-century editor of Punch, hit the other truth when he observed that "the love of evil is the root of all money". Newspaper proprietors and diarists have learnt this lesson well. Indeed, newspapers are at present awash with gossip, from the sexuality of various cabinet ministers to the more amusing revelations from the safely dead Woodrow Wyatt.

The [...]