Uncle Gordie's surprise No 10 party goes unnoticed
Fresh proof the Supreme Leader doesn't know what's going on in Downing Street. Sarah Brown organised a surprise party in the garden of No 10, to celebrate his 25 years as a MP, without the Premier noticing. Maybe Uncle Gordie thought the crowds milling outside his window were Labour MPs hailing 42 days as a victory for social justice. More likely the PM was panicked by the sudden arrival of an excited Labour mob at the doors of No 10. My eagle-eyed informant clocked Blairite servants Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter but no Tony or Cherie. Also absent was agitator Alan Milburn, though I hear the former cabinet minister recently slipped through the gates for a heart-to-heart. Another comeback for Little Al?
Cameroons are wrestling with the tricky question of who to put on the party's float in next month's Pride London gay extravaganza.
Uber-modernisers favour hunky fellows in posing pouches, the more cautious of Druggie Dave's team advocating a political cover-up.The topless boy route was road tested in Brighton last summer when telly doc and wannabe Tory MP Dr David Bull rustled up a dozen muscular chaps. My Tory mole giggled the merest hint that a substantial shadow cabinet figure, like Eric Pickles, sans shirt would win the day for tweeds and monocles.
To Plymouth and the GMB union congress where green around the gills minister Phil Woolas was diagnosed with this summer's first case of reshuffle fever. He lauded his old boss and GMB head honcho Paul "the bulldozer" Kenny in such glowing terms - compassionate, proud, dignified, steely - he made the bruiser sound like the love child of Princess Di and Nelson Mandela. One cynical bruvver loudly wondered if it was a job application after Woolas wept: "He's the general secretary and I'm a minister facing the reshuffle."
Unreconstructed Tories are enjoying Nannygate, Caroline Spelman's playful approach to expenses. A trustee of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, her image as a do-gooder would be a virtue in any other walk of life. In the Commons it invites scorn. On a Tory macho wing lamenting the unchaining of women from sinks, my snout with the fruity vowels confessed that confused Caroline is derided as a Bible Babe.
Clearly no love's lost between the GMB bulldozer and Unite leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson. Kenny told GMB activists the rival duo saw a sign in a shop window advertising shirts at a quid, overcoats for £3.50 and suits at a fiver a time. What a bargain! In popped the pair to order hundreds of everything. "You do know," said the manager, "this is a dry cleaners?"
Kevin Maguire is associate editor(politics) of the Daily Mirror
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