Right-wingers who view the BBC as an anti-Tory conspiracy will seize on a breakfast invitation as further evidence of irredeemable bias. The summons to enjoy a bacon butty with the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner on the Wednesday morning of the Conservative conference was addressed to Stephen Pound. The Ealing lip replied that he was very grateful, but Labour MPs seldom attend the Tory jamboree.

For a limited period only, Harriet Harman's popularity is guaranteed. The acting leaderene is to be told the result of Labour's ballot to anoint Gordon Brown's successor on the afternoon of Friday 24 September - 24 hours early. Hattie Harperson has warned contenders her lips will be sealed. She doesn't want to spoil the Saturday surprise. I wonder if she fears the losing Milibrother would flee the country.

Plans to inform candidates 30 minutes before the announcement, after removing mobiles, reminds me of the TV carry-on surrounding the 2007 deputy leadership. Sky did a deal with Alan Johnson's enforcer, Gerry Sutcliffe, to receive a signal as the hopefuls left a briefing room before entering the hall - if Sutcliffe departed wearing glasses, Johnson had won. Reeling at a narrow defeat, Sutcliffe forgot and emerged four-eyed. So Sky News wrongly reported that Johnson had triumphed. The BBC reached an understanding with one of Hattie's entourage under which arm a handbag would be carried. Thus the Beeb correctly predicted that Harperson would be crowned. Look out for unusual nose-scratching in Manchester.

No deference is displayed to David Cameron as PM within the parliamentary precincts. As he entered the Commons for PMQs through a gate near the Red Lion, a police officer pressed the button to open doors in a subterranean corridor. The people's toff was about to proceed when a burly postie carrying a large package barged past. Cameron stepped aside and, my snout giggled, the doors closed in the PM's face.

To the Lib Dems in Liverpool. Coppers on the door plus a sleaze of lobbyists gave it the trappings of a big conference. But some things don't change. Chris Huhne and Danny Alexander may be cabinet ministers, but they looked out on rows of empty seats, hoping an audience would turn up at a fringe event.

The civil service union lefty Mark Serwotka was surprised to be named Britain's 31st most influential Catholic by the Tablet ahead of the Pope's visit. He's an atheist. Yet that wasn't always so. Somewhere, there's a snap of a young Serwotka with a yellow beret and armband, stewarding the last papal visit in 1982. Once a Catholic, always a Catholic?

Kevin Maguire is associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror