Express watch

Emblem of our heroes gets in way of her Muslim scarf

"Charles and most of the other British men at the reception wore theirs, but there was no room for a Remembrance Day motif on Camilla’s outfit."

The Express is in total freefall. Daisy, why don't you try and get a job there

From the lobby

From Tuesday's lobby write-up on the web:

Asked if it was true that the package was only approved this morning, the PMOS replied that there was a meeting and it was approved then. The PMOS said that he thought that the Daily Telegraph was lost in admiration at the effectiveness, efficiency and the speed of Government. The Daily Telegraph journalist said that he was not.

Brendan Carlin, what a hero.

Wellies cause cancer

I was going to post something about Cameron and Rhymefest - "Yo Pound! Where you at? You ain't meeting with nobody" - but what more is there to say?

The Mail this morning is on totally classic form - a heady mix of middle Britain rabble rousing, whimsical traditionalism and dubious popular science.

First up is Tom Utley - I hate to sound mean but why does my son have to pay to got to a British university when foreigners go free? No Tom, it's not that you sound mean.

Then a full page on wellies - It's won wars, built the Empire and is now a fashion must-have. Who would have guessed it of the humble Wellington boot?

And of course, Five slices of white bread a day 'can raise risk of cancer'.

Je suis Tony Blair

"Both of the current frontrunners, the left's Segolene Royal and the right's Nicolas Sarkozy, have flirted with Blair-like policies and both have clearly taken a lesson from the UK premier in media management."

I thought Segolene Royal was the French David Cameron. I don't know who that makes Ming Campbell.

This is a quite interesting article. The author sounds a bit familiar though, I don't know if her employers are aware she is moonlighting.

Big mistake

Blunkett on the publication of a biography in 2004 - "For the rest of my life, I will regret speaking to Stephen Pollard. It was the biggest mistake of my years in frontline politics."

Such a big mistake that two years later he publishes another series of indiscretions about cabinet colleagues in his new AUTObiography. I can see it might seem a different barrel of monkeys when you're getting the fee from Bloomsbury, the Mail and the Guardian.

It's one of those diaries with comments in parenthesis after big events, which is more fun to read but also silly when you get entries on cabinet meetings before the invasion of Iraq, and he adds 'of course I knew all along it would be a total cock-up'.

There are copies floating round the office, it's a monster.

I'm currently trying to read another monster about Wilson's government because I borrowed it off Daisy. It's pretty interesting, although the description of Patricia Hewitt as a hot young thing in the office was a bit of a wig-out.

Sunshine wins with IDS

Apparently Iain Duncan Smith and Mrs IDS were despatched to cheer up the Tory conference delegates still waiting for their passes - a move viewed by some as taking the piss.