Kettle duly produced a Guardianesque, and then asked Tribune editor Chris McLaughlin how much he was to be paid. Tribune, as any politico knows, has not been in the habit of paying contributors in all its impecunious 69-year history. Lefties, Martin, only do it for love.A sycophant writes?Journalists are not generally sycophantic, but should an exception be made for Times political reporter Greg Hurst?As secretary of the Commons press gallery, Hurst has written a grovelling letter to the Speaker, Michael Martin, to wish him a speedy recovery from his recent illness. He has even pasted the letter on the press corridor noticeboard. And this to an anti-press Speaker who got journalists thrown off the Westminster terrace?Late for 'Today'Rumours that the Today programme editorship has already been sewn up have been stoked by an advertisement for Kevin Marsh's successor in the BBC's Ariel magazine.

Applications are required by February 10.Sophie gets strippedSophie Bower, daughter of Evening Standard editor Veronica Wadley and reporter for Oxford student newspaper Cherwell, has been stripped by the university Tory association of her role as treasurer. Among alleged misdemeanours was "a seemingly inexplicable £600 increase in the balance of accounts from the end of the previous treasurer's term to the end of Bower's," reports Cherwell's rival paper, the Oxford Student.YouGov? Not us, guvApart from Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes, the big loser in the Lib Dem leadership election was YouGov chairman Peter Kellner. He forecast a Huhne victory of 52 per cent with Campbell on 48 per cent. Campbell's victory is a blow for the company that successfully predicted the winners of the Tory leadership race and TV'sPop Idol..

Tessa Jowell was right about one thing She could not have kept both her job and her husband. Whether in leaving her husband she made the right choice is a matter for her and her alone, although almost everybody in the country will have an opinion on the matter This is an extraordinary, and unavoidably personal, drama. It turns out that the Prime Minister's statement last Thursday was merely a holding operation. In it, Tony Blair pointedly relied on the "assurance" from his Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport that she had not known at the time that a £350,000 payment to her husband, David Mills, might have been a gift. Thus Mr Blair said that she had not broken the Ministerial Code.. Which is worse within a marriage, not to tell or not to ask? Should we expect couples who share a bed to share intimate details about their financial affairs as well? Tessa Jowell has split from her husband David Mills because she is "angered" at the way questions over his complex business dealings have embroiled and embarrassed her. As newspapers questioned how an intelligent woman could possibly sign a document without asking why, and speculated what the high-flying couple actually talked about at home, the "dreadful strain" (in the words of Mr Mills's statement) on the marriage increased to breaking point.

The lack of communication in the Mills household may seem bizarre yet surely, in some ways, we can see this as a paradigm of modern marriage. The fiercely ambitious politician and the international tax lawyer must have been ships passing in the night for years, and when they met up there would be family matters to discuss, as well as dinner parties to attend.. "The idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, as hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; as absurd as an hereditary Poet Laureate." So wrote Tom Paine in The Rights of Man as long ago as 1791 Reform of the House of Lords is not a new issue. While this Government has made significant progress, successive governments have failed to resolve the matter We are trying to reach a consensus on a way forward. It is important therefore to acknowledge the areas where there is agreement. Most people agree that we should have two houses of parliament. Only smaller countries with homogenous populations seem to successfully operate a system with only one chamber.

The important revising work of the Lords, improving legislation and bringing to bear expert and informed opinion on a wide range of topics, is acknowledged. Elected Members of Parliament take a strong line, illustrated most recently in an article by Gordon Brown, that the primacy of the Commons is of paramount importance. Similarly, there are few today who support the hereditary principle as a way of deciding who should make our laws.. It's no surprise to me that the demand for assisted conception from single women is rising rapidly. If Mr Right (or even Mr Right Now) doesn't come along, it shouldn't mean women such as me automatically lose out on parenthood. I completely understand why, after years of agonising, SadFab woman - single and desperate for a baby - has decided to take control of her biological destiny and use a sperm donor.