cherchez la femme

among the Labour South-East Region candidates for the European elections, and you'll have a job to find the top one on the list, one Anneliese Dodds. Here is the erstwhile Honourable Member for Reading East West, Mr Salter, extolling the virtues of - you guessed it - No. 2 on the list, one J. Howarth, prop. Public Impact Ltd (remember "Your Better Off With Labour"?). Does he mention the candidate chosen by Party members to be at the head of the team, namely Anneliese Dodds? He does not.

Oh and editorial-type peeps, don't bother making any more late-night well-refreshed threats to me for using your material. I don't give a stuff. It's the public prints.

In further delights, Mr Salter is billed as keynote speaker at a fund-raising fish'n'chip supper. It's actually in Reading West, so we hope he can find his way there from his usual haunts in the East. It's meant as a fund-raiser. Andrew Smith MP is also to be a speaker, but apparently he is the support act for Mr S. Why? The mystery deepens... Fish'n'chips provided by the Deep Blue emporium of that ilk in Whitley, south Reading. Fine, but... the event billing calls it "Blue Deep". In details of how to pay for admission it says or alternatively you can via cheque.Do we detect the hand of Mr Howarth? I think we do.