Blair-Brown handover deal back on?

BBC pol ed Nick Robinson speculates in his blog that Blair and Brown may have agreed a date for the long-awaited handover.

I agree, and I'm going to stick my neck out and say the date they've agreed is May 2, 2007 - the 10th anniversary of Mr Blair's coming to power.

I've said this before of course - most recently in this column published in the Newcastle Journal and Lincolnshire Echo last October.

But to my mind it's a fair compromise between TB's desire for a "full third term" and GB's need to get stuck into Cameron at the despatch box.

Oaten quits - now will he back Huhne?

Mark Oaten has quit the Lib Dem leadership race after an apparent botched attempt to win Charles Kennedy's endorsement.

This leaves Chris Huhne as the only candidate with any credentials either as a moderniser or an economic liberal.

Will Oaten back him though? If ideological closeness has anything to do with it, he surely will, but this contest has always had more to do with personal rivalry than ideology.

If the old adage about "young cardinals electing old Popes," holds true, expect to see him joining Ming Campbell's campaign in the near future.

Jan 23 update: Apparently I was right about him not backing Huhne but wrong about him backing Ming - he was in fact planning to back Simon Hughes. I doubt if Hughes will want his support now though....

Neil solves Asian babe mystery

This image of Andrew Neil canoodling an "Asian babe" has become one of the most famous in British journalism. Neil has now spoken out for the first time about the picture and revealed that the lady in question was in fact an American-born make-up artist. You can read the full interview in this week's Press Gazette.