Cherie is back to her eye-rolling best

She may have moved out, but Cherie Blair hasn’t moved on. Asked by the presenter of Sky News, Martin Stanford, on air, whether Gordon Brown was “doing a good job”, she rolled her eyes and sidled out of shot. While this could have meant “yes”, it looked like “no”.

Cherie, who has dipped beneath the radar in recent months, was publicising a new breast cancer centre at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.

Moments earlier, Stanford had asked her about Baroness Thatcher’s visit to Downing Street. “I’ve got no comment on that,” she said, with a smile. Then, she fled. “I thought it was an interesting question to ask,” said an affronted Stanford. “Busy lady,” explained his co-presenter Anna Jones.

Also at the Lib Dem conference, Chris Huhne’s rival heir-apparent Nick Clegg (some other sort of frontbench Lib Dem – how much do you care?) was asked during a Q&A which was better – a party leader who was drunk, or a party leader who was ineffective. “I don’t know who you are referring to,” said Clegg, loyally, if implausibly.

David Cameron was on This Morning on ITV yesterday talking about Gordon, tax and the police. “Can I stay until Nigella comes on?” he asked. “Oh?” said Fern Britten, with a knowing leer. “I’m a fan of her cooking,” spluttered the Tory leader. “Of course you are,” retorted Britten, smoothly. “Her buns.”

Lily Allen at the Luella show at Claridge’s as part of London Fashion Week. She revealed yesterday that many designers are reluctant to lend her clothes as they often end up dog-chewed or muddy.

Over at Comment Central, Daniel Finkelstein is attempting to find the most confusing lyric in a pop song. He is particularly troubled about whether the Beach Boys wanted all girls to be California Girls, or wanted all other girls to move to California. We, similarly, are perplexed by Year 3000, by Busted. Consider: I’ve been to the year 3000/ not much has changed but they live under water/ and your great-great-great granddaughter/ is pretty fine. Baffling. Allowing for 40 years between generations, said descendants will be aged around 790 in the year 3000, and thus about as fine as Sir Menzies Campbell (more at www.timesonline.co.uk/commentcentral ).

This week, we are somewhat smug to report, People is not at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton. Others are. Pity them. Not a good day there for Sir Ming Campbell. Apart from the lavatory incident (you’ll have seen that by now) his aides reportedly also forgot to tell him that he was booked on GMTV at 7.30am. Still, at least he got a lie-in.

Postscript

— Madonna, who is to actual Judaism what the Beach Boys were to actual surfing (in that she can’t do it, and doesn’t really want to, but pretends it has influenced her songs), has been visiting Israel for the Jewish new year. “I am an ambassador for Judaism,” she told Shimon Peres, the Israeli President. Maybe she could open an embassy in Baghdad. “Getting pregnant doesn’t excite me,”

— Charlize Theron tells Parade.com, controversially. “I know I’ll be a mother someday. It’s just that . . . I don’t really want to look like a whale, you know? I don’t want to be obnoxious,” she adds. “I’m a very aware, observant human being. I think that’s why I’m an actor.”

— Where next for Michael Palin, whose latest series, New Europe (BBC One), launched with 7.5 million viewers on Sunday? “There are still a lot of possibilities out there, but I doubt I shall ever get out to them,” he says. “I know I keep saying. ‘That’s it’. I have lied several times, but this time I really really mean it. That’s it.”

— Alex James, the bass player of Blur, has been named as an associate editor of The Spectator, the right-of-centre magazine. Blur’s drummer, Dave Rowntree, stood as a Labour Party candidate in elections to Westminster council earlier this year (he lost). How long until Damon Albarn joins the Lib Dems?