Going, going, gone...was that really Cherie seeling taste down the river?

SLOW-BURNING outrage at the antics of Cherie Blair. The Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has tabled an early day motion demanding an apology for the “tasteless and offensive conduct” of “hon. Labour members” at a party fundraising auction late last week.

At the Arts Club in Mayfair, the story goes, Mrs Blair signed a copy of the Hutton report into the death of David Kelly. This went on to be auctioned for £400, in the presence of several (albeit minor) government ministers. Even allowing for Cherie’s known problems with taste (eg, baby-blue polyester) this seems to be pushing it.

“It is crass and insensitive,” says Jackson. “That man had a family.”

Imagine! Blair’s Government selling something that it shouldn’t, simply in order to raise party funds. Who would have thought it possible?

• This week, the rumoured Cabinet Minister Geoff Hoon (is he? Isn’t he? Nobody knows) has been DJ-ing in a guest slot on Radio Salistune, a community radio station in his constituency of Ashfield.

  Much as we’d love to, we find ourselves unable to mock this too strongly — our view of Hoon was irrevocably improved a few weeks ago, when he wrote a rather moving tribute to Pink Floyd in The Spectator. When it comes to 70s soft rock, Geoff Hoon really knows his stuff. No wonder Tony likes him.

  Comrade Guru-Murthy himself is represented by Noel Gay Artistes. We’ve been on at them to see what steps they are taking to avoid their client becoming “unnecessarily wealthy”. As yet, sadly, no response.

• “We’re sending Tony Blair a copy by registered post in a whiter than white” envelope, says Iain Dale who, along with fellow political blogger Guido Fawkes, has compiled The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze. “But since the book went to print, seven or eight more scandals have come to light. And, we forgot about Stephen Byers, wearing only his socks. So we’re now planning the Encyclopedia of New Labour Sleaze.”

  PS

• A daffodil was named after Ffion Hague at the Chelsea Flower Show. “It certainly beats having a 32-tonne truck named after you,” she says. Another Ffion has ploughed motorways since 2000.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson