Plus: Boris’s party is raided by the Vice and Drugs Squads. The Home Secretary says it was “a police operational decision”
Cllr Peter Golds is honoured with a CBE.
But there were the first signs of animosity between Labour and the SNP.
So we are back at the Palace of Varieties with far more MPs than expected – and relatively few casualties.
The next day, I went to deliver leaflets in Rochester. We kept being delayed by Simon Burns insisting on showing passing punters his Hillary Clinton watch.
The case for Bercow as a great reformer tends to be obscured by his astonishingly bad manners.
Only the points of order raised against John Bercow by three Tory MPs struck a partisan note.
Also: Meeting Princess Michael. My old friend Simon Burns. Alastair Campbell, my stand-in. And: off to Dubrovnik and “the odd Ann Widdecombe pussy joke”.
An awkward question for Burns – which MP called John Bercow a “stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”?
He seems to have been the most impressive performer – “very professional”, said one source. “Surprised on the upside” said another.
She’s keen to stress that she isn’t Cameron’s candidate. And there may be an element of women-voting-for-women on the Labour side.
No Minister serves forever, and I suspect that Burns will have gazed ahead to the coming reshuffle and looked sideways at the Deputy Speaker post.
Conservatives can find supporters in the trade union movement – why won’t they listen to them?