October 2008 Archives

DID a Government minister's passion for Liverpool Football Club cost him his £30,000 job?

There was much head- scratching when fire minister Parmjit Dhanda was axed - until it emerged he had been seen in deep and frequent conversation with our own George Howarth.

The pair were discussing Liverpool's recent good results, but the Knowsley North MP was, until last week - the Prime Minister's fiercest foe.

Poor Parmjit was apparently suspected of plotting . . .

THEY will not be axed, but will suffer the sort of slow, painful, lingering, death-by-a- thousand-cuts that would make any sane person pine for a speedy demise.

That appears to be the Conservative plan for regional development agencies (RDAs), should David Cameron find himself in Downing Street in 2010.

Officially, the Tory policy is still under review, but business spokesman Alan Duncan confirmed the RDAs' future is not a happy one in a weekend interview. (Possibly, Mr Duncan felt the need to clarify matters after his colleague, Eric Pickles, threatened RDAs with the same fate as Anne Boleyn - who definitely did get the axe!).

A CLEAR sign that Merseyside MPs do not expect the PM-PM love-in to last came when one revealed his reaction on seeing the newspaper billboard reading "Mandy rushed to hospital!".

"My first thought was 'Blimey, Gordon's punched him already!'", the MP told me.

ON THE day after his shock return to the Cabinet, it was reported that a fellow minister had begged the Prime Minister not to be so stupid and to leave him in his Brussels exile.

The next day, attention switched to a mysterious Greek taverna, where he was alleged to have "dripped pure poison" about the PM into the eager ear of a prominent Conservative.

The following day, he was rushed to hospital at 3am where tests revealed he had kidney stones. Surgery took place a few hours later.

Yes, the Peter Mandelson show is back in town - and tickets are selling like hot cakes.