It's tragedy, indeed!

With the swarthy and sinisterly-bearded Uncle Petie presently off to join the Salafist mili... er, vacation in Morocco, it falls to yours truly to report the disturbing news that the Great British public is led by a man who not only enjoys both the records and actual company of Sir Cliff Richard but also that of '70s white disco kings the Bee Gees. Or, more specifically, Bee Gee Robin Gibb, who has so generously - if controversially - donated the use of his mansion in Florida for the Blair family's annual Christmas holiday abroad.

Politicians get freebies all the time and, rightly or wrongly, little is made of it in most cases. So what is particularly controversial about this latest perk of New Labour's electoral success? Curiously, like Sir Cliff, Gibb is also a fierce campaigner for copyright extension, a cause which the Prime Minister himself has championed both in Parliament and in his dealings with the European Union. But of course this must all be mere coincidence. After all, the man who initially came to power on a platform of ending the sleaze of the John Major era wouldn't stoop to accepting gifts from lobbyists. Would he?