UP THE HILLS AND DOWN THE VALLEY: Peter Hill, the Daily Express editor, claims that the shifting of the paper's support behind the Tories is down to him and him alone. Oddly, though, when asked why on 'Today', he started his answer "I think that it's because..." And did he ever squirm when asked if the porntastic Richard Desmond supported or agreed with him. Didn't answer, just squirmed.

Peter Hill, of course, has the almost unique distinction of editing a newspaper reported to the Press Complaints Commission by its own journalists. Perhaps now it's no longer getting support from the paper, Labour might stop dancing to its racist demands on asylum seekers.

 
CRB FOUL-UP: And what, exactly, is the comfort you're meant to take from being refused a job because you've been labelled a criminal in being told you're one of a "small percentage" of fuck-ups? And since when has getting on for four mistakes a week been the sort of thing we're meant to write off? Wonder if one of the 193 wrongly labelled people will be bringing a libel action against the CRB?

 
WE DID SAY WE WERE OCCASIONAL: But we were surprised to hear President Bush in what must have been an unscripted performance on Sunday (nobody would write so many 'ums', would they?) expressing his shock that people were trying to use violence to determine the future of Iraq. It must be a major slap in the face to him after all his attempts to use negotiation and encouragement to bring about a regime change in Baghdad.

We were also a little surprised that the White House is still pushing the line that the opposition in Iraq is coming from "terrorists." Because if it's the case that Falluja was being ransacked by terrorists, should we take the negotiation of a ceasefire with these people as an indication that the US is quite happy to do deals with Al Qaeda? Unless, of course, they're not Al Qaeda at all, and the American government is lying when it tries to pretend they are? But that would be unthinkable, wouldn't it?

 
ACTIVE POLITICS: We like the sound of the Acid Rain Retirement Fund, a practical response to the concept that companies can buy the right to pollute the planet. They're raising money to buy up pollution quota, and simply let it expire.