Pandora: Home Office whistle-blower declares war on feminism

The former Home Office civil servant Steve Moxon has spent the past three years fighting accusations that he's a racist. Delightful then that he is now unashamedly about to court further catcalls by enlisting in the battle of the sexes.

Moxon, you might recall, was fired back in 2004 after revealing that immigration staff in Sheffield had been asked to fast-track certain Eastern European applications. Although it prompted the resignation of minister Beverley Hughes, the fall-out and subsequent book he wrote, The Great Immigration Scandal, led to him being accused by some of deliberately stirring up racial tensions.

Moxon's next book now looks set to provoke further demands for his head. Called The Woman Racket, it controversially discusses the notion that women are oppressed by men.

"It's all a result of political correctness, when really the opposite is true," he tells me. "There's a scientific approach to the book, I studied psychology while I was at university.

"I don't know what people will think but I'm hoping a book about men and women sells better than one about immigration."

After Moxon was fired from the Home Office, he threatened to take it to an industrial tribunal. Instead, the department settled out of court for a fee reported to be as much as 50,000.

"I can't talk about the settlement or how much it was, obviously, for legal reasons," he says. "But it did enable me to not have to work for a while, so that's when I started writing."

Mortimer pleads for motherly modesty

Just when you thought that the British actress Emily Mortimer had finally shed her delicate, head-prefect image, she unsportingly announces a no-nudity clause.

Mortimer, the daughter of Rumpole creator Sir John, delighted her male fans by stripping off for her 2001 film Lovely & Amazing, which saw her male lover humiliatingly offer an in-depth critique of her physical attributes.

Since then Mortimer, who is currently promoting her film Lars and the Real Girl, has married Hollywood star Alesandro Nivola and is mother to a four-year-old son, Sam. As a result, she says, she won't be disrobing again in the future.

"It was a moment as an actor I'll never forget," she says. "But that was before I had my baby. I'm not sure I'd be as brazen about taking off my clothes now."

Is Fallon riding for a fall?

The jockey Kieren Fallon is right back in the glue after testing positive for cocaine after a race in August at Deauville, ironically riding a horse called Myboycharlie.

Strong whispers are now galloping around racing circles that this could mean the end of the line (sorry) for Fallon and his lucrative deal to ride for racing tycoon John Magnier, who has stood by the controversial but brilliant rider during his recent trial at the Old Bailey where he was acquitted of race-fixing.

A decision is likely to be made in the next few days. One name Pandora learns could be in the frame to replace Fallon at Coolmore is his fellow Irishman Johnny Murtagh.

Ho, ho, ho

Playing against type, Ed Balls was said to have made a warm and cuddly Saint Nick at last week's children's party in 11 Downing Street. But shouldn't the dressing-up have really been the duty of the evening's host, Alistair Darling?

Quipped the Mirror's political editor and resident Westminster wag, Kevin Maguire: "Poor old Ali, he'd have been too afraid of the sack." Boom! Boom!

Joining Balls for the evening's cabaret was Marvel the Magician, whose entrance at Downing Street was briefly held up by the bobbies on the gates. Apparently, it's the first time the police had patted a visitor down and discovered him to be carrying a concealed bunny rabbit.

Executive perks at Wapping

The Sun newspaper executive Dominic Mohan has come a long way since trading insults with Noel Gallagher.

Mohan, who edited the tabloid's Bizarre column during the heady days of Britpop, was recently promoted to the paper's deputy editor's office.

Salary and chauffeurs aside, the position is not without perks. Mohan now reportedly gets his own footman, whose sole responsibility it is to serve lunch to him and his boss, Rebekah Wade.

"I wouldn't quite describe the bloke as a butler, it's less Jeeves, more meals on wheels," says one News International employee. "But it's a big deal around Wapping a bit like that episode of The Simpsons when Mr Burns gives Homer a key to the executive bogs."