There were no revelations and anyone who was expecting news should have known better

The recent appearances of Labour figures at the Leveson Inquiry hasn't just been a reunion for the Class of '97, it has also provided an opportunity for them to plug their books.

So why is Tony Blair's one-time flack back in the news?

1. Paul Waugh (PI: 66)

Kelner's View

Steve Coogan and Paul Gascoigne are among the latest people to have settled claims for damages over phone-hacking, the High Court has heard.

We can see why David Cameron chose to confront Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, last week. The Prime Minister recognised that he would have to grasp the thistle at some point, and it would be better to do it early, and at a time of his choosing, than to be forced into it later. However or whenever he did it, Mr Salmond would find a way of portraying him as a colonial master telling the bonded slaves about changes in their work rotas. That said, Mr Cameron did not handle the Government's decision to facilitate a Scottish referendum brilliantly. Lord Forsyth, who as Michael Forsyth was the Conservative minister associated with using Scotland as a laboratory for the poll tax, should have been dissuaded from making any media appearances.

The Way We Live: It's pleasing that British morality can influence tough foreign farmers

I wonder what Christopher Hitchens, who died some 24 hours earlier, would have made of David Cameron’s speech, in which he implored Britain to follow the values espoused in the Bible. In fact, there’s no need to wonder. He’d have employed his most excoriating polemic.

Sorry to you all if what follows seems even more nonsensical than usual, and riven by inexplicable lapses in ... Where the hell were we? Ah yes. Apologies but, as The Mail on Sunday reported, "There were growing concerns yesterday about Jeremy Clarkson's state of mind," and truth be told I haven't had a wink for fretting about him. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, but after a long and sensationally undistinguished career observing the media, I can't remember a more heinous case of persecution for a harmless Wildean thrust.

Christmas books of the year

Having run his inquiry into media ethics thus far without a pratfall, Lord Justice Leveson has created an opportunity to make a complete ass of himself next week by getting heavy with Paul Staines, who blogs under the alias Guido Fawkes.

Tony Blair has expressed his irritation at the Iraq inquiry's preparing to deliver a damning verdict on his handling of the war.