Today we are going to conduct a thought experiment. Let's imagine a giant multinational company in the field of, say, aviation – let's call it British Airways – has spent years thieving private information from people in the public domain. Somehow unnoticed by the police, whose top officers BA happens to be granting favours too, the company starts to illegally invade the privacy of the Royal Family, a serving Prime Minister of Great Britain, terrorist informers, the Governor of the Bank of England, and footballers aplenty.

Now... Plan a spring city break to the capital of New England. Virgin Holidays has three nights in Boston for £555pp, which includes flights from Heathrow on 14 May and room-only accommodation at the Midtown Hotel. Virginholidays.co.uk

Last week, Whitehall whispers suggested that David Cameron would delay his first major cabinet reshuffle until the autumn so he could promote Jeremy Hunt, who could not be moved until after the London Olympics.

Two days after Vince Cable was removed as the government minister who would be making the decision about News Corp’s full take-over of BSkyB, James Murdoch attended a meeting with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at the home of Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie Brooks. Around 15 people were at the meeting.

With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first wedding anniversary fast approaching, the publishing industry continues to wring the last drops of merchandising potential from the occasion.

Was Matt Lucas a bit nervous about his new series? He prefaced the preview copy of The Matt Lucas Awards with a little personal message to reviewers, carefully explaining that "it's a little bit different to the stuff I do with David". That'll be just fine with me, Matt, I assure you, though I think I could have worked out for myself that it wasn't a sketch show.

Nothing beats that moment of transition from winter to spring: waking up to curtain-filtered sunshine and the first time you leave your coat behind. It's breathing in the smell of foliage and flowers rather than air so cold it sears the back of your nose. It's walking because you want to, not just when you have to. And it's eating rowdily and outside, enjoying the bacchanalia that good weather affords instead of slurping like hunched medieval kings in the day-long gloaming, wiping your hands on your dressing-gown.

We need to talk about Daniel

David Cameron's attempt to contain the cash for access affair by releasing a list of donors he has entertained was met with criticism yesterday – and seemingly failed to win over the public.

Here we go again. We have had cash for honours. Now we have cash for influence. We have had that before too, or at least cash for access, which is more or less the same thing.

The Conservative Party today published a list of major party donors who have attended dinners with David Cameron at 10 Downing Street.

The Conservative Party has issued details of dinners at No 10 and Chequers that were attended by individuals who had donated more than £50,000:

The spectacle of a Conservative Party treasurer hawking access to the Prime Minister in return for "premier league" donations to the Tory coffers is deplorable. But it is hardly surprising. And until party political funding is reformed, and big-money donations outlawed, such shady practices will inevitably continue.