The mother of computer hacker Gary McKinnon today criticised the Home Secretary for linking her son to the September 11 terror attacks and the deaths of nearly 3,000 US citizens.

A self-employed tour operator has dropped attempts to bring a private prosecution against former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith over the designation of her sister's house as her main residence, it emerged today.

Is "stroppy" sexist? Jacqui Smith thinks so. In an interview the former Home Secretary takes exception to the fact that she was once described that way by a BBC presenter. No male politician, says Ms Smith, would have been called stroppy. What that presenter was saying, according to Ms Smith, was: "Don't get above yourself". We beg to differ – both over the "gendered" nature of the world and Ms Smith's negative interpretation of it.

The former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has claimed she was badly treated and branded "stroppy" because she is a woman.

Gordon Brown has admitted he was annoyed by former Europe minister Caroline Flint's barb that women were used as "window dressing" in his Cabinet.

Hazel Blears welcomed "sensible discussions" with party members after she survived a deselection vote.

The parents of a young British woman dying of cancer have been told by the Home Office they can no longer care for their daughter and must leave the country.

The senior civil servant at the Home Office said today that he and former home secretary Jacqui Smith were "shocked and disappointed" to see Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair forced out of his post by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it? First, they show little comprehension as to why their tax-dodging, publicly funded property speculation is despicable. Then, they mount another formidable display of inward-looking opportunism, by using the chaos unleashed by the expenses crisis to dazzle us with an every-man-for-himself extravaganza of shameless self-importance, as MPs rush to shore up their waning careers.

What's this? While BBC editors work themselves into a lather over MPs' expenses, a tale of excess from within their own ranks.