While John Prescott is busy enjoying his political swansong in typically bullish fashion, I hear another member of the Prezza dynasty has quietly launched a fresh bid for a parliamentary career of his own.

An unexpected spat has broken out amongst the literati of Wales. Tessa Dahl, pictured, the statuesque mother of Sophie and daughter of Roald, is engaged in a harsh exchange of words with the organisers of the world's richest literary award, The Dylan Thomas Prize.

*When Tony and Cherie Blair put their Sedgefield home, "Myrobella", on the market this autumn, property experts predicted a rapid sale despite the steep asking price.

Rudolph, fetch those reins! Someone is striving to be a very good little boy this Christmas.

Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik will complain to the Commons authorities today after his name was missed off a key internet search tool.

Following in the footsteps of Tony Blair, two rather different House of Commons veterans are, we hear, to enter into the interfaith arena.

The Liberal Democrat MP answers your questions, such as 'Should Megrahi have been released?' and 'Do you have any dating tips?'

Nick Robinson's stint fronting Newsnight may have proved a successful experiment at the time of printing, but it seems that he would be wise not to get overly comfortable in the hot seat quite yet.

As celebrity endorsements to political parties go, Daniel Radcliffe's declaration of loyalty to the Liberal Democrats appeared, on first impressions at least, to be a useful one.

These are not words I expected to write without some potent psychotropic substance seeping through an intravenous drip, but Richard Desmond becomes a role model to us all. The fearlessness he showed in donning the Jonathan Aitken Memorial Suit of Armour to fight Tom Bower for his good name - and on the notoriously murderous terrain that is Mr Justice Eady's courtroom - speaks for itself. So does the plain spoken reverence for truth displayed in the witness box. Above all, though, it's the Corinthian sunniness that seems such a useful paradigm for troublesome times. The post-verdict statement posted on his own Express web site echoes one of modern history's most resilient wartime orators. Churchill, perhaps, in 1940. Or possibly Comical Ali in 2003 as the coalition tanks rolled into Baghdad. "His biggest mistake," declared Richard of Mr Bower, "was in thinking I would not go to court to fight to uphold my reputation."

In what may be the most creative post-expenses show of bravado yet, the Labour MP Tom Levitt – ranked eighth in recent accounts of the most claim-happy MPs – is to cut his teeth as a stand-up comic with a high-profile slot in the West End.

We know it's hard, as we hit Day 45 of the expenses saga, to follow it all. As a catch-up service, John Rentoul provides his guide to what has been learned last week, in the form of a GCSE multiple-choice test (answers at bottom of page)

What do Kate Winslet, Ricky Gervais and Tony Blair have in common? Aside from a propensity for making embarrassing speeches, that is. The answer, unexpectedly, lies with butterflies.

The people out there are angry, say the politicians. In a floundering attempt to play the sincerity card which has served them so well in the past, they turn their sheepish, plastic bag-claiming, moat-clearing, manure-collecting, property-flipping eyes to the camera, and bleat about the system and how voters are terribly, terribly angry.