George Galloway and Dennis Skinner object to plans to delay start of Commons, which would cause the cancellation of Prime Minister's Questions

Today being the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland, it seems as good excuse to revive anecdotes about the slightly made Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, who did so much to make it possible while slowly dying of a malignant brain tumour.

Twitter has rightfully been praised for fostering an explosion of citizen journalism, but worthwhile content on the forum seems the exception to the rule.

If there are other victims out there, naming of the accused can encourage them to speak out. But if the accused is rich and powerful, their identity can act as a shield

Trotskyist group exonerated official because it doesn’t believe in ‘bourgeois court system’ to deliver justice

The news that MP Nadine Dorries is entering the I'm a Celebrity jungle has ruffled some political feathers

Paperback reviews of the week

Our diarist notes the frenetic effort Labour is putting into discovering new talent, and why the words of one Bill Oddie are not all they may seem to be

If you ask me...

Britain has its fair share of maverick politicians, but as a dependable source of soundbites and surprises, few can match George Galloway.

Fed up with all three main parties? Fancy a bold, clever, sensible independent candidate to represent your city? That's what Londoners are being offered on Thursday, but the political and media establishments are doing their best to crush her. We have a 20th-century political system failing to cope with 21st-century politics.

David Cameron is running the risk of making himself more enemies on the Tory right than he needs. He caused considerable offence yesterday when he told Douglas Carswell – a popular MP despite his near-anarchist opposition to big government – to get a sense of humour. Carswell's offence was to ask a question which implied that ministers were letting themselves be run by the civil service. He later said: "I can do gags, but I reckon most people voted for me because they want change, not a comedian."

There was crude electoral logic as well as moral force in Margaret Thatcher's pursuit of a "property-owning democracy". The phrase was, in fact, coined by Noel Skelton, a Tory MP of the interwar years. He felt, as Thatcher did decades later, that pride in home-ownership would infuse the working-class with conservative values, so deterring them from socialism.

The Sketch: What's this? George Galloway promising to bear true allegiance to her Majesty the Queen?