The above video filmed by the Sunday Times in the St James Hotel’s restaurant is pretty damning for Baron Truscott. The former Labour DTI minister – once a special envoy for Tony Blair – is now a director of oil and mining companies controlled by Frank Timis, a twice convicted heroin dealer.

Truscott is a director of two Timis ventures. One, African Minerals, is active in Sierra Leone, the world’s biggest source of blood diamonds (African Minerals was formerly called the Sierra Leone Diamond Company). In September 2008 the Sunday Times reported that Timis was facing the prospect of a court case over disputed mineral rights. The other company, Eastern Petroleum is involved in oil prospecting in the former Soviet Union.

Truscott is also a director of Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a company involved in oil exploration in northern Iraq, run by Bush/Cheney campaign contributor Todd Kozel. In addition, Truscott works for Gavin Anderson, a PR firm with strong links to the government of Russia and its commercial associate. (See declared interests).

Truscott is like a real life Alan B’stard…

John Hutton is visiting a Sixth Form College in his constituency today. He has asked that for a planned question and answer session with some A Level students the questions be submitted beforehand. Obviously even though they’re his constituents one of them could be a bit of a Paxman. Dangerous…

0947 Gordon Brown looked angry when it turned out some dope had forgotten to turn off his mobile phone during his G20 talk – until the red-faced British PM found out it was his handset ringing. And it went off twice.

UPDATE : The BBC has the clip of his Nokia ringing – you will wet yourself laughing. Still it is not as bad as the time he met Clinton and other world leaders with a big orange blob on his head is it? He really is just a walking global embarrassment.

Velux Windows in Glenrothes was subjected to a visit from Jonah last October during the by-election campaign. Gordon congratulated them on their success. (ITN footage of soon to be sacked workers shaking Jonah’s hand.) Yesterday Keith Riddle, managing director of The Velux Company Limited, said: “Unfortunately we are making a number of redundancies and are currently in the consultation process with the people affected. It is expected that around half of the job losses will be made in Glenrothes, with the rest being spread around the UK and Ireland. Be warned, whether your business is large or small, if Jonah Brown comes, doom will follow…

UPDATE : Radioactive Jonah – “Because the future is nuclear, it is only right that Gordon should take a personal interest in the way our installations operate. And thus he went to Sellafield last week. So far, so good. There was, we now learn, a little local difficulty on the day the PM came to call: a radioactive leak that meant a walkway had to be cordoned off and a building closed. The whole thing is now the subject of a board of inquiry but it didn’t spoil his trip.”