You almost have to admire the persistence of serial loser Katie “Ghastly” Ghose. The woman who turned a 27% referendum lead for “Yes to AV” into a 36% victory for the “No to AV” campaign has had similar luck in her several ill-fated attempts to find a safe Labour seat to stand in. Now she has thrown her hat into the ring to take the Stoke-on-Trent North seat being vacated by retiring Joan Walley. Ghose’ other half, Fabian Society general secretary Andy Harrop, has been doing his best to boost Katie’s profile, getting her on stage with Owen Jones and Jackie Ashley at his conference last weekend. One word of advice: perhaps she should change the name of the constituency at the top of her new Stoke-on-Trent North website:

“Inspiring, leading, winning.” First time for everything…