David Nuttall’s Ten Minute Rule Bill to have the smoking ban amended so that private clubs and pubs would allow smoking, if they wanted it, has sadly just been shot down in the Commons. But the result of ayes 86, noes 141 shows the growing popularity for such an idea. This was a mere lone backbencher’s campaign thrown together hastily on the luck of a draw. With a coordinated movement within the coalition who knows what could happen…

It seems the age of austerity is yet to hit the gold lined pavements of SW7. Fancy paying £2,500 for dinner with the Mayor and maybe even a dance at favourite Royal haunt Boujis? There will be no banker bashing here…

And for a bounder about town what better way to make sure your girlfriends don’t all bump into each other and cause a dreadful fuss…

Just make them all wear masks!

It seems struggling London Mayor wannabe Oona King is deploying a last ditch open-bar strategy. She tweets enthusiastically:

“YOU are invited to a party at campaign HQ on Wed 11, 6-8pm! Come down and meet me and the team and have a drink! PLEASE spread the word xx”

Guido is happy to oblige. So see you all tomorrow at 6 Heron Quays, London E14 4JB. Over in Canary Wharf. If the evening turns out anything like Oona’s old party days in Vauxhall’s finest after-hours clubs, it will be a messy one…

Dave took the time to launch his vision of the ‘Big Society’ just ahead of the parliamentary recess. Beneath the Obama-lite rhetoric and calls for a legion of volunteers to run services was a message: it’s time to cut back the state and let individuals take control of their own lives.  So far, so good. But can the Tories resist the urge to centralise and regulate now that they are in power?

Behind the paywall at The Times, Deputy Mayor of London Kit Malthouse has been expounding on the ‘need’ for state intervention to combat alcohol consumption. The chief of the Met Police authority suggests twice daily alcohol testing for problem drinkers with “intensive monitoring and enforcement to ensure compliance”.

He gleefully explains what happens to those who dare breach a prohibition order in a similar scheme run in the backwoods of South Dakota: “The sanction is immediate and certain – straight into the cells, no argument, no court, no lawyers.” Very ominous.

If Malthouse persists with his plan then Guido knows just the location to try out the new policy: a little upstream from City Hall, at a place where subsidised booze flows freely, disorder is common and employees are regularly drunk while at work. It’s hard to imagine that heavy-drinking MP’s would take kindly to being breathalysed.

While it may be a mere attempt at generating some headlines, if ever proof was needed that despite the long haul of handshakes, the hustings, the “internal debate”, the Labour Leadership frontrunner David Miliband still doesn’t get it, then look no further than his pitch to publicans this morning:

“For too long we have tolerated this decline as the result of inevitable market forces. But we can and should stand up for the local pub – and the community links and civic life they sustain. Local pubs are great British institutions – and as Labour leader I would stand up for them.”

The hollow statement fails to mention what is really killing the pubs though – the full smoking ban, without exemptions, or landlord discretion, that David Miliband voted for in Cabinet and the House. If he wants to save pubs then he needs to pledge to look again at the legislation, anything less than is just hypocritical opportunism.

David Amess MP has been busy drafting a Private Member’s Bill demanding better methods of predicting the “effects of new drugs on humans”.

Given his previous attempt to legislate against the sale of ‘Cake’, after warning the public to avoid these “big yellow death bullets”, it’s understandable that he wants access to more comprehensive sources of information.

Guido hopes he did his homework though this time and has avoided ‘made-up drugs’.

Summer party season is in full swing, but you would think there would be some coordination with diaries. Although there are a limited number of days before the MPs jet off for the holidays, crowds will be dissipated tonight. Village dwellers have the choice between 18.00 and 20.00 of the ComRes and Apex Communications gig, Total Politics and Weber Shandwick’s new Members reception, The Adam Smith Institute book launch, a Big Brother Watch party and Conservative Way Forward’s summer party with Maggie. There will be some sore heads tomorrow…

Rather than dash around Westminster trying to get to all of these, Guido thinks he will just save himself for a slightly more exclusive party later. He is hoping lots of other Ed Balls fans join him at Blinky’s little party that is going on tonight. Apparently there will be a chat about how the campaign is going, which hopefully won’t dampen the mood too much. Drinks will be served from 20.30 in Norman Shaw South, Rm 102. Hope there are nibbles…

And then they were gone:

Given the excuse was that the protesters were prohibiting the wider public enjoying the Square, Guido doesn’t quite get the fence…

Via Kevin Brennan MP’s office window, via Twitter.

Cameron and Clegg made their entrance together to the Speccie’s summer party last night, either as a statement or out of convenience. Cameron was at ease among his own people. Clegg looked a little glum, like a newly wed wife who realises too late that her husband keeps company of which she really doesn’t  approve.

The Speccie – slogan: “Champagne for the Brain” – provided champagne in a straight glass to one of Dave’s minders, which Guido could have sworn was passed furtively to the PM, no iPhone snap will be on the Mirror’s front-page this time. Picture evidence implies Bucks Fizz…

Dave worked the room with good grace. Clegg looked uncomfortable with the editorial descendants of the weekly magazine which called for the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyr’s children. He seemed a bit stiff among his new progressive friends like Kelvin MacKenzie, Taki, Liddle, Janet Daley, Fraser Nelson plus allies like Andy Coulson and Lord Ashcroft. Danny “Beaker” Alexander was in his element, enjoying being slapped on the back by political adults and congratulated on his fiscal restraint. Beaker’s new SpAd Julia Goldsworthy was wearing a demure little black number which would not look out of place at the upcoming £4,500-a-table Tory Black and White Ball.

Clegg really should be like his junior colleagues, and learn how to lie back and enjoy coalition…

The place to be in Westminster tonight is Adam Afriyie’s at-home party for new MPs. The PM is going to drop in and most of the parliamentary party will be knocking back the booze. It will be the first post-government party for most of them.

Champagne is no longer banned…