Guido cynically thought this morning that the Today story based on The Times splash on Cherie’s hairdresser was very nicely timed to irritate the Labour party’s grassroots just when they should be out knocking on doors. More to the point, wasn’t it old hat?

Sure enough Guido has found the origins of the story adorning his cellar bookshelf in Paul Scott’s Tony and Cherie: A Special Relationship published last year. A fascinating book from which Guido also learnt that Cherie’s unexpected fourth pregnancy at 45 came after she used New Age sexual hanky panky; that she told Carole Caplin intimate details about sex with Tony in preparation for ‘sexual exercises’. Also before important meetings she uses a practice from white witchcraft known as ‘casting a circle’. Apparently Tony keeps a velvet pouch in his breast pocket containing a red ribbon and a piece of rolled-up paper, the significance of which is a mystery. Alternative healer Jack Temple kept Mr Blair’s toenail clippings in a jar, claiming he could detect the Premier’s health problems by swinging a crystal pendulum over them. Wonder what would happen if he set fire to the clippings whilst chanting incantations?