Last night Peter Mandelson gave an interview to the Huffington Post in which he joked about the infamous (albeit untrue) story of his mistaking mushy peas for guacamole at a fish and chip shop. He claims he’s “now a fully reconverted mushy pea man”. If voters thought Mandelson was too posh for Hartlepool, they’d better brace themselves…

Among the hundreds of tweets deleted by Labour’s Hartlepool candidate last month, one included Paul Williams bragging of his time on holiday in Paris, enjoying too much food and wine, and – interestingly for a Labour candidate – foie gras. Foie gras is the new guacamole…

This lifestyle is hardly surprising for an affluent, middle-class Europhile like Dr Paul, though Guido imagines it’ll hardly endear him to Hartlepool’s voters. Labour’s 2019 manifesto called for a banning of foie gras imports; soon Paris city breaks may be the only way Dr Paul gets to enjoy his delicious decadent food preferences…