Blair had to be formally asked to give a statement on policy which fundamentally rearranges the constitution and which had been implemented without consultation. Blunkett volunteers one on a man breaking into a 21-year old's birthday party.

Well, they finally owned up to it. The Christian Scence Monitor has dated the ink in documents that seemed to incriminate George Galloway and discovered that it dates to only a few months ago, not 1996/7 as the documents claimed. Pretty much puts the kibosh on a fairly ludicrous charge but Gorgeous George is still likely to get smacked down in forthcoming constituency gerrymandering. Nonetheless, questions need answering about who the forgers were and who wanted these smears disseminated

Went to see Ghost of the Robot last night. Not a band with any name recognition I grant you, but headed by Mr James Marsters aka Spike in Buffy/Angel. Yes, unspeakably geeky but they were actually quite good - sort of Elastica fused with Weezer and not the earnest goth rock I feared. Shame about an audience constituted, as it was, by a surfeit of middle-aged female Marsters fans. Also shame on the Scala, for stinging people 17GBP for two bands (we missed the first) and a total set that can't have lasted more than 90 minutes.

Two weeks down the line and serious research has yet to start. However, I do have most of the films now on DVD and many books. The trouble is going to be drawing the line at bakground reading - something that is practically limitless given the number of topics that Oliver Stone covers (the worst are going to be Nixon and JFK). Am still lacking a plan of what I'm going to look at, not just books and magazines but other films too.