Day 2 at the Labour conference

In the air

An urgent call has gone out to Cabinet ministers to be on parade for tonight's gala fundraising dinner.

The three-line-whip seems to be down to the fact that Labour high command has been struggling to sell tickets and needs a star minister on every table to pull them in.

At £500 a ticket, the bash is not cheap. So far, just 350 have been sold for a room that can hold 800. "If only we could promise them all Peter Mandelson," sighs a party official.

In the golden years, Tuesday night was when all the best parties were held because the leader relaxes after his speech and lets his hair down.

Now a lot have moved to Monday night because too many powerful guests aim to hit the road after the applause dies down in the hall.

Commons whispers

Ben Bradshaw prompted sniggers last night when he used a Twitter fringe event (dubbed a Twinge) to take the moral high ground. "There's a danger of sounding terribly pious, but the Left don't deal in smear, gossip and inuendo. The Right do. Isn't that right?" the Culture Secretary claimed. Unfortunately for him, former minister Caroline Flint couldn't resist interjecting: "We did have to stop Damian McBride, though..."

A few eyebrows were raised when guests attended the Guardian/Observer reception in The Grand. One of those invited was none other than Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness. It was, of course, The Grand where the IRA planted its Brighton bomb during the Tory conference in 1984.