Harriet's appeal is fading by the day

Published on Monday 3 December 2007 00:43

TUESDAY

HARRIET HARMAN

MAYBE this isn't the most discreet place to say it, but I've always quite fancied Harriet Harman. Lovely hair, nice bone structure, pretty face and always so very well turned-out. Added to this is the calm sincerity she seems to exude: I always believed her more than other politicians, although I felt she had a worrying tendency to be vacuous on Question Time.

As I write this, Harriet's designer jacket is hanging on a rather shoogly peg after her unfortunate decision to accept a donation for her deputy leadership campaign from a third party acting for businessman David Abrahams.

I can look into those doe eyes and quite believe Harriet when she says she acted in good faith, and be impressed that she even wrote a sweet little thank-you note to Janet Kidd for sending the cash. It's just a shame that Hilary Benn, possibly the dullest member of a dull Cabinet at the moment, and big man Gordon Brown (with his texture like spam) turned away similar offers.

And it also didn't help that Harriet's hubby, Jack Dromey (a former bearded trade union leader and now the clean-shaven treasurer of the Labour Party), muttered the phrase "complete concealment" twice when approached by TV crews to pass comment.

The whole impression this messy affair leaves behind is chaos, confusion and mismanagement at the very heart of the Labour Party - exactly what Gordon Spam didn't want after his troubles with Northern Rock and that unfortunate lost CD. It remains to be seen whether it is, to use Henry McLeish's best-known chat-up line, a muddle or a fiddle. Whatever transpires, it certainly hasn't done anything for Harriet's political shelf-life, which is a shame. I don't have the same attraction to Hazel Blears or Ruth Kelly.

Tomorrow, in her capacity as Leader of the House, Harriet speaks on the coming year in parliament, about the Labour government's priorities for the year ahead. Before last week, no-one much would have listened; now the nation is all ears.

TUESDAY

DIDA

IT'S a big night for Celtic as they go the San Siro in search of the point that will guarantee their progress into the next stage of the Champions League and more big bucks. They will resume hostilities with Brazilian goalkeeper Dida, but I am willing to bet that this time he will not be tumbling theatrically to the ground if a fan strokes his neck. However, if he chooses to spill a long shot at the feet of Scott McDonald in the last minute, fine. Let's hope he doesn't do it at the feet of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who would probably miss.

If you are not sure of the maths, Celtic definitely go through if they get at least a point in Milan. If they lose, Shakatak still have to beat Ben Affleck to go through.

MONDAY

PAUL POTTS

IT MAY be unfair to Paul Potts to refer to him as the Michelin Man of Song, as he was called by some after winning Britain's Got Talent. It may also be unfair to laugh at the way the old-fashioned talent show has moved from Butlins to prime-time TV. But, for Potts, it has been a fabulous development. The mobile-phone salesman from Wales triumphed over two cute kids, a crap ventriloquist and some nutters shaking cocktails. Anyway, Potts - actually more like the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters - sings in the Royal Variety Performance at the Liverpool Empire, tonight. The weird bill also has Bon Jovi, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, James Blunt, Joan Rivers and Enrique Iglesias. Very odd.

MONDAY

CHRISTIAAN BARNARD

IT IS 40 years ago today that Christiaan Barnard became the first surgeon to carry out a human heart transplant. South African Louis Washkansky chose to have the surgery, although the odds against success were slim and he died 18 days after the operation because of a lung infection. However, the operation changed medical procedures forever. Barnard, a playboy surgeon who loved nightclubbing, said at the time: "On Saturday, I was a surgeon in South Africa, very little known. On Monday I was world-renowned." Barnard died aged 78 in 2001.

FRIDAY

BARRY BONDS

THE tarnished baseball hero is in court this week for a perjury hearing. Bonds, who recently claimed the all-time Major League Baseball home-run record, told a grand jury in 2003 he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Despite smashing the ball out of the diamond more frequently than anyone else, Bonds has never been liked a lot in the US due to his abrasive nature and drug doubts.

Barry Bonds is 43.

ALSO THIS WEEK ...

Today: The winner of the Turner Prize is named on Channel 4 just before 8pm. The shortlist includes Zarina Bhimji, Mark Wallinger, Nathan Coley and Mike Nelson. The winner gets 25,000.

Tomorrow: Energy minister Malcolm Wicks launches an initiative to address skills shortages in the North Sea. It is a month since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan.

Wednesday: It's the British Comedy Awards 2007. Stephen Fry, Simon Amstell and Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins are nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality.

Thursday: The so-called "lyrical terrorist", Samina Malik, 23, is due to be sentenced. From Southall, west London, she is the first woman in the UK to be convicted under the Terrorism Act. The Heathrow worker wrote poems in praise of Osama bin Laden.

Friday: The Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness join US president George Bush for a Northern Ireland summit at the White House. Phil Spector, the legendary music producer, appears in an LA court before judge Larry Fidler, in a retrial for the alleged murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, 40.

Saturday: There is a National Climate March in London as part of a global day of action to highlight the climate-change crisis. It's 20 years since Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to cut nuclear arsenals.