A highlight of the Christmas season in London - the Irish Embassy party - took place on Tuesday when 500 of the leading politicians, hacks and bureaucrats in the land crowded into the Grosvenor Place office and home of our Ambassador, Ted Barrington. Peter Mandelson wasn't there because he was in the North hosting his own party and showing off his new pup, Bobby, a gift from his partner when he because Secretary of State a couple of months ago. But Mo Mowlam turned up, as did Baroness Jay, aka Margaret Jay, the leader of the Lords immortalised in the Nora Ephron novel.
There were so many Labour MPs that Jim Dowd from the whip's office had to call in and round them up when a vote was called on the Terrorism Act. On the Tory side, there was Andrew Mackay and his wife Julie Kirkbride, also an MP and rising star (who was challenged by a Labour member's wife when she described herself as Mackay's wife), plus party chairman Michael Ancram. Despite the last guests departing after 11 p.m. (it was a 6.30 p.m. start), there was no bad behaviour and no one fell down the stairs. Neither was there a sign of any of the candidates in the mad race to be Lord Mayor of London. A bit of the ongoing farce would have added to the evening.