Sebastian Payne

How strange — John Prescott is fast becoming the poster boy for elected police commissioners. He appeared on the Today Programme earlier to explain why he's putting himself forward for that very job in his home of Humberside. But has he acquiesced to Tory thinking? Don't bet on it. As he told John Humphrys, he doesn't actually support the legislation, but he does believe that Labour should have a man in the fight: ‘The Labour Party didn’t like this legislation and I voted against it, but once there is an election the party isn’t going to stay out of it and they will want to see it doesn’t go the way they feared it might go.’ Which probably explains why Prescott sees the role of elected police commissioners as quite limited.

We now have the first major gaffe of the 2012 London Mayor race and to everyone's surprise it wasn't Boris. Ken Livingstone granted an extraordinary interview to the New Statesman, where his comments on the incumbent mayor, Margaret Thatcher and his work ethic have caused a decent stir. However, it is the thoughts on homosexuality in the Conservative Party - 'the Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else is' - that have prompted outrage. He was claiming hypocrisy, but instead came off bitter and twisted. The pro-Boris politicos are delighted - Ken's true colours have been exposed, they say, and Labour should deselect him at once. But they shouldn't overstate the case. Ken has been supporting gay rights for years now, so probably deserves some benefit of the doubt.

With HMS Dauntless and now Prince William gliding across the Atlantic to reinforce Britain's claim on the Falklands, there's no denying that tensions with Argentina have been raised. But let's not get carried away. As Admiral Sir John Woodward reminded us last week, the latest round of defence cuts rules out, or at least undermines, a British counter-invasion. The deployment of our shiniest boat is, in reality, the sum total of what Britain can do to scare off any invasion. And there could be another barrier to the government's hawks, other than resources: namely, the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg did try to rally support for our cause on a trade mission to Brazil eight months ago, but it’s unlikely Cameron's partners are enthusiastic for this sabre-rattling over the Islands.

Yesterday, Keith Vaz received a response to a written question he filed to John Thurso regarding thefts on the parliamentary estate. Having lost an iPad and a laptop from his office, Vaz was keen to see if petty crime is a problem on the estate. Thurso’s response appears to confirm that it is. The catalogue of listed crimes highlights wide ranging theft in Westminster over the past few years. There have been 106 reported incidents in the past six years alone, with a definite upward spike in the past year. A record 40 incidents have been reported so far in 2011, increasing rapidly as the year has gone by. Laptops were the most popular item to be stolen – with 31 reported as stolen, 25 in 2011 alone.