No carbon footprint worries

Eco-watchers are keeping a keen eye on the holiday locations of choice for Cabinet ministers. Where will Ruth Kelly, our carbon-conscious Transport Secretary, plant her towels? “I’m going to Singapore with the kids to visit family and island-hop,” she said at her departmental drinks. Sounds an awfully long-haul flight to us. What about the whole green thing? “I’m offsetting it,” she says. The experience has proved a voyage of discovery. “Hey, you get a certificate,” she enthuses. “You just go on the internet.”

The PM is, of course, holidaying in the Suffolk town of Southwold. Rumours suggest he has identified Shadingfield Hall, an elegant country house, for a reunion of the Brown clan. It is owned by Dave Hogan, a celebrity photographer, whose portraits of David Beckham and Madonna grace the walls. Not the easiest venue to relax in, perhaps.

Dignitaries at the launch of the British Museum’s Hadrian exhibition were treated to an address in Latin from Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. The new administrator of Londinium was less fluent, however, when People invited him to compare his own leadership skills with those of the great Roman Emperor. “I, er, greatly admire the, er, speed with which he executed, er . . .” The Jews? “His infrastructure projects.” Phew.

The website for the Orwell Prize, awarded for political writing, is to mark the 70th anniversary of the release of George Orwell’s diaries by running them as a blog. It begins with Orwell’s first entry in 1938. We look forward to the prophetic writer’s teasing entry of August 29, 1939: “Miscellaneous: It appears from reliable private information that Sir O. Mosley is a masochist of the extreme type in his sexual life.” DJs’ duel in battle for listeners

The Face: Chris Tarrant

Once the undisputed king of London breakfast radio, the battlelines are drawn once again tomorrow when Chris Tarrant, 61, the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? host, returns in an on-air radio duel against Jonathan Ross, of Radio 2.

The former Tiswas presenter’s personal life was revealed when his ex-wife Ingrid received £12.5 million in a bitter divorce, in which she claimed that the passionate angler came to bed smelling of fish. Four years after quitting Capital FM, Nissan has offered him a £1 million deal for a syndicated show on GMG Radio. “I’ve been up against Wogan and Simon Mayo, Chris Evans . . . ,” the veteran reminds Ross.

Postscript

Simmering discontent with the American accents employed by the star cast in Fat Pig, Neil LaBute’s West End play about body image, came to a head on Wednesday. “Why not change the setting to England?” one theatregoer asked the cast after the curtain calls. “The dialogue rhythms and the scenario don’t translate,” said the lead, Robert Webb. The audience took a vote and by 80 per cent approved a relocation to Blighty. “Well, it’s not what Neil LaBute wrote,” harrumphed Webb.

Duran Duran are debating whether to endorse Barack Obama. “I put it to the rest of the boys, ‘Would anyone mind if I wore an Obama shirt for the encore tonight?’ ” blogs bassist John Taylor. “ Nick (Rhodes, keyboardist) replied, ‘Not if you don’t mind potentially alienating 50 per cent of the audience!’” Taylor won this democratic battle. “The audience went nuts,” he says. The gig was on Obama’s home turf of Illinois. Wait till the Wild Boys get to Arizona.

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