What does John Reid and a seagull have in common?

Good letter in the guardian today - The commercial world calls somebody who had nine jobs in 10 years (Reid's shock resignation, May 7) a "corporate seagull" - one who flies in for a short period, defecates and flutters off. (John Heelan Bembridge, Isle of Wight) Actually many regard seagulls as rats with wings! They can be very agressive too.

A good month to bury bad news

Martin Bright in the New Stateman highlights loads of 'BAD NEWS' stuff that New Labour wants to bury. He says he's told that John Reid is planning to use the Blair-Brown interregnum to shovel out all the overdue business of a famously dysfunctional department in an attempt to bury a veritable landfill of bad news!

'Children's charities have already been informed that the much-delayed research into a
British version of Megan's Law will be published...

A further flurry of potentially embarrassing research into systems for the supervision of the most dangerous sex offenders is also planned for publication later in the month. ....

A second considerably delayed report, into the costs of the government's ID card scheme, will also be published during this period' and ...

an early-release scheme for prisoners
Published 30 April 2007