Just fresh out of a meeting with David Miliband - and inevitably, I asked him about Lord Mandelson and that "cul-de-sac" attack on younger brother and rival leadership candidate Ed.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary made it plainly clear that is cutting Mandelson adrift. Rival candidate Diane Abbott had claimed his campaign could be damaged by suggestions figures from Mr Blair's inner circle like Lord Mandelson were "behind him pulling the strings".

Usually I use cheap products by Simple or Boots to take mascara off at the end of the day. I can't see the point of spending a lot on something that is to be wiped on and off. So long as it is gentle, non-drying and does the job, that is fine by me. I chucked a bottle of Lacura Bi-Phase Eye Make Up Remover into the trolley while shopping at Aldi the other day. At 2.49 a pop, it's pretty good: effective, conditioning, yet not too oily.

High-minded Lib Dems are pushing for tougher regulation of Whitehall mandarins switching to private firms that supply the Government.

A motion will be debated by the party's conference in a few weeks time, saying the MPs expenses is nothing in terms of conflict of interests.

"The bigger problems of conflicts of interests and pursuit of private gain in Government amongst public servants has been neglected, despite the multi-billion pound sums involved in state sector transactions and procurement," says the motion.

In particular, it expresses concern about civil servants leaving their posts to take up "highly rewarded roles" with Government suppliers or organisations that have benefitted from decisions taken by public servants.

Err, but I don't know if the motion's supporters have had a flick through the Lib Dem fringe events programme.

Step forward a certain Sir Kevin Tebbitt, chairman of Finmeccanica UK, who is speaking at a event about the defence review sponsored by the defence industry. He used to run the Ministry of Defence (MoD)....

Also on the panel is Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey. I wonder if his Lib Dem colleagues will be concerned about this type of lobbying?

What could have been one of those banana skin ties - thankfully didn't turn out that way as a much changed Newcastle side beat league 2 minnows Accrington Stanley.

Regional political editors yesterday had a briefing with David Miliband. I asked him about whether people should give money to the appeal to help Pakistanis affected by flooding with lots of negative messages about what might happen to any money.

The Labour leadership front-runner's message was unequivocal - yes, was the answer. He said Pakistan needed the UK's support with 20m people affected by flooding.

Mr Miliband, MP for South Shields, added donations made to the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the umbrella organisation for 13 UK aid charities, would be well spent.

I think that headline sums it up nicely doesn't it?

I know this place is usually reserved for football talk, but for one day and one day only I am going to give you my experience of Southern California's finest....Blink 182 in Glasgow on Tuesday night.

MY holiday is over and it's back to work. I'm writing this blog on my new ipad 33,000 feet in the sky flying over North America.

The thing about staying overnight in a swish hotel is that, when you come home, your own set up seems a little grubby by comparison. Or a lot, in my case. I stayed at Hotel Du Vin in Newcastle on Sunday and by Monday night found myself surveying the mess in my own bathroom in a new harsher light. Back to reality meant back to standing on plastic pirate play figures, an overflowing laundry basket, a trail of sand on the floor and sink, little coloured waterbombs dotted everywhere, a temperamental shower that may or may not get hot depending on how it feels that particular day, and a shower curtain positioned too close to the shower so that it sticks to you when you get in.

And that was the night that was...our return to the Sky League resulted in a 3-0 defeat to the Essex Reds.