» Celebcity with Jo Brooks
Celebcity peers behind the scenes at the Labour Party conference
Mandy’s made up
The annual Labour Party conference tour bus lurched into Brighton last week, bringing the great and the good of politics along for the ride. The five day conference fest ran from Sunday to Thursday with speeches at the Brighton Centre. Most notable was the speech given by the “comeback kid” Peter Mandelson last Monday, including the now famous words “if I can come back, we can come back.”
We caught up with Mandy last Wednesday, as we were asked to assist in a press call he was giving alongside Business Minister Pat McFadden and head of the Unions Derek Simpson. The point of the press call was to raise awareness of the annual increase of the minimum wage and to highlight a campaign backed by the Daily Mirror about fair tipping in restaurants (www.fairtips.org). TABLE restaurant in Jubilee Street, which had already signed up to the campaign, was chosen as the backdrop for the media.
Mandy arrived by 202020 taxi looking perfectly groomed – and with, dare I say it, a bit of makeup as he faced the political journos and TV cameras – and was happy to pose for pictures at the end.
Peter Mandelson with Jo Brooks (left) and Jackie Harrison
Conference Cuts
Bexhill-born comedian Eddie Izzard, back from his record breaking fundraising feat of running 43 marathons in 51 days, spent the whole week at the conference. He cosied up to ex-Labour leader Neil Kinnock and wife Glennis. Eddie was obviously missing his carbs as he was spotted tucking into a large plate of pasta at Donatello restaurant.
Mikele Addis of Donatello and Eddie Izzard
The Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, so called “queen of Twitter”, didn’t let her stay in Brighton interrupt her tweets – she posted several times including: “Had nice walk along Brighton beachfront this morning with Gordon – hope it is not the only fresh out-door sea air we get all week”.
Channel 4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy held a Twitter workshop for MP’s including brothers David and Ed Milliband, at The Grand hotel. Krishnan told me over a drink at Lucky Voice that they reached the top ten most talked about things on Twitter during the session – pop will eat itself!
David Dimbleby hosted BBC1’s topical debate show, Question Time, from St Bartholomew’s Church last Thursday night – audience guests were all given a bottle of wine after taking part, “to watch the show at home with”.
Chris Eubank managed to catch up with Gordon Brown and chat to him about his new gym chain – Chris told me the PM was very enthusiastic about his project so watch this space!
