IF EVER a political event needed a warm-up man to instil even a scintilla of animation in the audience it was at yesterday’s launch of the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto in central London.

'Strictly Come Dancing' performer Anton du Beke said tonight he was “mortified” after making a racist remark to dance partner Laila Rouass.

Anger has been expressed at the revelation that British under-18s were deployed in Iraq.

The mother of a Belfast teenager killed by two Scots Guards now serving in Iraq was today hoping to confront their former commanding officer about the decision to allow them back into the British army.

THE spin doctors cannot spin themselves out of this one. Nor is there any way the figures can be massaged to cushion the massive body blows the Liberal Democrats have inflicted on Tony Blair and Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith in the Brent East by-election.