Tony Blair took the learned societies by surprise this week when he arrived unannounced at their parliamentary meeting about science and the G8. An official for the Royal Society of Chemistry, which organised the meeting, admitted: "I had no idea he was coming. And my shorthand wasn't good enough to get what he was saying down."
The No 10 press office couldn't help either. An official said:
"He made a speech? No, I don't think he did." No need to panic, though, because while the Prime Minister apparently made the predictable pledge to keep supporting science, delegates agreed that there was "no new line or anything newsworthy at all". Did Mr Blair wander into the wrong room by mistake?