Hodge your bets

Entertaining though the convulsions of the Conservative party have been, their conclusion this week will bring blessed relief both to the Labour whips and to MPs anxious to join departmental select committees.

Now the Tories have a leader, the "usual channels" can resume work. But they, or at least the associated rumour machine, have not been idle. Assured, by their massive majority, of chairing all the key committees, Labour whips have been sounding out possible chairpeople. The name emerging from the rumour mill for education and employment is that of the Blair-friendly former Islington council leader Margaret Hodge.