THE handbags are out. Nadine Dorries, the up-and-coming media-conscious darling of the Right, has taken a swipe at Barbara fashion guru Follett. Dorries, the MP for Mid Beds, wants to reduce the limit that women can have an abortion before from 24 weeks

THE handbags are out. Nadine Dorries, the up-and-coming media-conscious darling of the Right, has taken a swipe at Barbara "fashion guru" Follett.

Dorries, the MP for Mid Beds, wants to reduce the limit that women can have an abortion before from 24 weeks to 20 and, according to one of her recent blog entries, Babs doesn't.

Dorries is on a crusade to improve backing for the reduction and her argument is that Labour MPs carrying small majorities should back her plans, or face the possibility of not being re-elected at the next general election.

And it looks as if the young pretender has stolen a march on the old timer. Could this be the beginning of a long drawn-out cat fight?

I'll get the popcorn.

MR Bean, oh, oops, I mean Gordon Brown launched Labour's local election campaign last week in Stevenage and stated that crime in the town was down, which is true. What he failed to add was that detection rates for crimes in Stevenage were also down.

During a 10-month period from April 1, 2007 to the end of February 2008, police had detected 538 fewer crimes than the same 10-month period the previous year.

Funny how he failed to mention that, wasn't it?

THE Apprentice is back. I didn't watch the whole show last Wednesday; I just caught the last five minutes.

Some poor sap was fired and then an announcement was made as the credits rolled that he would be appearing in a BBC 2 follow-up right away.

And that's not all; the young chap was to appear on BBC Breakfast news the following morning.

What is the BBC playing at allowing the first-round loser of a past-its-best television show to get on to two more television shows?

Come on Auntie, pull your socks up.

I SEE the chaos that is the Letchworth Gate junction has still not been resolved. I don't know how much money has been spent on the dreadful scheme, but I've got to say that during my two-and-a-bit years at The Comet it has got to be one of the most disastrous of all council schemes.

The only council cock-up that could match it has to be the (joke) consultation into secondary school places in Stevenage as part of the Building Schools for the Future project. Councils often do worthwhile things, but why is it they always seem to make a hash of the really big projects when big money is at risk?

DO people in the rest of the UK care who wins the London mayoral election?

They should, of course, because London is the economic centre of Great Britain, but I think most people are quite detached from what is going on between Ken, Brian, Boris and Sian.

I think Ken has done a decent job, and has pushed through some unpopular reforms but I don't like the amount of power he has and, with that, the lack of accountability. It's time for a change.

If I lived in London I would vote for Sian Berry, but I can see Boris getting in. Labour is, of course, making the most of some of Boris' past comments including the one in which he wrote about the "watermelon smiles of Black people".

They seem to have forgotten about Ken's own "concentration camp" remarks. I think this election is every bit as exciting as that which is going on for the democratic nomination in the United States between Barack Obama - but why is the coverage of the London election in the television news so lacking?

This has been my final Last Word, it's been a pleasure.