JACK Straw deftly avoided a confrontation with the Speaker when he took Foreign Office Questions on Tuesday.

After his former Junior Minister Denis McShane asked a lengthy and rambling question suggesting the United States offered diplomatic recognition to Iran, Speaker Michael Martin told the Blackburn MP pointedly: "I hope that the Foreign Secretary will be more brief than the questioner."

Ever the astute Parliamentarian (and perhaps aware that his earlier replies had been rather long-winded) Mr Straw said commendably briefly: "I think that is a matter for the United States, Mr Speaker."

RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans is impressed by the political savvy of the Stonyhurst College Politics Group.

Every time he speaks, he is given a bottle of wine.

But he revealed: "So sensitive are they to my Euro sceptic views that they always make sure it comes from outside the European Union.

"It's normally Australian, but last time it was a Californian red."

Mr Evans, who addresses the sixth formers once a term, does admit, however, to swallowing his principles every so often for a chilled glass of champagne.

AS Pendle MP Gordon Prentice accused Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Questions of effectively selling knighthoods and peerages to rich businessmen who sponsor the government's City Academies, one of his colleagues shouted: "There goes your knighthood."

But Mr Prentice, one of the most prominent Labour back bench thorns in his leader's side, was not expecting to get a gong in the first place.

LORD Tony Greaves spent a couple of days this week campaigning for the Liberal Democrats in the Dunfermline by-election. But he had to head back to East Lancashire yesterday before the result to go to the Colne and District Area Council, which he described as "the highlight of my life".