Commons confidential: who’s laughing now?

PHOTOGRAPHS of a giggling David Cameron and George Osborne are Ed Miliband’s secret weapon. The shots of the Laurel and Hardy of the Con-Dem coalition laughing their heads off in the House

of Commons trigger the strongest anti-Tory reaction when Labour hands round the snaps in focus groups. Government is viewed as a serious business and the photos reinforce the image of Dave

the Dandy and Boy George as a couple of out-of-touch Bullingdon toffs. Labour is discussing how to exploit this. Deckchair Dave’s rave in Ibiza post-Woolwich will have heightened the PM’s

vulnerability to suggestions that he’s more interested in spare time than in work time. TORY CHATTER is growing that Cameron may recycle Andrew Mitchell. The former chief whip, forced to

resign after an altercation with a Downing Street police officer, has retained his old office on a cabinet corridor behind the Speaker’s Chair. The failure to eject Mitchell is viewed as

evidence that Cameron has a guilty conscience and might give him a job, should he be absolved of Plebgate. BAD NEWS for Ivan Lewis: Lembit Öpik was mistaken for the shadow international

development secretary. I overheard a Labour MP’s former researcher say, “Oh, there’s Ivan Lewis,” in the Strangers’ Bar. Alas, it was a false spotting. Your correspondent looked up to see

the Libido Democrat, not the Labourite, barging through the door. There is an uncanny physical resemblance, but if the pair were separated at birth they’ve gone different ways. Öpik the

Cheeky Boy is an attention-grabber, while Lewis just gets on with the job. TO CARDIFF BAY for a Welsh Assembly seminar on the “democratic deficit”, otherwise known as a whinge about the

media. Assembly members feel neglected, especially by British national papers. They’re wrong if they believe extra column inches automatically lead to voters in polling booths. Turnout in

the 2011 assembly elections, at 42 per cent, was higher than the 38 per cent for the exhaustively covered Ken v Boris battle for London. The turnout among 60 AMs, by the way, was 1.67 per

cent, with only the Tory David Melding, the deputy presiding officer, attending the morning bout. RACHEL REEVES, the shadow Treasury minister, wins an award for being Labour’s best

networker. Hers was the first handwritten note of congratulations received by a wannabe Labour MEP. Good manners and clever politics, should Reeves ever wish to run for the party leadership.

MALE SNAPPERS in need of equality education shouted, “Squeeze up, girls,” when Harriet Harman posed for a photograph with Labour women outside the Commons. The thin smile on Sister

Harriet’s face said she’d heard it all before but wasn’t going to bite. _Kevin Maguire is the associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror_