Mr Hague should stick to what he does best - cracking silly

Mr Hague should stick to what he does best - cracking silly jokes. And leave political leadership to people who have a backbone and integrity.Evening StandardFLATTERY OLD-FASHIONED flattery And generosity, ubiquity, availability, hospitality. Timeo Jeffrey et dona ferentum will no doubt be engraved upon the desks of future Conservative leaders Too late. People like Archer will always be able to worm their way into political camps, because British political leaders are chronically short of cash to pay people to do party jobs for them. That is why again and again they enlist the services of available scoundrels.The SpectatorWHEN WILL it all end, this dreadful pageant of Tory sleaze? One could be forgiven for wondering if the entire Tory party, all the great names of the last two decades, will face some kind of humiliation by the News of the World.

Perhaps they will all be led to the cells, and Central Office will be mortgaged to pay the bills of libel lawyers. Two and a half years after the election, the Tories have never seemed so far from power, and the Tory case to govern has seldom been delivered with so little conviction and so little impact on the electorate (Boris Johnson). ADVENT: "THE coming". It surprises me, sometimes, that the period of Advent, which starts tomorrow, is billed as the approach of the Christmas festivities. But then it doesn't surprise me, because the approach of Christ, which is what the season is really about, is a completely different and frightening prospect. The Church knows what sort of preparation the coming of Christ requires: the traditional themes for the four Sundays in Advent begin tomorrow with death, and go downhill from there.

The faithful remnant that attends evensong on dark wintry nights - while you settle down in front of the television - is wrestling with the demons of despair and destruction. To avoid the sentimentality of the manger story in the First Coming, the Church tends to work backwards. It starts with the Second Coming, when, according to the texts, Christ will return and start the final credits rolling. It is awkward, but a bit of a relief, to find out that there is no known timetable for the end of the world. Members of the early Church expected it in their lifetime but were a little out (and a little put out).