Something you may have missed in yesterday's papers: since retiring from the Commons in 2001 in order to have "more time for politics", as he put it, Tony Benn has been busy elsewhere - as an inventor.
Various Sunday titles detail Benn's pride and joy - the "frontbencher", a suitcase that unfolds into a chair. Also on offer is the "backbencher", a rucksack-style version. Cue various jokes about "his safest seat yet".
Various self-built versions of these have aided the weary legs of Benn, now 83, since an illness in 1981; now he is appealing (via the pages of the subscription-only Oldie magazine) for help to manufacture the device.
A great idea from the man who, as technology minister in Harold Wilson's government, oversaw the UK end of the Concorde project? Or a slightly over-engineered variant on the age-old shooting stick? I fear the latter.
