Diary

· The jihad of Sunday Times media writer Jonathan Miller against the infidel BBC licence fee has now entered it's 10th week, and we begin to wonder whether our appetite is finally sated. For those of you who have managed to avoid, it was on September 29 that Jonathan announced his refusal to pay the £112 fee, pledging to adduce the Human Rights Act in his defence, on the grounds that it impedes his right freely to receive or impart information. Whether his heroic stand has any happy commercial implications for rival broadcasters - the owner, for instance, of Sky TV - who shall say? All we know is that letter columns and radio shows have been full of little else, and we've had enough. So Marina Hyde rings the TV Licensing press office to ask if we can't just pay Jonathan's licence for him? "Erm..." says Vanessa Wood, "I'm afraid I can't discuss individual cases. You need to put that in writing then I can take it to the BBC for a response." Right. Well, £112 seems a bargain to end the idiocy, don't you think? "I'll get back to you on that," she chuckles. Please do. But know this. By hook or by crook, we're paying that bloody licence fee, if we have to force feed you the money in freshly minted pound coins.

· I am shocked to pieces by a line in Andrew Rawnsley's ever splendid Observer column. Writing about how the current hyper-feuding between Gordon and Mr Tony is damaging prospect of Britain adopting the single currency, Rawno mentions that focus group results delivered in recent months by Philip Gould show that a referendum would be lost. And yet last week, you may recall, Downing Street assured Marina that Mr T has seen no focus group research since the election. Someone's confused, but who? More tomorrow.

· Some good news for the Blairs as they seek damage limitation over their purchase of two flats in Bristol. Whatever the final settlement with the firefighters, it won't cost them a bean in extra tax. Sylvia Parsons, for many years a councillor in Nottingham, points out that students do not pay council tax at all, while owners who rent their houses out to students are not deemed to be businesses and are not charged business rates. So effectively Euan's fire cover will be free. Hurrah.

· Helmets aloft to my friend Glen Smyth of the police federation on his latest pronouncement. Upon the collapse of the Harold Brown trial, Glen describes claims that the two-year police investigation wasn't good enough as "palpable nonsense". Magnificent, and a live runner for a new category - Most Intelligent Thing Glen Smyth Said - in the forthcoming Diary annual awards.

· While Frederick Forsyth enjoys a little shooting up country, let's enjoy a little of him. "Jack Straw trashes the ex-Empire," begins his Thought of the Week. "Brutal wellspring of all problems, etc. So how come when you travel the Commonwealth you meet such warmth, rather than enmity?" How come indeed? "And how come the elderly, who remember the Empire, are always the most nostalgic? Straw," Freddie concludes, "should grow up."

· Diary pundit Steptoe has completed his latest show of betting on Angus Deayton's HIGNFY successor. Since news broke that Charles Kennedy will be given a trial presenter's slot, Angus Deayton has been the subject of steady support, and is now clear 7-2 favourite. Paul Merton, William Rees-Mogg and Nick Hancock are 5-1, with Daisy Donovan, Ray Allen, Lord Charles and Andrew Marr at 11-2. Boris the Jackal Johnson MP is a 7-1 chance, while bunched on nines are John Sargeant, Jeremy Vine, morose Canadian songster Leonard Cohen and Caroline Quentin. The big market mover is Sooty's sidekick Sweep, in from 25-1 to 14s after the professional money from Singapore flooded in. It's 16-1 bar those. Andrew Neil is rock steady at a tempting 750,000-1.