I felt like giving Harriet Harman a big kiss this morning, not an emotion that grips me most days.
Harriet Harman wearing a 'stab vest' in Peckham, south London. Photograph: South London Press
Why so frisky? The coming of spring perhaps? Alas, no. All that happened was that Hattie took to the airwaves to duff up the Daily Mail for what she - rightly - called a ''malicious misrepresentation'' in today's edition.
It was pretty routine stuff, actually. What was unusual for a Labour minister in the Blair-Brown era was the sound of retaliation. Harman can be very annoying, but she is undeniably brave. She went on Radio 4's Today and, in passing, also duffed up John Humphrys, who happens to be an occasional Mail columnist and, who knows, perhaps a regular one in retirement.
The story so far: Harman recently went out on the beat with police officers in her Peckham constituency. When they offered her the same stab-proof Kevlar jackets they were putting on, a new lightweight model by her account, she accepted it as a courtesy, like putting on a hardhat at a building site or a hairnet in a meat factory. The pic went up on her website and was sent to the local press.
Fair enough. But a copy duly made its way to the Kensington lair of the Daily Beast, where it was tricked out as proof that ''privately-educated'' Harman (that bit's true) dared not step out in Peckham in broad daylight without body armour.
Stereotype rent-a-mouths, including the ''flabbergasted'' anonymous copper and David Davis (who should know better), were quoted, along with an OAP.
Jacqui Smith's alleged remarks about the dark streets of Peckham (a quite separate media stitch-up) were duly recalled and Mail readers were reminded that ''under Labour London has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world".
If you believe that, keep buying the Mail.
A more interesting comparison is with Clare Short's appearance on the front pages a few years ago accused of trying to liken herself to the saintly, deceased Princess Di, for donning a safety helmet for a press conference to campaign against land mines.
And who urged the then-minister to wear the helmet? Why, the very snappers who then flogged the ''who does she think she is?'' photos.
We'll get a lot more of this kind of rubbish spreading on to TV if the Tory plan to open the airwaves to TV news channels like Mr Murdoch's Fox TV are allowed to come to pass.
Polly Toynbee has robust thoughts on the subject in today's paper, which people who have never seen Fox News may think exaggerated. It ain't.
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