Stomach trouble

The silver-tongued Andrew Neil is normally so well-researched and such a hit with the ladies that it is difficult to imagine how he came to make such a calamitous slip today when interviewing Watford MP Claire Ward on the Daily Politics programme on BBC2. During a segment on flexible working mothers, and safe in the knowledge that Ward was on maternity leave, Neil turned to the Labour MP and asked in his most paternal voice: "When is the baby due?" Ward replied patting her stomach: "Oh dear, that's a bit of a problem, the baby has been born - the baby's three months old." Neil barely skipped a beat. "I'm sorry, I thought that you had just become pregnant." See for yourself here, nine and a half minutes in.