Humphrey and Cherie show their mutual ... affection in this 1997 photograph. Fiona Hanson/PA
Never mind the attorney general's legal advice on the Iraq war - the Freedom of Information Act finally found its raison d'être today when the Daily Telegraph used to request the full dossier on Humphrey, the Downing Street cat.
The file is one-and-a-half inches thick, according to the paper, and follows the stray moggie's entire career, from his debut appearance at Number 10 in 1989 in the dying days of the Thatcher era, to his (allegedly) enforced retirement with the arrival of cat-phobic Cherie Blair at Number 10 in 1997.
Included in the bulging dossier is a Q&A for press officers on Humphrey's running costs (about £100 a year), favourite foods (apparently Whiskas - although a perceptive press officer scribbles "no comment" on this passage to as not to be seen to be favouring one particular manufacturer) to "official title" (none - although reports that he was christened after the Sir Humphrey character in Yes Minister are intriguingly not denied.)
Best of all is a tongue-in-cheek refusal of an interview request: "Unfortunately as a civil servant Humphrey is bound by civil service rules, and cannot talk to the press about his position."
Humphrey's 15 minutes of fame finally came to an end with the dawn of New Labour in Downing Street - and, some malicious tongues suggested, Mrs Blair's aversion to cats - and the most photographed stray moggie in Britain was pensioned off to the home of a Downing Street adviser.
