Gritty Telly

I was interviewed by BBC1's "The Politics Show" on Saturday at the Progress conference - basically about whether Labour should move to the left. I think you can guess what I said.

Bloody typically, the Trotskyites at Wood Lane edited the programme so that I didn't exactly appear in the best possible light. I was squeezed in just after an interview with Queen Harriet and just before John Sopel read out a fictitious email containing some snidey comments about Her Majesty waffling and evading questions. And to say that my body is almost three and a half thousand years old is a slight exaggeration. I only died 3,330 years ago.

To make things worse, they played some trick with the recording so it sounded as if I referred to marginal seats in such places as North Kent, Harlow and Crawley as "gritty". I'm sure this was designed to cause offence where none was intended, so for the record I'd just like to say that I actually referred to them as "shitty".

If, like me, you missed my magnificent moment of TV history because you had better ways to spend your Sunday lunchtime, it's online below. Alternatively, why not take up John Sopel's suggestion and try your hand at The Politics Show's Political Treachery Quiz. I'll give you a clue. There's no such thing as "a Labour traitor". That would assume that there was some principled position to betray.