Ever-so flexible friend

Alan Howarth is a mere beginner in the party flexibility stakes compared to alumnus to be proud of No 99.

Old fans of junior minister John Horam can hardly have been surprised that he was the flashpoint of the Conservative Party's current tribulations over candidates with non-approved views on the Euro. Having gone through two parties - Labour and the Social Democrats - he is now helping to wreck a third. Looks like Mr Horam, a graduate of St Catherine's College, Oxford, could soon be yet another Tory MP receiving great wodges of cash in brown paper envelopes. Not from the Al-Fayeds, but Messrs Blair, Ashworth, Goldsmith, Sked, etc offering large amounts to make sure that he doesn't join them next.