It is often said that “the truth is the first casualty of war” and there is no doubt that the phoney political war is over and the General Election campaign is well under way. Not unreasonably, the Prime Minister called upon both sides in the long-running British Airways dispute to recommence negotiations, resolve their differences and avoid a disruptive strike. This prompted the Tory attack machine to go into overdrive.

Reading West MP Martin Salter held a Commons debate in Westminster Hall yesterday to highlight the plight of abused Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) who are brought to Britain and treated, in the words of Mr Salter, as “modern slaves.”

Labour’s parliamentary spokesman for angling Reading West MP Martin Salter, ended the 2009/10 river season on a high note with a lovely six fish bag of big Kennet chub from the river near Newbury. Martin, who steps down as an MP at the forthcoming general election in order to spend more time on the water, fished a far bank glide to tempt his catch which included two chub over 5lb with the biggest weighing in at 5lb 11oz. He fished a two swan crystal waggler on 4lb Korum real line to a 0.13 mm hook link and a size 18 hook carrying two red maggots. Later on in the session he laid on with a lobworm under the near bank to tempt a 2lb+ perch.

Ever since Bill Clinton and Tony Blair came up with the genius solution to the Left’s electoral problems - by banging the word “new” in the title - politicians of all parties have fallen over themselves to be the first to prove that they are similarly ahead of the curve and the inheritors of all that is cool and hip with the kids.

In his final speech to Reading Girls School as Labour Member of Parliament for Reading West, Martin Salter encouraged the students to aim high and to “strive for excellence not perfection”. Mr Salter was speaking on Tuesday 16th March at a school assembly to an audience of year 10 and 11 students plus a delegation of teaching staff on his role as an MP, the role of Parliament and the importance of education in achieving life goals and targets.

Martin Salter, Member of Parliament for Reading West, today joined gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir John Madejski at the John Madejski Academy to launch the ‘Get on Track’ initiative in Reading. The project, headed by the double Olympic champion, will allow young unemployed people in Reading to enhance their chances of obtaining employment, developing life skills and fulfilling their sporting potential. Local employers and organisations present at the launch were asked to pledge support for young people and for the project. Mr Salter offered to organise announced he would be running a Communications Workshop to help youngsters learn how to get their message across.

According to James Delingpole of this parish, the Young Briton Foundation’s Donal Blaney is a “splendid, funny and ideologically sound” fellow. Far be it from me to criticise a writer from the same stable, but I find Mr Blaney’s habit of referring to the American President as “Barack Hussein Obama” or “the Kenyan-American” president slightly disconcerting in a young man apparently of the “new” Conservative Party. Yes, the leader of the free world’s black. We know. Now get over it, white boys.

Alexander Dumas wrote that every man has his price. Mine is probably enough for a new camper van, some replacement fishing tackle, and an occasional weekend off work. But the world-famous publicist to underwear models and generally aggrieved, Max Clifford, is an altogether wilier bird and now and even richer one.

A little bit of history was made in Parliament this week, when when both the Government and the Opposition front benches in the Commons were defeated by a large margin by backbench MPs of all parties determined to wrest control over Commons business from the whips. The House was voting on the recommendations of the Wright Committee on Parliamentary reform, of which I was member. On the day of the big vote my job was to organise MPs to turn up and vote through a full package of reforms which would give MPs the ability to directly elect both the chairs and the members (by party) of the Select Committees of the House of Commons, and establish a Backbench Business Committee to give the Commons control over all non-Government business. All the key reforms went through in spite of the poorly organised opposition from the traditionalists in all parties. A start has been made in handing power back to the Chamber of the House of Commons which can only help to begin to restore trust in our political system.

I suppose, given that the only proper job David Cameron had before entering Parliament - apart from mucking out the family stable - was in marketing, it should not come as too much of a surprise to learn that the top priority for the new Conservative leader was to “de-contaminate” the Tory brand. God knows, it needed it after the Poll Tax, Black Wednesday, Cash for Questions, Neil Hamilton, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken, William Hague (and the baseball cap), IDS (before he discovered socialism), the dark night of Michael Howard and Cameron’s own brilliant wheeze to assist the 2005 election defeat, namely, charging NHS patients half the cost of hospital operations.