Lots of journalists and broadcasters haranguing me to speak on the record or off the record – all desperate for news on Charles. I am not interested in speaking either on or off the record. Charles will stay.

Today is Christmas card day. I launched a Fair Trade Christmas Card competition for school children in Hornsey & Wood Green. Having picked the winner – to be announced next week – they have finally arrived printed and ready. So – hours upon hours of signing and messages on and off for the next few days … The card looks absolutely lovely – but you all will just have to wait.

Events get in the way of me going over to help colleagues in Barnet in their council by-election today – but they still won without me! Superb result – coming from third place to take a Tory seat on a massive swing. Not much of a Cameron effect there! Particularly pleased as many of the people working on the campaign have come over to help me in the past.

Also – update re Jerry Springer DVD issue. This is what Sainsbury’s have sent me as their version of events: “We sell many DVD titles throughout the year and our range changes from week to week based on what customers want and, of course, sales. In the first week that Jerry Springer – The Opera was released, we sold only 111 copies in all stores nationwide and received a high number of complaints from unhappy customers. In the early part of the second week we sold only 21 more copies and received further complaints. Due to these very poor sales figures this DVD would have been withdrawn at the end of the week, but in view of the complaints we had received we removed it a few days earlier than planned.” I’ve told them that I’m surprised and disappointed that they should have been willing to respond so easily and quickly to complaints from a very extreme organisation – and that the different messages they’ve given the media at different times have certainly left some confusion over what really happened and when.