It seems the steady stream of government criticism has begun, or at least the Guardian seems to have finally got its tribalists into the paper. First, Polly Toynbee’s considered if slightly predictable piece speaking up for cuts in Housing Benefit. Worth noting perhaps only because the Guardian’s coverage of evil Tory cuts has been slightly muted so far, and Toynbee, alongside George Monbiot, seemed to have been deployed in the same week to get stuck in.

Monbiot’s topic is the abolition of the Foods Standards Agency, and the inevitable exploitation of everyone by big business that will follow. Personally, despite my cynical tone and his hyperbole, I agree with him, but Monbiot’s suggestions (if any) are rarely designed for policy consideration, more gentle therapy for the sort of Guardian reader so hated by the Mail.

Finally, something way off topic, and once again ripped from the Guardian (sorry), an article on the art of slow reading, or, how not to read blogs like these. Despite the author’s prediction that I wouldn’t read till the end of the article, I did, and was glad.

And some video of Lord Mandelson on This Morning (watch from 10.00 onwards). As always, indisputably squirm inducing, and always able to make the interviewer’s interruption fail to sting. He has faced harder opponents than Holly Willoughby, but still.  And so nearly a great visual plug for one of Open Road’s clients.

So Usher has a new album, ‘the A-team’ are back in cinemas and Gordon Ramsey… Anyway, they have their reasons for exposure, and it is indeed highly exposed, so well done to whichever advertising and PR team picked this one up - but there must be some serious money behind it too.

I’m not one to regualrly sympathise with the Tax Payers’ Alliance, and I supopse i think I quite like the ads, but maybe the EU’s money could be better diverted?

Second, the suspiciously over-edited ‘Diary of a Civil Servant’ that appeared in last Sunday’s Observer. Although this civil servant seems to be either the most unimaginative prosodist since Andy Burnham, or wrote something a bit crap and the Observer made it up, it does contain a good recommendation about conferences.

Finally, the revelation of a Open Road crush that will not suprise many sane people, Benedict Brogan’s blog dedicated to swoon-when-you-read-his-CV new Tory MP Rory Stewart’s maiden speech. Brad Pitt has apparently optioned the film rights to his life (as Orlando Bloom), and if you google him, second and fourth suggestion are ‘married’ and girlfriend’. He doesn’t have one, so go for it.

With the Conservative leadership seeming just about stable for the moment, Paul Waugh has to think long-term about a possible adversary. A very thorough breakdown of the choices facing BoJo, and his chances at further fame.

Back in the present, the Guardian’s Michael White writes on why any kind of leadership challenge is indeed a long way off, with David Cameron seeming to rise above the Budget difficulties at the expense of George Osborne and Nick Clegg.

And finally, on behalf of Nick Clegg’s increasing concerns about being put into a punch bag, this Coffee House piece on the senior figures outside the coalition who might casue future trouble. Simon Hughes certainly seems to have things cooking, as David Laws has found.

First, a piece from recent Open Road collaborator Paul Waugh that might just run and run. And even if there’s really not that much in it, its potential juicyness will ensure we hear about it anyway.

Another less sexy issue for the leadership, at least if Harriet Harman’s influence remains at all, is that of diversity. This month’s Prospect issue tackles the reasoning behind much of the media’s muttered dissent over the Cabinet’s lack of equal representation.

And finally, this less taxing collection of party cliches and Evening Standard style political analysis, also in Prsopect, on ‘Coaltion Chic.’ Its not clever, and probably written in half an hour, but I read it all anyway precisely for those reasons.