The spy who never was
Mike Hancock tells me that the baseless accusation against him was the result of an over enthusiastic cross examination of a group of students returning to this country. There was excitement that a woman with a Russian name was working for an MP. I have been approached by three journalists on this non-story. None have a shred of evidence that tat there is any link with the Russian spy network. It's a fashionable story after the discovery of Russian spies in the USA. That was unexpected but spies among the LibDems? Pull the other one.
Blair baffled
One story that Tony Blair refused to believe was that Welsh was once spoken in Edinburgh. It was probably Old Welsh but Wales’ most historic literary treasures he Llyfr Aneurin (Book of Aneurin), a 13th-century text, records the events of AD 600. it is the story of a battle launched from Scotland that took place in Yorkshire.
Rhodri Morgan mentioned this in an introduction to a speech by Tony at a meeting in Cardiff Library. Blair took some convincing that Welsh was so widely spoken before the Angles swept the Celts out of their home areas. The Book of Aneurin has been held in storage at the city’s Central Library, but the local authority does not have the resources to keep the delicate manuscript on display. It will in future be housed in the National Library of Wales.