The feral beast: Dacre's knighthood mystery

Those still coming to terms with the non-knighthood for Mail supremo Paul Dacre have been trying to console themselves.

When wailing minions wonder what happened to the Special Relationship between their man and Gordon Brown, those close to the former PM have been muttering defensively about how it isn't that easy for a resigning PM just to hand out honours to chums. While most of us (Dacre included, presumably) thought it was easy enough – the clue is in the name: "Resignation Honours" – Brown's chums have been claiming his hands were tied. If that's the case, who blocked it?

The Sun protects its readers' eyes

Has The Sun decided it needs to protect the nation's virtue? On Wednesday, in Jane Moore's column, the paper carried a revealing picture of pole dancer Sarah Burge, who has had £500,000 worth of "enhancements". But what is curious is that four pages earlier, the paper had a large, prominent picture of "the Human Barbie" from the same session, only this time she's wearing an unconvincing modesty panel. Could they have cleaned up the image? Then, Friday's paper had a picture of a couple on a beach (who had been interrupted by the police) in an amorous, apparently coital, embrace, except that the man was – apparently – wearing a pair of trunks. However, t the trunks were similarly unconvincing and invited suspicion that they had been added artificially. On top of this, the headline was "Are you going to come quietly?"

Squeezed Riddell bows out

Talk about the ravens leaving the Tower. News that Peter Riddell, the man the mandarins talk to, is to take an amicable early retirement from The Times after 19 years will disappoint his many admirers. But they can't say they weren't warned. As I observed in these pages a couple of years ago, the last two editors of The Times were particular admirers of Riddell, but the space allowed to him in the paper has been squeezed in recent times. We wish him well.

Cloudy end to Sky reviewer

After more than 15 years reviewing the weekend papers on Sky's Sunrise programme, gossip columnist John McEntee has been unceremoniously dropped by the channel. Has he a case for claiming redundancy? "That's a thought," says McEntee. "Although I didn't have a contract, they did use me more than 40 times a year. Maybe they should have a farewell collection for me."

High praise for Derry families

Celebrated Italian photojournalist Fulvio Grimaldi has been adding his tuppenceworth about the Saville Inquiry. "In the light of what he did in Iraq and Afghanistan and of the mountain of lies and repression from which he governed his nation, I don't think that we should give the merit of this to Tony Blair," says Grimaldi, a veteran of Londonderry, Baghdad and Beirut. "Certainly Saville and his aides were honest and sincere, in the end, but would they have been had it not been for the constant, relentless, courageous, moving pressure by the victims' families, the entire Derry community and their supporters anywhere?"