Leading Article: Brew Labour's millennium beer tent

MY GOODNESS! Just in case all you Brew XI drinkers, Ruddlers and Tetley bittermen out there were worrying, we can now confirm that you will indeed be able to get a drink at the Millennium Dome. What's more, you'll be offered a wide range of real ales. This is extremely refreshing news, and, we suspect, will work wonders for the popularity of the Dome project.

It has long been the chant of his bitterest critics that Peter "it's my round" Mandelson, the minister responsible for the project, couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery. Well, he is the last person to be found crying into his beer and he has boldly decided to restore a bit of London pride. The "Inn at the Dome" will be a showcase for British brewing and will feature a new ale, called Mandy's Revenge. Don't drink too much of this, though, or you will soon find the room, and perhaps much else, spinning around you. Mind you, it might be that bit easier to find tranquillity in the Dreamscape exhibition or use the Body Zone in order, as the organisers say, to "explore the dramatic impact of lifestyle choices on the way our bodies behave and perform".

All in all it is a shrewd move by the Minister Without Portfolio But With A Drink In His Hand. He has an opportunity to show how "Brew Labour" can refresh the parts of the body politic that other parties cannot reach. Traditionally the brewers have been the allies of the Conservative Party. Mr Mandelson might be tempting them into New Labour's "big tent" through the organisation of this grandiose beer tent. In any case we will soon be enjoying probably the best booze-up in the world.