星空传媒

A mute point
The next time he's trying to duck an awkward question in the House of Commons, Tony Blair could perhaps learn a lesson or two from his North-eastern constituents. When a member of the audience from regional development agency One North-east was asked a tricky question at a session in Harrogate last Thursday, his strategy was quite simple.

He played mute. The beauty of it! Just blame your apparent reticence on the loss of the roving microphone and sit down again as quickly as possible.

Iain Duncan Smith and Charles Kennedy wouldn't stand a chance.

Biker woes
Partnering, like all good relationships, takes two to tango, but it can be as easy as falling off a bike, according to Howard Farrand, the boss of Coventry's stock transfer social landlord.

Speaking at a Harrogate policy session, the Whitefriars chief executive attempted to introduce some humour to the proceedings with a joke about a bloke on a motorbike repeatedly falling over onto his side.

The punchline? The poor fellow was all off balance without his sidecar. Just goes to show that partnering remains no laughing matter, no matter how hard you try.

Nuptial blips
Partnering of all kinds seemed to be flavour of the month at this year's event. Outside of the disco, IT provider Comino was also keen to speak about the benefits of pairing up. A keen customer from William Sutton Trust appealed to the men in the audience to look at partnership like a good marriage 鈥� while marriage delivers lots of tangible benefits, such as adding years on your life, it's the intangible benefits that make it worthwhile.

Not everyone was impressed, however. Strangely, not all the female delegates could quite see what was in it for them.

As one housing association managing director told Social animal: "As far as I can see it, marriage is likely to take years off my life 鈥� is this what will happen with Comino?"

Put them behind bars
Lewes council officer Bob Ward deals with antisocial behaviour every day and, if his actions at Harrogate are anything to go by, the man is never off duty. Ward and his head of housing, Michael Keeping, were propping up the late-night bar at their hotel when eagle-eyed Ward spotted a man trying to break into one of the downstairs rooms. Quick as a flash, the housing officer and the barman gave chase. Although they lost the suspect a few hundred yards down the road, the have-a-go-hero's actions meant the police got a good description of the burglar. "He's nothing if not dedicated," acknowledges his boss Keeping. "Although frankly I was more worried about how long the barman would be gone for."