Hi-de-hi

Gordon Brown's summer holiday last year lasted, we are led to believe, approximately four hours before being interrupted by an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

This year, the Browns are heading for Southwold, a charming seaside down in north Suffolk. (With Mr Brown's luck, let's hope other holidaymakers there have packed their brollies).

It's about this time of the year - with the silly season on the horizon - that journalists with papers and airtime to fill risk the wrath of politicians by asking about their holiday plans (they should be grateful we're not asking them about Mr Brown's survival prospects).

I wasn't important enough to be among those BBC staff questioned by the deputy Minister for Social Justice and Public Service Delivery year but I'm happy to reveal all in the interests of transparency.

This year, I'll be spending a week en famille among the redcoats of Bognor Regis.

Hi-de-hi campers!