Guto and Madge

One of my Facebook friends put it this way: "In all the excitement about the All Wales Convention I'd almost forgotten about the Queen's Speech."

Not everyone covering politics fell victim to the same amnesia, but those who live on the political treadmill can occasionally miss the odd gem that fails to make the news bulletins.

So I've only just caught up with mixed news for my former BBC colleague Guto Harri, now chief spin doctor for Mayor of London Boris Johnson. As compensation for missing out on the Western Mail's list of 50 sexiest men in Wales, Guto has retained his position in the Evening Standard's list of London's 1000 most influential people.

The Standard says Guto is "Well-liked by his staff due to his ability to sweet-talk and get in a round of drinks, but not afraid to admonish anyone failing to toe the party line. Thought to have turned to Boris after a failed attempt to land the spin doctor job at Number 10. Must tread careful line in tense dealings with Cameroons."

The citation may not win top marks for 100 per cent accuracy, but in Guto's job it's probably better to be on it than off it.

The Mayor's office is also setting new standards for transparency for devolved governments with its register of gifts and hospitality. You can read where Guto has been breaking bread, and with whom, here, along with a list of others whose entertainment he has enjoyed in the line of duty.

Funny that, I never had him down as a Madonna fan.

Ex-TV star snapped with mystery blond

Alternatively, my former BBC colleague turned mayoral spin doctor may have been doing his bit for the National Year of Reading by presenting his boss with one of his favourite books about Wales. Hopefully there's a picture of Clwyd South in it to remind Boris of what might have been....

Preparing for government?

Another day, another crisis for Gordon Brown. The Tories' win in Crewe and Nantwich is the party's first by-election win from Labour since 1978.

The 17.6 per cent swing would give David Cameron a majority of more than 100 seats at Westminster.

A BBC producer asked me to calculate how many seats Labour would lose in Wales on that swing. If you're a Labour MP you may want to look away now.

Rough back-of-envelope calculations suggest the loss of 13 of the 29 Labour seats - from the more predictable Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff North to the rather less likely Cardiff South and Penarth and Cardiff West via Delyn and Newport West.

Talk of 13 losses may be fantasy politics. No-one expects a by-election size swing at the general election, but all but one of those six seats have been held by the Tories since 1979. There will be some anxious Labour backbenchers today.

They may draw comfort from the clumsy nature of Labour's campaign in Crewe, not just the "toffs" stuff but also the over-emphasis on their candidate as the daughter of Gwyneth Dunwoody. Tamsin Dunwoody may be a Dunwoody but she lives in Pembrokeshire, had few links to Crewe and playing the continuity card doesn't work when "time for a change" is in the air.

What would a Conservative government be like? London mayor Boris Johnson, the nearest we have to one at the moment, has been honouring his election pledge to publish the details and salaries of his senior advisors.

His chief spin doctor, my former BBC colleague Guto Harri, will be paid £124,364, twice the salary of a backbench MP.

That said, Guto will be appearing at the Hay Festival this week for the usual fee on offer - a white rose.