At one with the proles

Charles Kennedy will swap Parliament Square for Albert Square in a special Christmas edition of the BBC1 soap EastEnders, it was announced yesterday.

The inevitable Sarah Teather ("Britain's youngest MP") was reeled out to give the jive-o yoof perspective, because the Lib Dems are hip to the hop, dig?

Sarah Teather, the party's MP for Brent East, said her leader's part in EastEnders showed he was versatile. "I really think it's long overdue. We've not had a redhead in EastEnders since Bianca left, and Coronation Street has got two," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

GrrrrrrrRRRRRRR.