Speech envy

Nottingham East MP Chris Leslie is managing to speak an awful lot in all sorts of Commons debates.

Leslie is a former minister who used to be MP for Shipley before getting voted out in 2005, only to return as a Nottingham MP in 2010.

In fact he's proved so effective at catching the Speaker's eye – he seems to have stood up to speak in debates every day this week – that some other members are getting jealous.

One particularly frustrated Labour MP suggested to me that if “that Leslie” was called to speak before him one more time, he would "nail the honourable member’s knees to the bench".

And people say Labour isn’t progressive anymore.