Noel: The uninvited guest

For years now, Noel Gallagher has defended his rush to have drinks with the Prime Minister as having been what anyone would do if they were invited by Blair:

Gallagher subsequently said that 'when the fookin' Prime Minister [sends you an invite], fookin' 'ell, you've got to go."

Hmm. Fair enough, perhaps.

Only now, though, it turns out that the fookin' Prime Minister didn't fookin invite him at all. We have Alistair Campbell's diaries to thank for this:

"TB was worried that Noel Gallagher was coming to the reception tomorrow. He said he had no idea he had been invited," wrote Campbell. "TB felt he was bound to do something crazy. I spoke to Alan McGee and said can we be assured he would behave.

"Alan said he would make sure he did. He said if we had invited Liam, it might have been different.

"Gallagher arrived with his wife Meg, McGee and his girlfriend. Cherie met them and took them upstairs to see Kathryn and Nicky, who was pretty gobsmacked when Gallagher walked in.

"He said he thought Number 10 was 'tops', said he couldn't believe that there was an ironing board in there."

So, rather than a request from the PM's office, Noel got an invitation Blair wouldn't even have sent. It doesn't make up for Hutton, but at least this makes us like Ali a little bit more.

But blimey, how would you cope with the smoking ban at a party like that now, eh? How... how...