War On Terror meets Waterloo

We're not entirely sure it's the sort of revelation that really justifies the Mail On Sunday's excitement - possibly, Sir Alan West, Gordon Brown's anti-terrorist chief, is having an affair. And if he is, it isn't with one of Abba. But he does know Anni-Frid Lyngstad, which is enough for the paper to insist she's been "dragged into" a sex-scandal. Or, as the paper puts it:

The anti-terror chief, the girl from Abba, and his secret love affair

Quite why it's such a scandal that a grown-up is having sex with someone who isn't their wife - regardless of what job he does - is a bit of a mystery. If he was in charge of a sexual probity for the government, maybe. Or if he was having sex with Osama Bin Laden, maybe then.

Beyond the non-story in itself, though, we're not sure how simply being friends with someone constitutes being "dragged in" to a scandal that isn't actually scandalous.