Prescott gives up Dorneywood

From BBC Online

Deputy Prime Minster John Prescott has announced he is to give up his grace-and-favour home, Dorneywood.

Mr Prescott lost his department but kept his £133,000-a-year Cabinet salary and two grace-and-favour homes after he admitted an affair with a secretary.

He said he had now taken a “personal decision” to give up Dorneywood because the public controversy over it was “getting in the way of doing my job”…

He’s doomed. Now for the really interesting question: who will get Dorneywood now? It used to be the country house allocated to the Foreign Secretary, but Margaret Beckett prefers to stay in her caravan when she goes to the country. So the hot money is on Jack Straw. He deserves a consolation prize, if only for saying that the idea of invading Iran was barmy.