This is a first.

Thanks to Daily Telegraph. By accident the paper did me a favour. They constantly seek negative stories about MPs. What dirt did they expect to find with their Freedom of Information request for the most popular book in the Commons Library?

Did they hope it would be ‘50 Shades of Grey’, ‘The joy of duckhouses’ or ‘Moat care for beginners’? It was a disappointment to the muckrakers to hear that my improving tract “How to be MP” is top borrowed book.

Within a week it sold out and was reprinted. Bad for the Telegraph. Great for the charities that receive the book’s royalties.

Old friend Tory MP Andrew Robathan urged me three years ago to get my ‘hips done’. ‘I was in agony, now I’m fine,’ he said. I resisted his kind advice.

It’s now ended unhappily. He needs two new operations. He is suing De Puy, makers of the metal joints that were recalled in 2010.

’What makes me angry, ‘ Andrew said ‘is that there were warnings about this component a year before I had my operations’.

About 10,000 UK people in the UK have these hips. The company will pay for new operations. But no compensation for anxiety and pain.

Consumers are protected from faulty fridges or televisions. But devices that are put in our bodies are poorly regulated. I raised this is parliament in 1993. Still no action. Galling.

David Miliband is a different politician. He acts on evidence and reason. Most are motivated by perception, prejudice and pressure.

He won me over at a meeting of MPs. He raised his right hand and said, ‘My views on Afghanistan were there’. He raised his left hand and said, ‘Paul’s views were there’. He brought both his hands together, ‘Now both our views are here.’ That was after many discussions we had had on this futile war. He had the courage and sense to change his mind. This helped troops withdrawal. His resignation was inevitable but a loss to Parliament.

The UK may agree a rip-off deal to rescue French EDF from their debt of £33 billion. They are demanding £97 a unit for nuclear electricity originally priced at £45 with a guarantee for 40 years. An American formula for good value Government procurement is Fast, Inexpensive, Simple, Timely or FIST. Ours is Complex, Random, Asinine, and Prodigious. That’s a different acronym.