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News, gossip and insight from PoliticsHome Editor Paul Waugh
Tuesday 24th July 2012 | 07:22
The Seating Plan From Hell?
The Queen is having a Diamond Jubilee lunch at Downing Street today with her current and former Prime Ministers (apart from Lady Thatcher who is too unwell).
The Duke of Edinburgh, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major will be present. But the real headache for No.10 is where to put Gordon - and what some are calling 'the seating plan from hell'.
I hear that Brown - for whom this is his first return to Downing Street since being evicted by the voters in 2010 - will not be seated next to Tony Blair.
Putting Gordon next to the current PM is also highly unlikely given their sparring history, and Sir John is no fan of GB either.
Perhaps he will be seated next to the Duke, who is guaranteed to cheer up the mood of the event.
While Gordo and Cameron have never got on personally or professionally, T Blair again proved today just why the current Tory leader is called 'the heir to Blair': he's told the Radio Times that there's nothing wrong with the PM's 'chillaxing' habit.
Cherie, meanwhile, will be out of the country and one of the few spouses not present today. But don't read too much into it: she is handling a legal case overseas.
UPDATE: The Times's Valentine Low has the low-down. Looks like Gordon was seated between Norma Major and Sir Jeremy Heywood 'two of the most neutral figures in the room'.
"The Queen was between Sir John Major and Mr Cameron, who had on his left Sarah Brown. As for Mr Blair, with Mrs Blair away, he sat between Samantha Cameron and Diana, Lady Farnham, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting. Prince Philip was believed to have sat on Mrs Cameron’s other side."
November 2010