Jessica Labhart: A week full of leaks

‘You’re fired’ are words that President Trump is more familiar uttering than many. Yet last week, he went back to his Apprentice roots when he fired FBI Director James Comey with a phrase more suited to the former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger: “You are hereby terminated.” Trump has now become only the second US President and commander-in-chief to fire his FBI director, second to Richard Nixon. Perhaps it is just as simple as Trump himself made it sound when he spoke in the Oval Office: “He was not doing a good job.” Or maybe the real reason was what he admitted on Friday as ‘this Russian thing’ – otherwise known as the allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the US election. Now, Comey has allegedly been told by Trump not to leak anything to the media.

It was a week of major leaks for the Labour Party. Corbyn’s draft manifesto emerged offering a Utopian vision of scrapped university fees and tearing up zero-hour contracts. It also suggested the renewing of Trident, building 100,000 new council houses per year and re-nationalising the UK rail network, energy companies and Royal Mail. The media were quick to reflect on the pledges. But perhaps the most fitting reflection came from an Express & Star opinion piece on Friday which said: “Such a radical push for social reform costs money. Even Diane Abbott with her magic abacus would struggle to balance the books on this one.”

Indeed, perhaps a prophetic symbol of Labour’s week is the foot of BBC camera man Giles Wooltorton. Mr Wooltorton has now been released from hospital with two broken toes and bruising after a car carrying Jeremy Corbyn ran over his left foot. Corbyn was on his way to the Institution of Engineering and Technology in London for a party meeting to discuss the draft general election manifesto.

X Factor finalist from 2009 Lucie Jones set her sights on winning Eurovision 2017 with a song that speaks deeply into the hearts of Eurosceptics and Remainers alike: “I will never give up on you/I don’t care what I’ve got to lose/Just give me your hand and hold on/ Together we’ll dance through this storm.” Song Never Give Up On You was pitted by bookies as 25-1 to win and 14-1 to get ‘nul points’. In the end it came mid-table with a respectable 111 points. Vive la difference.

Blue men are coming to Birmingham. In the words of Douglas Adams, ‘Don’t Panic’, I’m not referring to the latest Tory conference, though these men are also bald and will be performing at the ICC, in the only UK date of their world tour. Chris Wink, founder of the group said: “When we first began creating performances centred on this innocent, curious character called Blue Man, we never dreamt where he would lead us.” Who’d have thought Birmingham would have been the top of the list.

In an exciting domestic turn of events I have managed to flood our kitchen with water from our ailing washing machine. It has given up attempting to take anything in from the drawer, or in fact in any way do its job, instead spurting out unnecessary drivel whilst spinning dry and making a hell of a lot of noise. Sounds like something, or someone, else? You decide.

• Peter Rhodes is away.