Caroline Michel, the glamorous literary agent who is the wife of Lord Evans, the former Government Whip in the House of Lords, would not appear to believe this is a time for too stringent belt-tightening.

Mandrake hears that she jumped into a London taxi the other day and ordered him to take her to Cambridge. She listened to a lecture by the historian Lisa Jardine that went on for almost two hours, then ordered the cabbie to take her home. The cost of this round trip was, I am told, £500.

When I run the story by Miss Michel, she tells me: "I have absolutely no comment to make on this whatsoever."