Captain Moonlight: Cock-ups not prevented

DO YOU know, I thought the new Labour Party employed all those spin doctors to prevent cock-ups like this: in the church hall opposite the conference centre in Blackpool, there was this facility for sorting out the credentials of observers, journalists who had applied late, diplomats, that sort of thing, staffed by all these endlessly obliging young graduates, predominantly female. The national minimum wage as endorsed by the party is, you recall, half median male earnings. That works out, currently, at pounds 4.05 an hour. And, er, yes, the going rate across the road was pounds 20 a day.