Open House, with BILL JACOBS. . .

ROSSENDALE and Darwen MP Janet Anderson had an embarrassing experience last weekend when she persuaded her partner and fellow Labour MP Jim Dowd to cross party lines and attend an event at the Hoddlesden Conservative Club.

They were holding a "Lancashire Night" to raise cash for the village's Millennium Green.

London MP Mr Dowd was up in Darwen with Mrs Anderson and was initially unwilling to attend. But she told him to forget his political prejudices and turn up for a traditional Lancashire's night's entertainment.

Sadly when she got there she found a couple of people nursing pints and a few others playing darts and dominoes.

She forced Mr Dowd to attend an event on Saturday which had taken place the night before on Friday.

EAST Lancashire MPs Greg Pope and Lindsay Hoyle have signed a Commons Motion calling for action to stop the spread of a deadly monkey disease into the human population.

The Hyndburn and Chorley Labour back benchers are alarmed that the growing demand for illegal bush meat from Africa is resulting in the discovery of Simian Foaming Virus in humans fed on the infected flesh of chimpanzees, gorillas and other apes.

They are worried that this makes bush meat "extremely dangerous" and says the government must act swiftly to crack down on the illegal trade.

Mr Pope said: "Lindsay came up to me foaming at the mouth with excitement and demanded I signed. I felt it better to do so than further upset him."

But cynical observers of the two MPs believe it may be too late as they are already showing signs of the virus and are not the only ones suffering that way.