Housing minister Yvette Cooper came close to inadvertently giving her keynote speech on the government's programme for the introduction of home information packs (HIPs) to a conference of women in leadership (although given the amount of flak they are getting, she will need to give a fair amount of leadership in relation to HIPs). On her way to address the annual conference of the Law Society's property section, where delegates were expectantly assembled at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London, Ms Cooper discovered there were no fewer than four Millennium hotels in the vicinity. After trying two of them, the minister arrived at a hotel in Sloane Street, where she was informed the conference was just about to start and rushed up to the second floor. Fortunately, she realised the error before taking to the podium.


Her tale brought back uncomfortable memories for Paul Marsh, chairman of the Law Society's conveyancing and land law committee. He recounted the occasion he had been invited to give a talk to the Guildford and District Women's Institute. Following a Wagnerian chorus of 'Jerusalem', Mr Marsh was introduced to the ladies and discovered to his horror they were expecting to hear about hips much closer to his audience's hearts, or more accurately thighs. Unabashed he proceeded with his prepared talk, delighting Surrey's finest jam-makers with a 45-minute run through on the finer points of searches, home condition reports and contracts.