The members of the reviews set up to assess the operation of the Government's information service and the need for change in the operation of the lobby system at Westminster can spare themselves some effort on the second question. The case seems already to have been made.

There is no doubt among senior members of the Government's business management that the present system of unattributable briefing of political journalists by the No 10 press office must be changed - and probably quite swiftly. Discussions have already taken place at an elevated level and it seems highly likely that the introduction of on-the-record press briefings cannot be long delayed.

It is widely recognised that this will not stop the Blair backing group, The Spinners, from engaging in their usual dark practices, but it seems obviously desirable that, as this happens anyway, it would be preferable if it was parallel to straightforward and attributable press conferences. This would also help the civil servants who work in the information service - and might stop the flood of resignations.

Many MPs, particularly of course among the new intake, do not in any case actually understand how the system works - even in principle - and were horrified by the small amount of light that was shed by the exposure of the contradictory and confusing briefings on the single currency issue.

The proposed changes will raise the public profile of the Prime Minister's press secretary, Alastair Campbell, and will also oblige him to be seen always to play by the rules. One MP who used to play football with him commented yesterday that people's characters are often shown when playing games ''and I don't think many referees - at least in the past - would have accused Alastair Campbell of always playing by the rules of the game''.

''New'' Labour's famed efficiency at rooting out ''old'' lefties and expelling those who appear to demonstrate any kind of independence of mind is not exactly faultless. A socialist of my acquaintance who was sufficiently out of sympathy with the aims of ''new'' Labour to allow her membership of the party to lapse at the turn of the year was telephoned recently and asked if she would be prepared to consider standing for the party in next year's council elections. I've been telling her she owes it to her own principles, but she seems unimpressed.

John Reid, the Minister for the Armed Services, was engaged in some seriously revolutionary activity last weekend of a very ''old'' lefty nature. He was at a concert given by Tom Paxton (and if you've never heard of him it is because you are too young to qualify as an old lefty) and, later that evening at a private party with the singer, picked up a guitar and - whisper it! - played and sang old protest songs. The Thought Police will have to enter quickly for a crash course in revisionism at the Peter Mandelson School for the Insufficiently Reconstructed.

There has been more than an echo of insufficient reconstruction in the Conservative Party this week, too. What is Michael Heseltine's game? Is he still playing to win? The answer is a definitive negative - he has now, at last, finally, completely, totally given up hope of leading the Tories. (Well, unless anything unexpected happens, that is . . .) But it does appear that there is, nevertheless, a scheme to bounce young Mr Hague out on his backside if the political fall-out from the outcome is deemed less damaging to the party than his remaining in office. What is most worrying the Tory toffs at present is the ambivalence of William Hague: he decides one week to be conciliatory and then immediately does something to offend everybody. The dangers of this were best exemplified in the last Conservative party political broadcast a couple of weeks ago, designed to promote Mr Hague personally,

and in which I noticed he used the phrase ''We are on your side'' without specifying who he was addressing. The echo here was from a leader in the Sun newspaper, long ago when it supported the Tories but didn't wish to offend the majority of Labour voters who buy it. I quote from memory but the leader said something like: ''Readers of the Sun deserve to know what side their newspaper is on. The answer is simple: the Sun is on your side.'' The idea is, of course, that such ambivalence means that you cannot lose. But the problem for Mr Hague is that, while a lack of principle may be a positive advantage in selling newspapers, the same is not true in politics.

The magazine Good Housekeeping had a swish party at the Government's Banqueting Hall in Whitehall this week to mark the 75th anniversary of its first publication. It is not afraid now - and never has been - of stating what it is about and what it does. Even so, one of the distinguished guests was still surprised when she arrived to see a waitress dashing down the stairs with a brush and dustpan in her hand. She was so surprised, in fact, that she fell over a bag of clothes pegs on the stairs - not realising these were there for effect. She got the message, however, on entering the main reception to discover that canapes were being handed around in dustpans while others were being pushed around on upright vacuum cleaners with trays attached to the handles. The general feeling was that the ''theme'' of housekeeping might just have been pushed an incy-wincy bit too far.

There are some odd museums around in the world, but one of the strangest is due to open shortly in Manila, one of my globe-trotting friends informs me. It is a permanent exhibition of the famed collection of shoes of Imelda Marcos - of which the widow of the former dictator, herself still active in Philippine politics, is clearly very proud. The centrepiece features a pair of shoes with lights that flash - a fittingly vulgar statement and not at all, I imagine, like those trainers with flashing heels much favoured by small boys.