Diary: How to keep your iPad clean

(AP)

The release of the new iPhone today sees Steve Jobs once again hailed as a demigod by the technorati, but the Apple CEO and registered US Democrat can hardly have expected he'd also become a darling of the Christian right. Jobs's resistance to anything remotely resembling pornography on iPhones and iPads has seen him widely praised by the faith-based community. In February Apple removed thousands of apps containing "sexual content" from its App Store. "How refreshing it is to see someone that gets it – that yes, there are those of us who prefer to be free from the storm of smut," blogs Mark Earely, head of America's Prison Fellowship Ministries. "We're grateful that Jobs is trying to keep the iPad from becoming an eyesore," chimes in Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, another Christian organisation. Do they know you can still surf for porn using the iPad's standard Safari internet browser? Nope, nor did I. (A friend told me.)

* The Budget may yet bring a national rise in unemployment, but at Westminster the axe is swinging already. Last week more than 20 members of the Liberal Democrat press office and policy unit (of a staff numbering approximately 50) were told their services are no longer required by the coalition. Cue frantic attempts by the party to help them find gainful employment elsewhere. Over at Conservative Central Headquarters the atmosphere is more relaxed. "There will be some restructuring at CCHQ," a press officer confirms, "but that process has not yet been concluded." Many of those from the press and policy departments of the Conservative campaign already have new jobs in Government anyway. Lucky them.

* More coalition tensions might be stoked by the return of Julia Goldsworthy. The Lib Dem lost her Camborne and Redruth seat to Conservative George Eustice, but has now been appointed a Special Adviser to Danny Alexander at the Treasury. Local Lib Dem and Tory activists are hardly head-over-heels in the West Country, and one controversial leaflet from the Goldsworthy campaign claimed Eustice (David Cameron's former press secretary) was parachuted into his Cornwall seat by CCHQ – his family has lived in the area for 400 years. The rivals haven't seen each other since election night. Will their paths cross as coalition partners? "I'm sure I'll bump into her," says Eustice. "It's a funny old world: one of her main campaign messages was that I was a spin doctor from London politics, so it's ironic that she should end up back here working for the Government. But I wish her the best of luck."

* Friends and enemies from politics and the media mingled happily and not-entirely-happily at a 60th birthday party for Labour policy wonk emeritus, Baron Gould of Brookwood, at Shoreditch House on Monday night. A source informs us that Simon Kelner, the editor of "The Independent", and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade) the chief executive of News International, buried the hatchet that was swung about the heads of us "bemused hacks" at Northcliffe House in April during a spat about an advertising campaign for this newspaper. One pair who didn't seem to have kissed and made up since their own election-time falling out were Alastair Campbell and Sky News's Adam Boulton. Campbell announced that the evening would climax with a naked wrestling match between two teams, led by himself and Boulton. The one rule, he explained, "is that it's a fight to the death".

* Nokia might be quaking about the iPhone, but a more pressing PR disaster unfolded this week as the winners of the "Nokia MiniMO" competition enjoyed their prize: a trip to the Cannes advertising festival. The MiniMO Critics Choice Award, for which entrants made short films with their phones, was won by 18-year-old Jemma Lyons and her minute-long version of "Forrest Gump". Until, that is, one Will Tribble pointed out that it was a flagrant rip-off his own viral video. Lyons was stripped of her title; the company apologised, promising to pick a new winner; and Tribble's film will be screened at the London Film Festival. Not a bad consolation prize.

highstreetken@independent.co.uk