Adonis in 'conflict of interest' row over Islington academy

* When Tony Blair rejected his local Islington state school and opted to send his children to the Catholic London Oratory in west London instead, it garnered him some unfortunate press.

Now the curse of Islington Green School has struck again, and this time it's Lord (Andrew) Adonis - Blair's education minister - who is on the receiving end.

Adonis has been specially charged with setting up 200 "city academies" by 2010. One of the first comprehensives in line for the change - which would see millions of pounds injected into it - is Islington Green School. This also just happens to be on Lord Adonis's doorstep, and is the school he's likely to consider for his own children, who are currently at a state primary school in the borough.

The National Union of Teachers is already starting to clamour about a "conflict of interest" and demanding that Adonis should have no further involvement in plans for the school.

"We have taken legal advice and are considering judicially reviewing some of the decisions that have been taken already," says Ken Muller, the chairman of Islington NUT. "Islington Green is clearly Lord Adonis's baby and he's got a clear conflict of interest. He should have nothing to do with the project."

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Skills denies that there is a conflict of interest, but says that to avoid any such perception, decisions on the school's future would be "passed to another minister in the department".

* Christmas sales have been particularly good for cookery books this year, so there is timely news that the celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall is about to move his entire River Cottage headquarters to a grander site.

The scruffy cook and his colleagues at the centre, which houses a culinary school and restaurant as well as being the set for many of his television programmes, are moving out of their current home at Broadoak in West Dorset to a 60-acre site in Uplyme, Devon.

"It's always been our plan to move - we only have a three year lease on the current place," he explains. "It will give us the opportunity to expand the business: the new place has room for us to become entirely self-sufficient in terms of organic meat."

The move is planned for next summer, but Fearnley-Wittingstall isn't holding his breath. "I've had enough experience of builders and renovations that I am extremely sceptical about announcing any definite time-frame," he adds.

* Princess Diana's eccentric stepmother, Raine Countess Spencer, has joined the legion of gap-year Sloanes and other temporary employees on the Harrods shop floor, helping out during the sale.

The countess is a director of the shop, which is owned by Mohammed Fayed, whose son, Dodi, was killed in the car crash that also ended the Princess of Wales's life.

"The directors understand that whatever else Harrods may be, we are a first and foremost a shop and it's part of their remit to sell things," says a spokesman. "She's in the men's shirt department. Indeed, I think there are a number of gentlemen customers who have come in specially to see her."

One such gentleman comments that she is "much less scary in real life than she seems from photographs".

He bought three shirts.

* Having released a premature "happy Hannukah" message some two weeks ago, in advance of the preliminary hearing held to decide whether he was guilty of making anti-Semitic remarks to a journalist, Ken Livingstone is continuing his attempt to win the hearts of London's Jewish community.

Yesterday, the Mayor hosted a special ceremony at City Hall to mark the Jewish festival.

"Jewish people have made a vast contribution to freedom of religion and cultural expression in this city," reads Livingstone's statement on the event. "In recognition of this, I intend this to be an annual event at City Hall."

Cynics point out that 2005 is the first year that the London Mayor has felt it necessary to celebrate Hannukah.

* As a young actress and aspiring style icon, Sienna Miller has just capped a successful year in the headlines with pole position in a survey of those people regarded as "most inspirational" by the readers of a glossy magazine.

But Miller herself has clearly not forgotten the downside of 2005, when she cried often and publicly over the discovery that her fiancé, Jude Law, had been sleeping with his children's nanny.

Asked as what she'd like to be reincarnated (should she have the choice), Miller grins. "I think I would be a nanny," she says. "I've heard the pay is pretty good and the perks are even better."

Good to see she can laugh about it now.

pandora@independent.co.uk