John Hipwood's Week in Westminster

In the week that former home secretary Lord (John) Reid made public his disenchantment with Ed Miliband, the Leader of HM Opposition appointed a new media guru help settle his strategy and spruce up his image.

Tom Baldwin, who is leaving The Times, is a bit of a maverick and has chosen to turn his back on his chosen career in full knowledge of the scale of the task he is taking on.

He's a tough cookie in the Alastair Campbell mode, and impressed me in his early career covering politics at Westminster when we sat next to each other in the Commons Press Gallery.

Mr Miliband's director of communications (designate) was then working for the Sunderland Echo and stood his ground forcefully against one of the spin supremos and arch manipulators of all time, Peter Mandelson.

Lord Mandelson was MP for Hartlepool at the time and Tom was his local lobby correspondent.

If Tom can do for Ed Miliband half what Alastair Campbell helped to do for Tony Blair, it will be some achievement. It won't be for lack of passion and there are bound to be fireworks and fun along the way.

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One of the first bits of advice he might offer would be to reject the kind of knee-jerk reaction we saw yesterday from Mr Miliband's office to the suggestion by former Labour Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth that currently illicit drugs should be regulated, but legalised.

Coalition ministers did the same thing, reacting with horror to what the media would say about any idea which might suggest that they are soft on drugs.

The truth is that the decades-old "war on drugs" simply isn't working and that a great deal of Britain's crime is fuelled by the illegal trade in drugs.

At least Mr Ainsworth, who is certainly not a liberal softee, was trying to open up a proper debate on an issue which, for most politicians, involves pulling up the blanket and hoping it will go away.

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If you leave aside their politics, Mark Pritchard and Ed Miliband have quite a few things in common.

The Wrekin MP and Labour leader, for instance, are both Leeds United fans.

They get on well together, and Mr Pritchard was one of the first to suggest that the younger Miliband should run for party leader.

Mr Miliband is MP for Doncaster North which is at least in the same county as Leeds, but he puts his allegiance down to the fact that he lived in the city for four years as a child.

Mr Pritchard, who also supports Hereford Utd and, naturally, AFC Telford, has been a Leeds fan since being given the club's all-white strip as a boy.

"I'm longing for the day when Telford and Leeds come up against each other in the FA Cup or even in a friendly at Elland Road," said the Shropshire MP.

Mindful that he wouldn't want to appear too matey with the Labour leader, Mr Pritchard added: "While Ed and I might support the same club, I don't mind if he scores an own goal at Prime Minister's Question Time."

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David Wright was due to become a postie, albeit briefly, today in his traditional festive visit to sorting offices in Telford.

The Labour MP and Telford & Wrekin Mayor, Councillor Ian Fletcher, were planning an early start to visit the sorting offices at Tweedale and Oakengates to "help out" with the Christmas rush of post.

"Posties do a lot of sterling work in the run-up to Christmas so the visit is our way of showing our appreciation," said the Telford MP.

This year's visit is particularly appropriate because Mr Wright has just completed 20 committee sessions on the Postal Services Bill, which seeks to bring private investment into the Royal Mail.

The Shropshire MP has been doing his own bit to keep the Royal Mail in profit by sending 450 cards this Christmas.

All postage and card costs were paid for from Mr Wright's own pocket.

Christmas greetings don't come under the new, or the old, parliamentary expenses regime.

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Shropshire Star London correspondent Sunita Patel was nursing a sore throat this week along with thousands of other people across the UK.

Sunny, however, had more reason than most to be overdosing on lozenges.

She flew out to Prague yesterday to sing with the Parliament Choir tomorrow at the Cathedral of St Vitus, St Wenceslas and St Adalbert in a Czech Christmas Mass.

Five choirs, including one from the Parliament of the Czech Republic, are taking part in the mass, which is being held under the auspices of Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the Archbishop of Prague, Monsignor Dominic Duka.

Sunny and her fellow choristers, who include MPs and peers as well as staff from the Houses of Parliament, will be singing the mass in the Czech language, something they achieved to general acclaim at the Cadogan Hall in London in 2008.