Who got pickled at the Pickles party?

What on earth was the Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles serving at his spring drinks party in the House of Commons last night? It emerged this morning that police had to be called in to break up a fight involving two journalists clearly the worse for wear after attending the reception in the shadow cabinet office. Officers, clearly twitchy before world leaders and anti-globalisation protestors descend on London, used CS gas to restore order.

It appears the hacks were not lobby correspondents but guests of one. It seems they were already rowing when they left the party shortly after 9pm and continued their argument in a corridor behind the Speaker's chair, just yards from the Commons chamber where MPs were discussing Africa.

A Conservative source said the journalists left the party chairman's reception and "at some point later on created some kind of disturbance.
There was nothing in their behaviour earlier that suggested they would act like this."

As London's streets begin to fill with motorcades ferrying world leaders to the G20 summit, and an influx of attendant demonstrators, officers from six other forces have been called in to back up the Metropolitan Police in one of the biggest security operations the capital has ever seen. Said a Westminster source: "If a couple of squabbling hacks get CS gas used on them, God help the G20 protestors."

Watch this space.

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