Open House, with BILL JACOBS. . .

EAST Lancashire MP Janet Anderson has expressed her deep regret at the deaths of Blackpool Pleasure Beach bosses Doris and Geoffrey Thompson. She has signed a Commons motion on the issue put down by the resort's MPs Gordon Marsden and Joan Humble.

The Rossendale and Darwen Labour backbencher got to know Mr Thompson and his mother when she was Tourism Minister.

She said: "They made sure that the Pleasure Beach modernised and kept up with modern trends.

"Both will be sadly missed in the tourism industry and in Lancashire.''

HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope was stunned when he turned up this week to attend an apparently regulation Statutory Instrument Committee at the Commons to appoint an extra High Court Judge for Northern Ireland.

He was stunned to learn the legal eagle will earn £167,000 a year - £40,000 more than the Prime Minister - and will get extra pension contributions of £40,000 annually - more than a teacher or policeman in Ulster earns.

Mr Pope said: "This is appalling. I raised it with the Minister saying it was extraordinary and he just told me it was the rate for the job. It was quite disgraceful.''

BURNLEY Labour MP Peter Pike managed to accidentally get his Pendle colleague Gordon Prentice branded a criminal by government Minister Chris Leslie in the Commons.

He was praising all-postal voting . Mr Pike told Mr Leslie that the sytem had boosted turn out and was "good for democracy". The Minister replied that opponents had been portraying the government as "criminal'' in trying to increase the numbers voting when it was actually the other way about.

Mr Prentice then got up to oppose all postal voting, calling for a different solution to the turn-out problem such as weekend voting or voting Thursdays on public holidays. Oops!