• An honour to be knighted. An extraordinary honour to be knighted twice. Such has been the life of one of the renowned Caribbean men of letters, Sir Ronald Sanders. Out of hearing, he is oft referred to as Sir Sir Ron because of the double accolade – one picked up in London, where he served as Antiguan ambassador to the court of St James, the other in Antigua itself. A member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, he was also an adviser to the Blair government on Caribbean affairs. And all of this, one might think, would accord him some respect. But respect is in short supply these days. Thus Sir Sir Ron faces the very public indignity of being formally named by the prosecuting authorities in Antigua last week as a "person of interest" in a $33m fraud inquiry. A Japanese company loaned millions to the island government. It had to be repaid. During the process, millions went missing. Absolutely nothing to do with me, says Sir Ron, whose London lawyers have also been forced to refute suggestions that he could not be traced by investigators. How can I have disappeared when I write syndicated newspaper columns, the man himself told a Caribbean publication. He is, lawyers say, "willing to answer questions from the Antiguan police that are properly put". Others predict a defamation suit. Hardly a dream start to double-Sir Ron's year.
• And not a good start to the year for our crime reporters, their ability to maintain relations with police contacts now limited by the new "no drinking, no late night carousing" doctrine. It emerged from the inquiry conducted by Elizabeth Filkin. And it's a particularly bitter pill, because the crime hacks need only talk to the lobby hacks to learn how Filkin, the former parliamentary commissioner for standards, had many much tamer encounters with journalists at the time of her inquiries into such as Keith Vaz. That's presumably why she wants the practice scrutinised. She knows it works.
• Ahead of Thursday's appearance before the Leveson inquiry, there is righteous indignation from Dirty Des's Sunday Express. "BBC's Freak Show Slammed" said the angry banner headline. Auntie's sex season, according to this, will bring society to its knees. Sounds like just the kind of activity Des likes to show on cable. And who fired this salvo? Des's man David Stephenson. And yet elsewhere in the paper Stephenson himself is much more relaxed on matters of taste and decency. He seemed quite taken with two of the contestants on Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother (station prop: Dirty Des). Both Karissa and Kristina are former Playboy Playmates, Stephenson notes, with talent enough "to communicate more with their buttocks than anything else". And what caught his eye on the Channel 4 programme Accused: The 74-Stone Babysitter? The revelation "that her buttocks each weighed 120lbs". Freak shows rule OK. So long as they are not on the BBC.
• Historians, meanwhile, continue to be fascinated by our ruling coalition. And they wonder, what other examples are there of questionable figures going out of their way to propel Tories to power? My man in the archives discovers that in 1899, the aspiring Conservative politician Winston Churchill stood as the Conservative candidate in the Oldham byelection. Posters sprung up around town urging electors to vote for Churchill, who was "top of the card" – and would surely be "top of the poll". And who printed and published those posters? One "WE Clegg". Send for the genealogist.
• Finally, because every little helps when it comes to community relations, an explanation from the Asda supermarket group as to why a search for kosher food on its website prompted the response "antichrist". It was, Asda says, a glitch resulting from the website's use of pronunciation software. When a search term is not recognised, the site brings up the closest sounding match – which is how the name of the kosher food company Manischewitz was reproduced as "antichrist". Experts are trying to fix the glitch "as quickly as they can", a company spokesman told the Jewish Chronicle. You bet.
Twitter.com/hugh_muir
