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In the interests of balance after writing about Gordon Browns’ bitten fingers, and Peter Mandelson’s disappearing thumb, I wanted to say something about the leader, and possible next Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron’s palms, but so far I have not seen a good recent photo or video to make any conclusions. So if you know of any, please let me know.

My contribution to Diabolical which is published on the 29th October in London, is about the Testament of Solomon, a treatise nearly two thousand years old, the inspiration for the Solomonic grimoires. Scarlet Imprint launches are always good fun, and they seem to excelled themselves this time with their hyperbolae. Personally, I am not sure the addition of the ‘service’ is going to be for all tastes, but you never know.

There is a good video of Peter Mandelson’s speech at the Labour Conference in Brighton. My interest is not in what he says, but the way he holds his thumb.  At the start the thumb can be seen pointing away from the hand, a symbol of independence of will, but towards the end, the thumb retreats to a position inside the hand, pointing in the same direction as the fingers. Normally when the thumb is held inside the palm, it is a sign of submission and a lack of confidence. But having seen a photo of the main lines on his right hand, which are very clearly delineated, and his nails are not bitten in contrast to Gordon Brown, something else is going on.

Mandelson’s knowledge of the dark arts of spin and strategy is not really delivering the goods at the moment – even he said Labour is likely to lose the next general election – I would say that he is endeavouring to conceal his true intentions to his own party.