The Hastings and Rye Labour Party no doubt had the best intentions when it produced a patchwork quilt featuring the autographs of a host of senior Government ministers earlier this year.

The bizarre blanket, stitched with care by the Mayoress of Rye and currently on display at the local party’s exhibition stand in the Brighton Centre, is a fine piece of craftswomanship.

Sadly, the political careers of the ministers who contributed their signatures have turned out to be less enduring. Of the dozen or so signatories a disturbingly high proportion have since lost or left their jobs.

Those afflicted by the curse of the Quilt of Political Death include former home secretary Jacqui Smith, former communities secretary Hazel Blears, former Welsh secretary Paul Murphy, former transport secretaries Geoff Hoon and Ruth Kelly, former defence secretary John Hutton and former housing ministers Margaret Beckett and Caroline Flint.

In happier news, conference delegates who want to keep themselves warm with an everlasting reminder of politicians past can enter a raffle to win the thing for only £1 a ticket.