Forget tips of bringing down your energy bills, UEA graduate Caroline Flint had some wise words for those tucking into baked beans The shadow energy secretary recounted her tales of a summer job in Smedley's food factory in North Walsham,

She told how the beans came in from the farm where they were taken from sacks and blanched, before she had to pick out the sticks and stones. 'I don't want to put you off baked beans, but that was the way it is,' she concluded.

More proof Labour is in touch with its rural roots.

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Ed Balls yesterday revealed he and wife Yvette Cooper made Sound of Music costumes out of curtains while on a train tour of Europe. Speaking at the fringe event in Manchester, the shadow chancellor said: 'We decided we would go on an inter railing trip... we went to London, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Venice, Ancona, over to Greece and flew back on Ryan Air.

'Yvette was on the internet searching up what you can do in different cities and she suddenly comes running in and says 'I can't believe it - in Salzburg... the birthplace of Mozart, they have this amazing thing called the Sound of Music Tour'.'

Perhaps a bit of light relief from working out how to solve the problem of convincing people you can balance the books.