By BBC News Online's Political Correspondent Nick Assinder

There remains a great deal of dismay among loyal Tories at William Hague's decision to dump John Redwood from the shadow cabinet.

Most Tory MPs accept it was the right decision to bring Michael Portillo back onto the frontbench and that inevitably meant somebody had to go. But why Redwood?

No one, including Redwood and his aides, have yet managed to come up with a coherent reason for his dismissal.

In a highly-unusual move, Redwood has even spoken openly about his disappointment, declaring: "I thought it might be a promotion, or I'd be told I was having some impact and that I should carry on in the job. How foolish I was. I had misread all the signals."

And his staff and supporters have spoken about being deeply hurt and confused by the surprise decision.

Redwood was one of the shadow cabinet's hardest workers, he regularly scored hits against Labour, and John Prescott in particular, and he was one of the few faces people recognised.

But, when the time came for Hague to forge his election campaign team, Redwood was top of the hit list.

And it is now starting to look like the "radical reshuffle" has rebounded on Hague as his MPs scratch their heads over why Redwood was dumped.

One theory is that, rather like Michael Howard before him, there was a fear that every time John "The Vulcan" Redwood appeared on TV the Tories lost another thousand votes.

Another idea doing the rounds is that Hague wanted to get rid of anyone associated with the previous Tory regime.

But that ignores the fact - already seized on by Chancellor Gordon Brown - that Portillo was one of the prime movers in the last Conservative Government.

It has even been suggested that Portillo - who still bears a grudge against Redwood for previous leadership challenges - demanded his head.

There may be some truth in that. But one of the most believable rumours is that Hague never quite trusted Redwood.

After all, this is the man who twice attempted to become Tory leader and who displayed serious Machiavellian tendencies during his campaigns.

His challenge to John Major did the Tories serious damage when they were particularly vulnerable and led many to believe his ambition outweighed his loyalty.

Michael Portillo certainly has leadership ambitions, but Mr Hague is pretty sure those are on hold at least until after the next election is lost.

Redwood's past behaviour has suggested he will go for the kill whenever he thinks he has a prospect of victory.

So, Hague's behaviour may well have been driven by simple self-preservation.

All I can say is, don't turn your back William.

Country matters

Having previously visited the north to lecture the locals on how they have never had it so good, Mr Blair has done it again - but this time in the countryside.

During his visit to the west country he offered little hope of government aid to farmers and other rural workers facing bankruptcy, preferring to tell them they were better off than they realised.

Before he went, one of his aides was briefing journalists on the trip and the message the prime minister would be taking with him.

One of the hacks summed it up thus: "So, basically, he is telling them their income has doubled since 1995 but now gone down a bit so they shouldn't whinge too much, only a tiny percentage of the rural economy relies on farming, and none of them votes for Labour anyway.

"So the message is - sod off you carrot crunchers!"

The long suffering aide, clearly having failed to put the right spin on the story, simply rolled his eyes and sighed: "not quite."

Ask the farmers what they thought.

The perfect excuse

Fare dodger Cherie Blair - while sitting as a judge in Luton - recently had to tick off a young defence counsel for turning up late.

She demanded an explanation from the young man who came up with what must be the perfect answer.

"I am sorry, I had trouble on the railway," he said.

Isn't that contempt of court or something.

A close shave

One thing ambitious MPs have learned over the years is that, if you want to get ahead, lose the facial hair.

Margaret Thatcher hated beards and never had one in the cabinet and Tony Blair seems to have followed a similar path - with the glorious exception of the unreconstructed Frank "Uncle Albert" Dobson.

Peter Mandelson, Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling and Peter Kilfoyle all shaved their moustaches off.

Now Glasgow Pollok's Ian Davidson has followed suit - leading to speculation in some quarters that he is after promotion.

He insists not. He shaved off his moustache because he is a scuba diver and, he explains, moustaches are banned for deep dives because they might break the seal between the face and the mask.

"So I am the only MP who has shaved not to go higher but dive even lower," he declared.

Norris scores

The Tory candidate for the job of London mayor, Steven Norris, is infamous for his womanising.

So, in true Westminster style, an old joke has been revamped to apply to him.

Apparently, in a recent opinion poll 5,000 London women were asked if they would sleep with Mr Norris.

More than 50% said they would, 20% said 'never in a million years' while the rest said 'not again.'