Marky boy has been in the news a fair bit these last few days.

Earlier this week it was for getting slapped down by the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, for being a naughty boy in Parliament and then getting a further telling off for suggesting that Bercow was being prompted by a Labour Minister.

And hot off the press, the Unite union has accused British Airways of "buying" MPs with free flights, singling out Mark Pritchard who they say has had £15k worth of free flights from them in the past few years and suggesting that might have something to do with him criticising BA staff in the House of Commons the other day.

The Unite Union is sponsoring 25% of all Labour candidates at the general election, including Mark's neighbour, David Wright MP but I must stress that that doesn't mean those MPs or the Labour Party has been "bought" by the Unite Union because the unions are "democratic" so that makes it ok.

I wonder if MP2 will be leading the campaign to give Bercow his marching orders ...

Last week was a busy week in Parliament for Mark with him asking questions on some vital matters to the people of Telford.

On Tuesday, he asked the Foreign Secretary whether he was aware that some ships around the horn of Africa are turning off their automatic transponders in contravention of the international convention for the safety of life at the sea.  Do these rules apply to the boating lake in Telford Town Park?

On Wednesday, he highlighted the plight of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa not being able to afford school uniforms and therefore being deprived of an education.  A noble cause but unless I'm very much mistaken, Telford is several thousand miles away from Sub-Saharan Africa.

On Thursday, he asked if the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs knew that TCAT was doing an excellent job but their funding was being cut next year.  The Minister said he will look into the proposed funding cuts at TCAT to see if there is anything untoward.

Keep up the good work Mark.

We're back, blogging on Mark's behalf.

Standby in..5...4...3...2...1...

I've decided that there is no point in continuing with the Lewis Moonie blog. For a start, he isn't going to be an MP for very much longer. There's never any news on Lewis Moonie floating about. And this area is so unquestioning of Labour.

I've achieved little in the real world. But I think I've made a good attempt at making Lewis Moonie that little bit more accessible. Up-to-date contact information is murder to find, but I've got it all here - along with links to his page on They Work For You and Public Whip, so I won't tear this blog right down. Archive posts, if you really want them, are still available aswell.

I may well return to the proxy blogging scene when Gordon Brown comes along. So keep an eye on the Gordon Brown proxy blog - I'll be building it up as the General Election campaign gets into full swing.

There are some really exciting developments with these proxy blogs. I wish all of them the best of luck. Links to all of them will remain on the right-hand panel of this blog.

Remember to keep on checking out Bloggerheads - the inspiration for this and most other proxy blogs.
Why politicians need weblogs
Blog your MP #

This blog is now part of a new UK political blogs aggregator. It features all the best political blogging around, and also has a section dedicated to all of the proxy blogs, like this, which are cropping up all over the place now. #

All it seems is not well in the state of Denmark. 192 countries with competing interests getting together to come to an agreement on our planet's existential
future always had the makings of a Shakespearean tragedy. Unfortunately for the
audience the seriousness of the issues at hand has been lost on the characters that
waltz the world stage with the whole meeting descending into farce. The pantomime protagonists China and the USA are mainly to blame. The Chinese for their part
don't want any agreements to be validated by inspections and the Americans and Europeans don't want to recognize and pay for their historical ecological debt. After all it is the not the newly emerging countries but the US and Europe which have benefited the most from polluting the world.
In President (at least i showed up) Obama we have a leader who is shackled by the senate to effect any substantive change. If we want to reduce pollution we have to subsidize the poor countries in Africa and south America to keep the planets lungs, the rain forests, away from corporate harm. However given that non of the communiques or agreements forged are legally binding all of this political theatre is meaningless particularly given the record of the richer countries on sticking to targets. Given this set of circumstances whatever self congratulatory draft agreement is read out by the prince of Denmark in a few hours time the ending for the world's poorest nations,one fears, will be as tragic as that in Hamlet.
Gordon Brown has cut somewhat a lonely and insignificant figure in Copenhagen. This is certainly one area where a lack of a United Europe policy damages all of us. His
failure to highlight the ridiculousness of the Tories green aspirations outside the framework of the European Union unfortunately has made him look weaker still.

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Well thank fuck for that. Tony's got his historic third term and we'll all be waiting for MH's resignation some time soon. Appropriately this clown who's been blogging on his behalf resigned yesterday.

Spent the night with Tony - thought the acceptance speech I wrote for him was excellent. Pretty downbeat which suited the mood and we didn't want him to appear too smug. Now it's over though will have time to start concentrating on other things like running and rugby although I'm sure they've not seen the last of me at Westminster.

Oh and one last thing - Happy birthday Mr President! #

Quick final lunch with Tony. And just time to remind you. Have you voted yet? If you haven't get out there and make your mark for Tony. It is his birthday tomorrow and we don't want an idiot like MH spoiling it for him.

Polls close at ten o'clock tonight - and if you've already voted why not start ringing up your mates and persuading them to vote. Don't be too heavy handed with them or threaten to send JP round. Just a gentle reminder that we'd all rather be waking up with Tony than MH tomorrow morning. #

Right - well you know what you have to do today if you haven't already. Get out there, use your vote and vote for Tony. If you were thinking of being a bloody clever twat and voting for CK you may as well just vote for MH. Don't. Vote Labour so that Tony gets his third term.

Last day of campaigning with Tony and Gordon yesterday went well. Still important to show them as a team and funny that the press think that we're only doing that because GB is going to be next PM. No fucking chance while I'm about. #

Just sent an email from Alan Milburn - taking forever to go out. Really cannot be doing with new technology. Even MH has got hold of some computer programme to help him identify just the voters he needs to target in marginal seats. Never heard such a load of bollocks. With just two days to go he really should be spending time looking for a new job rather than wasting time on unreliable technology.

He's not even asking them to vote Conservative as he knows he's got no fucking chance! Just trying to make it personal against Tony which as I've said before is dangerous. The Tories could get in by the back door that way. Is that something that you want?

Can't wait till Thursday - no more having to deal with that Aussie idiot and even better no more having to get up to listen to Today. #

Some twat has nicked the custom made bike that I was meant to be using in the Triathlon. So if anyone has the slightest bit of a conscience please do me a favour and give it back. It's covered with Leukaemia Research branding and you'll never get the full market value if you try to sell it. And don't worry, if you do confess I won't be sending JP round to rough you up. #

While trying to get stuck into one of the most important speeches that Tony ever has to deliver Fiona has pointed out to me that Channel 4 is showing The Full Monty on Election night. She's only done this because she knows it's one of the few films that make me cry. Thanks Fi. It's a fucking shame they're not showing it the day before as it would be a stark reminder of what the last Tory government did to this country and the mess Thatcher left it in. Good thing we have Tony to steer us through the next five years. #

Taking a break from writing some speeches for Tony. Not been the best bloody week. First the leak and misrepresentation of my memo, then Tony being forced to release legal advice relating to the war and if that wasn't enough put under all that pressure by Dimbleby and the GP. Good thing people just don't trust MH.

However, must look forward, not back. To Tony's double celebration next Friday of course. It's also his birthday.

One positive thing to note - Piers Morgan's book of fairy tales has finally been knocked off the top of the bestseller list. Who bought and read the fucking thing? Must need their heads examining. #

Bloody great to see that the Tories are so wound up that they have changed not only their fucking pathetic slogan but their whole campaign tactic with only 10 days to go. Although, not complacent MH really shot himself in the foot with his two nil analogy and hopefully confused the hell out of most people.

Of course being a Liverpool supporter I'm sure there's nothing more he enjoys than seeing The Reds win. #

Old Vic yesterday for a rally to mark World Poverty Day. Good day even though crowd full of usual bloody liggers. Of course Tony and GB were there to speak as was Bill Clinton - though this time I didn't write his speech for him! But I did for Tony and GB who both had the crowd laughing and crying. Hope that will now put that bloody memo leak to bed. #

The Sunday Times have totally misrepresented me over the memo I sent out yesterday. Have been busy all morning trying to sort out the mess. We are not complacent - there is still a lot of fucking hard work to be done over the next 10 days. We are worried about turnout and the Tories focusing on marginal seats. Will be having some serious words with those idiot hacks at The Sunday Times.

You can read my whole memo here.

TB has asked me to set out a campaign overview as we enter the final full week of the campaign. Here it is.

Private polling reflects published polling. Lead is stable. TB rating up. MH down. CK failing to make headway. TB-GB joint campaigning has seen our lead on leadership in the economy rise even further, leads on health and education have also risen. When asked "who do you trust to run the country/economy?" we have a growing lead.

So the strategy - root everything in the economy, focus on values/dividing lines in public services - is on track and working.

The overnight tracking polls show we can be confident on asylum and immigration. TB's speech had huge awareness and he seems to have got the balance right, between action on the one hand, tolerance on the other. In the focus groups, there are now signs of a negative halo effect for Howard ie when the Tories focus on asylum and immigration it has the effect of skewing the perception of the party to the Right and turns off centrist voters.

People are beginning to ask if MH ever talks about anything else. Men in particular have begun to notice MH never speaks on the economy. People are beginning to compare him negatively with Mrs Thatcher (and even with John Major!) His nastiness and a sense that he is extreme are now being raised without any prompting.

Asked where to place the Tories on a Right to Left scale of -100 to +100, where 0 is the centre, people placed the Tories at an average of +36 at the start of the campaign, in the last few days that has risen as high as +57, indicating that they have been seen to move sharply to the Right. Labour has moved from -3 to -6, on the same scale. We are now very close to the centre.

This appears to be very good news for us. It means the Tories are increasingly being seen as extreme. It is also clear as per Crosby's memo in the Guardian, that they are sticking to their "send a message" strategy, rather than going to win, and they are not even putting forward a programme for government.

However, TB is concerned that we understand fully the kind of campaign they are running. Of course we have to say they have vacated the field on the economy, and that they do not have a serious or coherent programme for government. But in terms of their strategy, that misses the point. They are fighting a different sort of campaign, focusing ruthlessly on the marginals, targeting specific voters with specific messages designed to arouse fear and grievance. It is, as TB has said, nasty and unscrupulous, but it still has the capacity to be effective in some parts of the country. So the big national poll leads do not matter. What matters is that we understand the nature of their campaign, expose it, and fight it very hard on the ground, by making sure our messages and policies are heard, and theirs rebutted. We have gathered a good deal of their local material which will allow us to continue to expose what they are up to through the week. It is a deliberately sneaky strategy which once fully exposed will damage them.

Allied to this, we need to build on the argument that just as voters used to punish us in the 80s because we failed to listen, and because of the nature of our campaigns, so the public should see this election as an opportunity not just to support us, but to punish them, send them a message that they deserve to lose and need to go away, rethink, start compromising with an electorate that has moved on from the Thatcher years.

TURNOUT:

TB is anxious that we understand fully the implication of the analysis PG presented on turnout yesterday. The reality is, as we succeed in our attacks on the Tories, and as Howard becomes more and more visible, we rise in the polls, which then has a direct and immediate impact on the prospects for turnout.

Among certain groups, there has been a sharp decline in certainty to vote in the last week. Certainty to vote for Labour has dropped by around 7% and among the people who are most strongly aligned with us on issues such as health and education, the drop has been bigger. This has little or nothing to do with apathy or disillusion. It is more that if the poll lead widens, they feel sure we are going to win and less compelled to vote. This again plays into Crosby's Queensland strategy.

In summary, we are very well positioned in the debate but there is a strong risk low turnout could hit us very hard, indeed. So far we have been engaged in making and winning arguments. This job is largely done. Next week, we will be back on the economy, TB-GB, dividing lines in public services. The arguments keep going but we will be shifting to a greater emphasis on the importance of voting. We have new posters planned for today, on schools and hospitals, with the slogan, "If you value it, vote for it."

We have an economic version planned for Monday's TB-JP-GB cities event. We then get up the choice on public services, tax credits, before launching the business manifesto to get another day on the economy. It's pretty simple: when we are on the economy, we win the arguments. But we now need to inject a greater sense of this being about values every bit as much as competence - with a real focus on the importance of voting, moving eventually to the line that if people stay at home, or go with the Lib Dems, they will wake up with Howard.

The rest of the campaign should be relentlessly about why voting matters, and we should be focusing on issues which are more likely to convince our supporters to vote. That means the economy, health, education, family tax credits, minimum wage, which every poll has shown to be our singly most popular policy.

Finally, on the Lib Dems, GB is setting out at this morning's p/c the argument that serious people cannot take the LDs seriously. We know CK is going big on Iraq next week. It is to him what immigration is to Howard. Our answer is two-fold: defend the points on Iraq, on the grounds that if CK's view had prevailed, Saddam would still be in power. But also point out CK focused on this because his policies on the economy and crime/legalising drugs in particular, are a joke. #

Have been invited by Burnley directors to their box today so am driving to Nottingham this afternoon. If Forest lose they're going down!!!! #

Great to see Tony taking my advice and trying to give Jeremy Paxman as good as he gets.
As you've probably seen the Tony we're portraying this time is very different from the fresh-faced "Things Can Only Get Better" Tony from yesteryear. Trying to make him seem more experienced and mature. For a start his hair is going forward, not back!! (Don't worry - Tony is used to me humiliating him. There was the time in Northern Ireland when I wanted him in bed and stopped him and his entourage going for a quick drink in the pub and then kept them all awake by playing the bagpipes. Or indeed in front of Paxman with the whole issue of Afghanistan's poppy fields. Still did a better job of stats than CK. Then at least the BBC were on side and had the good grace to put most of the interview on the cutting room floor.)

Talking of sides, my good friend Rebekah Wade has finally done her stuff and come out in support of Tony.
Excellent journalism!! In touch with the people by pretending to sit on the fence till the last minute and then declaring allegiance to Labour just in the nick of time. Howard - you've had it sunshine!! Owe Rebekah a nice lunch. #

With Tony in Leeds. Trying out Starbucks wireless connection while Tony has an impromptu cup of coffee. Then to NHS IT department and later interview with JP. #

Have just had a bloody big row with the writer of Tony's campaign diary. Some joker has had a lame pop at me which is not fucking funny. David Hill refuses to have it taken down as he says it is important that we show Tony to be in touch with the people. A campaign strategy nicked straight from me please note.

I could tell the minute I arrived at our hotel in Birmingham yesterday that I was not exactly the star attraction. The autograph hunters were there for Kylie who is currently on tour in Britain. It meant I was struggling to get the best out of my team who kept wandering off to join the groupies hanging around for a glimpse of Kylie. My press team were all singing "I'm spinning around." Only they weren't.

Tony doesn't even like Kylie - much prefers Christina Aguilera. #

Amused to see the BBC is still terrified of pissing me off. Their new political sitcom, The Thick Of It, has been postponed till after Tony's election.

However, still not happy that it's being shown at all. Armando Iannucci who wrote it, once had the audacity to call Tony weird, and is one of those prats who thinks the world would be better off if Saddam Hussein was still running Iraq. Plus he's had the fucking cheek to base one of the characters on me. When will they learn? #

News reaches me that Greg Dyke, after 40 years support, is to switch allegiance to Charles Kennedy and his band of merry men. After the way they treated me over the Andrew Gilligan affair should come as no surprise.

However, disappointed that he has turned his back on Tony after the support he has given him over the last number of years. Important now to keep other media types on side. #

Received an email at the weekend with details of a website that purports to help you make up your mind how to vote at the General Election. Answer a series of questions and you will be advised to vote for either Labour, The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats or (FFS) UKIP or Green Party.
Completed questionnaire and of course returned a resounding and not unexpected answer of Labour. Unfortunately when I sent details to Tony the software seemed to have malfunctioned. No matter how many times he tried to submit his answers it kept giving the same response: that he should vote Conservative. New technology not to be trusted and have fired off rather colourful email to owners of site telling them so.
While waiting to be fixed have devised my own much simpler test to help you decide what to do on May 5th. Just answer the following question and record your result on a piece of paper. (Cannot do clever tick box bollocks.) Then scroll down to find out who you should vote for.

Who do you think should lead Britain for a historic 3rd term in the next parliament?

a) Tony Blair
b) Michael Howard - a man with a Shadow cabinet, but interestingly, no shadow
c) Charles Kennedy - a tired and emotional new father who's prepared to steal money from his money from his own baby
d) Some faceless, nameless fascist you have never heard of
e) Some faceless, nameless tree-hugger you have never heard of




































If you answered a you should vote for Labour
If you answered b, c, d or e you should stay at home and not vote at all.

Alright - just a little joke - would not want to be accused of dirty tricks campaign. #

Up since 4 am. Couldn't sleep so used time constructively writing to the tossers at the Guardian correcting all the idiotic mistakes they still insist on making. Where do they find these hacks from? Haven't done that for a while and feel much better for doing so.

London Marathon today - Wonder how many of them got sponsorship from George Bush though! #

Re my post of the 13th - did not mean to piss off Kiwis before I've even begun. Supposed to be getting local community on side after all. So therefore, for Kiwi twats, read Kiwi journalist twats. Sure their journalists are just as full of bollocks as all other journalists. Make no apologies for that. #

And note to Kilroy-Silk and Sean Connery - just fuck off. #

Starbucks on Victoria Street for some reason has become an unofficial meeting place for General Election strategy chat. Nothing freaks out those Tory twats though more than me pressing my face to the window and directing the universal sign for onanism at them. So far spotted Oliver Letwin, Tim Collins and even Jonathan Marland, their chief fundraiser, wasting money on skinny-decaf-frappe-latte-bollocks-to-go. He'd be better off using the fucking cash to plug the £15 billion hole in their spending plans.
What's wrong with a good old fashioned cup of Yorkshire tea? I must drink at least 10 cups a day and so it's done me no fucking harm. Thank god Tony understands the photo opportunity benefits of a nice cup of tea in a station café in Northampton.

Note to CK. If you took a leaf out of my book and stayed off the booze maybe you wouldn't stutter so much when answering simple questions regarding your tax policies.
And note to BBC. Stop mentioning Dr fucking Who in your election reports. It's getting tedious you twats. #

Britney Spears is pregnant. Hope Fiona isn't reading this but am devastated! #

Not that they have any bloody chance but the Liberal Democrats have finally launched their excuse of a campaign. Now that Charles Kennedy's had a chance to wet his baby's head. (With a bottle or two no doubt.) What a pile of CRAP. Maybe time to buy some more of those Garbage CDs. Shirley Manson couldn't have timed her comeback better if I'd engineered it myself. #

Evening spent at Calum and Rory's school to open new sports hall with Clive Woodward and answer questions about forthcoming Lions New Zealand tour. Compared to Westminster press lobby piece of fucking cake. Years of practice choosing which questions to take obviously helpful!! Planning to have series of open house sessions in NZ and don't need any of those Kiwi twats asking awkward questions especially if not doing well on the pitch. Also don't need a bloody repeat of the Austin Healey/Matt Dawson farce that happened last time round.
Must find some time getting head round trys, conversions, sin bin etc as to be honest know fuck all about rugby. Suppose some would say I know fuck all about politics but haven't done too badly on that score. #

Persuaded my good mate Alex Ferguson to sign off a piece I wrote for him for Tony's campaign diary. If we can't get the Sun to come down off the fucking fence at least we can get to their readers through the back door and via football managers.

Remember well before the last election that there were rumours (Charlie Whelan was the source I believe) that I'd be out of a job before Tony left No 10 and I might end up working for Alex. How wrong there were! Tony's still here, I'm still here and Alex is working for me!

Off to The Dorchester. Speaking at the Construction Products Association Annual Lunch. #

Alistair Darling is having a great time one upping the former chancellor by telling anyone that will listen(usually Jonathan Sopel on the dreariest politics show on uk tv)that he was right to predict that we wouldn't come out of recession until the turn of the year. Amidst all this new found glee in punditry prowess the fact remains that we are behind both Germany and France in coming out of the recession. On the one hand surely that was to be expected as we have a bigger financial sector. On the other hand-Wait a second- the financial sector includes the institutions which have been deemed 'too big to fail' and aren't they the ones that are once again turning in record profits? So this must leave us asking the question 'how badly is the rest of our economy performing?'. Has bailing out the worst performing sector of the economy left behind a flawed incentive structure with
a permanent effect on the rest of the economy. Time will tell. But it does seem in the light of the new round of bank bonuses that it is not the leanest but rather the 'biggest' businesses which have best survived the recession. It is almost as if evolutionary capitalism has reach such an apex of greed that it has turned to feeding on itself. Once the reward/punishment system breaks down so does capitalism.
Brown's failure to jail key protagonists in the political and financial arena will cost him the election. It is only sad that he is handing over to a political class
which has for years championed the rights of those who would live off the fat of the land. A political class that at each stage of this recession have suggested policies that would have led to a deeper and more prolonged recession.
At the fast food check out of the modern ballot box our choice is limited and it would seem that our politics like our industry is infected with the same malaise: where the biggest parties rather than the emergent best policies gain the vote.
Could there possibly be a better example of 'demeritocracy' than the suggestion that Tony Blair should take over as the president of Europe simply because he is 'a big name.'

As Gordon Brown took to addressing the Trade Unions today one feels the real powerhouse that controls the Labour Party today is actually the huge Banking
Lobby. Having somehow explained away how the invisible hand stole so much and why
we had to bail them out it seems that they have come up with a new ethos 'Quid No Pro'. No-one is denying that they had to be bailed out (apart from the Tory party
of course) but the payback was that they would start lending 'sensibly' as soon as
feasibly possible. Instead banking bonuses are back in the headlines because it
turns out that the banks have realised that with credit your business can return to profitability! The very situation all their small business customers desperately want to be in.
There seems to be complete confusion on how to deal with these institutions.On the one hand the Government doesn't want to force their hand, on the other the government wants institutions to take it upon themselves to lend. Institutions that have shown themselves hopeless at any form of self regulation. The end result
is that NO decisions are being made. The overall effect on the economy will be mass unemployment with the unemployed becoming increasingly unemployable. If banking bonuses
were based on the number of businesses brought back to profitability this could kick start the economy in a positive way. Cuts alone won't reduce this massive deficit and if they are done as a matter of dogma or political bullying it may harm any recovery. We need bold and brash state intervention to kick start this economy (Apparently it works for the Chinese!). That will be probably mean uncomfortable decisions politically on ID Cards and Trident.
However if the stranglehold the City has on government isn't broken by brave politics and if greater financial ingenuity isn't used to correct the incentive schemes for mostly state owned Banks then the UK won't make it through the recession, but London, as some type of Monte Carlo for the very rich,perhaps will.
A more fitting Ethos By Those in Power should be Quid non pro patria?( What would not one do for his country?)

Dear Constituents of Brighton Pavilion,
Although I am NOT David Lepper, I decided to start this blog after reading 'Why Politicians Need Weblogs'.
People had been asking, who the hell is David Lepper, MP, and what does he do all day every day. Well, he has a perfectly acceptable website, run for him by the nice people at ePolitix.com. They keep it nicely updated every month or so, and they put all the important stuff on it, like where I went to school and what bills I voted on last.
But I think there is more to this interweb stuff than that. I mean, what are my views on the Pier that fell into the sea? Fat Boy Slim's beach party? Fatboy Prescott's handling of our new football stadium? Or the fact that the Guardian seems to think that Brighton is the only photogenic seaside destination in the country?
These are pressing issues, alongside reform of the residential leasehold laws and a national park on the south downs.Put simply, a weblog is an online diary. I want to show the people who vote for me how hard I'm working, and attract the majority of those interested in issues I care about.
I may even learn an important thing or two from you in the process.
It's wonderfully organic, and it works. And I need it.
The next election is closer than I think.
Watch this space.
Yours,
(Almost) David Lepper, MP
#

As Gordon Brown was forced into keeping the cabinet largely unchanged, the electorate it seems had already made up their minds a day before that they would vote almost anything other than labour. The big winners were the single issue parties such as the Greens, the BNP and most notably UKIP. Even tiny parties such as The Christian Party picked up 3% of the vote in London alone. Whilst the Labour vote
was expected to collapse it seems that in the light of the Mp's expenses scandal people have registered their disdain by voting for the party that most closely reflects their particular area of concern. The blow for Gordon is that they do what he has been incapable of doing; namely getting their message across. These European elections have only been given significance in the context of a General Election given the scope of Labour's defeat. However a more subtle point, that will be troubling for all the main parties is that people will no longer be voting strictly
along party lines. As people can get information online on a specific candidates
detailed voting intentions on every issue they will refuse to vote for prospective Mp's put up by mainstream parties. They will instead opt for independents or single issue parties. A Euro-sceptic Tory will not vote for a pro-European Tory put up in his or her constituency. Information which in previous years the voter either didn't have or didn't bother with. The power of the political whip will decline as the information age ushers in a new era of micro analysis for each candidate.
Brown will remain safe as long as the premiership is seen as a poisoned chalice by any potential plotter. A year is still a long time in politics, but Labour will
be kicked out 'big style' if they cannot communicate the simple fact that they have the best policies to deal with the recession. Tory failure to have any policies
of note on the economy meant that in real terms their share of the vote increased only by 1% in these European elections even amidst a Labour meltdown.

If Gordon Brown is to maintain any semblance of authority he needs to analyse these expense claims, separate the petty from the fraudulent and sack those that have crossed the line. The real tragedy is that the quite sickening greed of a few may jeopardize the confidence in government that is so necessary at a time of fragile economic recovery. If he doesn't have the political strength to let a few heads roll then he cannot have the political authority to lead us through this recession with all the deep sacrifices that that it will entail for the vast majority
of the British Public. Gordon Brown's cleaner is not the issue here. We are talking about the immeasurable cost to the nation if we do not have a cleaner political system.

One of the most surprising aspects of the budget was the fact that people seem to be surprised at the scale of the borrowing. Almost as if the enormous bank bailouts were somehow not going to be factored in. Yes, this was the budget that would expose how severely we have to pay for the extent of corporate greed. No it hasn't made those responsible pay for the bulk of the damage. The 50% bracket as has widely been reported can easily be bypassed by those who got us in this mess because they are experts in financial engineering. They can easily convert their gains to stocks which would pay the much lower rate of corporate tax. As a nation, this is the moment we realize that the guy who had promised us free drinks at the bar all night was a con artist and has done a runner. Since no-one was keeping tabs its no point having a massive argument about who drank what and when etc. this seems to be the Tory position. They offered many criticisms but no solutions and I still don't understand how without a significant fiscal expansion they would stop this recession
turning into a depression.
TWEET: Labour Bad-tories worse-alternatives non-existent

Usually confined to the open letters section it would be amiss not to post one of the many letters of anger and frustration concerning Mp's expenses. Making us pay
for her husband's porn has touched a very raw nerve at the most inappropriate of economic times. perhaps if she had id monitored her husband this scandal may have been avoided! Below is one of the letters emailed
Dear Gordon Brown,
I am absolutely disgusted that tax payers are paying for MP's husbands "porn" - had it not been for the mole inside Government, we would never have known about this - what I would like to know is who / what else have we been paying for ... hopefully the "mole" will not be caught and we will be allowed to see the full extent of what we are paying for.
I say sack J Smith !!! and get some decent staff in.
Yours faithfully
Caroline Vines

There are many 'ifs' facing Barack Obama and Gordon Brown if they are to succeed in seeing us through the global economic crisis but one thing is for sure, cool heads and decisive action have served both polticians well over the past couple of months. Make no mistake the fundamental challenges are immense but they can be overcome:
If the fiscal stimuli in an increasingly interconnected world are coordinated between countries in their implementation.
If they get the timing right so that they have the maximum impact.
If we can marginalise the views of those who are against borrowing now for a classic Keynsian expansion to kick start the economy (Cameron's position is analagous to a doctor not wanting to use athe defribillator on a patient whose heart has stopped for fear of future electricity bills.)
If we realise how deep this international crisis is and how very interdependant we are as nation states such that no country retreats into isolationism and no country is hampered by oppositions who delay action for political gain.
If we can force the banks to lend to small busineses with pre-crisis elasticity as a price for the huge public bailouts we granted them.
If we accept that economics is a science as well as an art and the decisive manner in which policy is implemented can be equally as important as choosing the correct policies.( Thatcher was against the ERM, Lawson for it.Its not that either position could have been characterized as right or wrong but it was the appearance of a weak government that led to the markets being bold enough to bet against the pound and lead to its collapse.) Statements by George Osborne that there may be a run on the pound are highly irresponsible and can become self fulfilling prophecies. Our politicians must close ranks as they would in a time of war.
If we believe enough in the soaring rhetoric of our politicians such that they can instill hope; a 'rational exuberance' if you like to counterbalnce 'the irrational
exuberance' that has driven us into this wilderness.
If the media can check their cynicism without comprimising their judgement and 'act as men' in seeing their role as leaders too in this battle as guardians of our morale
If we do not neglect the poor;an action which so often leads to revolution and war,
Then indeed as in in the words of Kipling in his great poem 'If' ,the earth can be ours 'and everything that's in it.'

With Gordon Brown's political fortunes fluctuating with the same speed as the markets the Prime Minister may have just had his 'finest hour' following the
US and the European Union deciding to follow his lead in investing in domestic
banks to ease the global liquidity crisis.Praise has even been forthcoming from
the new Noble Prize recipient for economics.Rightfully emboldened Brown conveniently
bypassed PMQs to attend the European Summit to suggest even bolder moves to come up
with a new Bretton Woods for the 21st century.Indeed such global economic agreements
need updating and now may just be the perfect time to implement such changes.This is Gordon Brown at his best a man who understands the economics and has the international clout to implement policy.It is sad that this Brown never emerged as he had so promised in the realm of third world poverty alleviation.One could argue that when thirty thousand children dying every day in third world countries from preventable diseases is not seen as a signal to correct the status quo capitalist system and its self serving instutions such as the IMF and the World Bank-then other massive indicators albeit less moral were bound to be ignored.Cruel irony now that the Fed is now forced into nationalization schemes which are the exact opposite
of what they have been forcing on the most deprived countries.
However in this fast changing world finest hour literally could mean a few days.
Gordon Brown's real test will be to see if he can use this momentum to spearhead changes to the world economic institutions in a way which is more democratic and which addresses the needs of the third world.Furthermore he has the added task of mollifying the oncoming recession in the UK in such a way as to buy him electoral success.

Having repented of the 10p tax debacle Gordon Brown felt,perhaps for the first time in his political career, that the situation was bad enough that he should apologize. Lagging 20 odd points behind the Tories it was time for the American
style personalization of this once great Goliath of British politics. Threatened
by two seamingling annointed David's at the same time (Cameron & Miliband) it was fitting that he should try to kill two bird's with one stone using the soundbyte
'It is no time for a novice'. But this PM who has managed to survive what can only
be describe as a political stoning faces an avalanche of problems to come. Firstly
as a Labour PM he needs to politically justify the bailing out of some of our richest
institutions using taxpayer's money at a time when the gap between rich and poor
in this country has never been greater. Make no mistake this bailout is an economic necessity but if it fails (and much may depend on the speed at which it is implemented both here and in the USA) Labour will cruise to the much forecasted drubbing at the next election. If it succeeds one of two things can happen. Either Brown is credited with being the strong hand that arrested the wonderings of an increasing errant invisible hand of capitlism or people may feel they are rich enough to afford change in the guise of a Tory Government. But the problems don't stop there. This born-again Brown's moral failures on abortion and failing the poorest (in the UK and abroad) has led to the resignation of Ruth Kelly (a staunch Catholic) which has already dented his post conference bounce.
If he wants to borrow from McCain's campaign in
playing the experience card against George Osborne and David Cameron then he needs
to remember that John McCain has coupled that strategy with obtaining the high moral ground. To restore the latter he needs to stop passing the buck when it comes to oil prices. It is no good throwing your hands up in the air and describing it as an exogenous shock to UK economic system when in fact you were part of a government that has paralysed the oil producing capacity of the world's second biggest oil exporter.Furthermore please stop insulting our intelligence by pretending that the PM
can somehow affect the price of oil with a trip to Saudi Arabia. The truth is that the emergence of oil hungry China and India has not happened overnight and should have been adequately accounted for in terms of purchasing reserves.
Furthermore let us not dictate to other countries what they should do with their civilian nuclear programs while we have just sold our's to the French. The French are not to be trusted with our national security as it was they who sold nuclear technology to the Israeli army and started this nuclear standoff in the Middle-East.
But not all is doom and gloom for the Labour Party. If I recall correctly the conservative party were what seemed then an insurmountable 10 points behind Labour this time last year before the Tories turned it around in conference season. My hope is that New Brown if not New Labour delivers on the slogan borrowed from the Obama campaign-Change we can believe in!

So Gordon Brown decided to be a Blair to George Bush in return for a US policy which would be tough on Mugabe and give Brown some sort of foreign policy victory.
One caricaturist portrayed Brown as a lapdog where Bush is seen to be commenting
'this doggy even better than the last one'.One would have thought that it was not ideal timing to give a lecture to the British Public on our 'buy one get one free'
culture of waste.A message that was made all the more farcical once it was revealed that this years G8 summit had cost the hosts £500 million.A figure incidentally which
is greater than the amount Japan (the world's second largest economy) is increasing it's aid by to the world's poorest countries.So little was achieved in this summit
in terms of addressing the issues surrounding our current global environmental and food crisis that analysts have been left with very little to comment on.One thing
the majority of g8 commentators can agree on is that the failure to meet Gleneagles
summit pledges on aid and debt relief will lead to millions of deaths through malnutrition, starvation and disease.
The reason why this reflects so negatively on Gordon Brown is that, Global Poverty, is his Terra Firma.It is the one area where he has pitched himself to be
better than the rest and a potential source of influence on less willing countries.
As it turns out his influence,much like his faltering resolve in the face of global recession,was and is as weak as the will of the lame and by in large domestically weak leaders of the G8.
Brown thought that all these failings could be masked if he could just be seen to be tackling the Zimbabwe situation.However he got royally duped by the Russians
who are incidentally not too pleased that the British legal system is being used to
implicate their president (in all but name) Vladimir Putin.So having given positive signals at the G8 and for a brief instance allowing Gordon to be every bit the statesman that he has for 10 years aspired to be, they pulled the rug from under his feet by vetoing further UN action against Mugabe at the security council.The Russians feel with some justification that given the dropping of charges
against the Saudis in The AL Yamama Bribery scandal, which has made a mockery of the whole British Legal system, the British government can no longer pick and choose where they decide to turn a blind eye for political expediency.

David Miliband could not hide his glee as an audience member on Question Time suggested that Labour may be rescued if he were to take over from Gordon Brown.
why anyone would think that this pale,robotic product of the new labour machine
could benefit the Left or the Labour party is beyond me.the polls have consistently shown that it has been Brown's mismanagement as PM and not Tory strategy that has caused the change in Tory fortunes.it seems that all the qualities that made Gordon
a good chancellor have conspired against him as Prime Minister.Take the 42 day detention for example.Brown would have used classic Game Theory to adopt his position.He thought he had created a win/win scenario for himself in which whatever way the vote went he would have personally looked tough on crime.Factor in the political element with the disastrous loss in Crewe and Nantwich and we are left with a sorry looking politician desperately looking for a win to reassert his authority.it's sad that in this process,the fundamental goalposts of liberty are having to be moved to score an own goal.Having got himself into a mess Brown has
reverted to his now all too familiar prevarication mode.Cruel irony then, that his latest attempt to deflect attention by focusing on knife crime should come at a time when the knives are out for him.

This was the first rule of the revolutionaries that kicked out the tory farmer suppressing the workers in Orwell's Animal Farm.As in the political allegory for all socialist revolutionary movements the more clever workers soon became the oppressors
of the the working class.They soon begin to change their original ideals to benefit themselves;the new elite.You don't have to be a political theorist to see how this applies to the New Labour movement, with the Daily Mail courting Gordon Brown,actually trying to pass a budget that literally took from the poor and redistributed wealth to the rich.Somewhere down the line The fundamental Labour principle of protecting the most needy and vulnerable in our society has been forgotten.this took a macabre twist in the rushing through of the human embryo and fertilisation bill.Despite the demand from many MP's for more time to think about the implications of the human-animal hybrid embryos-this was denied.the most vulnerable in our society,the unborn,will continue to be allowed to be murdered-legally.The Conservative MP who tabled the motion for the reduction of time in the upper limit for abortions rightfully asserted that the womb is the most dangerous place in Britain for a child to be.The motion to not insist that the father is placed
on the birth certificate is nothing short of institutional bastardization of a nation.thankyou Gordon Brown,no doubt the working people of Crewe and Nantwich will let their feelings be known in today's bi-election.

There is 3D evidence that babies feel pain and gruesome stories from medics of what it is actually like to pull a 24 week baby out of a mother's womb and kill it - and yet still Gordon Brown, refused to support a reduction in the age limit of abortions and now gloats over the failure of the amendment to bring the limit down. Why? Because he is a 1970's socialist and the absolute mantra for a committed left-winger on the issue of abortion in that supposedly radical but sad decade was that a woman had a right over what happened to their own bodies. So whatever evidence comes in front of Gordon Brown and his secular colleagues, they cannot bring themselves to demolish an icon that inspired them in the days of their youth.
The sad irony of all this is that while Gordon Brown's first specialist subject was History, he can not see the larger historical forces working on him. He is simply being swept along by all the half baked ideals that filled smoked filled Junior Common Rooms in the Seventies. Those ideals dreamed of creating a fairer world, but just as the early Christian Socialism of Keir Hardie later got enmeshed with atheistic Marxism, so too the idealism of the left in the Sixties married itself heart and soul to a strident anti establishment secularism that had no room for Christianity. This was because Christianity, as caricatured in simplistic films like 'If', was part and parcel of a hypocritical establishment that according to the wise young men of the universities had brought about the havoc of two world wars and the seemingly appalling gap between rich and poor. Capitalism and religion belonged together, so in the new utopia planned by Gordon Brown and his fellow socialists, religion would have to take a back seat. A part of the perceived oppressiveness of Christianity was against women. It was a paternalistic faith, wanting to keep the woman at home and inferior to men. And so chorused along by the hedonistic voices of Jagger et al ( who of course had the deepest respect for the female sex ) the right for a woman to an abortion became a part of the creed for all those who wanted to remove this terrible Christian establishment.
Very conveniently for these young men their campaign against oppressive Christianity meant they could also attack Christian teaching on sex. The left-winger was very concerned by the poor - and would patronisingly pat the church on the back for its record of aid - but he had no time at all for the church's teaching that free sex was wrong. Back in history honest sinners have enjoyed sex without commitment, but have known it wasn't very honourable. But now it was all a part of tearing up the establishment that had caused such apparent oppression. To be lustful was to be 'liberal'. And if the lust led to unwanted pregnancies - well it was for the woman to decide, for the foetus belongs to her.
The tragedy in all this is that the post-war reaction against the Christian establishment, though understandable, was completely unjustified. Sure there was hypocrisy, but by and large, it was Christianity that had sustained Britain against the Nazis - indeed Churchill had said it was a matter of fighting for 'Christian civilisation'. And yet Gordon Brown's generation was unable to see that in reality the youth movement of the 1960's was essentially shallow and a part of a natural historical reaction to the war years and instead dressed it all up in pseudo philosophising that has unleashed an unprecedented attack on Christian values.
Gordon Brown was very much a part of all this - both at a public and personal level. Publicly he has never condemned the shallow pleasure seeking of his generation, nor spoken out for Christian family values in the market place. Instead he has simply parroted the mantras of his age which support free sex and tragically killing living babies. Privately he is not the son of the Manse he likes to claim he is. Unlike Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair who were both privately practising Christians, Gordon Brown is by design spiritually ambiguous.
Gordon Brown can perhaps be proud of his economic socialism. He has shifted vast amounts of wealth from the rich to the government and some of that has reached the poor. But there is nothing for him to be proud about tonight as he goes contemplates his victory over those who wanted to bring the age limit of abortion down. Instead he has shown himself to have never matured from the student mantras that demanded in the name of liberal socialism that men have sex, women have abortions, and babies die. T.Hawksley

Brown must shoulder some of the blame for labour's mauling in the local elections.what started as a cheap jibe by the opposition about his dithering
has become a political reality.this reality was magnified by his disastrous
trip to america where he publicly declared that the world owes George Bush
a great debt.A quite phenomenal U-turn on his original frostiness towards
a man who has plunged his country and the planet into great turmoil.a billion of the worlds poorest people live on less than a dollar a day.they typically spend 70%
of that dollar on food;so a doubling of food prices means starvation for the worlds's very poorest,hence the unrest.So a more accurate account of events would say that the world has been thrown further into indebtedness as a result of Bush's policies.On the domestic front people are also beginning to feel the pinch as the cost of living has spiralled out of control.naturally this has been taken out on the goverment at a time when they have so lost their moral compass that they are taking money out of the pockets of the poor in this country to subsidise headline grabbing tax cuts.Brown says he will listen but you can tell by his demeanour that he'd rather not.And it's this demeanour ,what with the faked smiles and mistimed over-politicking that has cost Labour dear.Gordon Brown's failure to grasp the nettle on matters such as world poverty despite all his grandstanding on the issue has eaten into what was perceived as his core strength;substance.the world bank recently announced that the fight against poverty has been set back by as much as seven years.
That's probably an understatement and given that Brown has been tring to the tackle this matter for over ten years it has left him looking very incompetent.coupled with a poor PR team that has failed to reign in in his obsession with courting the right at the expense of his core base the UK could be heading for further misery in the shape of a Tory Government.The only silver lining for Labour is that they may be outdone in the sphere of incompetence by Boris Johnson ,the only manifestation
of Tory power since the conservatives were thrown out in 1997.

It seems the culture of greed is so endemic amongst MPs on all sides of the house that they will do anything to stop the details of their expense accounts coming out.
Tonight, after a tribunal had agreed that the expense accounts of some of the more prominent MPs should be made public,they are further using taxpayers money to appeal the decision.Even the congenial speaker of the house has been caught up in this scandal.Any dissenting voices have been roundly booed.the mighty insult that is added to an already injured electorate is that we are talking about details of out-of-pocket expenses for their SECOND homes.There must be an ex-machina system whereby
MPs don't get to vote on their own salaries and don't get to decide their own punishments when rules have been broken.the police and courts must get involved to dole out fitting punishment for those who have grossly misused taxpayers money.the citizen's
equivalent of this crime is fiddling our taxes and i can't imagine that the Inland revenue would let any one of us get away with mild censure.

Campaigners have expressed disappointment at the UK government's
decision last week not to withhold any World Bank funding over the
harmful conditions attached to debt relief. Despite the best efforts
of over 10,000 campaigners, Norway was the only country to withhold
any funds in protest at the World Bank's continuing practice of
forcing economic policies on poor countries. The UK had promised a
tough stance, but paid up in full.

First it was Lord Levy(of cash for honours fame),who acted as Tony Blair's middle east envoy which in turn
led to a disastrous mid-east policy now it seems that David Abrahams has taken on the same mantle to Gordon Brown.The bottom line is the same;jewish money controlling Uk foreign policy decisions.It was unconvincing at best when Gordon brown claimed that he knew nothing of the money given by bernie eccleston for the Tobacco Lobby.
It's even less convincing now when he claims that he knew nothing of Abraham's proxy
payments of over £600,000.Businessmen don't give money away for free.Abraham's reported claims that he knows people in Hamas and his active involvement with the jewish lobby in the Uk makes his payments all the more sinister.The true source of all payments to Political parties need to made transparent if the Uk is not to follow
the american political system which is crippled by the power of the Israel lobby
when it comes to making unfettered decisions vis a vis the peace process and foreign policy.

The scale of the security breach that has left 25 million persons
personal data available to id thieves is frankly inexcusable.the government say
that there is no evidence of theft yet,but the very fact the her majesty's
revenue and customs sees it fit to use a courier to transfer such sensitive material
means the consequence for future trust and such schemes as ID cards is negative.
its difficult to see how any of us can feel completely safe without changing
our details.why did junior officials have access to download such details that have left nearly ALL of us exposed to having our identities stolen.For now the government have urged all of us to be on the lookout for irregular banking patterns and a very valuable disk!the government really should be on the lookout for a new chancellor.

So said Shakespeare in King Lear.No line more aptly states the state of play when it comes to justice in the UK.there is clearly one rule for the rich and one for the poor.there was much pontification over rolling out the red carpet for the Saudi monarch but in truth he could have ordered a red carpet with blue stars if he had wanted.
there was something of an arrogant assumption that it was the UK government that had dictated the terms of the visit.Saudi Arabia managed to stop the wheels of British justice over the BAE/AL Yamamah investigation with the promise of another $20 billion
jet purchase.The hypocrisy lies in the fact that Gordon Brown is playing Tony Blair to US's new aggressive stance on Iran with the same expediant selectivity.No one has been prosecuted over British involvement in the construction of Israel's illegal Nuclear weapon program even though the damning evidence has become available under the freedom of information act.
This same sort of corruption has permeated our daily judicial judgements.Cash for Honours -Forget it-Ant and Dec's £8 million daylight robbery phone scam-Not even considered for prosecution.Taxed daily with illegal bank charges which none of us have the individual will or resources to question.Makes you Think!What were to happen
if a pensioner failed to make a heating Bill...I don't think he or she would be as lucky as the government's richer clients.
Gordon Brown pictured himself as the heir to John Smith so far he has failed on so many counts.Getting increasingly involved with trying to out tory David Cameron
He's let down the Labour Party and the population at large.We have become tired of and sensitive to PR and Spin but Gordon Brown has become increasingly reliant on it.
For example he constantly alludes to his Presbytarian upbring but has never made a
public declaration of his Christian faith.He's talked so much on alleviating third world debt but has continually failed to deliver.Our troops are not quite out yet not 'quite in' when it comes to Iraq.He cancelled the Super Casino but has allowed a casino via tv and internet to be placed in virtually every home in the country.the list goes on...
Ironically, for the former Iron Chancellor he needs to move away from the weak alloy of Tory/Labour policy and return to the 'aspiration' of Conviction politics.

if this image was on the front page of 'The Sun'you can bet your bottom dollar that
Gordon Brown would have agreed to put forward legislation reducing the 24 week time limit on abortions.As for conviction politics well that myth has been finally put to
rest by the ridiculous state of affairs whereby in one room in a hospital now doctors can be tryining to save a child's life while in another they may be terminating the life of a child at of exactly the same age.we saw earlier this year the survival of a child at 21 weeks.even david steel who was the sponsor of the original
abortion bill has said that the scandalous 200,000 abortions a year in the uk means that people are using abortions as a means of contraception.surely in an age where the 4d ultrasound speaks on behalf of the voiceless child in the womb this is a crime without parallel.check out some of the video images of the baby in the womb to the right tomake up your own mind about this issue.

Gordon Brown Has recipe to remain PM and decides to bottle it.Anyone who has analysed Brown's politics over the last twenty years could have guessed that he will
always air on the side of caution.what filtered through all the hype and spin though is that Brown is no just intent on beating the Tories he is not satisfied unless he utterly crushes them.a point missed by the mainstream media is that a cameron defeat this year may not have signalled the end of him as a tory leader but a brown victory 2 years down the line will.this may be welcome for labour as cameron shows himself to be
better than his predecessors in confronting an economically successful government.

I raise a paw in welcome to anyone who has reached me because of James Graham's article on the Lib Dem blogosphere.

My original blog, which he describes as the very first Lib Dem Blog, can be found here.