When leaking gets boring

I am bored of Wikileaks. I am bored of Julian Assange (who, I have to admit, for a long time I thought was called Julian Le Singe inducing images of Monsieur Lavisse trying to coax a monkey from a tree in Cours Illustré de Francais livre 1). I really don’t know what the organisation’s current campaign is all about or what it is trying to achieve. None of the revelations are actually that revealing. Today’s release of cables relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber tell us nothing new, although they do underline that the American administration didn’t understand devolution which isn’t so terrible, most of the UK media don’t get it either. No big cover ups have been uncovered, no allegations of torture have been made, no plots have been made public. All we have learnt over the past couple of weeks is that American diplomats send back frank reports on all manner of meetings to the State Department. Well, I should hope so – it is part of the job. They should absolutely be free to report as they wish. What we don’t want to encourage is a culture of secrecy in which nothing is committed to paper and entered into the formal record and people rely instead on conversations. This does not make for good government - a goal I believe I share with Wikileaks and Mr Assange.

Put me out of this Widdie nightmare . . .

I breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday evening. Ann Widdecombe was finally knocked out of Strictly. She was truly dreadful – incapable of dancing, unable to keep the beat and not a ounce of humility, no recognition that better dancers than her (that is everyone else) were being eliminated. The woman can’t dance and I didn’t find her entertaining. But you know what I held my tongue. But, I can do so no longer. The first testing on my patience came on yesterday’s Today programme. It wasn’t Jim Naughtie’s spoonerism that offended me but his piece about 20 minutes later about Widdecombe leaving the show. We were “treated” to 1 min 32 of puffery, ending with the words “delightful”. When was it decided that Ann Widdecombe was a national treasure? I don’t remember being asked. I would have campaigned against. Apart from her disservce to the world of dance, let us not forget that she is a climate change denier, consistently voted against equal rights for homosexuals and when a minister order female prisoners to be shackled to their beds during labour. Stephen Fry she ain’t. Won’t someone please make her exit stage right?

Cameron's personal photographer - it was all in vain

For those sitting in Downing Street yesterday there were a number of reasons to cheer the announcement of the Royal Engagement, with “gosh aren’t we delighted for the happy couple?” being just one. The blanket coverage (which quickly descended into ridiculousness with the rolling news programmes grabbing anyone vaguely posh looking or who be within six degrees of Wills and Kate to hear their views on the glad tidings) meant that the settlement of cases brought against the British government by Guantanamo detainees was barely mentioned. Also scarcely warranting remark was the news that Cameron has decided that the hiring of a personal photographer and a film maker on the public purse might be sending the wrong message during this time of austerity. Yes, less than a month after news of these two appointments first came out, the Prime Minister has had a change of heart. Why he even thought it was a good idea in the first place, goodness only knows. He is not the President of the United States or Katie Price, we do not need or indeed want every moment of his day however intimate to be captured for posterity. And we certainly don’t need for it to be paid for by taxpayers’ money. Thankfully, Dave has seen the error of his ways but one has to ask why on earth didn’t someone on his coms team stop the appointments in the first place?

The great British tradtion of protesting . . .

I was talking to someone yesterday who had watched the building across the street from his office being picketed. He was quite bemused and asked me, very innocently, how much I thought they were paid for a day's demonstrating. I tried very hard to keep a straight face and explained that in general people protest because they feel strongly about something. He couldn't imagine feeling so strongly about something that he would take to the streets. I was stunned - I have been demonstrating since I was a babe in arms and continue to do so. Indeed this weekend I will be out in Finchley to kick the BNP out of N3. But of course, I realise that I am in a minority. There is no tradition of demonstrating your support of or opposition to something by marching, picketting or leafleting. Brits don't build barricades, they don't set light to effigies (apart from Guy Fawkes and the political significance of that particular conflagration has long been forgotten). Occasionally something will really upset folk here and hundreds of thousands of people will take to the streets - the ban on hunting, the Iraq war, G20. But most of the time most people not matter how provoked simply shrug, thinking "not much I can do about it". In France, of course, they will take to the streets at the drop of a chapeau. They have been engaged in practically hand-to-hand combat over the raising of the pension age by two years. Here the pension age is going up six years for women and the response - loud tutting. As if to prove me wrong, as I write this student protesters are storming Millbank Tower. A rare example of things kicking off here or evidence of a change in attitude?

Hampering higher education

I have never been a fan of tuition fees. I argued against them when I worked in government and I remain unpersuaded. My opposition is hardly surprising I suppose. I come from a family of modest means, I have been raised to abhor debt and pay my way. The prospect of paying large tuition fees after I graduated would have certainly stopped my going to LSE at the age of 18. It would have made a difference. I probably wouldn’t have worked in the third and public sectors and probably would have stayed in banking (a dark period in my career).

I am realist and understand that no government now is going to abolish tuition fees. But the Con-Dems should think again about this latest foray into high education funding. Raising fees will make a difference. We already know that children from poorer backgrounds are less likely to take on high levels of debt – this is one of the reasons why youngsters in affluent areas are five times more likely to go to university than their counterparts in the poorest areas – it’s not just about the quality of education and aspiration. I don’t buy the “a degree increases your earning potential” argument. I am no economist (in spite of having a degree from LSE) but surely graduates can only command higher salaries when there are fewer of them? With more and more people graduating won’t their market value decline? Graduate unemployment is currently running at 8.9 per cent – the highest it has been for 17 years. What does that say something about earning potential? And should we be placing such a great emphasis on graduates getting high paid jobs? Don’t we need graduates to want to become teachers, health care professionals, tax inspectors and social workers and all those other occupations where the prospect of making vast amounts of readies is very low?

Yes, we need to increase access to higher education, but these measures aren’t going to encourage members of underrepresented groups to fill in a UCAS form.

RIP David Kelly

Can I be the only one who thinks it distasteful and unnecessary for the government to have released the port-mortem report on David Kelly? His family and friends were not happy about it, Lord Hutton specifically ruled that it should remain confidential. So why was it released? It hasn't silenced the conspiracy theorists. Far from it, it gave them another opportunity to vent. They are not the sort of people to let evidence and the conclusive findings of the report that Kelly took his own life, get in the way of their view that the poor man was killed by the government. I have heard more than one accuse Alastair Campbell of actually committing the act himself. Enough already. It was a tragic death, but it was suicide. Can we stop raking over this unfortunate soul's bones and allow him to rest in peace?

George gets his axe out

So Gorgeous George finally had his day. After months of anticipation, yesterday he revealed the size of his axe. And my, wasn’t it big? £81 billion worth of cuts, with many departments taking massive hits to protect spending of health, education and defence. The Departments of Communities and Local Government will have to cope with cuts of 68 per cent, god alone knows how it will survive.

If the Chancellor appeared unperturbed by the fact that the cuts will lead to 490,000 public sector job losses, he looked completely overjoyed to be slashing the welfare budget by £18 billion. For as well as blaming Labour for the financial mess in which we now find us, he also attributes responsibility to those who make a lifestyle choice to live off the state. I have yet to meet anyone who has chosen to survive on £65.45 per week (or £51.84 if you are lucky enough to be under 25) but I am sure that Mr Osborne knows loads of them. That is presumably why he has declared war on benefit scroungers and cheats and is taking tough action to tackle the cost of benefit fraud which he estimated at £5 billion (a number which is somewhat at odds with the DWP’s own figures something we will ignore for the time being but see Cathy Newman for an explanation if you are interested). He has been talking about it for weeks including several of the 61 minutes of yesterday’s speech and was banging on about it again on morning on the Today programme.

It is important for everyone to have an enemy and all those people living the life of Riley at taxpayers’ expense are his. But many of his Lib Dem colleagues are less comfortable with his choice of villain. They would rather that the government tackled tax cheats – and apparently it is. For during his speech Mr O did reveal (albeit sotto voce) that £900 million would be invested at the HMRC to tackle tax evasion and fraud which costs us, wait for it, a staggering £7 billion – yes, that is £2 billion more than benefit fraud. Now you will be forgiven for not being aware of this since it barely got a mention in the post-review briefings by Government ministers or in the media coverage. One does wonder why there is less interest in this war. . .

Conference Seasonal Affected Disorder

Another year, another conference season done and dusted. This year was more gruelling than previous ones since the advent of the Con-Dem coalition meant that I had to endure two days in Liverpool at the Lib Dem Conference as well as two in Manchester with the comrades before the final round in Birmingham with Dave and the boys. On the positive front it was good to stay in big cities that can cope with thousands of conference goers without collapsing – the hotels are clean, they aren’t a rip off and you can get a decent meal. Anyone who has experienced a Blackpool or Bournemouth conference will understand just how important these things are.

But what of the conferences themselves? Well, a couple of observations. The first sartorial: a quick look around each of the conference halls revealed that Lib Dem delegates still favour the comedy tie and the novelty waistcoat, at Labour there were a plentiful supply of anoraks in anoraks and the ICC in Birmingham has distinguished by the large numbers of woman who wearing clothes run up from curtain material and men in chalk stripe, double-breasted suits. Oh, dear, oh dear (or Doe a dear for the Tory ladies).

On a more serious note, it was depressing just how few ethnic minority delegates attended the Lib Dem conference. Yes there were a few black faces in the crowd but once you eliminated consultants like me, others on commercial passes and journalists, I reckon you would have had just a handful of party delegates who weren’t white. The fact that the Conservatives have done better at recruiting ethnic minority activists should be a source of great shame to the party, hang your head Nick Clegg. Not that we should be getting too excited about the number of black people at the ICC, it was nothing like representative of the population but at least it felt that the party recognises it needs to take active steps to make it more so.

As for the atmosphere, there was a good deal of excitement and congratulation at the Lib Dem conference but it also felt like few, including minister or two, had grasped the reality that they were in government and were now responsible for things. The Labour conference felt flat and out of sorts. At first people were working out what the election of Miliband, E would mean for the party and when they worked out that it would mean the departure of Miliband, D a grey cloud descended over Manchester. I went to Birmingham expecting much celebrating – after all the party is back in power after 13 long years. And yes, people were delighted to be back in, to have beaten Labour. But they were also a bit subdued and that was before the child benefit debacle which got so many of their backs up.

Goodbye to all that

Just a few days after Ed Miliband appears centre stage, his older brother exits stage right.

Let’s be honest the departure of David Miliband from frontline British politics was inevitable. At least it has been since Saturday when he lost the election for leadership of the Labour Party. Anyone observing the man who has carried the mantle of “future leader” of the party for over a decade as his defeat was made public will have seen grief behind the brave face. It was the face of a man who in that moment realised that not only had he lost the leadership but that it was going to be impossible for him to remain in the Shadow Cabinet. Not because of any policy differences he might have with his brother (which in truth are few in number) but because of the simple fact that he is better than is brother. He is a more experienced and polished politician – you just have to compare their performances on the conference platform on Monday (David) and Tuesday (Ed). He knows that as long as he is around, the predictable comparisons between the two siblings would not play in the favour of the new leader and having lived through the turbulent Blair/Brown relationship he understands just how distracting and destabilising that kind of tension can be. So this fine and clever man is bowing out. It is a great loss to the Labour Party and to British politics as a whole. On a human level, it is a tragedy.

But let us not forget that to a large extent David M is the author of his own demise. Over the past three and a half years, he had at least three opportunities to become leader and squandered them. And even if you give him credit for not challenging Brown (which some people do), then you have to question the campaign he ran over the summer. His team assumed he was going to win and acted accordingly. There were a few too many complaints from Shadow ministers and backbenchers about complacency, high-handedness and even arrogance. There is also a sense that just when Ed was going full steam ahead, David had taken his foot off the accelerator. He lost it. And so joins the ranks of the likes of Richard Crossman and Michael Heseltine who did not live up to their political potential. Indeed perhaps David is the Portillo of this generation.

Quelle connerie

I love France. I love the countryside. I love Paris. I love the food, the wine, the literature. I occasionally love the music (who can resist having a little bop to Joe le Taxi?). But I have to admit that the French can be dodgy. Well I say the French, but of course I don’t mean the entire populate of La Belle France. I suppose I am directing my accusations at the French establishment.

Only in France could they claim that the expulsion of Roma people (which has by the way been going on for over a year – sometimes as many as 1000 a month being deported to Romania and Bulgaria) was to preserve public order. President Sarkozy and his chums would have us believe that Roma camps were seething with all manner of criminal activity from prostitution and drug trafficking to organised begging and street crime and that there was nothing wrong with rounding up hundreds of people at a time, bunging them each €300 (€100 for a child) and bungling them on to a plane to Eastern Europe. And for over a year, they got away with it. The protests of human rights organisations which accused the French of deliberately targeting Roma people and breaching European freedom of movement legislation in order to shore up Nicolas’ falling poll ratings went largely unheard.

But, finally, they have been busted. We now have the evidence of a leaked a memo from the Minister of the Interior effectively confirming that Roma camps should be the target of police activity. This has finally prompted one of the angriest responses from an EU Commissioner that I have ever seen. Yesterday, Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding gave France the full hairdryer treatment to France. Condemning the expulsions as a “disgrace ”, she declared that her “ This is a situation, I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the second world war.” She is threatening the French with legal action which could result not just in very large fines but, especially for a country so enamored with the European project, the huge embarrassment that would go with it. Génial.

Burn baby burn

What a strange world this has become. The behaviour of an eccentric pastor has prompted intervention from the President of the USA, the US Secretaries of State and Defence Secretary and the Commander of USA and allied forces in Afghanistan. Yes Terry Jones (presumably not a Python) whose Florida flock numbers around 50, has provoked a storm around the world with his promise to burn copies of the Koran tomorrow, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in protest at plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero. I am far from clear whether Pastor Jones will carry out his stunt tomorrow – there appears to be a great deal of confusion. Earlier reports that he was cancelling because the plans to build the centre had apparently been shelved. However, it later emerged that the centre is still on, so he had put his protest on hold. It may well be that he has abandoned them again. Regardless of whether Korans are burnt or not, that fact that Obama, Clinton, Gates, and Petraeus have all become embroiled in Jones's nonsense illustrates perfectly the power of the 24-hour media in which we now live. Terry Jones’s medieval gesture has been given air-time and these leaders felt compelled to respond. Their audience was less citizens of the USA rather than the rest of the world, particularly the Muslim world; their message that the enemy is not Islam but bombers and terrorists. In the world before rolling news, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, communications advisers would have counselled against getting involved – “don’t give the crazies the oxygen of publicity,” they would say. And in those days they were right. But it would just take one of Terry’s zealots to upload footage of the conflagration from their video-phone to the internet, even responsible broadcasters feel obliged to cover it and suddenly people around the world are being persuaded to believe that the whole of the US was ablaze with burning Korans. So Obama, who has far better and more important things to be doing, is forced to get stuck in. Not a happy position to be in.

Tea is for drinking

Like many others, I am growing increasingly concerned about the rise of the Tea Party Movement in the USA. Tea parties have been the focus for grass roots Republican activity and have been taking place across the US over the past 18 months or so. They are informal, local gatherings bringing together those who oppose President Obama’s health, economic, environmental, well all his policies. I am a believer in democracy so why am I alarmed by the movement? Normally I would be welcoming the fact that it is engaging tens of thousands of people in politics even if I don’t agree with its policy positions. But this feels different. Listen to the language, feel the mood. It feels to me that there more than the hint of bigotry amongst the tea party-goers in spite of a recent attempt to hijack the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. I am also really uncomfortable about political movements that invoke God which is what prominent tea party champion and Fox News broadcaster Glenn Beck did at a rally in Washington on the anniversary of Dr King’s “I have a dream” speech”. I am pretty sure that if God does exist s/he would not endorse one party over another.

New Year, new job

So, here we are again in September and the start of a new year (well it is for anyone involved in education or politics). I always think it is a wonderful time of year, full of promise. Of course, it is sad to bid farewell to the long, heady days of summer but the thrill of the new year helps ease the pain. This year, I start the new term at a new company. On Monday I start at The Communication Group where I will be heading up the public affairs side of the business. It is a long established company with a great reputation and I am looking forward to joining the team. Naturally I am somewhat apprehensive - a whole new set of colleagues and clients to meet and know, new processes to get to grips with. And I know that I will really miss my old team and indeed my former clients but I am also incredibly excited at the prospect starting afresh. I just hope that the tea culture is not too different. Wouldn't it be terrible if they didn't enjoy a brew as much as I do?

Liberia - the end of the first chapter

So here I sit, bleary-eyed, at Brussels Airport again. It is early morning, very early morning. I left Monrovia last night after an amazing stay in Liberia. I loved it. Yes, it has challenges, huge ones, but there is a really positive feel to the place which I just hadn’t anticipated. I was expecting it to be wrought with tension, the brutal civil war ended just a few years ago after all. But walking around the streets of the city, eating in cafes, going into shops, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. I am not naïve, I know that that doesn’t mean everything is fine and dandy. People are poor, unemployment levels are high, life is hard. Next year’s elections will be a real test of whether the peace can last but I have no reason to believe it won’t. People talk politics with a passion which, coming from the UK with our depressingly high levels of apathy, I think is fantastic. But I didn’t get any sense that their passion reflects or indeed is creating massive friction within communities. It really is amazing. You only have to look at Northern Ireland to appreciate just how amazing it is. Yes there has been a massive improvement in community relations in the 12 years since the Good Friday Agreement, but for many years the tension in many neighbourhoods was palpable, in a few it still is. So I am giving Liberians a gold star for looking forward and hope that they continue to do so. I hope I will get another chance before too long to see how they are doing.

Liberia - the story so far

So I have been here a few days now, working with an NGO to help build communications capacity in the President's office. It has been interesting and challenging work. I have been talking to lots of people, drafting protocols, writing strategies and running workshops. I am loving it. What is always wonderful about working in a different country is discovering unexpected cultural differences. One of the team here (she is British) was talking to a Liberian colleague about prioritising issues. She started talking about instituting a traffic light system, with each issue given a red, amber or green flag dependent on their urgency. She started to grow slightly alarmed by the blank look on her colleague's face. How was this a difficult concept to grasp? She tried to explain again. More blank looks and then it dawned on her - they don't have traffic lights in Liberia. A concept that we use in the UK all the time makes absolutely no sense here. It does make you wonder how much else we take for granted when we speak. In a country where they don't play cricket, would they necessarily know what I mean when I talk about getting on the front foot? It reminds me of the look on by American friend's face when driving down a highway in the US, I commented on the trees that had been planted on the central reservation . . .

Flag Day in Monrovia

So yesterday was Flag Day here in Liberia, a public holiday to honour the national pennant. The flag itself (The Lone Star) is from the family of flags based on the Stars and Stripes and Liberians are very proud of it. It was an excellent holiday. Lots of children parading in their uniforms, speeches and prizes. Moreover, it meant that I had a day to explore Monrovia, a vibrant, busy city. On the face of it, strangers could be forgiven for not immediately spotting that the country had been ravaged by a civil war that only really came to an end about six years ago. Shops and businesses are open, markets are bustling and ships are being unloaded at the port. But take a closer look and you will see burnt out buildings all around town. One of the most incredible is the old Hotel Africa, a vanity project of President Tolbert,built to host the 1979 Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Summit. The hotel complex had swimming pool in the shape of Africa and 51 beach villas, one for each African head of state. It cost US$ 36 million, a staggering amount especially then, especially given the economic plight of the country. Today it is a ruined shell, gutted by months of bombardment during the last years of the civil war and subsequently stripped of everything from the tiles on the walls to the copper pipes of the plumbing system. As for the beach villas, well most of them have fallen into the sea.

Liberia - the adventure begins

So first impressions - hot, sticky, damp. I have arrived in the middle of the heaviest rainy season for years. It is a bit like being in a Somerset Maughan story.

The country is still recovering from years of a brutal civil war. The first President to be elected democratically and fairly, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, came into power in January 2003 and her government is desperately trying to rebuild the country. The challenges are huge to say the least. Roads, power and clean water are still in short supply, especially outside the capital. They need more medical workers, more teachers, more professionals across the board. The process of reconciliation and nation building is necessarily slow. People needs jobs. But based on my first hours in the country, it would appear that they have hope. And that has to be a good foundation.

Do you still get a UB40?

Technically, I am unemployed. I left Grayling at the end of July and don’t start my new job (more about which later) until September. So August has been mine – five whole weeks to use as I choose. Free time is a luxury I haven’t enjoyed since 2003 when I left Downing Street and had a month or so before I joined Grayling. It is also a luxury I struggle to enjoy completely. I get bored easily. I spent the first two weeks of freedom on holiday in France (a week in the hills near St Emillion and another in Biarritz). It was wonderful – sunshine, good food, good wine, good company – in spite of the eye-watering exchange rate.

Last week was, however, very different. I spent the week on what you might describe as personal admin – I registered for a course, sorted out my ISA, renewed the buildings insurance on my flat, had a bit of a tidy of said flat. Dull, dull, dull. I did spend some time with my niece and nephew (Toy Story 3 is very good but don’t bother with the 3D version), which was very enjoyable but the rest of week was boring. If it hadn’t been for the hours of television I had saved on Sky+ I am not sure how I would have managed.

I have greater expectations for the coming week. I am writing this at Brussels Airport where I am waiting to catch a flight to Monrovia (via Accra). Yes, I am en route to Liberia where I am going to do some pro bono work with an NGO. It is all very exciting. All I can be sure of is that the high levels of humidity there (naturally it is the rainy season) mean that my hair will be huge. I will report on it and my other adventures over the coming days.

[Actually WiFi in Brussels airport did not allow me to upload this yesterday so I am doing so now from Monrovia overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and yes the barnet is big.]

No tea for racist Griffin

The words "good on the Queen" are not ones I would normally utter. They rank alongside "I just can't get enough of the gym" and "I love it when it is cold". But today, I feel I can. Ok the chances are it wasn't QEII herself that issued the decree (but wouldn't have been brilliant if it was) but Buckingham Palace today told the racist Nick Griffin that he was no longer welcome at this afternoon's garden party. Why was he invited in the first place is a good question. The answer apparently is that he is an MEP representing the North East of England and as such gets an automatic invitation. However, Griffin was a bit too cocky about the invitation, he blogged about it, he boasted about it, he invited his racist supporters to suggest topics of conversation he could raise should he meet Her Majesty "over the cucumber sandwiches". This vulgar and unpleasant behaviour gave Palace officials all they needed to uninvite the man, on the grounds that he had abused the invitation, using it for overtly political purposes and thus increasing the security threat and discomfort for other guests. Griffin of course wasted no time in scuttling over to the nearest broadcast studios to attack the Palace and the liberal media for being undemocratic. Quite the reverse, for the first time in a long time I feel my views have been represented. Well done, Liz.

Burqa banning bonkerness

So the French are moving towards banning the wearing of the burqa in public. last week the French National Assembly passed a bill prohibiting the wearing of full faced veils in public. The legislation will have to be approved by the Senate before becoming law - there is a vote scheduled in September. Apparently there is a large degree of public support for the ban in France where it is being positioned almost as feminist measure, empowering Muslim women to throw off the shackles of their oppressive male relatives. While I am sympathetic to that view, the ban in my view is bonkers. French law makers assume that this form of dress is being adopted as a result of coercion when the evidence would suggest that in France at least the few women who do wear full veils are choosing to do so on their own volition. It may be inexplicable to many of us, but that doesn't stop it being true. The fact is that lots of people wear lots of thigns which we find inexplicable. The pre-pubescent teens wearing micro-minis, the men who are old enough to know better trying to get away with low slung jeans, clogs - I don't get any of these but there is no justification for banning them. Just as there is none for banning the burqa.

Peer review

Well, what a month! For political enthusiasts (ok, geeks) like me, the past few weeks have been tense and intense. Now that the dust is beginning to settle, we have time to think about some of the changes the new government wishes to make. Some of them good, some of them bad. Some will look more far reaching than they actually are. And some will completely transform our democracy. One such change is reform of the House of Lords. As a passionate democrat, you would think that I would be in favour of a wholly-elected Upper Chamber. And I am pretty sure I should be. But I am not. I believe that there is a role for appointed peers. I don't mean peers who get to wear ermine as a leaving present from the House of Commons but peers who are are appointed because of their experience and contribution to civic society. Peers like Joel Joffe, Robert Winston, Helen Hayman, David Ramsbotham, Mary Warnock and dozens like them. They bring real expertise and offer a completely different perspective which I fear would disappear in a wholly elected Chamber. So if asked, I will be saying yes let's review and reform the system but let's not throw any babies out with the bathwater.

Disappointing Dave

So Dave is within a hair’s breadth of getting the keys to Number 10. He stands on the brink of being the first Conservative Prime Minister of the 21^st Century, Labour’s share of the vote has declined and Cleggstacy has failed to materialise. The boy’s done well – or has he? Far be it from me to be churlish or partisan but I can't help but wonder if his achievement is that great. Last year, I was huddled in various darkened rooms (ok pubs) with people from both Labour and Conservative who are paid to know about this sort of thing speculating about how many seats above 100 the Tories would get and how many terms (two or three) Labour would be out. My Labour chums were practically suicidal (though they wouldn't admit it now) and the Tories were trying desperately hard not to seem smug. Dave was the golden boy, Gordon Brown was a disaster and Clegg was a no mark. There was no way he could lose. And now? Ok he hasn't really lost but he hasn't really won either. So, you have to ask, has Dave thrown it away? I wouldn't like to say, but if I were a Tory donor I might be forgiven for wondering if I had got value for my money.

Ho hung

So after what seems like an aeon of campaigning (it was really only three weeks) the people have spoken. The only problem is no-one can quite work out what they have said. With almost all the results in, the only thing that is clear is that no party has an overall majority. So now we have a hung parliament and the leaders of the three parties have spent the morning resisting the temptation to play party politics and instead have put the national interest first. They have had varying degrees of success.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, was to the first to set out his stall. A disappointed Clegg, who far from taking second place actually saw his party lose seats, reiterated his view that the Conservative Party had the right to form a government having won the most seats and the largest share of the popular vote while at the same time reminding Mr Cameron that constitutional reform (for which read proportional representation) was the price he would need to pay for Lib Dem support.

An hour or so later Gordon Brown read a statement in front of Number 10 which sought to reassure the country, especially the markets, that in spite of appearances the country is not in chaos. He is still the prime minister and key decisions will still be taken, so Alistair Darling will represent the UK in talks with other G7 Finance Ministers about the deteriorating situation in Greece and the euro zone. He then went on to say that he understood and respected Clegg’s position and invited Clegg and Cameron to make use of the mechanisms and facilities already in place to give them any civil service support that they might need. That said, he also indicated that he was willing to see any of the party leaders and that should the discussions between Cameron and Clegg come to nothing, and he reminded Clegg and the Liberal Democrats that he was more likely to deliver on the kind of constitutional reform they sought.

Finally, we heard from David Cameron. He too began with a very prime ministerial air. He held the hand of friendship and compromise out to Clegg reminding him of their shared views on a whole range of issues including the National Insurance rise, climate change and pupil premiums. But inevitably there was a ‘but’, on the subject of constitutional reform he was less open handed offering only "all party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform".

This leaves Clegg with a real problem – does he go with Cameron and effectively sacrifice a core belief of his party or does he prop up Brown? I think the technical term is snookered.

Nick and Dave are speaking to each other this evening. No doubt there will be conversations throughout the weekend. If we are lucky we will know who won yesterday’s election on Monday. Sounds ridiculous? Think about the poor people of Belgium who frequently have to endure (or is that enjoy?) weeks if not months without a formal government in place.

Chocks away

Hurrah, after almost a week of being grounded, we are free to fly. The Icelandic ash had very little impact on my life but was clearly a miserable time for stranded air passengers and the airlines. And the Government knew that which is why the idea that it sat on its hands deliberately trying to being unhelpful during the middle of an election campaign is ridiculous. In the face of huge pressure, Andrew Adonis, Transport Secretary extraordinaire, took the advice of Civil Aviation Authority and, abiding by the regulations set by aircraft manufacturers themselves, put passenger safety above the commercial well-being of the airlines. Isn't that what we want and expect our politicians to do? Isn't that what they failed to do in the run up to the banking crisis? So why are opposition politicians now criticising Adonis and demanding an immediate inquiry? Would they have seriously overruled the regulator? Their response is an excellent example of why coalition government won't work in Westminster - too many politicians are incapable of resisting the urge to play petty politics when they should be thinking about the public interest.

Ashes to ashes

So day five and we are still in lock down. No flights in or out of the UK and indeed most of Europe. It is pretty amazing. A volcano in Iceland (a country with something of a record of exporting uncertainty) has created havoc. Travellers are stranded across the world including several world leaders who planned to attend the Polish President's funeral. The intrepid Dan Snow's attempt to recreate a Dunkirk like evacuation of British travellers from the French coast has been thwarted apparently by French border officials. If the ash continues to cloud the atmosphere, you can be sure that will be the media will been flamming up stories about supermarkets running out of green beans and roses flown in from Kenya and factories shutting down as they run out of spare parts. Perhaps the most interesting impact of the ash cloud has been to knock the election off the top of the news. Campaign managers and party leaders will be furious. So is this Mother Nature giving us a wake up call? I can just imagine her in something of a Pussy Galore outfit, waving my fist at the planet shouting 'that will teach you to ignore all the other signs I have sent about the dangers of global warning'. Maybe not. But it would do us no harm to use this time when the skies are still to reflect on what we can do to protect our planet from the damage we inflict on it.

X Factor - no thanks

I am not going to write about the debate other than to say that if I worked for Clegg I would sew up his trouser pockets - the Man at C&A look was a bit unattractive from my perspective. No, today's rant is about Gary Barlow. What have I got against the mild-mannered pianist from Take That? Well, today Gary has joined the Conservative election trail to launch "School Stars" which Tory spin doctors described as "an X-Factor style competition to encourage young people to get involved in music". I have written in the past about about the dangers of using celebrities to front campaigns, but I don't think that is the problem with this. What I am upset about is the thinking that what our children need is to be encouraged to become pop stars. Don't we want, don't we need our children to aspire to more than being celebrities? Don't we want them to want to become civil engineers, plumbers, teachers or pharmacists? The idea that we should be reinforcing a Hello-style view that success equals fame regardless of your abilities makes me want to scream. Yes, I want children to enjoy music, to enjoy sport but we also need to make sure they understand that there is more to life than celebrity and that wanting to be a hairdresser, physicist, carpenter or web designer are worthy ambitions.

Watch out Manchester, the circus is in town!

I am easily riled. it does not take much to get my gander up. So you can imagine my mood this morning when I awoke to find that the Today programme was being broadcast from Manchester. I was a little blurry (I always am in the morning) and it took me a moment to understand why. Was this part of the BBC's mission to reflect the diversity of this country's nations and regions? No. It was because 12 hours after the programme has been broadcast, the first television debate between the party leaders will take place in the Granada studios in the city - ie a television programme being broadcast by a rival company. And the Today programme is not alone. It would seem that every single political journalist in the whole of the land is up north. It is preposterous. The debates themselves have been taken over, the 76 rules which will be applied mean that the chances of there being a proper debate are pretty slim so the media has done what it does in these circumstances and turned the whole thing into a media event. So we have Alistair Stewart being interviewed on what it will be like to host the first ever tv debate, vox pop from the streets about what the good burghers of Manchester feel about it (very little it would seem), all manner of punditry on what it will mean. Give me strength. I am sure the debates will be interesting for people like me but I seriously doubt that millions of people will be glued to their sets tonight. It will be tomorrow's reporting that will have an impact as will the YouTube clips of any terrible faux pas committed by Compo, Foggy or Clegg and the acres of write-throughs in the Sundays - God help us all.

Trouble in Rome

What is going on at the Vatican? The powers that be at the Powers That Be appear to have initiated a radical new business development strategy. How else could you possibly explain the half-hearted and poorly executed apology for the handling of child abuse by the church authorities which has battered the reputation of Papa Ratzi and the Vatican for the past few weeks? How else could you explain the latest development in this whole sorry episode - Cardinal Bertone, the Pope's second in command, claiming that there "is a relation between homosexuality and paedophilia"? Could it be that the Vatican is trying to attract customers in new markets? That it believes that this kind of prejudice and complacency will appeal to conservative Catholics particularly in Africa? Or could it be sheer incompetence - they are just really bad communicators with no control over the message and no idea how the story will play out? I am not sure which is worse.

Its a fair cop

The decision by the Labour Party to portray David Cameron as the wonderfully unreconstructed 80s TV cop Gene Hunt was roundly condemned as a positioning error. If they had bothered to talk to anyone outside the party they would have quickly discovered that Gene is admired by exactly the kind of men they are trying to engage with and fancied by lots o women. (I have to confess I am in that category although he doesn't rank as in high on my list men I shouldn't but do secretly fancy as Stringer Bell). The poster has prompted lots of commentary and coverage but possible the best follow up was in yesterday's Mail on Sunday. As well as the regular questions such as "which party is best able to deal with the economic problems", it polled readers on which TV detective most reminded them of Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Gordon was regarded as most like dour (and indeed now dead) Taggart while Dave reminded 46% of those polled of posh detective Lord Peter Wimsey and only 10% of the marvellous Gene. Hilarious. Alas we are not told who which gumshoe Nick Clegg most reminds MoS readers of but the consensus amongst colleagues is Troy from Midsommer Murders.

Working the web Obama-style

I was at a breakfast this morning hosted by NESTA entitled "Will it be the Web Wot Won It?" about the impact of digital communications on the election campaign. There was a consensus that while this time round the impact would be limited, by the time of the next general election (assuming there isn't another one later this year) things would be very different. Of course this is so, although there are legions of pundits telling us otherwise. They cite the success of Barack Obama in engaging millions of people in his election campaign and would have you believe that we are on the verge of a social revolution in this country too. It is utter nonsense. The context in which Obama pulled it off are completely different to the situation we find ourselves in the UK in 2010. The USA has no national print news media to speak of; it is difficult and time-consuming for candidates to make an impact. The absence of a national newspaper and the sheer size of the country means that a higher proportion of people use the web to get their news. Even if this was the case here, the reality is that the structures of the political parties here are too rigid at the moment to allow the kind of engagement that Obama encouraged. In this country if you want to get involved you have to join the party. You have to go to dull party meetings. You have to pay subscriptions. You can't just turn up to a coffee morning, see if you like it, make a few calls or give out a leaflets one Saturday morning. Oh no. But this is what the Obama campaign did so well. They got people to do a little, if they wanted to do more, they could. If they didn't that was fine too. The campaign was also brilliant at keeping people informed about the strategy, themes and activities going on in their area. As a result on the weekend before polling day, 4 million calls were made to voters in swing states by volunteers. It is hard to imagine local party leaders yielding control like that in this country during this campaign. If they want to take best advantage of the opportunities brought by the web, they are going to have to be a bit more relaxed.

Olympic dreams

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Olympic Park for the topping out ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. It was brilliant. I was a topping out virgin but I am told that it was exceptionally good - bagpipes, bells, an evergreen branch, a plaque, noggins of ale and spanners. Fan-bloomin-tastic. The stadium is beautiful, it is breath-taking. It is a wonderful example of how creativity, engineering skill and hard work can produce something amazing.

There was so much cynicism about the whole Olympic project at the outset but the naysayers have so far been proved wrong. The project is on time and on budget. It is regenerating a part of the capital which was desperately in need of investment. Jobs are being created, skills are being improved and something marvellous is being created. And it will have a long lasting impact.

By the time the Games start we hopefully be well out of recession and ready to have a party. I for one can't wait.

Battle of the Chancellors

So after months of phoney war, we finally had the first formal battle in the election campaign. Yes, the campaign has yet to start officially but last night's debate between Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable was surely the first proper skirmish. Who won? Hard to say. All three came across as nervous but all three will be pleased that they didn't drop any major clangers. Vince Cable has to be pleased that he delivered a few memorable sound bites - "pinstrip Scargills holding the country to ransom" - and got a couple of laughs. Standing centre stage, Cable, while a bit doddery, did what he does best, position himself as the man of the people, the non-politician, avoiding any real scrutiny of his own policies. He and Darling tag teamed Osborne quite effectively on the Tory decision not to impose the planned increase in National Insurance (not quite a tax cut more not a tax increase) but Osborne held his ground. Darling looked relatively assured but not as confident or polished as when he delivered the budget last week. And that was one of the issues, in the House of Commons these three battle, parry and joust all the time. They do it naturally and with confidence, without worrying about cameras. Last night, they were perhaps too fixed on their "performance". The Party Leaders are more used to being on camera so in theory ought to be more relaxed about the medium when it comes to their debates. However, given the 76 rules that will apply to the debates, I fear we may will have to endure three rather dull programmes.

Getting it a Liddle wrong

I see that the Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint about one of Rod Liddle's blog posts. In the offending piece Mr Liddle claimed that the "the overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community". What utter tosh. It was a claim questioned by many and roundly demolished by that wonderful Radio 4 programme on statistics, More or Less (yes I love it, I make no bones about it I am a Radio 4 junkie). I am pleased to see that the PCC has made what in my view is the right judgment. It was interesting that in seeking to defend the publication, the Spectator argued that it is in the very nature of blogs that they should be provocative. Now, I fully expect to be offended by Liddle, he has offended me on a regular basis but I do object to him parading his opinion a fact - an opinion I am pleased to say the PCC shares with me.

Budgeting for the future

I do love budget day in the UK. Yes I am a geek. You can make an educated guess about what the Chancellor is going to say but you just don't know what rabbits will be pulled out of the hat. I am sure to those outside the UK it will seem a bit bonkers that with probably six weeks before a general election, Alistair Darling presented his economic and fiscal plans today and that parliament will spend the time between now and the Easter break debating them. It is one of the quirks of the British political system. We don’t have fixed term parliaments but we do need to have a budget at the end of the financial year.

It was exciting viewing. Clever politicians debating real issues that matter to real people. This is what politics should be all about. Unfortunately, for much of the past year, it hasn’t been and it is depressing. When children in the future study British political history of the early 21^st century, this period will be known for grubbiness and sleaze and this parliament will be known as the Rotten Parliament. A group of politicians, some greedy, some foolish, some both, have reduced the reputation of Parliament to the lowest levels for decades. This is a huge problem, especially with an election coming up. British politics is in dire need of a rebrand. I don’t mean parties softening their logos and coming towards the centre, but politics as a whole repositioning itself. For our democracy to work, people need to have a reason to stop being cynical, they need to want to vote and voters need to start trusting politicians again. That means politicians have to reconnect with voters. We have to believe that politicians understand the challenges of raising a family, running a business, holding down a job. Politicians need to engage with us on real issues, the ones that really matter. The economy, jobs, health, education, crime, transport. The politicians who get this, will be the ones who ought to get the votes.

Lobbyist and proud of it - part II

I have just completed the Sport Relief three mile challenge - ok I know it isn't that challenging but while I love sport, I eschew physical activity. So walking three miles is something of an achievement for me, especially since I was walking with an over-excited eight-year old and a very stroppy teenager. But the purpose of this post is not to boast (although you are welcome sponsor me). No, I want to have a bit of a rant about lobbying (yes, again). What has this got to do with Sport Relief? Well Comic/Sport Relief is one of the most effective lobbying organisations. It does a brilliant job of engaging with organisations of all kinds (government, private sector and voluntary) to achieve its objectives. And it is, quite rightly, applauded for its efforts. Compare this with the increasingly hostile attitude political parties and the media are adopting when it comes to lobbying companies. We are being portrayed as, at best, unnecessary and, at worse, responsible for the ethical decline in politics. What utter nonsense. Yes of course organisations don't have to use political consultants, they could do it themselves, just as they could do their own legal work, accounts and advertising. But let's be honest, to do it effectively needs knowledge and experience which is why they call in the professionals. As for our corrupting the system, it has been politicians themselves who have done that. The greed and poor judgment of a significant minority have reduced the levels of trust and faith in the body politic so low. Today's Sunday Times/Dispatches story is about politicians selling access and favours not professional consultants. Don't confuse the two.

Its written in the stars

I am smitten, I have fallen in love, I have even wondered if I can make a life change. And what is the object of my affection? Physics. Yes, I have become obsessed with this branch of science. I know it is hard to believe, anyone who was at Copthall School with me will testify to the fact that I was a very poor student with very low levels of commitment to Newton, Faraday and Boyle. But on Sunday night I had something of a Pauline conversion. Prof Brian Cox (very different to the actor of the same name) successfully wooed me with his wonderful documentary on the sun. It was truly amazing. I was rapt. Certainly if the good Professor had been my teacher back in the day I certainly would have been more inclined to study. He brought the subject to life. To be fair, Radio Four podcasts (In our time and Material World) have prepared the ground for Prof Cox. But without doubt, he is a brilliant communicator, engaging with his audience, infecting them with his enthusiasm, making them want to hear more. For my part I did wonder whether I might retrain as an astronomer or physicist before realising that interest - no matter how passionate - was no substitute for a good grounding in maths. Oh well there goes another chance for a Nobel prize.

Blind justice, not blind panic

Oh my god, the handling of the Venables case is driving me to new depths of despair (or is that heights of fury?) The Ministry of Justice has let this story spill from news cycle to news cycle. It should from the outset of this media feeding frenzy made clear that if there was even the slightest chance that Venables might face new charges, it was not going to comment. Ministers, civil servants and even journalists know that the entire apparatus of the criminal justice system has an obligation to ensure that an ensuing trial is untainted. It is not a question of protecting Venables but of protecting the rights of any victims of any alleged crimes which Venables may have committed. The MoJ should from the start have stood up to the baying mob. It should have reminded everyone of the strict court injunctions in place which prevent the publication of material which might led to the identification of Venables (and Thompson) and pointed out that the chances of any future trial being deemed fair would be seriously reduced if the defendant had been identified as a convicted child killer. Instead, there was much panicking and wringing of hands. I hope it has now got its act together.

But don't get me started on the person (police officer? probation officer? social worker?) who sold the information about Venables to the media . . .

Political porn - no, thanks

Ok, I am coming clean - I did watch Gordon's interview with Piers Morgan, well about 30 minutes of it. It was like watching political pornography. I felt dirty, sullied and guilty - indeed I still do. Yes, I completely understand why GB decided to do it and I am sure that Downing Street will have been delighted with the result - real people got a glimpse of the real Gordon and all is well. Except it is not, for me at least. I hate the Hello-isation of politics, too much focus on personality and celebrity, not enough on policy. And Gordon is not alone, this morning David Cameron featured on the front page of a free magazine distributed at London underground stations. The interview within is all about getting to know David Cameron the man, so we learn that he shops at M&S and Gap, favours Paul Smith for his suits, loves TV (Larkrise to Candleford and Silent Witness in particular) and darts. Where is the policy? It distresses me no end that politicians are wooing voters with their personal lives. I can't be the only one who wants to know what they are going do to about health, education and the energy gap. Ironically in his interview this morning when asked if there is something politics could learned from Simon Cowell, Cameron said "Politics isn't show business and shouldn't try to be". Exactly.

Lobbyist and proud of it

It has been an interest week, with David Cameron turning his attention to my industry, when he warned about the dangers of political lobbying and the "far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money". Interesting indeed. Now, I know what I am about to say will be tinged with a touch of "well, she would say that, wouldn't she?" but that doesn't make it less true. So here goes - there is nothing wrong with lobbying per se. Lobbying plays an important and fundamental part in the workings of our democracy. We lobby when we sign a petition, write a letter to our MP, go on a demonstration, or give a local councillor a hard time about rubbish collection times. In my experience the most effective lobbyists are in the voluntary sector. Macmillan Cancer Care, Royal British Legion and Oxfam - all brilliant at it, all know who to speak to and want to say to make their point, getting their funding, change the policy. And no-one objects to it - and nor should they. They are just doing their job. It is the work I do that some would have you believe is inherently wicked. Somehow, helping organisations understand how policy is made and how best to influence it, is being positioned as a bad thing. I don't agree. With so few politicians having experience of the world beyond politics, I see it as essential that organisations, be they PLCs or NGOs, help them understand the implications of their policy thinking. That is why disgraced MPs quitting the Commons following the expenses scandal like Andrew MacKay (a member of Cameron's inner circle) are being employed by political consultancies. Yes, I know there have been one or two cases of bad behaviour in the past - cash for questions being the obvious example - but in the vast majority of cases the work that lobbyists like me do is ethical, open and for the good.

AVS - What's it all about?

Can someone please explain to me why the Alternative Voting System is such a good idea? I am honestly interested. Ok I understand the politics of it - Gordon Brown is trying to woo Lib Dem voters. I have never really understood the appeal of AVS or proportional representation. As far as I can tell AVS will have no real impact in constituencies with large majorities and I fear that in marginal seats it will encourage candidates to be as vanilla as possible in the hope they can pick up second preference votes. Doesn't an AVS system result in the triumph of the least worst candidate, rather than the best or indeed most popular candidate? As someone recently pointed out to me, it was the system by which Harriet Harman became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

And while I am at it, I would love to know why we are thinking giving the vote to 16 and 17-year olds. With fewer and fewer under 24s are bothering to vote, it seems slightly odd that we would wish to the extend an invitation for apathy to school children.

Instead of trying to tinker with the voting system, shouldn't the political parties be seeking to engage effectively with voters to restore confidence in politics and the political institutions?

The truth about MMR

Once again, Dr Andrew Wakefield, the author of the report which sought to link the MMR jab with autism, has been discredited. The General Medical Council has today found that he acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in doing his research. It will now decide on his penalty. In coming to their decision, I hope the Council Members take into consideration the huge damage his flawed findings have done. Take up rates of the vaccine plummeted, herd protection dropped and cases of measles soared. In 2008 for the first time in 14 years, measles was declared endemic in the UK. But if Wakefield was dishonest and irresponsible, so were many within the media. Wakefield's opinion was persistently presented as having equal validity as that of the Chief Medical Officer and the World Health Organisation. It wasn't. Repeated research by respected health professionals around the world found absolutely no link. Nevertheless, media scaremongering was rife. After all why present the truth when you can exploit a fear? Let's see how the case is covered in tomorrow's papers.

Remember Toussaint Louverture

As the representatives of the Friends of Haiti gather in Montreal to establish "a clear and common vision for the early recover and long-term reconstruction" of the country, the Haitian authorities have estimated that the final death toll on the earthquake is likely to be in excess of 150,000. It truly is a blighted place. On the day of the earthquake I described it as god forsaken, but i quickly decided that was entirely the wrong adjective. Its plight is not in the hands of god. Yes earthquakes and hurricanes are natural phenomena but the ability of a country to withstand the ravages of such disasters and the speed at which they recover is entirely up to people. Brutal and corrupt regimes which were tolerated (some might even say encouraged) by the West have taken their own toll on Haiti and the governments that have followed have not been strong enough to change matters. Over the last week or so I have been thinking about Toussaint Louverture, the black revolutionary leader who liberated Haiti from French colonial power. A former slave. this brilliant strategist, gifted politician and immensely charismatic leader effectively brought about the birth of the Haitian nation in 1804. Those meeting in Montreal would do well to reflect upon Toussaint Louverture and focus on what needs to be done to restore his legacy.

A less taxing experience than you would imagine

I spent last night completing my tax return. Yes I know I have left it very late. Every year I promise myself that I will do it earlier to avoid having the terrible dark cloud hanging over me in early January, when let's face it life is grim enough. But at the risk of sounding like Moira Stewart, once I waded through the darkness and got going, it really wasn't too bad. Alright I did have to turn two drawers to find my "i must keep this safe because it contains information i will need for my tax return folder" and another hour to find my P60 (because it wasn't in the folder) but once I had gathered together all the necessary bits and pieces it took less than an hour. Clearly this in part reflects that fact that my finances are not what you could call complex. But it was also easy because the online system is genuinely really good. At a time when politicians and the media are queuing up to criticise government IT projects, can I commend this one? Easy, accessible and delivering an excellent service to the citizen.

Battling in the middle

It was at Saturday's Fabian Conference (did I mention I got up at the crack of sparrow to attend this?) that the Dear Leader set out to woo the middle classes. Not necessarily a bad strategy and certainly one that Peter Mandelson is determined the party should follow. What was slightly odd about Gordon Brown's speech was how crude the woo-ing was. I had expected him to talk about so-called middle class values and how Labour would meet middle classs aspirations. What I hadn't anticipated is that GB would actually talk about "middle class jobs", "middle class families" and the "threat to middle class Britain". It felt forced and inappropriate, not least because many of those the party is trying to court don't necessarily regard themselves as middle class. His pledge to protect the "squeezed mainstream middle" literallybrought water to my eyes. My plea to camp GB - more subtle messaging, please.

Fabians on a Saturday

Spent yesterday (yes a Saturday) at the Fabian Society New Year Conference. It was an all day affair, requiring me to get up at the same time as a do for work. Those of you who know me that this is not something i do lightly. My standard Saturday regime definitely involves rising late and in a leisurely fashion. I dislike running about on a Saturday morning desperately drying my hair and praying that it won't frizz (to be honest i hate it every day but a girl has got to work). But the Fabians had secured an impressive array of speakers from both left and right and I was keen to hear the views of the likes of Peter Mandelson and Douglas Carswell on how to win the next election. By far the most interesting session was on the economy (although a smug young man from the Fabians tried to prevent me getting in, a misjudgement James, a misjudgement).Will Hutton was as always marvellous(could he be Prime Minister?) and his whose views on progressive entepreneurism were very compelling. Hutton was on a platform with Phillip Blond, Red Tory extraordinaire, and the level of consensus between these two thinkers was striking. Equally striking was that much of their thinking seems to be informed by NESTA, the innovation incubator which I think has over the last few month produced some of the most interesting, intellectually demanding and thought-provoking solutions to this country's social and economic challenges.

Two footnotes on the day's events. First, yes I was mistaken for the good Baroness Vadera at least twice!!

Second Nadine Dorries was by far the least impressive of the speakers I heard, indeed I thought she was truly awful but I did think she bears a remarkable resemblance to Heather Mills, indeed you never see them in the same place.

Alastair at the Inquiry, again

So once again Alastair Campbell has been in front of an inquiry into the Iraq War. And surprise, surprise, there were no surprises. No clangers were dropped, no faux pas made. And of course none could really have been expected. But that did not stop today's media feeding frenzy. There was a veritable scrum of photographers waiting for him when he arrived to give evidence, News 24 and Sky broadcast the lengthy session live, we will have Andrew Gilligan and all manner of talking heads commenting on his performance on every news programme, paper and website for the next 24 hours and don't even get me started on the write-throughs. Alastair is one of those people that no matter how much journalists criticise, they can't get enough of him. Back in the days when he was the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (1997-2001), his twice-daily briefings to the Lobby (Westminster-based political correspondents) were something to behold. They would sit there desperate to get his attention, hanging on every word like love-struck teenagers. Of course they would claim afterwards that they had "grilled him" during the briefings, but take it from one who was there, there was an awful lot of simpering in the mix. And it got worse when, after the 2001 election, he became the No 10 Director of Communications and Strategy and stopped giving briefings. The response of the hacks was almost comical - they became rejected love-sick teenagers, furious at being spurned, this time desperate to get revenge. Seems like old times.

New year resolutions

I have been thinking about new year resolutions. Apart from my rollovers (losing weight, getting fit and doing something new and/or scary at least once a month), my personal goals for 2010 are (in no particular order) 1. do everything in my power to stop Nick Griffin winning Barking (www.hopenotehate.org.uk) 2. perfect the New York Cheesecake 3. post blogs more frequently 4. shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of those in power be it political or economic. Talking of which, can I add my two-pen'th in on Iris Robinson? I know acres of news space has been spent on Mrs Robinson, but the sheer hypocrisy of the woman does bear repeating: there she was condemning homosexuality as an abomination when she was having an adulteress affair with a teenager to whom she was allegedly channelling public money. Shameful.