Salopblog

Interesting quote from PoliticalBetting.com

"Cameron is every bit the match for Blair when it come to working out what to say to chime with the public mood. The difference is that Cameron has a passionate interest in politics - something that Blair never had."

Alan Johnson seizes initiative over Labour leadership

Alan Johnson launches a daring attempt to lead Labour’s renewal today, urging Gordon Brown to offer voters a referendum on electoral reform.

Mr Johnson, regarded by the bookmakers as a strong favourite to succeed Mr Brown, calls on the Prime Minister to seize the political initiative after the expenses scandal.

“The current public mood of anger and disquiet . . . demands a response,” the Health Secretary writes in The Times today. In an article setting out his modernising credentials, he adds: “We need to overhaul the engine, not just clean the upholstery.”

Although allies insisted yesterday that his intervention was not intended to challenge Mr Brown, it will inevitably strengthen suspicions that a contest over the Prime Minister’s replacement is under way.

 

Voting intentions…

Telegraph expenses coverage

Publishing by the Torygraph of the information on MP’s expenses is now past the half way mark, and readers will eventually be able to search for the details of their MP on the Telegraph website which will, they say, become a valuable resource for anyone voting at the next election.

Scrappage – it wasn’t meant to be like this…

but the result was inevitable.  On its website, Honda is advertising a discount of about £2,400 on its cheapest Civic model alongside the separate offer of a £2,000 discount for those who trade in their old cars for scrap.

From this week’s Melton Times if you missed it

This is a very sad post – you may remember I went to Bletchley Park with my Dad for a remembrance by the BCS for the great work done in WW2 by code-breakers

Aid for Bletchley Park rejected

Calls to give Bletchley Park more aid have been rejected by the government.  A petition in the House of Lords asked for more central funds to be given to the code-cracking site to repair its dilapidated buildings.

The government said Bletchley was getting financial aid and rejected a request to associate it with the Imperial War Museum.

Bletchley Park chief Simon Greenish, said he was "disappointed" by the reaction to the plea for aid.

Shropshire Lib Dems – Tackling Issues

Ghurkha's

Simon Jenkins raises some thoughtful insights on the Ghurkha affair.

I enjoyed this short Guardian leader

Earlier this week, as the clamour over MPs' expenses grew, a slight, balding backbencher went on Newsnight. The Telegraph's attack dogs had been on to him too, Chris Mullin disclosed, sniffing around his claim of the licence fee for a black-and-white TV. He admitted to being "guilty as charged – I've owned it for 33 years and never changed it". Jeremy Paxman does not usually hear such confessions from MPs, but Mr Mullin is an unusually candid and likable politician. In his diaries, A View from the Foothills, he stakes a good claim to be the Alan Clark of the Blair era – minus the sex but heavy on the self-deprecation (never one of Clark's qualities). Like the Tory, Mr Mullin never rose far in government (topping out as "under-secretary for folding deckchairs") but saw enough to make him a valuable acerbic guide – so that John Prescott's department goes down as the "court of Boris Yeltsin". Such insight might be expected from a former journalist who fought for the release of the Birmingham Six – but Mr Mullin also makes a distinguished backbencher. Formerly an independent chair of the home affairs committee, he also often votes on the right side in Commons debates (against the Iraq war, for instance). This Labourite saw the expenses row coming years off, and has long thought that parliament should have shorter recesses. At a time when the political class is so discredited, it is worth recalling those like Mr Mullin who do some good. What a shame that he steps down at the next election.