DARLING TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

Sunday papers awash with talk of a rift between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. Why? Because Alisdair Darling has quite patently told the truth and actually it's a refreshing change from the usual twaddle and fudging. He even said (shock horror) that people were "pissed off" with the Government. Well, they are, aren't they?

I heard a rumour once that darling used to be a Darling of the left ie Militant. Well, true or not, in this particular case he has not toed the democratic centralist Cabinet line - and I think more of him for it, frankly.

TAX PACKAGE WELCOME BUT.....

I sincerely hope that Gordon Brown's U-Turn on tax will save Labour at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Even if it smacks rather of a fag packet calculation the announcement is welcome. But one must ask the question why was the policy to penalise the very poor dreamt up in the first place? I think one of the problems is that most MPs are very far away from the day-to-day concerns of people's lives.
On Monday night , I made by debut in the Strangers Bar at Westminster thanks to an invite from Halifax MP Linda Riordan. We sat outside on the terrace sipping wine looking out over the Thames and very nice it was too . Inside, well-dressed male MPs were getting drunk, impressing constituents, and looking eminently at home in this strange little world which is rather like an Oxbridge college. It's easy to see how seductive it could all become.
But if we are somehow to escape electoral Armageddon then the only way of doing so is by MPs leaving this gentleman's club atmosphere, getting out into their communities and addressing people's real concerns on issues like housing and low pay.
Let's also hope that the Government is finally beginning to realise the damage which its self-inflicted wounds are doing to the Labour Party. Because, whatever my differences , I don't want to see the Party annihilated .