THE X FACTOR

I wonder whether blogging is in serious decline with the advent of Twitter. my guess is Yes.
As a recent arrivee in the twitosphere it was fascinating to jon in the virtual conversation as Labour twitters waited for news of the Shadow Cabinet appointments.
The collective gasp of horror as it became clear AJ was to be SC happened in real time - and it was what the internet is about. Increasingly.
I try not to tweet about what I had for breakfast but I love the challenge of encapsulating something in 140 words. Too many bloggers on the left write reams and reams which no-one is going to read . Twitter proves that less can be more which is why so many are getting involved.
It also gives you immediate access to all kinds of people - you just keep on adding.
This week is an important one. It's Ed Miliband's first PMQs and there will be no mercy from a media hell-bent on political destruction.
It also sees the debate in Parliament of John McDonnell's trade union Bill and a major TUC lobby at Westminster. I will be following all these events with interest.
It is now clear the real Shadow Chancellor will be ...Ed Miliband.
He is to share an office with Johnson who is basically a front-man. How, given his lack of economic skills, could he be anything else.
Most i know in the Labour Party were very disappointed by the appointment however, in Machiavellian terms, it makes some sense.
Despite the doe eyes, Ed M is a ruthless operator and the Tories will be threatened by a Shadow Cabinet which reflects far more a broader spectrum in terms of gender and race than they could dream of.Politically, it is very similar to what went before
However, Diane Abbott has been given a Junion Ministerla post in Public Health and I hear there may be jobs for Emily Thornberry and Karen Buck.No doubt I will find out quickest on Twitter.
In the meantime it is a glorious Sunday afternoon in West Yorkshire and I am off for a walk down the canal to enjoy the autumn sunshine and a Sunday lunch with friends.

THE YORKSHIRE MAFIA......

Greetings from Yorkshire which is now the nerve-centre of the Opposition.
With nine out of 19 Shadow Cabinet members, including Labour Leader, now based north of Watford, the White Rose county seriously holds sway in Labour's future.
The fact that in Opposition Labour's Cabinet is elected made for some interesting results.
Ex-Tory Shaun Woodward and uber-Blairite Ben Bradshaw failed to make the cut along with Pat McFadden and Fiona McTaggart. But Liam Byrne scraped in one vote ahead of Islington South's Emily Thornberry , which is a shame.
I also think it reprehensible that Diane Abbott got nowhere near the Cabinet - despite being a leadership candidate.
My view on Abbott's candidacy was always that it was tokenist and purely an expedient to keep John McDonnell off the ballot. Borne out by the fact that all the blah from Davids Lammy, Miliband et al about "inclusivity " and "broad churches" disappears the minute Cabinet elections are on the horizon. Whatever, it was a gross discourtesy to Diane by a PLP which is now way to the right of the Party. But we are where we are.
Ed Miliband has a Cabinet which is not of his choice and with a few people I suspect would not be there if it were. I hope he does not bow to pressure and deny Ed Balls the job of Shadow Chancellor - Balls is by far the best person to come out fighting against Osborne. And Yvette Cooper would be a great oppo to Theresa May as Home Secretary