NARROWING THE GAP......

The news in today's Independent that the Tories are now only eight points ahead is a welcome respite from months of bad news for the Labour Party. See what nationalising the banks does for our standing with the electorate! The problem is of course that they have not been wholly nationalised and unfortunately the deal is when they're back in a healthy shape they will be sold off again. Maybe.....
Can you imagine how popular Labour would be if we now took on the fat cat utilities, took them back into public ownership and slashed people's fuel bills just in time for Christmas.Just a thought.
Meanwhile the Glenrothes by-election is coming up and who knows maybe Labour can hang on. I hope so because as things stand we're facing the prospect of a hung Parliament. Compared to the scenario in the summer, that's pretty amazing. But we have to put clear red water between us and the Tories - or events could yet upset the applecart. George Osborne may be toast thanks to his friendship with Russian oligarchs but the spectre of Peter Mandelson is still of course lurking in the background. The "People's Programme" advocated by the LRC is the best way forward of convincing ordinary voters that the vast majority of Labour Party members and a sizeable chunk of MPs are still on their side.You can see Andrew Fisher of the Left Economics Advisory Panel being interviewed on BBC News 24 about the crisis here

DON'T WAIT UP.....

For over 30 years, I have been an inveterate fan of by-elections. The best one was in Chesterfield in 1984 when Tony Benn got back into Parliament after losing his seat but there have been other memorables. In Moss Side in 1978, Vanessa Redgrave stood for the WRP ( she lost) and there were bad ones for Labour like the Bermondsey by-election in 1982 when the Liberals ran a homophobic campaign against Peter Tatchell . Glasgow East is going to be the one which may determine Labour's future but tonight, in Haltemprice and Howden, the result is a foregone conclusion.

I still think David davis is to be admired for standing on the 42 days issue. In the end, I was less convinced that Bob Marshall-Andrews and Tony Benn should officially back him. Labour is in such a bad place at the moment that it doesn't exactly help.......But, given this weeks' debate in the Lords it is seriously likely the conclusion will be is that the legislation is both impractical and illogical. So no late-night stuff for me tonight . But in two weeks' time, will be glued to the TV

WAS GORDON READY TO GO?

Word reaches me that Gordon Brown whipped Labour MPs on the basis he was ready to resign over the 42 days vote - in fact rumour has it that he had already penned a resignation letter and that this was the basis (along with cajolery, deals and God knows what else) that he persuaded MPs to toe a line I suspect many did not agree with. Because such a move would have had to engender a General Election. Whatever. We now have the David Davis by-election and I understand a Labour PPC who is OPPOSED to 42 days. What a travesty and farce. Coupled with the Irish vote on the Lisbon treaty this is truly an illustration of the fact that "when troubles come, they come not in single spies but in battalions." And let's just say that I believe all this nonsense and skulduggery will return to haunt GB.

WATCHING NEWSNIGHT......

I gathered that Geoff Hoon REALLY thought the campaign has been a disaster
I was struck at the commonsense talked by the people of Crewe - particularly a woman who said what had happened to Labour' s socialist values. And those who welcomed the Polish community being villified bu the campaign co-ordinators
I was fairly horrotstruck at Tamsin Dunwooody's defence of the indefensible - but I suppose it's too late to retract.
I predict a serious blow to Gordon Brown's authority - and that the national leadership will try and distance itself from the consequences of dog-whistle politics.

FOUR DAYS FROM BY-ELECTION DISASTER?

On Thursday night I expect I will stay up to wait for the result from Crewe and Nantwich. And something tells me that Labour will lose. Maybe it's the fact that their exceptionally stupid "toff" campaign has backfired. Indeed one of the Labour Party lads dressed up in top hat and tails is apparently a former pupil of MGS - Manchester Grammar School - one of the top independent schools in the country. What a crass message to the electorate.
Frank Dobson, not the most subtle of campaigners, was apparently on Newsnight the other night slamming the Tory candidate for being an Etonian (actually he isn't) . How pathrtic is this line of attack ?
As Dobbo well knows ( or maybe he doesn't) even left icons like Tony Benn went to public school (Westminster). So did, for God's sake, the late Paul Foot of the SWP (Shrewsbury). Frankly, I couldn't care less where someone went to school , because in the end it is their values and the way they live their lives which matter.
I'm a council house kid who went to Cambridge. I mixed with plenty of "toffs" And many of them were socialists. Many, yes, were Tories. But a working-class background is not necessarily an indicator of great socialist credentials.
What's left over at the Crewe campaign? Oh, yes, Xenophobic leaflets criticising Edward Timpson for being against ID cards. Well, that's really clever - and very likely to annoy the core Labour voters who also oppose them. So.
Yet again, New Labour has gone for cheap stunts, right-wing rhetoric and what amounts to a complete failure to understand the gravity of the situation we face. Tamsin Dunwoody deserved better than this farrago.As Dick Gaughan famously sang, "It isn't what you're born with, it's what you do with what you've got."