Dianne Abbott wants to be Labour leader

I must say I was surprised. But I've had half an hour to think about it and I say "Go for it, girl!" although she's only two years and a bit younger than me. She may be just the tonic the Labour Party needs. The Miliband brothers are clever. In fact very clever. No intellectual shirkers are they. But I sense the party won't go for either straight away. Ed Balls has gone back to his roots, which is probably a good thing for him. Trying to be the antedote to Mandy and Campbell was never going to work. Andy Burnham is also in the race.

Diane Abbott says, "The other candidates are all nice and would make good leaders of the Labour Party but they all look the same... We cannot be offering a slate of candidates who all look the same. The Labour Party's much more diverse than that." And so is the country. However, I don't buy this multi-cultural thing. It's artificial mumbo-jumbo dreamed up by pseudos and political wonks. If the country was multi-cultural it would be a real mixture. It isn't. It's predominantly white with large enclaves of immigrant communities in the big cities. Solihull isn't multi-cultural. What we have are a number of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Some integrate, some don't. The country is definitely diverse, though. I reckon everybody is in some kind of minority. I'm in about six!

Having a black female Leader of the Opposition might be a good thing. But it must not be because it "looks good" or "ticks a few boxes". Dianne Abbott claims to be a socialist but I have my doubts. I think she's more than likely to be enamoured by pragmatic policies rather than dogmatic ones. Will she win? I tend to doubt it, but she may not come last.

Clegg's curate's egg

Nick Clegg is going to announce reform today. No more conforming, but reforming the system. I have a gut sense at the moment that it will be deforming. Particularly with regard to the House of Lords.

This new august body will be elected by proportional representation. So presumably out go the bishops, in come the BNPeers. Out go the crossbenchers, in come the crossdressers. Out go the hereditary peers, in come the 21st century proletariat. A bunch of second division politicians who won't know whether they are to muse over government legislation or to stand their ground and confront the Commons.

Nick Clegg needs to know a bit more about unravelling the constitution and its consequences. Yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord High Chancellor were given pecking order mention on the first day back for MPs. We know what happened to the Lord Chancellor's position. It was gravely attacked by the closet republicans of New Labour. Is Rowan Williams going to turfed off the red benches with equal unceremonious ingratitude? Does Nick Clegg have any clue about the Established Church? I've not heard one word about it.

The House of Lords is a fine institution. It is the only second chamber in the entire world to examine legislation with such mental dexterity and service to the nation. The crossbenchers provide a whole host of independently minded peers. And each and every one of the noble lords is able to take up causes on behalf of the public. Being unelected does NOT mean they are divorced from the general political life.

What is to be the suggested replacement? Elected people! Well, I've got an MP for that. Do I want the second placed person in the constituency poll to go for the "Senate"? A slate of rejects hoping for some political crumbs. If the new chamber is to have limited powers who wants to be elected to such a chamber? So many questions. The answers aren't so good.

Heathrow third runway plans scrapped

Plans for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport have been scrapped by the new government. Brilliant. It wasn't needed anyway.

Thirsk and Malton - update

An answer to my points from the BBC - "The BBC understands that the delayed election in Thirsk and Malton, North Yorkshire - postponed after the death of the UKIP candidate - will be contested by the Liberal Democrats. It means that the new coalition government will field two candidates against each other." Hope they get along with sweetness and light!

Thirsk and Malton poll - general election finalisation

Thirsk and Malton (yes, back to the good old name) is a constituency that finds itself holding an election for a member of parliament at a peculiar time. Harold Wilson said a week in politics was a long time. The month of May 2010 will be a whole history lesson for these Yorkshire voters. Had John Boakes, the UKIP candidate, not died we would not be thinking too much of the result here. However, all has changed. We have a new government, a coalition. The voters know this. Who do they choose? If they vote Conservative, they get an MP supporting the government. But they do that if they vote LibDem. Will Anne McIntosh, the Conservative candidate, be nice to Howard Keal (not Howard Keel!), the Liberal Democrat candidate? And vice versa? How confrontational will they get? "I'm with Anne on this!" - "I'm with Howard on that!". Cosy, or what? New politics, that's for sure.

And what about the others? This could be an opportunity for LibDem supporters to vote differently. Should they vote for Labour, or abstain? It is a rare opportunity for the Liberal Party. What a gift! Of the four seats they contested, one of them is this one. Will they do well out of the new situation? By bet is that if the poll had been on May 6th, John Clark would have come flat bottom of the poll. Now he has media attention to promote the Liberals (old ones unreconstructed but slightly nuanced) and attract disgruntled LibDem activists. UKIP can muster all for a final bit of publicity. Nigel Farage strutting his stuff as a death-defying man of the people on walkabouts only. This could be a contest worth watching. And it's not a by-election, it's a postponed poll from the general election.

One thing caught my interest. The returning officer stated that only the UKIP candidate could be replaced. No other candidates could enter or be substituted. Have they changed the law? When a similar event happened last time in South Staffs a couple of new candidates popped up. It seems returning officers don't all sing from the same hymnsheets. If they did, then the voting chaos we witnessed on election night would have been dealt with on a consistent basis.

Labour goes into a bitter sulk!

The Liberal Democrats are better off without Labour. I once went to a Labour conference. It was like walking into some time zone. Admittedly it was in the comrades days and everyone looked like they'd forgotten their cloth caps (a sort of dress down Friday) and were trying desperately to be ever so fraternal. A lot of smoking, too, I remember. Now, the Mandy and Campbell duo might have changed Labour into some new kind of spivs lottery business, but the same old mean, grudging, sometimes spiteful opinions of others remains.

After the second world war ended and Labour was propelled into office, my grandmother was confronted by her housemaid with a brutal "Now it's our turn!". Talk of opinion worms on electronic polls. This worm turned with a vengeance rather like the Icelandic volcano. Not entirely unexpected but a shock nevertheless when it happens. When Labour got into office, Nye Bevan led the charge. He called Tories vermin. They don't change much if they stay Labour. Shirley Williams seemed to blossom in the SDP. As Labour, she always appeared world-weary, and she was a heck of a lot younger in those days.

Bringing it up to date we have Dr.Kim Howells speaking as a true Labourite. He says of the failed Progressive Coalition - "I tell you why it's been rejected by most Labour MPs - because they know that they're a bunch of opportunistic toerags, who'll say anything to anyone in order to get power. And they've done it this time, they've got power." No love lost there. The LibDems can wave such commentary aside. It just shows Howells up to be the bitter man he often is. And if he hasn't ever been an opportunist politician, well I'm a ........................

David Cameron is Prime Minister - It's A Brand New Day!

It's all worked out quite well. A new and stable government. One which will, I think, prove to be just the thing to get us moving along in this second decade of the 21st century. When David Cameron gets to the House of Commons and sits on the government benches, he will be facing Harriet Harman as Leader of the Opposition. It will all be so very different. Iain Dale said tonight on Sky News that he hoped the years of spin by Mandy and Campbell (as Austin Mitchell dubs them) were over. No more spin, no more subterfuge. It's a brand new day!

Sir Stuart Bell says New Labour is dead!

Sir Stuart Bell has just told the BBC that New Labour died on general election night. It won't be an expensive funeral. No flowers, please. Just a contribution to the ex-cabinet ministers' wake. New Labour was always a steamy sleazy policy-lite political con. Sir Stuart Bell probably took it as long as he could.

DUP to take over the LibDem opposition benches?

When the LibDems go into coalition government what will become of Nick Clegg's opposition seat in the House of Commons? Will the Democratic Unionist Party pitch up on this bench? Interesting times. I suspect though that Labour MPs will get in quick to squeeze Paisley Jnr out. Dennis Skinner will be in PDQ to sit there. Could be an unseemly tussle.

Cameron to be PM by 9 PM!

David Cameron will be prime minister by 9 o'clock tonight. And the New Labour project goes into oblivion. Great!

The only show in town

Gordon Brown thinks he has done a fine thing. Admit defeat of a sort but suggest that all parties are losers. Tell the nation he will quit as Labour leader but say he will stay on as prime minister until the progressive coalition has had a chance to "secure the economy". Then give some kind of rousing speech at the Labour conference, wish his successor well and depart for a cushy job like top bottlewasher at the IMF. That's the game plan. It's eagerly being taken up by the likes of Peter Hain, always the opportunist.

Thankfully such minds as David Blunkett's are coming out against it. So is John Reid. Labour could join up with the LibDems and form a minority government, with the Nats acting as whipping boys in order to secure votes in the House. Perfectly possible, but exceedingly unstable and likely to anger the electorate.

Far better for the Tories and LibDems to form a stable coalition and knuckle down to deal with the deficit. And I hope we won't all carp and criticise when they take difficult decisions. We don't want to end up like Greece or worse. So the only show in town is the Cameron and Clegg coalition. Anything else is a non-viable non-starter.

Labour losers line up for contest

This is how the BBC describes the likely candidates for Labour leadership.

Policy wonk-turned-Blairite frontrunner - David Miliband
Smooth-talking ex-postman and possible caretaker? - Alan Johnson
Feminist comeback queen - Harriet Harman
Calm throughout the storm - but uncharismatic? - Alistair Darling
Hard-hitting Brown loyalist - Ed Balls
David's Brownite younger brother - Ed Miliband
Fresh-faced, friendly, ready? - Andy Burnham
Philosophical left-winger - John Cruddas

Hardly a group that will set the Nation's pulses racing. If that's the choice, well.... and I hope Harriet Harperson doesn't get it, or the Miliband Brothers. Isn't there anybody else?

Sally Bercow's biccie time

Sally Bercow is on Twitter. She tweets, "OK Lib Dems - kettle's on. Biccie? I've got HobNobs, Custard Creams, Chocolate Digestives... whatever you like (apart from Jammy Dodgers)." Do we really want people like her running the country?

Gordon Brown resigns - a bit!

Gordon Brown has just resigned as Labour leader, so as to let a new leader get on better with Nick Clegg in some grand "Progressive Coaltion". However, he's still prime minister and will head this motley crew, if it ever came about, for about four months.

David Cameron should be pro-active in getting a deal with the Lib Dems. They'd be a damn sight better than Brown's collective coalition. Oh, and the PM has bitten the bullet and tried to call his opponents by their real name - Liberal Democratic Party is getting close. He's been on autopilot by always saying "Liberal Party".

Gordon Brown gets a Monday morning visit!

He must have thought his week was starting well. Visit the kirk, chat to friends, fly back to Downing Street for business as usual. Then he gets a visit from his best friends. Lord Mandelson, who has more capricious relationships than any person, led the charge. Ed Balls is in there now (a trusted friend?) and that wily Alastair Campbell, who seems to have been on high dose antacid tablets recently. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. Gordon Brown's minister said he prayed for all even if he disagreed with them. He better do something different today. Get down on his knees (not very Presbyterian!) and pray like mad that Mandelson is not up to some vile trickery!

1 versus 100 - Picking a PM

Some media types are getting all in a muddle because they can't fathom out what's going on. How about forgetting all this cloak and dagger stuff. Try a round of "1 vs 100" with Caroline Lucas taking on 100 randomly-picked MPs. Be a lot more interesting!

Labour not total losers!

I spotted this on the BBC ticker. Somebody called Mitin says, "Has everybody missed the council election results? Labour has 420 extra councillors and 15 extra councils. Both the Tories and Lib Dems have lost councillors and seats. This puts a different complexion on the general election results doesn't it?". Have to say I missed it. And yes, it is some comfort to the prime minister, I suppose.

Pity for Gordon Brown he can't just swap the results around and claim the ballot papers were all in the wrong boxes!

Coalition Dee or Coalition Dumb!

I'm with the coalition that can prove a positive worth to the country. That is a Cameron/Clegg partnership. The alternative is a motley bunch of potential squabblers and skirmishers. Claire Short has come out for a Lab/Lib/SNP/PC/Grn/SDLP grouping. So has Peter Hain. I can't think of anything worse.

Britain did not vote for strong one party government, that's obvious. It voted for the parties to agree so that the financial situation and the way the House of Commons works can be settled. So the best way to get out of the mess is to put the best of the Tories and LibDems together before this so-called Progressive Alliance takes off.

Norman Tebbit's wily ways.

I heard Norman Tebbit giving his six pen'orth to the BBC. He thinks Cameron didn't win outright (failed really!) because he tried a syrupy mixture of policies designed to finish off what Tony Blair didn't get round to doing. That's where the Big Society thing comes in. It sort of worked in some places but not in others. Lord Tebbit is very much non-Liberal. The thought of mucking in with the LibDems is more than anathema. It's strong smelling salts time.

If a coalition deal comes unstuck it won't be because of Cameron and Clegg. It won't even be because of the team players. It will be because the fans on the terraces could well cut up rough and start on at each other. But we can't afford sandals and silk ties at dawn. We've got a financial crisis to deal with. Now if the bankers scarper to Zurich I for one couldn't blame them if we are all squabbling over who sits where or who talks to whom.

Coalition deals

The BBC has got a nice little chart for working out a possible coalition. In their enthusiasm they include Lady Hermon as being a possible Conservative partner. Highly unlikely, I'd say, unless she's been given some halucinatory substance. They also suggest the DUP, but I think Paisley Jnr is more fickle than his father in doing deals. Cameron would go bananas in the end.

The only real deal is going to be a Con/Lib Coalition. Peter Hain is getting all nostalgic for his Young Liberal days, Alex Salmond talks of a "Progressive Alliance" but anything with him in is likely to be regressive. However, such a grouping could get the go ahead and it would have a majority. But without the guy currently in No.10. There's talk of Miliband being the leader. Maybe. But I can't see that, really. It's more likely to be a caretaker type. After all, keeping six parties in place will be hard going.

It's between a "Productive Alliance" and a "Progressive Alliance". I prefer positive production to persuasive progress! The first will hopefully give us stable government, the latter more hot air and spin.

Brown telephone call to Clegg was amicable

Can't believe everything I see or hear! Apparently it was not a diatribe....."More about that phone call between Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. A Lib Dem source has told BBC chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg that it was a perfectly amicable conversation, and not an angry exchange." So all's well in the stable again!

Brown leopard rearranging his spots in No.10!

According to the BBC website "Liberal Democrat sources have told the BBC's Jon Sopel that Gordon Brown delivered a diatribe laced with threats when he spoke to Nick Clegg last night by phone. It was in sharp contrast to the respectful and constructive talk between David Cameron and Mr Clegg, they added." A leopard doesn't change his spots, eh? Well, if he's got some kind of magic dye he can give the appearance that he has.

Gordon Brown says he is staying on as prime minister until "stable government" has been achieved. Blimey, giving Clegg a diatribe is certainly no way to get it. It's more like giving a horse a real fright so he bolts out of the stable leaving the door wide open.

BNP in electoral oblivion?

Whilst the top brains of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats circle the wagons and decide on the best options open to them, other things are going on in domestic politics. The side show is The Sun getting steamed up about a 59-year old squatter in a posh London home. Getting further up the billing is the plight of the BNP. Most commentators have written them off as a joke. However, I think that is misplaced. We have now a form of multi-party politics. The BNP is a small player in this new agenda. What most forget is that the BNP can command the support of around one million voters if all UK voters get the chance to vote. On top of that my inclinination is to suggest that another two million let the possibility of supporting the BNP pass their minds. This is no insignificant part of the electorate.

So where are we now? The BNP is led by a man who is clever but prone to childish pranks, poses and postures. He also has rather an iron grip on the party. Most of the campaigning "skills" are his. This has led to a catastrophic result as far as seats are concerned, but votes have increased slightly. The party is in meltdown, though. The website is offline due to the fact there is a tussle between Griffin and the former webmaster Simon Bennett. The site was taken down because Bennett was landed with the legal mess due to Griffin's crazed campaign with and against Marmite. Council seats fell faster than the ten green bottles. Barking was skittle alley for Margaret Hodge. The anti-BNP coalition of oddball anarchists, self-righteous lefties and political streetfighters think they have won the war. I think it's no more than a battle at best. Probably a skirmish.

The BNP has been the most successful "far-right" political party in the UK. Such politics as it represents, that of nationalism and populism, attracts a percentage of the electorate. And it always has. However, it will never be a mainstream political choice. Margaret Hodge thinks the BNP will run off like a dog with its tail between its legs. I think she is wrong. This election never addressed the matter of the thoughts of people about immigration. They hear statistics and well-meaning phrases, but precious little understanding. Gordon Brown flew off the handle over "that woman" because he thought he heard her say racist things. He never attempted to understand where she was coming from, that is why her postal vote stayed where it was.

The BNP under Nick Griffin is not the answer to the questions that people want answered. Many say that when BNP councillors get elected they are hopeless at the job and this is mainly true. But some are not. I sense there may be quite a few who see a different leadership as being the BNP's salvation for future electoral forays. Time will tell. And that will be when we need to get serious about responding to the debate.

The Nick & Dave Show

David Cameron has made overtures to the LibDems. In the national interest, of course. For those of us living in seats like Solihull, this is likely to prove rather difficult, but then the country hasn't plumped for anyone with great fervour. In fact, the Apathy Party did best. Vast swathes of the British electorate are still in an "I don't care!" mood. Great pity, but then that's what you get in a democracy that has become rather sullied and soiled.

I hope we can have a fresh start. I'm not opposed to a Conservative/LibDem coalition. This is by far the best deal. It would give a government with an overall majority of about 35. We would have a proper government facing a proper opposition. Gordon Brown does have the right to try to form a government. But his arithmetic is far shakier. His 258 seats plus 58 LibDems plus a Green, Lady Hermon, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP. Makes a total of around 330. Not a great margin. Keeping that lot together in a "stable government" may prove a job too far.

Best all round if there's a formal coalition between Cameron and Clegg. Give the LibDems a lock-in period of two years. Put PR on the table for a referendum. I'd also go further. Have a referendum on the EU. That way both parties get to know where they stand. Although, if they leave it too long, there may not be an EU as we know it. Frau Merkel may have picked up her toys and gone back to the Deutschmark for safety.

Gordon Brown should see this period through until the Cameron and Clegg agreement. Then he should resign with dignity intact.

Lembit Opik out in Montgomeryshire

Another surprise. A big one. Cheeky win, though! David Cameron will be chuffed. It's been a seat that has gone back and forth. After all, that silvery-tongued Emlyn Hooson used to be the member. Then he lost it. It's buggins turn. It's the Tories time to be in charge.

Ben Bradshaw slips back in

I was hoping for better things at Exeter. Obviously the place has changed considerably over the years. Oh, well!

Peter Robinson down and out!

So there I was fantasising about Peter Robinson cosying up to David Cameron. Not anymore. He's been defeated and the Alliance party has its first proper representation in Westminster.

First surprise of the evening? Certainly. And a lot more like them to come, I have no doubt.

Electoral Commission's lady-in-chief dispairs

Just seen the electoral Commission passing the buck. I think they all tried to do this election on the cheap. When I voted this afternoo there were six polling clerks and a fairly long queue at one table. That kind of surprised me, being it was 3 o'clock.

So let the legal challenges begin. It may just knock some sense it someone before the buck has passed every person in the country.

Returning officers return the voters!

This election.....well, it's throwing up more surprises. Voters turned away from polling stations. Possible legal challenges. We could be haggling over the results for the rest of the year. That'll give the markets forty fits!

Three results so far. I've heard the BBC's pundits. Missing the point as usual. They talk of swings, but I still see Sunderland voters sitting at home saying, "Screw you!". Labour may have lost vote share, but it hasn't all gone to the Tories. 15% to non-three party candidates. That's more than the LibDems got in the first seat declared. Stand by for a few more surprises!

All over bar the shouting!

Looking back on this election, it's certainly been eventful. We've now got "three main UK parties", as the BBC insists on calling them. I really do think the BBC has no right to try to influence public opinion with these "slipped in" changes to the venacular. If it wasn't for them we'd still be saying Bombay, sex and all the King's horses. As it is we've been fobbed off with Mumbai, gender and all of this and all of that. Let's hope a Conservative government will give the corporation some corrective treatment.

Anyway, I digress! This election is, according to David Dimbleby, the closest in a generation. I'd go further and say it was the most different EVER. And that goes back to Simon de Montford's days. Never have so many parties been scrapping for votes in a system laid down for the followers of the Royalist/Cavalier/Tory/Conservative tradition or the Republican/Parliamentarian/Whig/Liberal tradition. These two main groupings have been splintered into a myriad shards. We've got more candidates than ever before, more parties with a serious chance of saving deposits than ever before. Voters are no longer blue or red or maybe orange. They are now green, pink, purple, violet, turquoise, brown, black or even rainbow coloured in political opinion as well.

Some MPs, I well expect, will be elected tonight on less that 33% of the constituency vote. Whoever becomes prime minister will probably not be the first choice of a vast majority of the country. I hope that whatever the result, we don't rush like demented lemmings into some so-called constitutional reform and destroy our centuries old representative democracy. A period of calm reflection will be needed. Forget those who say that a hung parliament will destabilise the markets. They destabilise themselves by themselves. Democracy will overcome the threats, bribes and backchat of those whose days are spent moving funny money around. If it is to be a hung parliament, or "balanced" as the BBC says, so what. We will either have a formal coalition or a minority government. Neither will bring down the country in a frenzied collapse of moral fibre.

Whoever goes to see the Queen needs only to command a majority of his peers in the House of Commons. I'm sure the new MPs will do their duty and decide whether to be on the Government benches or the Opposition benches. If the Opposition turns out larger than those on the other side, it's up to them to decide whether to vote down the Queen's Speech or not. I suspect it will all turn out fine.

No canvassers knocked on my door!

This has been a deadly quiet election in Solihull. A prized marginal between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, and I've not been so much as bothered by a political person. No canvassers, a few furtive leafleters, a couple of mobile advertising hoardings (for the Residents Party) and the glimpse of Nick Clegg in the council house car park talking to the TV cameras. I spotted him from the top of the No.5 bus. That was weeks ago!

All quiet on the Western Front. And all fronts, it would appear. All I've got to go on is the poster count and on that Lorely Burt beats Maggie Throup ten to one. It's hardly scientific.

I hope we turn more conservative tomorrow as a country. I still have some lingering doubts about David Cameron. It's not been helped by Simon Cowell's reasons for supporting the Conservatives. After all, it was Cowell who started off sneering at the sight of Susan Boyle as she walked out on stage. His gut instincts let him down there for a moment. I have no doubt David Cameron will do OK as prime minister. It's some of his ideas I'm at issue with.

I never thought it would come to this, but here is a conservative, a basic type of High Church, High Tory who has been wondering where the Modern Conservative party is going. For instance, if David Cameron becomes prime minister, will he use his office as an influence over fairness in appointing bishops? I bet that's not crossed his mind. Is there any room left in the party for traditional-minded people. Or are they to be harangued on a weekly basis as "old-fashioned" and "out-of-touch"?

I'm going off to vote soon. I'll need a steady hand with that pencil!

Gordon Brown to go into showbiz on Friday!

He and David Miliband will try their hands at anything. They need a good gagwriter, though. The present script's definitely no good!

Peter Robinson aims high for cosy coalition

The pundits are telling us we are in hung parliament territory. By that they mean they will have fun finding out who is doing deals with who in the election aftermath. One leader has already put his head up to be counted. Peter Robinson, dour cuckold of the Depressing Unionist Party, has said he could be ready for coalition government. I can't see the bulk of the UK taking to Peter as Home Secretary, for instance. Anyway, he's got to get past the new intake of Tory MPs. I would not be keen on a Tory/DUP coalition.

George Galloway is hoping for three seats in order to strike a deal. Who is he going to sidle up to? Surely not Gordon? David Cameron would find George too much even before they got to see the Queen. Where would the Greens fit it in? Caroline Lucas can get quite agitated if too much blue or red gets mixed in with her green. She might find her party has turned a palid pink in the process. It all depends on the numbers, I suppose.

Peter Robinson, though, is better placed to do a deal than most. If his party got, say, ten seats and the Tories got 320, then Robinson's lot could seal the election for Cameron. Many in the Tory Party would go along with that. However, where does that put Sir Reg Empey and his coalition of UUP and Ulster Conservatives? On the grumpy seat?

Gordon Brown's Last Stand

Gordon Brown is beginning to resemble all those characters from history that made a last valiant stand but it all came to nought. Tonight he has been in Manchester sounding forth on Labour's achievements. One side of A4 would do it. I'm not convinced by his rhetoric. But his self-deluding economic giant status that he ascribes to himself is one thing that we can either take or dismiss. It's when he becomes some kind of maverick preacher that I rush for the smelling salts.

Charles II once said that Presbyterianism was not a suitable religion for a gentleman. Listening to Gordon Brown just now I tend to sympathise with the late king's comment. Well, Gordon's version of it. His moral compass seems to be in its very own electrical field currently. He judges the Conservatives in a very nasty way. He says, with extra shoulder heaving, that they "pass by on the other side". The suggestion that the Labour Party under Gordon Brown is some kind of jamboree for good samaritans is laughable. What he said tonight kind of drives a coach and horses through the New Testament. For one thing, he is leaving political debate behind and getting dangerously close to judging souls. "Thou shalt not bear false witness"? Was this ever raised in the manse? Maybe its OK these days in the Labour Party.

Gordon Brown sneers at the concerns of committed Christians who hold to a traditional understanding of the Faith. He may have jettisoned doctrine he finds incompatible with melding a secular society into shape, but others haven't. Democracy is all about hearing the opposing view with respect and dignity. I get the distinct impression that many in the Labour Party are just political bullies. Pity!

Oh, and speaking of respect, I hear George Galloway is taking Labour to the cleaners for alleged postal ballot frauds. It would be far better if Gordon took time to dig out the motes in Labour's eyes before trying to suggest others had beams in theirs.

BNP "Vicar" is no Holy Man!

I do wish the BNP, the media and anyone else who thinks as such would refrain from calling Mr.Robert West a "vicar". He is definitely not a priest in the Church of England. He is not a clerk in holy orders. All he is is a self-styled itinerant preacher following his own version of the Christian Faith.

Most people in England have no idea what a vicar is or does. That's because the likes of The Sun use "vicar" in much the same way as they do "tragic tot", "terrorist", "beast" or "victim". Mr.West is very much a civil Christian in his public utterances. He panders to those who never set foot in church, yet who somehow believe they live in a protestant wonderland where a divine creator has given them complete control to command the lives of others.

The BNP has no vicar with a megaphone shouting the odds. It has a man in a clerical collar whipping up the political debate with falsehoods and fantasies. A vicar is a priest who has a parish where the stipend (salary) was historically mainly derived from lesser tithes. A rector, on the other hand, was a priest who received both the greater and lesser tithes. A rector therefore could be assumed to be better off than a vicar, but a vicar was definitely better off than a perpetual curate, who got no tithes but was given a small stipend from the diocese.

The term vicar has become a loose expression for a priest in the Established Church. In the folk pysche of English society, a priest is only to be found in the Roman Catholic Church. I was once asked by a cradle Anglican, a woman who attended church regularly, but who had all the hallmarks of a C of E background, "Is your uncle a priest or vicar?". "He's both", I replied, without further comment. She looked at me blankly, wondering how on earth such a thing could be possible.

The Church of England may be pleading with people not to vote for the BNP, but I somehow think that the dearth of any real understanding, any proper appreciation of the Faith in the mass of the population, is partly down to ineffectual leadership by the hierachy of the C of E. The BNP can call on the English people with some vague gospel of mumbo-jumbo religious rhetoric and it has an ability to stir latent protestant sentiments. Nothing too deep, no real spiritual basis, just a primeaval approach to the problems that beset people in their daily lives.

The Church of England is always put down as the religion of those who don't tick the box for anything else. "I'm C of E, I suppose" is the reply you often hear. It is this mass of unbaptised, non-churchgoing people that the media includes in their headcount of Anglican adherents. However, to be a Christian one has to be baptised. By all means, we should encourage those with a desire to explore faith and to embrace those who have no faith. My point is about the vast bulk of secular Britons who are no longer part of the Established Church but who claim a Christian heritage based on myths, fables and folklore. It is this group of souls that the BNP is exploiting.

Manic Street Preachers

Cumbrian Police know a thing or two about democracy, free speech and liberty. Yes, a thing or two! That's about the sum total of their knowledge. A 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Workington, Cumbria for years, has been charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships. The preacher, Dale McAlpine, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.

The police took him to the police station in the back of a marked van and locked him in a cell for seven hours on April 20. Mr.McAlpine said the incident was among the worst experiences of his life. “I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know," he said. Needless to say he got the full DNA, fingerprint and record-keeping treatment.

The police have no business rounding people up like this. Street preaching is not against the law. John Wesley was a prominent preacher. There have been many down the centuries. In fact, I wonder if it passed the minds of the Cumbrian Police to consider the greatest street preacher of them all. The New Testament is basically all about street preaching, or if not in the streets, on the hillsides, by the sea, and in the fields!

No doubt this will come to court. It will cause a rumpus. And the whole sorry saga carries on.

Hung, drawn or quartered?

With many pundits idly predicting a hung parliament the country is being lambasted by those who see a hung parliament as greater problem than a cabal of dodgy bankers, politicians and business people. The voters are being told that they need to choose "strong" government.

However if we wake up on Friday morning with a prime minister who has a derisory vote share, we could be joining the Greeks by the end of the month. Not in such financial crisis, but in turmoil over the democratic deficit.

First nightmare scenario. Gordon Brown gets the largest number of seats (not an overall majority) but gets less than a third of the popular vote. He is determined to carry on.

Second nightmare scenario. David Cameron gets the largest number of seats (not an overall majority) but gets less than a third of the popular vote. He is determined to become prime minister.

Third nightmare scenario. There is a dead heat in seats between the Tories and Labour (no magic winning number) with the Liberal Democrats coming a respectable third. However, the LibDems get just as many percentage votes as the Tories, resulting in a tie for first place.

Each of these outcomes will cause resentment and bitterness. The country is divided. I've lost count of the number of people I have come across who have yet to decide. Some may never get around to it. If the Abstentionist Party gets a good showing, then the present percentages being touted for the three main parties look rather paltry when put against the total electorate.

Gordon Brown inherited a premiership on 20% of the total electorate's support. The country accepted that democratic deficit in 2005. In 2010 they will not accept ANY democratic deficit. In order to get out of the impending deadlock, the politicians that arrive in Westminster next week will have to get together rather than follow a playground punchup.

Heckler thrown out of Brown meeting

The Labour Party said Gordon Brown was going to meet ordinary folk. It's been a total disaster. No ordinary voters have come near the man. When he gets a heckler, Labour goons chuck the concerned citizen out.

Let's hope by this time next week we've all had the good sense to chuck Brown out.

Fat kids to fight for America!

The generals are waging war on fat kids. The fat kids will fight back. Who says a fat kid can't fight? I well remember at school that it was the fat kids who came out best. They could sit on you, thereby obtaining unconditional surrender. They packed a good punch, too! "Been in the wars, again?" would come a schoolmasterly querie (without requiring a reasoned answer). And it was the fat boys (not many, I hasten to add) that could use weight to push another boy off balance. The only fat kid that can't fight is a sick fat kid.

I think the generals assume too much. John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, have declared, "Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military. We consider this problem so serious from a national security perspective that we have joined more than 130 other retired generals, admirals and senior military leaders in calling on Congress to pass new child nutrition legislation." Very interesting!

I think this reveals more than we think it does. This is not about fat kids as such. This is about the US Army and the other services making sure that the pool of new recruits stays lean and mean. You see, the Army doesn't recruit from WASP backgrounds or from those nice white middle class "gated communities". No, they recruit mainly from impoverished backgrounds, black and white. It is from the less well off that the snacking and over-eating exists.

Having lived a while in the US, I can reasonably say that, if I went wandering round a shopping mall, the fat kids would not be the rich kids. OK, there are some fat rich kids, but this issue has to do with impoverishment and boredom. Two factors that help sustain the existence of fat kids.

The generals put some kind of patriotism first, by suggesting that the Army will have a hard time weeding out the thin kids. "We must act, as we did after World War II, to ensure that our children can one day defend our country, if need be", say the generals. I do not see the main priority to fight obesity is so that a weight-loss champion can immediately pass the Army physical. It should be about health reasons only.

Anyway, when Captain Cook visited the South Sea Islands he met a few good fat fighters he hadn't bargained with, Sumo wrestlers give a good bashing to each other, and fat people appear to be able to pull two-ton trucks, as on World's Strongest Man (albeit with more muscle than fat).

If the generals have issues with weight, then perhaps Marjorie Dawes might help them out?