The Thinker

The Thinker's new site is up and running and ready for your comments.

Please change your bookmarks (and your readership) to

www.thethinker.net

This is worth reading from this month's Progress magazine. Salford MP Hazel Blears is arguing that the way we do politics must change. If it gets me out of ward meetings, I'm all for it.

Reinventing activism
The Labour party must adapt to the new ways people do politics, says Hazel Blears.

Politics is changing fast and the way Labour thinks, organises, and campaigns has to change too. Seismic shifts in the structure and culture of civil society are placing huge pressures on traditional democratic politics. We have a system of local politics that is struggling to keep pace with modern aspirations and demands. It’s like trying to make microchips using a steam engine.

Politics-as-usual is under strain as never before. The long-term trends of low turnouts in elections, falling party memberships, and the collapse of automatic loyalty to one party have all been exacerbated in recent months.


“Local Labour parties should be the catalyst for greater decentralisation of power and ownership. Labour parties must become agents of radical change, not passive passers of resolutions and talking-shops.”
So, does this mean that people are not interested in politics? Anyone who knocks on doors, attends street stalls and runs surgeries knows that the answer is no. But many people feel that traditional politics is not the answer. A new generation of activists is being born, and new forms of local politics are emerging.

The political scientist Pippa Norris points to three shifts in activism in recent years. First, the agencies of activism are changing. This means activists do not always join traditional political parties, but instead create new spontaneous groups, fluid campaigns and networks. Recent examples include anti-gun campaigns such as Mothers Against Violence and Not Another Drop.

Second, the repertoires are changing, meaning that activism today is as much about new kinds of activity such as the internet as it is about traditional forms like leafleting and public meetings. Third, the targets of politics are changing. Thirty years ago activists were largely concerned with the town hall and local bosses. Today, multinational companies are the targets as much as municipal leaderships.

New-style activism broadly covers three types: the first is the person working within the new structures established by Labour’s programmes of devolution and constitutional reform. This might include the members of the London assembly, the Welsh assembly or Scottish parliament; the directly-elected mayors in many cities and boroughs; the board members of New Deal for Communities schemes; and, in the near future, board members of foundation hospital trusts, regional assembly members, and so on.

The second type is the social entrepreneur: people who have decided to change their worlds in innovative and dynamic new ways, by creating social businesses, co-ops and mutuals. The third is the anti-globalisation protestor, the consumer boycotter, and the fair trade demonstrator. What these three groups have in common is a rejection of the town hall and Westminster as the only place to enact their politics. These new forms of social and political activism issue a direct challenge to the Labour party. So how should we respond?

We must support the people we already have. The start of the Labour academy, designed to train, educate and support Labour’s activists, is an important step. New political education courses will be made available. There’ll be advice on standing for the council. For the first time, all of Labour’s school governors will be given training and information.

Another radical idea is a registered supporters’ scheme. In Salford, we have been pioneering a system of Labour supporters, creating a bridge between our voters and our members, and increasing by several hundred the Labour ‘family’ in our city. Registered supporters can create a huge pool of potential support amongst those people who strongly share our values, but are reluctant to share our activities full-time. This is just one good idea contained in the new NEC document 21st century party –the next steps.

We also need to forge alliances with those social entrepreneurs and community activists who are already doing so much. These people are our natural allies and should find a welcome home inside the Labour party. Where there are elections and appointments for local bodies, we need to recruit and support people who share Labour’s values to stand as candidates. This is as true of ancient bodies like the council and the magistrates’ bench as it is of New Deal for Communities boards and foundation hospital trusts.

Unless there is a direct conflict of interest, as with the Countryside Alliance marchers, protest groups should be allowed to debate with local Labour parties, share perspectives, and see if there is common ground and shared values. We can be the party of government without becoming the party of the establishment.

If ‘new localism’ is to be anything more than the latest political buzz-phrase, it must mean passing real power to local communities. Local Labour parties should be the catalyst for greater decentralisation of power and ownership. Labour parties must become agents of radical change, not passive passers of resolutions and talking-shops. If people don’t see Labour as people who get things done, why will they join us?

We have a choice. We can scan the political horizon, see the changes that are coming, and retreat into the old safe ways of doing things – our Labour comfort zone. Or we can respond to the scale of the challenge with imagination, enthusiasm and vigour. The new politics requires new thinking, and new people to take the ideas forward. For Labour to prosper in the internet age, we need to re-invent activism.


Hazel Blears
Hazel Blears is MP for Salford, Minister of State at the Home Office, and a member of Labour’s NEC

Light blogging recently has not been caused by a diminished interest in sharing my thoughts with the world; on the contrary, it is because I have been finalising my new blog, complete with moveable type and all that jazz. As soon as the site is up and running and ready for your comments - in the next week or so - you, dear reader, will be the very first to know.

In the meantime, you can enjoy this.

And this...

And share in the joy of Mr and Mrs Thinker that The Thinker jnr. is one year old on 5th November.

Someone just sent me this, and it deserves a much much wider audience:

40 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW OR HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE PROBABLE NEXT LEADER OF THE TORY PARTY MICHAEL HOWARD

Howard sacked Prison Service Director Derek Lewis and then (famously) failed to answer a direct question about it from Jeremy Paxman 14 times on Newsnight.


Howard's former deputy Ann Widdecombe said there was "something of the night" about him


Howard has spent the last 6 years in comfortable directorships of companies like Eschmann Holdings Limited (medical supplies manufacturer where his mate George Kennedy is the Chairman), the Imprint Group (specialist printer where his mate George Kennedy is er...the Chairman again) Finex plc (PR company), Crime Reduction International Limited (an international consultancy on getting tough on crime), and as a member of the Advisory Council of Gas and Oil company Consort Resources Limited (chaired by ex Tory Minister Lord Moynihan)


As Home Secretary, he believed that the answer to crime was simply to lock more people up: "an increase in the number of criminals in prison leads to a large fall in crime" (POLITICS, MORALITY AND THE NATION STATE lecture, ST. MICHAEL CHURCH, CORNHILL, CITY OF LONDON, 10 January 2003)


He came bottom of a field of 5 when he stood in the 1997 Tory leadership election - possibly the only time his leadership credentials will be put to the vote . . .


In 1995 he was accused by Private Eye and the New Statesman of misleading Parliament over the privatisation of the Home Office computer network:
See: http://users.cliq.com/~bayvulture/yarbles/ed5.html



Howard attacked Labour for defending the rights of trade unionists at GCHQ (in 1979 and 1981)


Howard was the Minister in Charge of bringing in the Poll Tax in 1988. Even after Thatcher had gone, and after the poll tax riots, he insisted he still believed in the policy (July 1991)


Howard was the Minister who brought in Clause 28 of the Local Government Act banning the "promotion" of homosexuality (March 1988)


Howard voted in favour of anti-abortion campaigner David Alton's Bill to reduce access to abortion (January 1988)


As Employment Secretary, Howard said that Labour's National Minimum Wage proposals would cost 2 million jobs (June 1991)


As Employment Secretary, Howard tried to stop attempts at EU level to introduce a 48 hour working week and to give working women statutory maternity rights (June 1991)


As Employment Secretary, Howard tried to bring in stricter anti-trade unions laws including proposals to require written consent form workers every 12 months and every time subscriptions went up before union members subs would be paid by check-off. Even the Tory trade unionists group warned him these plans shifted the balance of power too far towards employers. (Oct 1991)


As Employment Secretary, Howard refused to recognise the EC directive on Maternity Leave in (November 1991)


As Employment Secretary, Howard persuaded John Major not to sign up to the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty, according to Norman Lamont, by threatening to resign - "The social chapter opt-out from the Maastricht treaty, which Major claims as his own, was in reality due to Michael Howard, who threatened to resign over it" (December 1991)


As Environment Secretary, Howard allowed power generators to keep their pollution levels secret (Nov 1992)


As Environment Secretary, led the campaign to pull the rug out from under the coal industry by blocking long term subsidy schemes which would have kept all 31 pits threatened with closure open (Jan 1993)


As Environment Secretary, under pressure from property developers who feared the blighting of values, Howard abandoned plans to register and clear up 100,000 contaminated sites and oversee their clean up (March 1993)


As Home Secretary, tried to put local police authorities under the control of Home Office appointees instead of representative local people (Jan 1994)


Howard voted against equal rights for homosexuals by opposing lowering the homosexual age of consent to 16


As Home Secretary, was embarrassed when despite having been warned, Semtex was found in Whitemoor Prison following an IRA breakout (September 1994)


As Home Secretary, was attacked by the Appeal Court for his "abuse of power" over criminal injuries compensation (Oct 1994)


As Home Secretary, the High Court condemned his "significantly" secretive world in the Home Office and ordered him to release files on the miscarriage of justice victims whose appeals had been refused. (Nov 1994)


As Home Secretary, the High Court condemned his "fatally flawed" decision in a murder case, directing that two students should serve 25 years. (Dec 1994)


The Law Lords ruled that he had acted unlawfully and abused the power of parliament in planning to cut criminal injuries compensation (April 1995)


As Home Secretary, Howard cut access to health, housing and education for asylum seekers, alleging that £100 million was being "wasted" on them (July 1995)


Howard was judged to have flouted the European Convention on Human Rights following unlawfully delaying the release of five long-serving IRA prisoners - the SEVENTH time he had been found to be acting illegally in just two years as Home Secretary. (September 1995)


Howard dumped Sir Stephen Tumin as Chief Inspector of Prisons because he thought he was too liberal (April 1996)


Howard blocked Labour MP Janet Anderson's Anti-Stalking Bill in May 1996


His proposed reforms of the police force drew fire from former Tory Home Secretary Sir Willie Whitelaw who said they would politicise the police "to an unacceptable degree".


After the election defeat, Howard announced his "retirement" from the front bench in March 1999


Howard the hypocrite - he said very clearly that "I will never stand again for the leadership of the Conservative Party" less than a year ago in November 2002 (BBC News Online - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2503737.stm)


However - Howard backs Gordon Brown's decisions - he told the IPPR that the Chancellor deserved "great credit" for giving independence to the Bank of England and that "We have a framework now which I say is working pretty well" (Speech to IPPR, Monday 11 March 2002)


Howard claimed, wrongly, that more than 1000 asylum seekers had been found in Dover in just 12 days - and was forced to retract a rant about asylum being "out of control" - he had got his figures mixed up. (March 2002)


Howard makes George Bush look like an anti-war protestor. In November 1998, Howard criticised Blair and then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook for not acting fast enough to launch air strikes against Iraq. On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Howard said that Tony Blair and Bill Clinton should attack without warning and try to remove Saddam Hussein from office.


Howard opposed the introduction of the Human Rights Act.


He's not tough on all criminals, though - Howard criticised Jack Straw's decision to detain General Pinochet and actively campaigned for his release: "We think this has gone on far too long. We think he should be sent back to Chile." (BBC Interview, 26 November 1998)


According to an ICM poll for the Guardian in October 2003, 26% of people are LESS likely to vote Tory with Michael Howard as the leader. (Guardian 21 Oct 2003)


He's hardly popular even with the Tory Grass-roots - according to the Guardian Diary of 9 October: "a memo from Nicola Matthews of the Wantage Conservative Association doesn't bode well for his chances of winning over the nutters in the country (technically, "the Tory grassroots"). "We are in the embarrassing situation of almost certainly having to cancel a drinks party," Nicola alerts members, "at which Michael Howard is the guest speaker, as not enough people have bought tickets." At a fiver a time? Why are pipp-ill so ungrateful?" (Matthew Norman)


Howard has pledged to scrap the New Deal to pay for tax cuts.


AND - remember Michael Howard sat through 14 years of Tory Government (from his election in 1983) loyally voting to privatise the railways, water, electricity and gas, sell off School Playing Fields, cut benefits, install the internal market into the NHS, run down public services and destroy local democracy not to mention presiding over the worst recession for decades, the spectacular failures over economic policy starting with Sterling's ejection from the ERM and the spectre of negative equity. From 1985 he was a senior Minister through the whole of Thatcher and Major's administrations. Unlike Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague he is the voice and the face of the Conservative Government rejected in 1997.



And in opposition this is the man who has voted against the London Mayor, National Minimum Wage, the New Deal, against devolution to Scotland and Wales, against all of Labour's budgets and against paid holidays for all workers, full time rights for all workers and the vast majority of all the Government's achievements over the last 6 years.



If you want to slap Michael Howard for any of this you can do so safely here: http://www.urban75.com/Punch/howard.html





WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY ABOUT HIM:



"The nastiest man in the [Tory] Government" - Labour MP Andrew Faulds



"The shoddiest display I've seen from a front bench in 26 years" - Labour MP Alex Eadie



"Abuse of power" - The Court of Appeal



"fatally flawed" decision making - The High Court



"an indiscriminate, scatter gun approach to justice" - Lord Chief Justice Bingham on Howard's plans for mandatory minimum sentences



"regularly to protect and excuse ourselves while visiting serious vengeance on others corrupts justice and demeans office" - Ann Widdecombe MP on Howard's actions during the Lewis affair



"The smile of Michael Howard has the substance of the Cheshire cat, the menace of Uriah Heep and the sincerity of Bob Monkhouse." Derek Lewis, Former Director of the Prison Service sacked by Howard.



"My right hon. and learned Friend has a problem, in that his first reaction to attack is denial and refuge in semantic prestidigitation" Ann Widdecombe MP


"Michael Howard's strange accent sounds as if it tried to move to the home counties but got stranded in Mid-Severn Bridge" - Alan Travis, The Guardian


"He was not rude; he had a thin veneer of courtesy, but it was very thin; underlying it was this great aggression; he's a man obsessed with his own career" - Home Office Colleague, quoted in The Sunday Times



"He was economical with the truth, I think is the phrase" John Marriott, former Governor of Parkhurst Prison (sacked by Howard)



Manages "to combine the smarm of Cecil Parkinson with the charm of Norman Tebbit" - Andrew Rawnsley, The Guardian



"Proof of the rule that the oily float on water" - Michael White, The Guardian



"makes me want to puke" - Paul Boateng (during Channel 5 debate with Howard)



[Has me] "reaching for the sick bucket" - Ann Widdecombe when Howard congratulated her on her return to the front bench



"like a dog in the gutter that keeps returning to its vomit" - Denis Skinner on Howard's habit of going over the same ground again and again



"He has obviously had, let's be frank, an image problem" - Michael Portillo on why Howard had to retire from the front bench



"every time he appeared on television the Tories lost another 1,000 votes " - BBC Commentator Nick Assinder



"No one expects Howard to win the next election.... I disagree with almost everything Howard stands for" - Max Hastings



"Poor old Iron Mike became a hate figure, the embodiment of "fascist" Tory policies" - Boris Johnson, Telegraph, 2 October 1998





Sources: Hansard, The Guardian, Sky News, BBC Online, Roths Parliamentary Profiles, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Telegraph

All comments, quotes and points are from published sources.

Here's that Folkstone election result from last time. Tactical voting, anyone?

Michael Howard, Conservative 20,645 45.0 +6.0
Peter Carroll, Liberal Democrat 14,738 32.1 +5.2
Albert Catterall, Labour 9,260 20.2 -4.7
John Baker, UK Independence Party 1,212 2.6 n/a

Conservative majority: 5,907
Turnout: 64.1%


Liberal Democrat target 30
Labour target 131


Liberal Democrat requires a 6.50 % swing to gain seat.

The paucity of posts in recent days has been caused by being holiday in Cumbria, with a dodgy connection, and being glued to the TV watching the Tories implode. The fuhrerprincip runs so deeply in the Conservative Party that they really believe that changing leader will regain public support. They need 2 million people to stop voting Labour and start voting Tory. Is Michael Howard going to appeal to 2 million people? Or David Davies? It's not your leader that's the problem, you dummies, it's your policies, your history, and your representatives.

This month's Guardian Unlimited books column is here

The main charges against George Galloway at today's hearing are that:

* he incited Arabs to fight British troops
* he incited British troops to defy orders
* he incited Plymouth voters to reject Labour MPs,
* he threatened to stand against Labour
* he backed an anti-war candidate in Preston.

Of these, the first two are just a sign of loony leftiness, not expellable offences by themselves. Various Labour figures have incited treason by calling on troops not to fire on striking workers, and not been expelled. Far more serious for a democratic party is the support given to a candidate standing against an official Labour candidate. If proven, Galloway is automatically out of the party. And good riddance, says I.

I watched the Silent Policeman last night, and like most right-thinking people, I was appalled by the ignorant, and at times psychotic racism displayed by the cadets caught on camera. But in the cold light of day, what is more significant is that an overcover reporter, with six month's worth of interviews with hundreds of trainees, could only undercover four or five hardcore racists. When relaxed and in social situations, or even drunk with friends, only four or five were outed as racists.

I bet if you went undercover in the building trade, on the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange, inside Fleet Street, inside the fire brigade, in universities, or amongst ambulance drivers, you would find a comparable per centage of white racists, willing to make racist statements to their friends and use racist terminology. The racists on the film weren't racists because they were coppers; they were racists because they were racists.

I hope they throw the book at the cretinous loud-mouthed yobs in uniform that the BBC film unmasked. I also hope they introduce psychological testing to root out similar nutters at an early stage of selection. But what the BBC film revealed to me was that far from being institutionalised, racism in the police is confined to a small number of ignorant thugs, not a widespread and shared culture.

Amongst the bills and bank statements, an invitation arrives in the post. It is to attend a seminar entitled Inside Government: how the system works - how to work the system.

The sessions include 'what ministers and special advisers actually do' led by former DTI and DTLR SPAD Dan Corry. Steve Richards, Indie on Sunday columnist, tells us 'the culture of the system - what outsiders miss' and best of all Sally Keeble MP is on hand to tell us 'what MPs can and cannot do, limits of access and influence.' She is billed as 'Parliamentary under secretary of state, housing, planning and regeneration.' Perhaps someone should tell the organisers of this 'inside government' seminar that Keeble was fired months ago.

The price of a ticket for the one-day event? A snip at £599 plus VAT.

The Thinker returns from a short trip to Salford, Oldham, and God's great city of Manchester. Many readers will be all too aware of the issues surrounding Oldham's housing policy, but I found the situation disturbing. By creating white working class ghettos and Asian working class ghettos, the council has created a racially-segregated school system, with predominantly white and predominantly Asian primary schools. Oldham is not a big place; creating a multi-racial education system is easy to achieve.

If children grow up in a mono-culture, without exposure to different cultures and influences, it doesn't take a genius to work out why there is the mistrust and suspicion which leads to riots and the BNP being elected.

Oh, the irony. The taxi from the airport broke down in the middle of Trafford Park, and still charged me £20!

Last night, returning from Birmingham to London after a Fabian Society seminar on crime and policing, the harsh realities of Britain's third world transport system were brought home yet again.

It started badly, with a lift from Birmingham to St Albans, not helped by one of the finest minds in modern politics being unable to find where he had parked his car for 45 minutes. Then the train to London was cut short at Kentish Town for engineering works. The bus from Kentish Town to Kings Cross was terrible. The taxi from Kings Cross to Thinker Towers was stuck in traffic, and the driver was on the phone to someone from a lonely hearts column all the way.

Today I must go to Manchester. More engineering works. A bus service from Euston to Northampton means the journey takes four hours, when it should take 2 hours 40 minutes.

I have decided to fly. It costs £59, which is cheaper than the nightmare that is Virgin Rail.

On Grumpy Old Men on BBC2 during the week, Matthew Parris said he would vote for anyone, even a Trotskyist or Marxist, who could sort out the public transport system, and I know what he means...

The best thing about the Sunday political programmes, I have decided, is seeing the hilarious clothes politicians wear at a weekend. All politicians face a terrible dilemma - they know they must look smart for the television, and during the week they are welded into their navy, grey or pinstripe suits, so no problem.

But at the weekend, they cannot be filmed wearing slob-out Sunday sweatshirts, or their gardening jumper, and by the same token they cannot be filmed wearing a suit, shirt and tie because that would look weird. So the compromise we see time and time again is a terrible array of tweeds, tank-tops, sports jackets, tattashall shirts with ties, and other sartorial horrors. Alan Duncan has just appeared wearing the kind of green tweed hacking jacket last seen in The Shooting Party, with a blue tie and blue hanky poking from his top pocket.

Have these people never heard of normal clothes?

A pleasing tableaux of family life at the Footstool, Smith Square, this lunchtime: Andrew Marr, with wife Jacky Ashley and children, with father Lord Jack Ashley, the former deaf Labour MP. Was it someone's birthday?

Gordon and Sarah Brown are celebrating the birth of their son earlier today, weighing in at 8oz 1lb. Fatherhood is the most amazing experience. The Thinker junior is one year old on 5th November. His name is already down for the LSE, in preparation for a career in politics or journalism; we're not fussy.

There's a good profile of IDS-baiter and Man U fan Michael Crick here.

Over at What You Can Get Away With, Nick Barlow is having a laugh at the misuse of the apostrophe in his local sandwich shop.

But it is no laughing matter, my friend.

Something must be done to protect the correct use of the apostrophe, or civilisation will crumble and anarchy will ensue. For too long the moderate official Apostrophe Protection Society has tried to protect this vital tool of communication with its guidelines and gentle reminders of the correct usage, whilst all around greengrocers, shop-keepers and even teachers have let standards slip. What we need now is militant action.

I propose a new breakaway Apostrophe Action Front which will take direct action to punish and shame absusers of the apostrophe.

We will:

* overturn fruit and veg stalls selling 'potato's', 'tomato's', and so on
* tear down posters with misused apostrophes
* burn newspapers and magazines with poor punctuation subbing
* hound any teacher from their job who does not know where to put the apostrophe
* boycott any shop, restaurant, hotel or service supplier until they get it right.

Oh, and my wife says can we include people who write 'n' instead of 'and', as in Fish 'n' Chips. And shops who have checkouts for 'five items or less' when it should be 'fewer'.

How interesting that Guardian enviro-whinger George Monbiot's father is a prominent and wealthy Tory. Monbiot fils fits neatly into that upper-middle-class-lefty-trying-to-upset-daddy mould; I'm surprised he didn't join the SWP.

So what might the future hold for Mr Monbiot?

2003 - Guardian columnist and globalisation protestor
2004 - founds new political party, wins seat in European Parliament
2008 - loses seat, starts political lobbying consultancy; writes books; trousers several million Euros
2010 - joins Labour Party
2011 - gets seat in House of Lords
2012 - becomes Labour Cabinet Minister for Overseas Development
2015 - Reconciled with Monbiot pater

As we stand teetering on the brink of the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith, in order to clear his good name and that of his wife, or some such nonsense, here are my top five political resignations:

1. In at number one, it's Michael Hesletine walking out of the Cabinet and out of government in 1986 over the Westland Helicopters affair. Dramatic, but just how spontaneous was it, I wonder?
2. Hugh Dalton resigned as Labour Chancellor in 1947 for leaking budget secrets to a Star lobby correspondent. He mentioned the tax changes on his way into the Commons Chamber, and the newspaper had it on the streets before Dalton had even stood up to make the speech. Attlee commented that he was 'a perfect ass.'
3. Denzil Davies, a defence spokesperson on Neil Kinnock's Labour frontbench resigned in 1988 for not being consulted on policy changes. The manner of the resignation - completely pissed, in the small hours, on the phone to the Press Association - is what brings him in at number three.
4. When Alan Milburn resigned in June 2003, few believed it could really be to spend more time with his family, and yet as no scandal has engulfed him, it looks like it might be true. Oh, and he'll be ready to fight a leadership election in a three or four years' time.
5. Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, and created a raft of conspiracy theories as to why. Who knows, but better to quit while you're ahead...

According to the BBC, the SS Guard who burnt Hitler's body has died aged 86, from a heart attack.

The report says 'Otto Guensche was an SS officer and a member of Hitler's inner circle. He was captured by Red Army troops, but was released after several years to live quietly in western Germany.'

Released after several years to live quietly! Can anyone explain why this man was not either hanged after Nuremberg, or hunted down and killed by Mossad after his release by the Soviets? Since when do SS Officers get to die peacefully in their beds?

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Sir Philip Mawer says that IDS has a case to answer, and he will establish an investigation. Vanessa Gearson, deputy director at CCO, has taken legal advice. She sent the email warning colleagues about the dates of office cost allowance payments to IDS's wife and stated: 'the last thing we need now is a Crick-style investigation.' Andrew Marr says 'for the embattled Tory leader, the stakes could not be higher.'

Another ultra-left group is forming to take on the main parties at the polls. A rat-bag of trots, anti-war muslims and whinging Guardian columnist George Monbiot are forming a new coalition. I welcome these moves, just as I welcomed Arthur Scargill's party fighting elections, and the Socialist Alliance fielding candidates, and the Socialist Party coming out from behind the cloak of Militant.

When they stand for election it proves that they have miniscule support amongst the working people they claim to represent (see, for example, their showing in the Brent by-election), and ensures that Labour candidates can stand on a clear platform of modern democratic socialism. If we had proportional representation, it would be even easier to vote for a party which represented your own views more accurately, but that's another story.

Michael Crick is the obsessive's obsessive.

From his early work unearthing the truth about the Militant Tendency in the Labour Party, which contributed to their expulsion, to his unhealthy fixation with Jeffrey Archer which brought to light all manner of hilarious anecdotes about the serial liar, to his love of Manchester United which led him to establish Shareholders United Against Murdoch to take on and defeat the BSkyB bid to takeover Man U, he has proved that the right combination of tireless research and a refusal to be put off the scent can yield journalistic golddust.

Today, he is taking on Iain Duncan Smith over allegations of how he ran his private office. Crick has ignored the threat of legal action, which shut most of the media up over the weekend, and referred the case to the Parliamentary Ombdusman. That means the evidence must be reviewed by an independent official, and the findings published.

Never mind Hutton, this one is the one to watch...

This is a heads-up as they say on the West Wing to let The Thinker's loyal readers know that the website is undergoing a thorough makeover and will re-emerge with a proper facility for posting responses. It should be up within a couple of weeks...

Patrick Wintour's assessment of the conference season's policy announcements concludes:

'Finally each party came up with their own eye-catching initiative - the Tories had their sheriffs to run the police, Labour is turning to a massive expansion of Sure Start to forestall another dysfunctional generation, and the Liberal Democrats, well they would ban goldfish in bowls.'

Under Labour, with the promise of 'a future fair for all' surely goldfish would come in plastic bags, along with candyfloss and toffee apples?

Lenin's getting a makeover, according to the Mirror. I think when Thatcher finally goes the Tories should embalm her in CCO, and the queues would snake round Smith Square.