We need a fair voting system

The Electoral Reform Society has picked up on a column I wrote in the wake of the May 5 General Election about how the electoral system had once again produced a skewed result. It's good of them to include little old me in a list that contains such luminaries of political journalism as Mike White, Andy Grice and Peter Riddell. You can read it by clicking here and then scrolling down to May 14.

Good times!

This is a picture of me, my wife Gill and son George doing one of our favourite things - going walking in Derbyshire!

Robin Cook 1946-2005

Robin Cook was the politician whose views probably most closely echoed my own (although he wouldn't have agreed with me about English devolution!) His death is a huge tragedy and in my view leaves a real hole at the heart of the Labour movement.

The best piece I have so far seen on this came from David Clark (a former policy adviser) in the Guardian, which can be read at the peerless Guardian Unlimited site.

My own view is that Robin would have returned to government under Gordon Brown once the great charlatan had taken his leave of No 10, probably as some kind of constitutional affairs overlord. Unlike Mr Blair, Mr Brown regards this agenda as vitally important and is understood to be considering a number of options for radical reform.

You can read my full take on Robin's career here.