Two reasons why Blair is finished

1. A Prime Minister with a majority of 66 is forced to rely on Conservative votes to get through a reform which he claimed would form a vital part of his legacy.

2. Labour's Treasurer is forced to launch an investigation into his own party's finances over accusations that loans were exchanged for peerages.

The Government has now lost all political and moral authority. Tony Blair came to power in 1997 on a tide of so-called Tory "sleaze" but it is now clear that his administration is the sleaziest since the original cash-for-honours scandal involving Lloyd George.

When Labour donors become so brazened that they stand up and demand to know "where's my peerage?" as Chai Patel did, it is clear we are living in a corrupt and decadent political culture.

Since 1997 Blair has made reform of the public services his number one priority - but in his increasing obsession with "marketisation" he has completely failed to carry his party with him.

New Labour's spin machine and its fawning acolytes in the national media will doubtless tell us otherwise tomorrow - but this Prime Minister is now holed below the waterline.

Andy Robinson = Harold Macmillan

Analogies between politics and rugby are relatively rare, but England coach Andy Robinson's decision to axe six players for Saturday's match against Ireland calls to mind Harold Macmillan’s Night of the Long Knives in 1962 when he sacked a third of his Cabinet – “the wrong third” according to Tory wits of the time.

Josh Lewsey appears to be taking the rap for the collision with Jamie Noon which led to the first French try. Yet Lewsey is a proven world class performer while Noon is merely a good premiership player who has been the persistent beneficiary of Robinson’s absurd favouritism.

Bringing in Stuart Abbott at inside centre is a start, but it would have been much better to have seen the hugely talented Ollie Smith alongside him.

Harry Ellis has been tried and failed at scrum-half – why isn’t Shaun Perry being given a chance? And why is that lolloping great tub of lard Ben Cohen still even in the squad?

Upfront, the return of Andrew Sheridan is a belated admission that it was wrong to drop him against France, but the back row still looks totally unbalanced. Moody should move to 6 with Sanderson or Lund at 7, while Chris Jones would be a much more useful back-row bench option than Dallaglio.

Macmillan’s purge failed to save his job in the longer-run, and this won’t save Robinson’s either. As someone said on Planet Rugby: "I've seen better selections left at the bottom of a Cadbury's Roses tin on Boxing Day."

English Parliament: Riddell joins the fray

Following on from Lord Hattersley's endorsement, Times columnist Peter Riddell has joined the debate over an English Parliament with this article in today's paper.

Although he is hostile to the idea, I think this is only going to prove my point that the English Question has now crossed over into the mainstream of political debate.

As well as being an excellent writer, Riddell is one of the real high-priests of the Whitehall political establishment and if this isssue is on his radar, then we can be sure that it is firmly on the establishment's radar.

As someone said on another blog: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Robinson must go!

I have previously warned all you politicos out there that this blog might occasionally turn its attentions to other matters - notably the oval-ball game - and in the wake of England's 31-6 humiliation at the hands of France yesterday, this is such an occasion.

Frankly, today I couldn't care less whether Tessa Jowell, Tony Blair or even Ian Blair go - as long as England rugby coach Andy Robinson does!

I've long had it in for Robinson as a result of his disgraceful treatment of the Lions and Leicester Tigers centre Ollie Smith, potentially the finest young talent in the English game yet repeatedly ignored for international selection.

Yet Robinson refuses to learn from his mistakes and persists in bone-headed decisions like playing the blindside flanker Lewis Moody out of position on the openside, and the tactically limited Mike Tindall as an inside centre.

Now it is all finally unravelling, and the shortcomings of a coach whose limitations have long been obvious to me are becoming clear for all to see.

There are plenty of discussion threads on this subject on the Planet Rugby site - this one entitled Where to start? is probably one of the best.

Tessa to stay, Blair to go?

I have by and large refrained from commenting on the Tessa Jowell thus far, mainly because no-one has managed to explain to me what exactly it is that she is supposed to have done wrong.

I expand on this point in this week's Column and accompanying Podcast but I conclude with a look forward to what might happen to Tony Blair following this week's education vote.

"Thankfully for Ms Jowell, it is Mr Blair’s own future to which the attentions of the media will surely now turn. Tory leader David Cameron’s carefully-laid “bear hug” strategy of trying to kill the Prime Minister with kindness by detaching him from his own MPs is now very close to success.

"As I have written before, if Mr Blair is forced to rely on Tory votes to get those reforms through next Wednesday, he will be finished as Labour leader. Very soon now, we could well be writing a far bigger political obituary than that of the Culture Secretary."

Falconer's no to English Parliament is the beginning, not the end

Constitutional Affairs Secretary and former Tony Blair flatmate Lord Falconer has today delivered an uncompromising statement on the Government's attitude to an English Parliament.

He said an English Parliament would control the greater part of the economic power of the UK, leaving a federal UK parliament "hanging on its coat-tails."

"To the idea of an English parliament we say not today, not tomorrow, not in any kind of future we can see now. Devolution strengthens the union of the UK. English votes for English issues would wreck it."

The full story can be read here.

So where does this leave us? Does this mean that those of us who support an English Parliament and a federal UK should pack up and go home? Absolutely not.

To start with, Falconer is toast when Brown takes over. He is only in the Cabinet because he's an old legal chum of Blair's, and the PM is so isolated in the Labour Party he needs to surround himself with cronies. Furthermore Brown has already said he will have a wide-ranging look at the constitution when he takes over.

But the real significance of today's comments is that Falconer felt it necessary to make them at all. It means the idea of an English Parliament is, finally, on the mainstream political agenda.

What this does is create a great opportunity for the Campaign for the English Parliament to get its message across and expose the contradictions in the Government's argument.

For example, the BBC is running a Have Your Say on the issue which is now running to eight pages of coments, together with a poll which currently shows around 63pc in favour of an English Parliament and 37pc against.

Here's an excerpt from what I wrote on that thread:

"If Falconer's argument against an English Parliament is that it will ultimately lead to a "federal Britain," then I would have to ask him where he's been for the past nine years. The actions of his own Government in creating devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales and the attempts to create a similar structure in Northern Ireland have - quite rightly in my view - taken us three quarters of the way towards a federal UK already. An English Parliament is simply the missing piece in the jigsaw."

Plenty more debate on this at Iain Dale and the CEP newsblog with an eloquent summing up from Little Man in a Toque.

March 14 update: Roy Hattersley gives his backing to an English Parliament with this piece in the Guardian.