Five things to change the world

Sadly I've never been asked to contribute to Comment is Free - they've probably got enough lefties at the Guardian already - but if I had taken part in yesterday's What would you change? opinion-fest to mark the first birthday of the site, here's what I would have listed as the things I want to see change in the year ahead.

* to see Gordon Brown as Prime Minister reaching out in a radical new, policy-rich direction which genuinely seeks to fulfil Labour's mission to serve the many, not the few.

* to see people starting to take personal responsibility for tackling climate change, including changing their travel patterns, and for acquaintances of mine who refuse to do anything about recycling to realise how stupid and short-sighted they are being.

* to see a growing awareness of the futility of military action in Iraq and other Middle East countries where the West is already viewed as the enemy, and a growing recognition of the need to tackle the Israel-Palestine conflict ahead of anything else.

* to see an end to the absurd micromanagement by Whitehall of housebuilding targets, leading to the production line of uniform boxes with tiny or non-existent gardens coupled with increasing encroachement onto green belt land.

* to see people taking faith and spirituality more seriously, realising there is more to life than money and material possessions.

Oh well, I can but dream....

Punditry

UK Daily Pundit has long been one of my favourite blogs but it has really excelled itself in recent days. Last November, it reported that Shadow Home Secretary David Davis was on the point of resigning. Now he's apparently on the verge of taking over as Tory leader.

I've never quite worked out whether the Pundit is the blogging equivalent of the newspaper racing hack who tips every horse in the Grand National in the run-up to the race so he can say he backed the winner - or whether the entire blog is an elaborate spoof on dead tree political commentary and its tendency to make outlandish predictions about the fates of individual politicians.

Probably a bit of both...!

More sock puppetry

Looks like this blog has been dragged back into the ongoing Blog Wars between Tim "Manic" Ireland and various rightist bloggers. Tim's latest target is Dizzy who among other things is accused of using a sock puppet called sock puppet to attack Tim on this very site. Dizzy, meanwhile, sets out his response HERE. Guys, guys.....

Who should challenge Gordon?

Should Gordon Brown be challenged for the Labour leadership? And if so, who should challenge him? Have your say in my latest poll which can be found HERE.

The poll allows for multiple choices so if you think more than one person should challenge the Chancellor, you can vote accordingly. It will be interesting to see if the results differ greatly from more scientific surveys on this issue.

Update: If you think AN Other should challenge Gordon (and s/he is currently running third behind Straw and Miliblogger in the list of potential challengers) why not leave a message in the comments to say who you think that should be.

In answer to the comments about Meacher/McDonnell/Milburn, the question specifies a Cabinet-level challenge. Milburn is included because he has Cabinet-level experience, the other two (along with John Denham) are excluded because they don't.

Is Quentin Letts taking the piss?

I had a fair amount of time for Quentin Letts in my Lobby days - unlike Michael White I did not regard him as a shifty little cunt - but it has to be remembered that he is (a) a Tory, and (b) someone whose writing is often deliberately tongue-in-cheek.

So when I saw his piece in The First Post about the possibility of Jack Straw becoming Prime Minister, I was immediately somewhat suspicious.

Was the ever-mischievous Mr Letts flying a kite in the hope that someone, somewhere might come up with some interesting reasons why Jack might not be as suitable a candidate as he might appear?

Henry G and Alex commenting on the story today on Political Betting, seem to think so...

Trident debate is Blair's Macdonald Moment

In May 1997 Tony Blair became the second Labour Prime Minister to represent a seat in the North-East of England, following in the footsteps of former Seaham MP and Labour folk villain Ramsay Macdonald. Tonight he will follow in Macdonald's footsteps again by relying on Tory votes to stay in power as up to 80 Labour MPs prepare to rebel on the vote to replace Britain's nuclear deterrent.

Given the Government's majority of 66, a rebellion on that scale would ordinarily mean a Parliamentary defeat on a central issue of government policy - enough in normal circumstances to require the Prime Minister's resignation.

Because the Tories are pledged to support the renewal of Trident, Mr Blair can rest easy on that score, but I think it's a good thing from his point of view that Blair has already promised to go, and that Gordon Brown seems in no rush to hurry him.

If this were not the case, I suspect a lot more would be being made of the fact that the Prime Minister has clearly lost the support of a substantial section of his party.

* Apologies for light bloggage over recent days. Either something is very wrong with my PC or Blogger is going through another of its crap phases. There have been long periods this week when I've not even been able to get on the site.