Labour contest would be "meaningless" - Ken

A few weeks back, a propos of Ken Livingstone's comments about the Barnett Formula, I speculated that he might be positioning himself as a potential "English Candididate" in a future Labour leadership contest.

Well, I'm wrong apparently. According to the BBC today, he's endorsed Gordon.

Furthermore, he reckons Brown's first act as PM should be to call a General Election, in order to give himself a clear and distinct mandate and forestall any cries of "Tony wouldn't have done this..."

There's only one problem with Ken's analysis, seducitve though it is. It is that no Prime Minister - let alone one as cautious as Mr Brown - is going to call an election while ten points behind in the opinion polls.

Blog of the Week!

As if Iain Dale has not been generous enough towards this blog over recent days, he has now named it as Blog of the Week in his slot on Channel 4's podcast, The Morning Report.

You can listen to it in full HERE but if you want to hear it, make sure you do so today because the podcast is updated each morning. Iain's bit starts about three quarters of the way through.

In case you miss it - and because I think it's worth preserving! - here's what Iain had to say about me:

"I still can't work out who he votes for, but his blog carries the sort of insight into the political scene you would expect from a former lobby hack but without the baggage of working for one of the major newspaper groups like the Guardian or Rupert Murdoch. I don't drink, but his blog conjures up the image of drinking a rather fine wine: like a good vintage, some of his writing is to be savoured."

Some may not be aware that Iain is the proprietor of Politicos, the online bookseller and publisher. So when someone who has published as many books as he has says something like that about my writing, it really means something, I can tell you.

Incidentally, as Iain is at pains to point out on his own blog, the piece was recorded well before I named his blog at No 1 in my Top 10 published here on Tuesday!

The rest of his C4 piece, which focuses on the reasons behind the current proponderance of the right-wing blogosphere and the relative lack of prominent left-of-centre blogs, is also well worth listening to.

Interestingly, he doesn't appear to class this as a "left-of-centre" blog in the context of that debate, but I guess that's because he can't work out who I vote for!

The Blears Blog (Not)

I don't know who thought of doing THIS. But I wish it had been me.

A-lister picked to be my next MP

The Derby Evening Telegraph reports that long serving Derby City councillor and Tory A-list candidate Pauline Latham has won the battle to contest the newly-created seat of Mid-Derbyshire for the Conservatives at the next election.

Who cares? Well, I do, because I live there and because, as it's likely to be a rock-solid Tory constituency, Pauline is almost certain to become my MP.

Fortunately, we go back quite a long way. Pauline was on Derbyshire County Council back in the 1980s when I covered it for the Evening Telegraph and we have stayed in touch, occasionally running into eachother and enjoying a drink or two at party conferences.

Word has it that most of the A-List put in for this seat, so I personally think it's great that they've chosen a local candidate. I might even vote for her.

The Great Local Votes Swindle is just the beginning

A report out today from the Electoral Reform Society drives a further nail into the coffin of our discreidted first-past-the-post electoral system.

It reveals that a dozen councils in the recent local elections ended up being controlled by the "wrong" party because the one with the largest share of the vote did not win the most seats.

It also points out that in Barking and Dagenham, the far-right British National Party won 12 seats with 8,506 votes across the borough as a whole while the Conservatives won one seat with 9,306.

You can read the full report HERE.

This, however, is just the beginning. As I have mentioned previously on this blog, there is a very real possibility that the sort of scenario outlined in the ERS report could actually happen at national level.

If the Tories end up in front of Labour by anything between 0-4pc of the national share of the vote, it is overwhelmingly likely that Labour will remain the largest single party and in a position, possibly with Lib Dem help, to remain in government.

The ERS report seems to have been ignored by most of the big media outfits (including the BBC) today and also by the Tory blogosphere, which doesn't seem to want to discuss proportional representation even though it is crystal clear that their party would benefit from it.

When the next election produces the constitutional equivalent of a dog's breakfast, perhaps they'll sit up and take notice.

Oh no, Oaten's on Question Time...

Mark Oaten's attempts to rehabilitate himself as a serious politician continue tonight with an appearance on Question Time.

For my part, I reckon he should take Jonathan Calder's advice and concentrate on being the MP for Winchester. (NB This post is, in part, just an excuse to link to the best headline I have seen in the blogosphere this year.)