Brown keeps his aces up his sleeve

Last week's Pre-Budget Report was the first for many years I have not covered for either a newspaper or the this is sites, but I don't think I missed a great deal. It's clear that Gordon Brown is now looking to get through his remaining few months as Chancellor by doing as little as possible, holding back the really big announcements for the start of his premiership next summer.

This is the theme of my current Podcast which is also available in text format HERE.

"For now, British politics has entered a bizarre state of limbo, with Blair in office but not in power and Brown in power but not in office. It’s Brown who is the man with the plan – but it’s the plan for his first few months as Premier, not his last few months as Chancellor, and the name of the game last week was to give as little of it away as possible."

My tip for Brown's "big bang" announcement to get his premiership off to a flyer and draw a line under the Blair years: NHS independence, on the Bank of England model.

"We love our Royals, don't we?"

That was my wife's instant reaction last night on the announcement of Zara Phillips as Sports Personality of the Year, and I don't think she's too far off in her assessment. As someone who became a World Champion during 2006, Zara was one of the more deserving candidates, but her popularity as one of the highest-profile young royals may well have swung it over fellow world champs Beth Tweddle, Nicole Cooke and Joe Calzaghe.

For me, it was the right result, even if by rights the horse should have been up there with her on the podium too. But what of the rest of the show, which seems to be held by much of our national media in an equal mixture of fascination and contempt?

Well, first off, wtf was going on with that shortlist? Andy Murray appeared to be on it for having beaten Roger Federer in a minor tournament, despite the fact that he has yet to win anything. Nicole Cooke was on it, which is fair enough, but not fellow cycling world champ Chris Hoy, which merely smacked of gender-balance tokenism.

Not sure why Steven Gerrard wasn't on the list following his Cup Final exploits. Maybe the BBC judge the Cup Final to be a bit parochial these days, but it's a strange judgement given that it's practically the only major domestic football match to which they still own the rights.

The most irritating aspect of the show remains the lack of real sporting highlights, even in respect of the events the BBC actually does own the rights to such as Wimbledon. Practically the only pieces of real "action" plus commentary were the Cup Final goals and Lewis-Francis bringing home the baton for Britain's European Mens 4 x 100m relay gold.

As for the good bits, well, apart from the moving Paul Hunter tribute, and seeing Beth Tweddle in a nice dress with her hair down, the highspot for me had to be Gary Lineker's comment on England's World Cup fiasco. "They arrived looking bright, confident and up for it - but that's enough about the WAGs."

Update: Other, more critical bloggage on our Zara from:

The Daily
Kerron Cross

Ashes to ashes

It seems I am not the only "political" blogger to be diversifying into cricket coverage in the wake of England's Ashes flop. The Lib Dems' Jonathan Calder has an excellent post about how the lack of state games is affecting our chances, while Tory blogger Richard Bailey also has some very illuminating thoughts on the matter.

Meanwhile Phil McIntosh, who has no particular political affiliations to my knowledge, has set up an excellent new blog dedicated to the Ashes series entitled Middle and Off.

Perhaps the only vaguely amusing thing to have come out of England's trials and tribulations thus far is that Monty Panesar's failure to be picked for either the Brisbane or Adelaide debacles has apparently boosted his chances of winning the absurd Sports Personality of the Year contest on Sunday.

If the award lives up to its name, the winner will surely be Darren Clarke, who did indeed show plenty of personality in overcoming his wife's death to help Europe win the Ryder Cup. But if it were about sporting achievement - which it never really has been - it should surely be between Joe Calzaghe, Beth Tweddle and Zara Phillips.

The mark of the Beast

In a comment on the previous post, "Guardian Reader" questions the choice of Dennis Skinner as one of my least favourite MPs, saying: "I don't understand why you consider Dennis Skinner to be part of a deeply unpleasant Derbyshire old [Labour] mafia."

"I agree that he is not the national treasure that he seems to have become, and I worry that his lack of engagement in his constituency is akin to Tony Benn's similar disregard of Chesterfield - notably lost to the Liberal Democrats once he left. (Will Bolsover suffer the same fate?)

"However, when you consider the Derbyshire Labour MPs, I can't think of a single one who could be considered old Labour or mafia. That's not to say they're all Blairites, by the way.

"If you mean the councillors in North Derbyshire, you might have a point; but to be fair to Dennis he only criticises Labour within the party, not in public - which is more than can be said about MPs such as Charles Clarke!"

Well, the answer to the question why I consider Skinner to be part of a "deeply unpleasant Derbyshire Old Labour mafia" relates to an old story dating back to a General Election campaign in the 1970s which deserves to be retold in full.

A group of Labour activists were out canvassing for Skinner on a bleak estate outside Clay Cross when the following doorstep exchange took place.

Canvasser: "Own this 'ouse, do yer?"
Voter: "No, it's rented."
Canvasser: "Council 'ouse, is it?"
Voter: "Yes, that's right."
Canvasser: "Wanna keep yer council 'ouse?"
Voter: "Well, yes, 'course I do."
Canvasser: "Well then fookin' vote Labour."

I doubt if the said canvasser was actually Skinner himself, or even his equally obstreperous brother David, a former road-ganger who was later awarded a job by Labour-run Derbyshire County Council as cultural attache to Japan. But it was on such Old Labour thuggery that his political career was built.

There are probably plenty of other Labour MPs of whom the same could be said. But unlike Skinner, none of them have managed to fool the public into thinking they are some nice, cuddly old socialist.