Yesterday's Announcement

Well done to the PM and Chancellor for doing the right thing on the 10p rate compensation - and making sure the solution also benefits hard-pressed basic rate taxpayers suffering from the credit crunch and food and fuel prices.

To hell with the massive chorus of ribaldry coming from those who believe it was the desperate act of a desperate man cornered. I'm sure that decision will reflect itself in Labourhome's Grassroots Survey very shortly, lifting Gordon and Alistair off the bottom of the league table. What a great idea league tables were, by the way. I wonder who introduced them into the public sector?

I can't help wishing that the tax giveaway had been done on April 14th and not May 14th, as we would thereby have bought ourselves a Labour Mayor of London and a few hundred Labour councillors and saved many thousands of people from being forced to vote for enduring Tory cuts and ineptitude at their local town halls. Well done to Frank Field - a man I've long admired - both for his dogged pursuit of this issue and for his public apology yesterday which has hopefully drawn a line under the less-than-edifying exchange of insults over the weekend. I've written to Ruth and asked her to arrange his excommunication at the earliest possible opportunity.

I was delighted to see Tamsin Dunwoody resolutely refusing to answer the thrice-asked question: "Is Gordon an asset or a liability?". "The Prime Minister is the Prime Minister - unanimously elected to lead the Party - I'm here to win the by-election and that's what I'm concentrating on." That's the way to fight off the bullies, Tamsin. Good on yer girl!

I think we are now in with a shout in Crewe - I haven't been able to get up there because after my brief affair with Captain Mortimer Linda threatened to leave me if I spent any more time on the stump with strange women. However, friends who have say the canvassing even before yesterday's announcement indicated it was competitive but still winnable. And with the bookmakers only offering as low as 1/7 or 1/8 on the Conservatives, that looks almost as achievable a goal as Ken beating Boris here in London.