Labour’s candidate is her daughter Tasmin, but her campaign has been hit by allegations that local Labour activists have started a smear campaign against her Conservative opponent Edward Timpson over his personal and of his business background. The desperate tactics are being made because of recent polls showing that Labour could lose this once safe seat. Recent local election results in the constituency have also been disastrous for the party.

No doubt this disgusts the many people on the political left and outside, including John Harris of the Guardian in another damning critique of the government. At the end of this article, he gives this chilling warning:

“David Cameron’s recent pronouncements are not as nearly as surreal as they sound: right now, the Tories really are sounding more progressive than Labour, and lies not just electoral defeat, but the prospect of complete wipe-out.”

That is what is being threatened of Labour unless they stop trying to continue to be the nasty party and actually try to govern the United Kingdom properly. Unfortunately, this warning, and countless others, are unlikely to be heeded by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, or by any of his colleagues any time soon.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling told MPs  in Parliament that £700million will go into compensating around five million housholds who lost out at the decision by the government to abolish the 10p tax rate a year ago. 80 per cent of those affected would be compensated in full, but around the remaining 20 per cent would be compensated by half. The total package will cost taxpayers around £2.7billion.

This is the most shameful of bribes taken by a shameless government. Several questions need to be asked about this decision. The obvious one is about why Darling resorted to organising a complicated package that people wouldn’t understand and which would cost a lot of money in the process, yet the more simpler solution of restoring the 10p rate immediately and backdating it wasn’t even considered.

Anyway, the money ‘handed back’ will soon be swallowed up by the relentless increases in the cost of living. The British people will not be fooled by this latest government ‘con trick’.

A special mention goes to Ryan Giggs, who equalled club legend Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 758 appearances- a stunning achievement for a man who spent his entire career at one club, an extreme rarity these days. It’s not over yet for these two teams as they both have to contest the European Champions’ League final in Moscow later this month.

At the bottom of the table, I was happy that Fulham stayed up on goal difference, after beating FA Cup finalists Portsmouth 1-0 at Fratton Park, but was disappointed to see two good teams, Reading and Birmingham City, relegated, despite recording big wins against Derby County and Blackburn respectively.

Derby has set the record of getting the lowest points total of any team in a Premiership season- eleven- they were just completely awful. They conceded 89 goals, and won just once all season. That bet earned me some money from the bookies, to make up for losing a lot of smaller bets throughout the season.

Now I’ve put on a bet on which of the promoted sides become next season’s whipping boys. I was lucky this time, surely lighting couldn’t strike twice- could it? 

“I want British politicians to be sexy, not sleazy….I want politicians to show they really care about women.”

Garrett was asked if she had any tips for Gordon Brown as he grapples with the problems of the economy and an election mauling.

“No, but I could maybe give him some advice on beauty products”

Keeley Hazell, glamour model, talking about her job in The Guardian:

Is (Page 3) any different from porn?

Yes- I don’t see how you can get off on a picture like that. It’s a girl standing there smiling. I don’t know why anybody thought of having it in a national newspaper, it’s such a strange idea.

Have you had any nasty experiences at shoots?

You get people who think ‘You’re a model and you don’t know anything.’ They treat you like shit. I went on a shoot once and this guy said, ‘Can you hold your tits like this?’, and I thought, ‘There’s a guy trying to tell me how to hold my tits. When did my life turn out like this?’ It stopped me working for a couple of months. I hate people being patronising.

Unfortunately, it’s male-dominated attitudes mentioned here that continues to prevent women being treated seriously in this country.

The government, despite repeatedly losing the arguments on this issue, went ahead to decide on the cuts. Many people who use the post offices will now have to travel further to get a decent service. These services are a lifeline to many people, particularly the elderly, parents with young children, and the disabled. Now as in any other public service, they have to be, in the government’s eyes, ‘lean and mean’, and they have to be run to make a profit, otherwise, they are no good.

It must be extremely embarrassing for a so-called Labour government to have closed more PO’s than any other since World War II. Many people would think in the light of the 10p tax row and the recent local elections debacle, they would seriously consider changing their policies…. but any protest seems at the moment to be falling on deaf ears.

Inevitably, this will mean that government minsters are going to spend the next two years defending the indefensible, because they seem either too arrogant, or too unwilling, to change direction.

Oh, come on guys, Labour is dying in government…. get over it!!!

The Myhab was invented after thousands of tents are thrown away after festivals every year. It is made as a toilet-roll type cardboard structure held together with metal frames. It’s been seen as leak-proof and has foam bedding for extra comfort. It’s now ready to hire for the summer’s music festivals… for £240…

I think I’ll keep my small tent, thanks….

“Dear fellow Britons,

“As Prime Minister, I have made too many mistakes. I am very sorry for the very problems that the country is suffering from at the moment. We have not made the effort to serve you, the people of our once-proud nation properly. Before I start my groveling apology, I would like to congratulate David Cameron and the Conservative party for winning the local elections. I also congratulate Boris Johnson on becoming Mayor for London, because I never liked Ken Livingstone anyway.

“I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for Labour’s mismanagement of the nation for the last eleven years. We have made too many mistakes in our period in office, some of the most obvious ones are:

• The increase in overall taxation
• The widening gap between the wealthy and the deprived
• Increased social and racial tension, allowing the far right to thrive
• Unchecked high levels of immigration
• Crime levels going through the roof
• The spread of the Whitehall state interfering in peoples’ lives
• Starting and supporting illegal wars abroad, causing terrorist attacks at home
  
• An economy which was built on sand, not on firm foundations
• Homelessness at an all-time high, and that fewer homes are built now than in 1997
• The loss of the discs containing the personal data of benefit claimants
• A welfare system that has become too bureaucratic to administer
• Poor transport policy that favours road and air over rail
• Privatisation of the National Health Service
• Mortgaging the future with the use of Private Finance Initiative to guarantee the present.

“There have been too many mistakes that we have made in government, and I deeply make a personal, humbling and humiliating apology to you, the British people. In the interests of public and political opinion, I intend to resign both as leader of the Labour party, and as Prime Minister, with immediate effect, and will dissolve Parliament to call a general election.

“Thank you, and goodbye, Mr Gordon Brown”

Except that the Labour party won’t get rid of him, and that we’re stuck with him for the next two years…