Forgive the gallows humour but after Glasgow East some may be merited. If I were the PM’s speech writer this is what I would prepare for him to deliver to the NPF at Warwick.

I was somewhat shocked when I read the following in Iain Dale's Diary, from which I have also copied the post title.

With the opinion polls now consistently against us perhaps it's time to consider the reasons why the Conservative Party may win the next election and what Labour can do to limit the damage.

Losing to the Conservatives in Henley was not a surprise; the sheer scale of the defeat was. Can there really be any further demonstration required of the need to change direction?

With the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary apparently determined to push ahead with plans to increase the period a 'suspect' can be held without charge to 42 days, perhaps it's timely to look at how the authorities are using the present legislation.

The GC of Nottingham South CLP met last night to determine the short list of candidates to replace Alan Simpson as our candidate at the GE.

With the starting pistol having been fired in the race to become Alan Simpson's successor, I offer a few observations on the process and the early candidates.

Last night the good folk of the East Midlands gathered in Nottingham for a Compass event on building the progressive consensus. A high class panel of Ed Miliband, Hilary Wainwright and John Harris, ably chaired by academic Ruth Lister were on hand to discuss all and sundry.

Political culture is a long established concept in political science. The work of Almond and Verba in the 1960s being the classic study of national differences in political culture. But, do we have a multiplicity of cultures in Britain now?

Is it just me or does anyone else thing that the Chancellor's decision to gurantee all deposits in the Northern Rock is just wrong?

Everybody seems to be demanding a referendum on something these days, mostly on Europe, but also on anything that might smack of 'constitutional change'. But how well thought out is the argument, and do referenda produce better decisions than parliamentary votes?

Gordon Brown has welcomed Margaret Thatcher to Downing Street for a chat according to the BBC.

The words that I thought when I saw this I cannot repeat on taste and decency grounds, so I'll content myself with Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Gordon, can we have OUR party back, please?

As we wait patiently for Regional Office to allow us to begin the process of selecting our candidate to replace Alan Simpson, and wonder if Godot might turn up before that time, news reaches me of someone whose impatience has got the better of her.

The retirement of some left wing Labour MPs and the possible deselection of another in Liverpool West Derby, the invasion of Iraq, the decision to replace Trident, the failure even to get McDonnell on the ballot paper and various other issues cause me to pause and ask, is there a future for the left in the Labour Party?

Sorry to be a bore and blog twice in the same day, and both times with a green tinge, but I was catching up with my reading over lunch and came across this. Grrr.

I have a lot of respect for the Green Party and their existence certainly helps to force the main parties to look at what is undoubtedly the most important issue of our time, climate change. Yet sadly, it looks as though the Greens are experiencing internal divisions big time.

The Guardian today reports that trials of 'e-voting' by telephone and internet had a 'significant and unnaceptable' security risk according to the Electoral Commission. I ask, what's wrong with taking democracy seriously instead of treating it as an inconvenience or an imposition?

With Labour having a reasonable lead in the opinion polls recently it is hardly surprising that speculation has increased on the prospect of an early election.

The GC of Nottingham South CLP met last night to meet with a representative of Regional Office to start the process for selecting a successor to Alan Simpson. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as delegates might have imagined beforehand.

The controversy surrounding Shambo, the TB reactor bullock in the multi-faith Skanda Vale religious community raises a number of serious points including the public's willingness to get gooey over an individual (think Phoenix the calf during FMD for example), but to ignore collective suffering. However, an examination of the arguments must lead one to the conclusion that Shambo must die.