Come Back Alan...Your Country Needs You!

Its been a Annus-horribilis for the great Prime Minister Tony Blair this year and sadly it looks like we are in the last twelve months of his premiership. He will be gone by this time next year and possibly before that.

In the leadership election, I will vote for Gordon Brown on the basis that he has been a fine chancellor over the last nine years and deserves some reward at the end of it.

However, I will not support him if Tony is got rid of in a coup by Brown supporters. You do not do that to a man who has won us 3 historic victories on the trot, and transformed our country for the better in the process. The Tories did that to Thatcher and look what happened to them.

Although I will vote Brown, I am a Blairite at heart and its high time his supporters were more vocal and more visible. The huge number of party members who were inspired to join because of Blair's vision need to be reassured that Labour is still our party. We pray that it has not been permenantly hi-jacked by the increasingly barmy new loony left brigade. Frank Dobson, Clare Short, Diane Abbott,Glenda Jackson - what have these people done, accept for going on anti war student rallies and shouting abuse at the Govenment on every television programme they can. All this achieves is further damage in the polls. Do they want to hand power to Hoodie Dave and his Notting Hill gang?

New Labour people need to be putting pressure on Gordon to hold firm to the key new Labour value of social justice for all, and not to have anything to do with these old Labour clowns. We have to keep to the New Labour path, embracing Blair's legacy and renewing it. The man to keep Gordon on his political toes is of course, Alan Milburn MP.

Milburn is a man of great integrity & intelligence and one of the most able performers at the despatch box. He is also untainted by recent sleaze or war controversies. It is a crying shame that he is out of the cabinet when people like Patricia Hewitt and Ruth Kelly are in.

If he stood as a rival to Gordon when there had not been a coup, I would still vote Gordon for the reasons previously given, but it is vital for the health of the party that Milburn comes back to the frontbench of British politics. Come on Gordon, get on the phone to Darlington Labour Party, bury your past differences and get Alan back on board. He has spent enough time with his family. We have an Eton educated Hoodie scoundrel to give an electoral ASBO to, in 2009 and we need the strongest team possible.

The Full Monty

No- this is not some kind of belated review of the famous film about Sheffield strippers. It is just to praise England's new cricket hero -Monty Panesar. His two wickets yesterday and all round effort this summer so far is great for the game. I know we needed another 6 wickets to win, but that it is not the point. Poor old Monty was robbed of at least two more wickets by inconsistent umpire Steve Bucknor. I was so furious at one decision, that the barstaff gave me a cautionary glance for bad language in my local Walkabout.

Even when things are not going his way, he always gives maximum effort and his fielding is also showing distinct signs of improvement. Of course, to gain an Ashes place, he will need to show some further genius, a five wicket haul at the oval perhaps, but there is no doubt about it, Monty has become a cult hero in only his second series at home.

The Hoodies....

There is a new sitcom which has been gathering pace, which I must draw your attention to, Tim Brooke Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Gardiner, have been joined by that cuddly comedian David "call me Dave" Cameron in a revival of their old seventies comedy.

In this mirth inducing on going farce, Dave plays the new leader of the Conservative party, who has decided that the best way to win power is to visit Glaciers with huskies, talk about the evils of chocolate oranges, share in his love of benny hill records, Other gems, include cycling around the streets on his trusty bike, hugging those who wear that traditional conservative uniform, the Hoodie. The same such Hoodies, his party said should be banned from shopping malls just weeks ago.

To be serious for a moment, you really cannot make this stuff up. It appears that despite his impressive start, the tories have elected another duffer, Ian Duncan Smith with a perm, William Hague with a Green volvo. Cameron is in danger of becoming an utter irrelevence, he thinks by dumbing politics down, he will somehow CON the electorate into voting him. It is true, that this has been a disasterous year, for my party, The Labour Party, but with Cameron in charge of her majesty's opposition, I am less worried than I might be. The British Public will never vote for someone so desperate to win power as Cameron. As Margaret Thatcher once said, "its the economy stupid" and providing we do not have another recession, Labour should win the next election.

Where will this leave Hoodie Dave and co, searching for another leader? - a light entertainer who the public likes, at this rate, Noel Tory Edmonds will be facing Gordon Brown or Alan Millburn across the dispatch box. Deal or No Deal said Mr Edmonds as he entered the commons!

Ave Maria!

With the summer sport turning ever more miserable, Murray following Henman out of Wimbledon, England's dismal performance against Sri Lanka in the cricket, Oxford winning the varsity cricket match by 52 runs, and of course England's horrible end in the World Cup, there is not much smile to about.

As John Inverdale, so eloquently put on BBC's Wimbledon highlights last night, he wouldnt like to be a judge on the bbc's sportsperson of the year in December!

However there is one exception, to all this sporting misery, at least Maria Sharapova is still in Wimbledon, and has made it to the semi's. Whether its her clenched fist, her magnificient serve, stunning looks, or wonderful war-cry, she is the star of the summer so far. Next up for her Mauresmo - Beauty vs The Beast anyone?