Exclusive Tory dad plan

The Tories just made an announcement on apprenticeships for low income males. Its couched in the language that sends their followers all gooey.

"If we want stable families there has to be a man holding down a good job on a decent wage. If you can hold down a job you can maintain a family." - Willetts

Small point though: why just men? Eh? Don't single mums need skills too for example, or are they meant to cling to the nearest man? I suppose they might as well if they can't get affordable childcare (affordable being less than the highest wage available to them).

You can artfully reshuffle a leopard's front bench but you can't change... etc.

Bad news

I've just learnt that THIS SONG is the most played in the UK in the past 5 years. (Click and wince)

My indomitable faith in humanity has suffered a tiny but painful dent.

Conference police

Sometimes I hear Lib Dems ridiculed by those that trawl conference season for having a relatively low security presence at their annual party conference.

Last year local authorities in the West Midlands and Manchester received £4.5 million and £6.5 million respectively to police one conference each.

To put that in perspective, Labour received £1 million more to police their party conference from central Government, than the Liberal Democrats received in total, for everything from their donors!

Worth considering next time a Labour or Tory member wheels out their extra protection as a justification of their all too tangible sense of self-importance.

The last ditch Parliamentary flurry

Lib Dem Norman Baker has just pointed out that Brown broke his own ministerial code today by releasing 10 written ministerial statements (Politics Home). These form a third of the 30 (!!) statements released today.

Its a fair comment - this is a scandalous practice that has gone on too long.

I'd like to add my observation that about twice as many written answers were delivered today (Hansard).

No doubt that because MPs' offices won't have a chance to follow up the questions in Parliament, more answers than usual will be the terse one liners which avoid any pretence at an answer, that any reader of Hansard has come to expect from this Government.

Welfare shake-up

I wonder if James Purnell's intern will be forced to clean graffiti and pick up litter in the evenings and at weekends in order to collect the JSA which incidentally hasn't risen one iota with the rising food prices and still stands at just over £6 a day.

Oh wait you can't claim Job Seekers Allowance when you are a full-time unpaid intern because you aren't actively seeking work (now defined by your availability to cart bins in daylight) even though you are applying for jobs and attending interviews.

Who said politics wasn't inclusive for all (whose parents can support them)?

Radovan Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic has been arrested in Serbia.

This is a great day for international law, for Serbia and for the Balkans.

I believe is indicative of real change in the country. It will rightly enable Serbia to move closer to Europe if that is what the country wants.

Tony Wright

I'm saddened to hear that Labour MP Tony Wright is to step down at the next election. I respect him for stepping down in the knowledge of his ill health.

I always considered him one of Labour's untapped resources, that should have made it to the front bench for a time at least.

I always suspected his sometimes monolithic but eternally monumental mission to improve scrutiny of the executive became a barrier to joining a Government which rapidly became a den of commensurate obfuscators.

If so it would be a sad indictment of an administration which began by creating FOI and the liaison committee, Wright's own innovation by his account.