Well said about how image and PR have taken precedence over content. As for the huge pic of Priti, I suspect Cameron had a quite literal take on the whole 'Blair's Babes' thing. The 'Babes' label was a silly tabloid thing which probably had the likes of Angela Eagle and the Sisters privately fuming with indignation (but it was the Blair Honeymoon era and they weren't going to rock the boat).

Cameron concluded that politics was a sort of beauty contest, hence the introduction of young and attractive women as A-listers at the expense of other candidates who may have been better qualified. It resulted in the ascent of the egregious Louise Mensch - very attractive but a disaster as an MP. Cameron seemed to bend over backwards to accommodate Ms Mensch before she finally flitted away to New York and presented Corby and East Northants as a gift to Labour.

The attempt to scapegoat Balls is getting absolutely nowhere, not least because he was ensconced in the Education Dept at the time.

Maude is clearly the wrong person for this job.

Cameron and Lansley should have followed the example of their more illustrious predecessors and realised that the NHS, whether they like it or not, is a sacred cow. Churchill's government in 1951 inherited the NHS, and the subsequent Tory governments were wise to basically leave well alone. That is, until we reach the present incumbents who think they know better. They signally don't.

Cameron now faces a choice - either he admits that he and Lansley got it wrong, or he destroys our party. Fundamentally, Cameron would rather save his own worthless skin rather than conserve the future of the party he leads.

I lived in Belfast during the early 1980s. Republicans carried out proxy bombings- remember them- 'unless you drive this bomb into town we're going to shoot your wife'. They also kept going on about their rights (fair enough for the times I suppose) but I remember thinking at the time that if they got in there would be no rights for anyone else! It would be a disaster if SF got anywhere near office.

The esteemed Eric Joyce (who was once a guest blogger here of course) has written a very good piece for Labour Uncut on hypocrisy.

However, the Daily Mail have reported it as 'an astonishing rant' and an attack on the middle class, and more drivel in that vein. It was of course nowhere near a rant, it was very well written with a coolly ironic touch.

It's an object lesson in how the right whinge media will pounce on something a Labour MP says and twist it completely. However, it does seem to have backfired on them somewhat, as some comments following the DM article have been in agreement with Eric.

As you say, Tom, shutting your face may be a wise option (for now).

I do understand i once gave up chocolate

LOL!

Tom, you shone like a good deed in a naughty world. Or put it another way, like a sensible, thought-provoking, funny (ha ha I mean - most of the time anyway) Labour blogger in the bedlam that is the UK blogosphere. I think sometimes you've even made some of our Tory friends a bit less sure they were always right.

Will miss you - hope you stay on Twitter!

Ah, it's nice to see Laurie Penny now has something to really get her teeth into. I remember the days when we had a Labour government and she was rather critical about them being too 'authoritarian'. She also had a go at Labour-supporting JK Rowling for what LP saw as a 'fascist undertone' to the Harry Potter books. What a burning issue that was.

Regarding the students' protest, I don't agree with the violence (which was caused by a minority among the 50,000 there). Mrs Pankhurst herself probably would have thought it a bit over the top. But LP does have a point about how angry the students are about broken promises and how they feel their vote (hard won by the Suffragettes, the Chartists and others) was stolen. Yes, you are right, Tom, they should have listened when Labour told them not to trust the LibDems. However, you can't put an old head on young shoulders and all that, and they've learnt the hard way that Clegg isn't the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Who can blame them for being as mad as hell about it? That in itself is - in a way - a good thing, because it means they don't just roll over and accept it. This government is a toxic mixture of arrogance and complacency, and they are assuming that the public are too dumb and apathetic to question their mantra that the austerity measures are necessary and that it's all Labour's fault.

It's worth looking at the way the attack on Millbank was viewed in Downing Street itself. According to the Observer's anonymously penned Diary of a Civil Servant:

Ministers and officials watched from their windows, anxious calls went out to staff in Conservative HQ and government froze. Senior Conservative ministers struggled to hide their frustration with the police response.

This is the most telling part:

The protesters washed away the complacent assumption that things were going well and that Britain would simply keep calm and carry on. The smashed windows and burning placards, no doubt the actions of a violent minority, reflected palpable rage that is simmering across the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/14/di...

Presumably she doesn't hold it against Cliff Richard that he's a friend of the Blair family.