The Steven Carter era has been a disaster

It's two years away from an election that could really change things. Remember how it was in 1995.

Thanks very much for asking me to speak today. I often wonder what people think I'm going to say when they invite me to things like this, but in my experience, you invite a drummer to a party when you want someone to throw the TV out of the window.

So...

The title of the session is “can we make the Labour Party relevant again”. Well I think it's part of a much wider problem. People don't think political parties are relevant because they don't think politics in general is relevant. Politics got stuck somewhere around 1850, while the country has moved on.

With the recent lurches to the right by GB, and the general 'race to the bottom' to win the votes of Middle England over the last 10 years, it feels more than ever that we have to change our system to prevent 90 constituencies from deciding the outcome of general elections.

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.

Gordon Brown has proposed a number of constitutional reforms, many of which are to be welcomed. Here are my suggestions for a thorough reworking of the constitution. This is just 'blue skies' thinking here with no reference to political realities of today. Given that, what would others alter about our mythically great constitution?

 

 Is there a role for Paddy Ashdown in GB's Court?

`Mr Smith goes to Edinburgh'
Americans come for a lesson in democracy - Scottish style.

Leading electoral officials, journalists and campaigners are in the UK this week to see democracy at the cutting edge.

Alan Johnson interview from this week's Tribune. Lots of interesting stuff from Alan on education, PR, Iraq and the timing of Blair's departure.

It's time we reminded more people that if David Cameron were to win, the country really WOULD be being run by a Spin Doctor, as Nick Cohen reminded us in yesterday's Observer:-

As if country hasn't suffered enough, we now face a clear and present danger that the first former head of PR for a TV company to become Prime Minister will soon be in Downing Street.

The only thing that can stop him succeeding seems to be the public twigging that the former PR man is a former PR man and not believing a word he says. The former PR man needs to counter the accusation he is all spin and no substance and his smart PR move will be to deny he is nothing more than a former PR man.

His spin doctors - the former PR man now has men to do his PR for him - tell my colleagues that today in Bournemouth he will stress his commitment to developing serious policy ideas.