There are 723 days remaining until the last possible day on which the next general election could be held. That's just less than two years. There's a stolid feeling in the air, oddly reminiscent of 1995, the stench of defeat looms, resignation and depression reign supreme. However, unlike 1995, the election has not been lost yet, a fourth term is not beyond our reach, as long as we act now. The clock is ticking, and as the seconds go by, the time to save the party from Opposition and the nation from years of Tory incompetence is fading away.It is to that end that the Party requires a programme of reinvgoration, a reassertion of its principles,  and I'm sorry to say it, but a change in leadership.

Today's conviction of Ronald Castree for the murder of Lesley Molseed highlights a flaw in the law that should be corrected as soon as possible.

The think-thank Reform has a interesting report setting out how in the 1st month of the Brown era, a reverse gear has been found on the public sector reforms we saw during the Blair era.  Many I guess will welcome this, but as the Reform report point's out the 'inital decisions will impose an upwards pressure on public sector costs'.

Already five of the six deputy leadership candidates have signed up in support of the Campaign for a Democratic Upper House.

Only the Labour party has a longstanding commitment to reform the Lords, it is something that has been part of the Labour movements struggle for a better and more equal society since the birth of the Parliamentary Labour Party. In the 1910 election, nearly 100 years ago – the Labour party increased its MP’s from 29 to 40 after the House of Lords blocked the ‘peoples budget’. The Lords was hereditary, unaccountable, overwhelmingly biased towards a single party regardless of public opinion and militant in defence of the interests of one class above all others. Arguably only one of these criticisms has been fully overcome in the last century. Having pushed through some reforms in the last 10 years we must move to entrench a truly democratic legacy – Labour must live up to our constitutional commitment to putting ‘power in the hands of the many not the few’. Only the Labour party can fully see through these reforms, they will never happen under a Conservative regime – we must deliver then on our destiny, and drive through these reforms completing a journey started nearly one hundred years ago.

Brown should stake out the progressive ground on Lords reform

About time too.

Won't be fully democratic untill its fully elected, but its a start.

There is a lot of talk of `renewal' from within The Labour Party and among the left-leaning media.  With a genuine threat emerging in the shape of David Cameron's ideologically devoid Conservative Party, the staid and tired Labour government appears very old hat - bogged down by scandal, a controversial foreign policy, and the fatigue of office.