When it came to the Third Reading of the bill to remove Parliament from the public bodies that have to disclose information, there were only 25 of us who voted No.

There were three successful motions to close down debate on the issue during the course of the proceedings. Proposers of amendments did not get to speak to their amendments. Many of us who wanted to speak had no chance to because time was so rationed.

Parliament has shot itself in the foot again. Of course MP’s letters revealing personal details about constituents should be protected. The present law is meant to do so. If it is not doing so successfully then the government could have brought a limited amendment to deal with the issue. Instead the government welcomed a measure which could be much more restrictive. Some of us come to Parliament to get our views across, not to have them kept secret.

I welcome Des Browne’s decision to back home bases for service personnel, where they buy rather than rent a property.

That makes up for quite a lot Des - I look forward to seeing the first soldiers buying their own home under the scheme.

The quickest way to offer hope to pupils going to poor performing shcools would be to make all schools independent, with the state offering to pay fees up to a sensible limit to preserve everyone’s right to a “free” education. Schools could adopt one of several structures for going independent - educational charity, not for profit company etc. The only thing they could not do would be to cease offering education to sell the assets for their own profit. Schools that had to close for lack of pupils would surrender the school property or the proceeds from its sale back to the state.

This would end apartheid between independent and state schools, allow parents to top up state fees if they wished, and provide the freedom to all schools to strive for the best to attract more pupils.

I have always supported grammar schools - and

The big educational divide in the UK is between independent schools and state schools.

The top universities do not want to take a disproportionate number of public school students,

You learn a lot about Ministers by watching them when they have to perform in Parliament. Ministers who know what they are doing and who are democrats like the opportunity to set out their case and deal with criticisms. Authoritarians and incompetents wriggle, skate and writhe in the Chamber. There are all too many of the latter in this government.

Yesterday we saw the extremes. Jack Straw was relaxed, at home, capable of

Gordon Brown’s campaign website and election pamphlets list eight priorities for his Premiership.

They do not include the promised strengthening of Parliament and our democracy. Mr Brown himself has voted in only 20% of all Commons divisions this Parliament (They work for you website) and spoken in only 12 debates in the last year. If he really wants a stronger Parliament he needs to lead by example - voting more often, volunteering more debates on crucial issues which he will use to set out his views to the House.

His

Today we are told by Mr Brown that 10 years of “Education, education, education” has failed. Come the Brownian revolution, all will be different. Pupils who are struggling with maths will have one to one teaching, which will sort the problem out.

Labour claimed to make the Office of National Statistics “independent”. It all turned out to be a bit like the Bank of England’s fabled “independence” - the one that led to a big reduction in its regulatory powers over banks and its right to manage the foreign exchange reserves. In the case of the ONS it has watched powerless as

1. The Chancellor switched from the RPI to the CPI, to reduce inflation by more than 1% per annum at

Gordon Brown’s first foray into new policy is to propose 100,000 new homes built in 5 eco towns, with local power generation and a mixture of public and private finance. it sounded an interesting proposition, until I heard the spin behind the announcement.

It was all part of a clever plan to upstage David Cameron. We were informed that this would outflank

It is amazing how some in the media have fallen for the Brown spin that things are now going to be better if he is Prime Minister.

Like many journalists, I like what Gordon Brown is saying about the need to strengthen Parliament, the need to make Ministers more accountable, and above all the need to give people power over their public services, allied to more choice.

The question they should be asking, is why should we believe him when he says he will do any of that?

There’s no surprise that the private sector cannot make the figures add up to go on investing in Galileo, when GPS is up and running and available for our use.

Nor is it a surprise that the EU wants to press on with this tit for tat prestige project, to show it is up there with the USA in crucial technology.

Presumably, after all the denials that Galileo has a defence or military purpose, it will now be financed by the EU’s taxpayer money as part of the EU’s military as well as civil ambitions. The EU did not create a Defence Agency for nothing.

Gordon Brown should promise to honour Blair’s pledge to hold a referendum on the Constitutional treaty, which the outgoing Prime Minister is backing away from.

Tony Blair - to our delight - promised us a referendum on the Constitution. When Conservative MPs pressed

What could be better? 7 glorious weeks of Gordon Brown touring the country debating with himself the future of the Labour party, safe in the knowledge that he will either attract 100% of the votes for Leader or he will attract most of the votes, sweeping aside a token left wing candidate.

Having just one serious candidate makes it easier for the electors. Let’s hope the instructions on the ballot papers are straightforward. In the aftermath of the Scottish electoral disaster, I would suggest they hold the Deputy leadership election on a different day to avoid confusion!

It is amazing that no-one from the present or past Labour Cabinets apart from Gordon Brown wants to be Prime Minister, and that no serious candidate has emerged to challenge the Brown orthodoxy. Democracy is the loser - and so is Gordon Brown - as the contest loses all interest when someone is just fighting shadows.

Tony Blair’s famous criticism of mixed wards in 1996 did not help him sort the problem out during his 10 year stay in Downing Street.

He failed because in this as in many public service areas he did not work out how to change and reform the public sector.He believed that showering the NHS with money would solve all the problems, and that they would let him have his way over mixed wards in gratitude. Instead he leaves office with the staff very unhappy with what has been going on, and with the government having to admit that they were wrong when they told us mixed wards were all but eliminated.

An Opposition party has to learn not just the arts of opposition - words and campaigns - but also to learn how to handle the complexities of government. One of the reasons his health service policy failed was the ridiculous complexity of the bureaucracy presiding over it all. Just saying you want something to happen from the centre does not work. The more the government claimed about the NHS, the more disbelief they generated, because the truth on the ground was different.

I always thought that the big change of government occurred in this country when John Major took over from Margaret Thatcher, rather than when Tony Blair took over from John Major. Indeed, the change occurred the day John Major forced Margaret Thatcher into the ERM before he gained the Prime Ministership.

What are the characteristics of Blajorism?

The first and most important is the

It is good that Gordon Brown and Ed Balls recognise the huge importance of the financial sector to the past and future growth and prosperity of the UK economy, and good they are now keeping in regular touch with financial businesses to see what government can do to keep those businesses here.

I was at a breakfast in the House where the fund management industry put its case for certain tax changes which might help stem the flow of investment management activity to Dublin and Luxembourg to Ed Balls. Today we hear that the Chancellor will meet the High Level City group again and will tell them that those changes can be made. Well done the government.

However, both Ed Balls and the Chancellor need to understand just how footloose business now is, and how determined Ireland, Holland, Luxembourg, the flat tax countries of Eastern Europe and other places further away are to wrestle our business to their shores by lower taxes. The UK still imposes a Srtamp Duty on share purchases whilst all serious markets around the world have long since dropped such impositions.

Today the CBI deliver a document telling the Chancellor to spend less but to spend it more wisely. This is welcome from

We had scarcely learned that the centre right had won the Presidency of France than we heard

COME ON GORDON SAY NO TO A CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY