Gordon Brown is facing yet another bankbench rebellion – but this over something he put in place before he even became Prime Minister, back in the 2007 Budget (but didn’t come in to force until after the 2008 Budget): the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
This was – and is – opposed by the Conservatives and the Lib Dems at the time and since. But Labour MPs have now – more than two years after it was announced and more than a year after it come in to force – …

This government continually lectures us on how much we drink and keeps telling us how bad it is for us to let even the slightest drop of alcohol pass our lips – it will give us sclerosis of the liver, cancer, make us obese, and generally be bad for us.
They regard it as so bad that they keep putting up the taxes on it. I don’t think there’s been a Brown (or Darling) Budget which hasn’t increased taxes on alcohol – at the very least, they have never reduced it.
Yet …

The government is planning to create yet another database containing information about us – this time storing our international travel records, and keeping them for a decade.
But at the same time the Speaker of House of Commons is blocking the release of information about MPs international travel paid for by the British Council – a taxpayer-funded body.
So the Speaker has decided that MPs who get trips abroad paid for by our money isn’t any of our business, but the govenment has decided that any trip we make abroad, paid for …

The by-election in Crewe and Nantwich to be held on 22nd May is not a referendum on this Labour government or Gordon Brown. By-elections are held in tiny little areas, and to cast them as being any more than extremely vague indicators of national preferences and feelings is way overplaying their significance. If Edward Timpson wins for the Conservatives, or Tamsin Dunwoody wins for Labour, or even if Elizabeth Shenton wins for the Lib Dems it is not a referendum on any sort of real national significance.
Especially when we just …

… and another for the rest of us.
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman yesterday dodged a court appearance to answer speeding charges.Despite failing to pay a fixed penalty charge in time, she was fined just £60 and given three points on her licence.In similar cases, magistrates have handed out £1,000 fines and issued three additional points…[O]utraged motoring groups said there seemed to be one law for politicians and another for ordinary drivers…Miss Harman was caught on camera driving at 50mph through a temporary 40mph limit at roadworks on the A14 near …

So, gambling adverts now to be allowed to be shown on TV. Even though there are various restrictions that are going to be applied to them – such as not before 9pm except during sporting fixtures – surely gambling is worse than, say, junk food, which is banned during children’s shows, on children’s TV channels, and on general entertainment programmes watched by a “higher than average” number of under-16 year olds? It is fair to mention, however, that in return for this, no gambling-related adverts are allowed to be printed …