Fractured rib

Painful, though the painkillers work quite well.

So, the Blair era draws to a close, and Brown plans his takeover. I am awaiting to see what happens with interest. I think Brown is more of a party man than Blair, and he will be more concerned to feel that the party are being brought on board. He has shown little interest in foreign policy and his closest links are with East Coast American Democrats, but I doubt whether there will be overly hurried changes in the Iraq situation.

The attempted bringing-in of Ashdown was intriguing, but I think much of the negative publicity was actually created by the LibDems, who are desperate to see the back of him. The main problem I have with the LibDems is that so many of them, despite their 'nice' image, are exactly the opposite in reality. How can you really trust a party whose specialism is to produce lots of lies and claim credit for things they haven't done, who seem to have good progressive principles at national level, but locally are often on the populist Right, and who support PR but when it comes to its obvious outcome - coalition - don't want to get their hands dirty?

But Labour still don't inspire. Patricia Hewitt and Ruth Kelly really have got to go - with so many good women MP's, why are these two in the cabinet? Actually, why is Ruth 'Opus Dei' Kelly in the Labour party at all? And I'd be hard pushed to say exactly what I think the core of the Brown agenda is going to be.

I await with interest.