I’ll be debating the issue of cannabis reclassification with Lance Price on Radio 5 Live this evening at 11.15. Discussion will centre around whether Jacqui Smith has been hypocritical given her previous cannabis use. 

Feel free to call in and have a go! 

Tamsin Dunwoody - straight talking, hard hitting:

No really, she did just say "the prime minister is our prime minister". 

[Hat Tip=PlayPolitical]

Hazel Blears has come up with another fantastic idea: a political version of The Apprentice with Gordon Brown taking the role of Alan Sugar.  One can only hope that were the show to reach our screens the successful apprentice would simply be given Gordon’s job; I mean, it’s not like they could do a worse job…

Travelling into the office at the moment, but can’t help wondering what’s going to go massively wrong for Gordon Brown today…

What an absolute shambles Labour have become.
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Northern Ireland: not usually a place you’d contemplate emulating. But when it comes to education it’s a very different story, or rather it was.

When England and Wales embraced the failed idea of comprehensive education (which should be called comprehensively rubbish education) Northern Ireland retained a system of academic selection at the age of 11, with those passing the test going to grammar schools and those failing going to high schools. As a result children in education received an education much better tailored to their needs and as a result performed better than their counterparts on the mainland.

Typically though politicians on the Left railed against academic selection on the grounds that it’s elitist, providing a superior education to those who pass and a substandard education to those who fail. Ironically though their conception of superiority has been based entirely on the rigour of the academic program provided by individual schools, rather than the suitability of the education program offered by the schools to the children they serve.

Sadly though it seems the debate has been all but lost by those who value an education system that’s responsive to the needs of those it serves. The education minister in Northern Ireland, Caitríona Ruane, has won the battle to abolish the 11 plus and force children of all abilities into the same classroom; preventing all but a lucky few from reaching their full potential.

After stiff opposition from grammar schools Ruane may propose the adoption of a system of limited academic selection, allowing grammar schools to take a proportion of their students through academic screening (at most 50% and declining over time). Let’s hope the grammar schools will however stand their ground and do as they have threatened; introduce their own system of academic selection.

For the grammar schools do anything else would consign Northern Ireland’s education system to the scrap heap.

Hazel Blears has today suggested that cabinet ministers should take time out to do what she calls ‘real jobs‘; after all we wouldn’t want Labour ministers completely losing touch with the real world…

But it occurs to me that if such a scheme were introduced it would result in quite a few Labour ministers having a ‘real’ job for the first time in their life.  I wonder, would it take one or two hands to count the amount of private sector business experience in the cabinet?  Hmm…

The people behind Sky.com/news are launching a new web-only show called Sky News Unplugged (which will take the form of an irreverent look at the week’s news). With Martin Stanford at the helm it should be one to watch so if you’re near a computer tomorrow at 12.45 tune in.

Yesterday Iain Dale drew attention to the English Democrats campaign video for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, asking whether it would do them much good.  My only question though is whether the use of the Proclaimers for the background music was purposefully ironic, or just a massive and slightly embarrassing oversight:

One of the often unspoken questions about politicians is whether as a group they are more prone to personal indiscretion and scandal than ‘normal’ people.  Personally I don’t know the answer, although my gut tells me they aren’t, just that their lives are open to scrutiny and accordingly we hear more about their… activities. 

Still, if this kid is anything to go by it’s probably fair to say all hope is lost:

"A 13 year old from Texas who stole his Dad’s credit card and ordered two hookers from an escort agency, has today been convicted of fraud and given a three year community order.

Ralph Hardy, a 13 year old from Newark, Texas confessed to ordering an extra credit card from his father’s existing credit card company, and took his friends on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating in playing "Halo" on an Xbox with a couple of hookers in a Texas motel…

…Police said they were alerted to the motel by a concerned delivery clerk, whom after delivering supplies of Dr Pepper, Fritos and Oreos had been asked by the kids where they could score some chicks and were willing to pay. They explained they had just made a big score at a "World of Warcraft" tournament and wanted to get some relaxation. On noting the boys age the delivery clerk informed the authorities…

…Asked why he ordered two escorts, Ralph said he thought it was the thing to do when you win a "World of Warcraft" tournament. They told the suspicious working girls they were people of restricted growth working with a traveling circus, and as State law does not allow those with disabilities to be discriminated against they had no right to refuse them…

…Ralph’s ambition is to one day become a politician."

I guess if you’re going to get grounded anyway you may as well really go for it. 

The sun may have been shining at the weekend (hence the complete lack of blogging!) but sp transfixed will he have been by the coverage in the weekend papers it’s unlikely Gordon Brown will have noticed; somewhere deep within the bowels of 10 Downing Street the fallen giant of Labour politics will have been rocking back and forth asking himself where it all went wrong. 

What’s interesting about the coverage though is not so much what was said but rather the timing and volume of what was said.  In the space of two days Gordon faced overt attack from John Prescott, Stephen Byers and Ivan Lewis, along with a much more damaging implicit attack from Cherie Blair.  And then the coup de grâce, Frank Field the de facto leader of the disenfranchised back benches tells the BBC’s World Service that he would be "very surprised" if Brown was the leader of the Labour Party when the next election swings around. 

In terms of what was said however it is Cherie Blair’s revelations that deserve the most attention.  As ever though it’s important to put the statements in context.  The knives are out for Gordon Brown, a leadership challenge is increasingly a question of when rather than if, key Blairites are on the prowl, and a crucial by-election is a mere ten days away.  Into this less than delicate mix steps Cherie, a woman whose disdain for Brown is well known, with the ‘news’ that Tony is advising Brown on how to win the next election.  The significance?  Firstly Brown and the Brownites cannot deny the revelation (whether it’s true or not) because to do so would bring the full wrath of the Blairites down upon Brown’s ever disintegrating manse house.  Secondly, and more importantly, the revelation acts as a reminder that Tony Blair was a winner and Brown is a loser, a reminder that Brown is in need of help and that, fundamentally, he is weak. 

If Cherie’s statement was translated from New Labour to English it would read quite simply ‘Brown is going to destroy the Party, you will lose your seat; if you want to win you need a new leader‘. 

In fact, Cherie’s statement reminds me a lot of something Miliband said recently - "We know what’s fatal - if we fail to defend the leader, if we lose sight of our core convictions, or we don’t follow through on what we have started."