+++BREAKING NEWS Glasgow Councillor leaves SNP to join Lib Dems+++

Respected Glasgow City Councillor Alex Dingwall has decided to join the Liberal Democrats. He was until yesterday an SNP Councillor for Maryhill and Kelvin. However, recent threats by the Holyrood Government to take away care of the elderly and schools from Councils prompted him to leave the party he'd been a member of for 31 years.

He said:

"the decision to leave has not been an easy one but the move away from a local to a centrally set income tax and the recent threats to take away control of schools and care for the elderly from local authorities show the SNP simply doesn’t trust its councillors, preferring instead to govern local communities by ministerial decree."

“That’s why I am pleased to be joining the Liberal Democrats. I share their commitment to local government and to the core principle of keeping local decisions local.

“I will continue to work constructively for my constituents and for the people of Glasgow, but now in a way which is entirely in keeping with my personal and political beliefs.”

I'm sure that he'll find a warm welcome in the Liberal Democrats and will be a great boost to Katy Gordon's campaign to win Glasgow North at the General Election. She has known him for a while as they've both been on the same side on a number of local campaigns - against Labour's school closures, notably Wyndford and St Gregory's and against the ridiculous idea to put a nightclub in the Botanics.

Katy said:

“I’ve known Councillor Dingwall for many years and I’m really pleased to welcome him to the party.

“This is a real boost to the Liberal Democrat campaign in Glasgow North. People are fed up with Labour and Councillor Dingwall’s decision demonstrates once again that the real alternative is the Liberal Democrats.”

My understanding is that Glasgow Liberal Democrats are really delighted to have Alex Dingwall on board - he's an effective Councillor and will be a real asset to the Liberal Democrat group on the City Council.

Clearly this adds weight to what Yousuf has been saying about trouble and strife in the SNP Group on Glasgow City Council. This also confirms what I hear from various people around the country that the SNP does like to run its Council groups from the centre with instructions comming from on high. Denying the locally elected representatives their rightful say is bound to end in tears.

Happy Birthday, Jo Swinson

Five years ago today, I remember exactly what I was doing - it was the first day of the Scottish Liberal Democrats' 2 day training for activists and candidates in the run up to the 2005 election. It was held in Dunfermline and a huge amount of fun was had by all, as well as serious hard work, of course.

My day started at around 7am and ended at 4.45 the following morning after we had managed to drink the bar out of all of the red wine that we liked. As someone pointed out, we seemed to be having a lot more fun than the wedding in the next door room.

There was a dinner followed by a highly entertaining team organised by Alex Cole Hamilton and Fraser Grieve. I was in a team called Eastern Promise with Malcolm Bruce MP, then Chief of Staff Derek Barrie and John Barnett, a friend from St Andrews.

Part of the revelry was a celebration of then East Dunbartonshire PPC Jo Swinson's silver jubilee. A lot has happened for her in a highly successful five years - in the last few months her Real Women campaign has enjoyed spectacular success and could end up changing the lives of women for the better. She's tackled excess packaging and been acclaimed for her innovative and genuine approach to keeping in touch with her constituents and being a hard working constituency MP.

So, Happy Birthday, Jo, and hope that the next decade is as successful for you as the last one has been.

Tavish Tackles Taser Threat

I nearly forgot about FMQs today. I was so absorbed in my work that it was 12:11 before I realised and switched it on just as Tavish Scott was enquiring of Alex Salmond for the nth time what is to be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet. Seriously, though, why do they bother with those questions? I mean, it's hardly likely Alex is going to turn round and say something like "we cracked open a bottle of pinot grigio and discussed the pros and cons of Susan in Neighbours acting as a surrogate for her daughter." Not that I watch it (yet), but she is, apparently. Twitter says so.

Back to the point, Tavish has had a couple of really good FMQ sessions. Last week he raised the issue of young people being denied a college place and ensured that was dealt with in the budget. Yes, I know, I don't get the abstaining bit either, but that's not important compared to extra support for young people his intervention prompted. Today, I was delighted that he stood up against the roll out of tasers to all Police officers in parts of Strathclyde.

For those of you who don't know, a taser is a stun gun which delivers a 50,000 volt shock. It's a weapon designed to subdue and quell potentially violent situations.

I'm not so sure, and I totally agree with Tavish that the Police should not be issued with what can be a lethal weapon to use at any time without a Minister signing it off. Actually, I'm not keen on their routine use at all, but I don't think that something which alters irrevocably the relationship between the Police and public should be introduced on the subjective say so of the Police.

When Tavish said that this could be a slippery slope to every Police Officer in Scotland carrying these things, he was going on past experience. Look what happened in Canada, where their use did get out of hand and someone died after being repeatedly stunned.

I agree with Tavish that a 3 day training course just isn't enough for officers to carry these things and I fear that, like more guns lead to more dead people, tasers will mean that Police will end up defaulting to them rather than trying to resolve situations by peaceful means.

I have a huge respect for the Police - I have an uncle and several cousins who are or have been serving officers and I know that their attitude to their job was spot on. They were and are proper community policemen who care. I would trust any one of them to act fairly and responsibly. However, when I see things like the inappropriate and way over the top methods used, for example, at the G20 summit with unnecessary and excessive use of the kettling technique, as reported in the Times by Tom Brake MP , I have serious doubts about arming every police officer with such a powerful weapon.

Why don't they just rename Question Time the Melanie Phillips Show?

Do you remember a few months ago I got a bit dischuffed that Jo Swinson had been dropped from Question Time in the week that both Iraq and the Calman Commission report, issues on which the Lib Dems had a unique viewpoint?

Well, it looks like history is repeating itself. Not for Jo, but again in a week where there's a referendum on voting reform on the agenda as well as Blair's evidence at the Iraq Inquiry and MP's expenses pulling our Legg again, all strong Lib Dem issues, there will be no Liberal Democrat on the panel.

And the common denominator in all of this? Melanie Phillips. It's just 70 short days since her last appearance, and they had at least 3 weeks off for Christmas - so just 7 shows. Are they priming her to take over from Dimbleby or something? I do hope not.

I think I'll give it a miss tonight.

UPDATE: Why did I bother with this? I could just have directed you to Daddy Alex, cos he made the point a whole load better. And while you're over there have a look at his recent stuff on Liberal values. There's a lot of it, but it's bloody brilliant.

7 must be my lucky number!

Forget the Oscar nominations (although Colin Firth picking up one of the coveted golden statues would be kind of heavenly), Scotland's political bloggers have been waiting with a bit of trepidation for Duncan to reveal the Top Politics blogs as voted for by you, dear readers.

I was utterly gobsmacked to be number 7 on the list. I really don't understand it, but I'm not going to ask too many questions, I'm just going to appreciate it. It must be my lucky number because in the Total Politics blogs, I ended up in 7th position for Scotland and Lib Dems - and for UK politics blogs I was 67th.

Many congratulations to Jeff, the cute Greek Baby and Will for taking well deserved podium positions. They are all brilliant in their different ways. Jeff is sharp and original, with the Baby you somehow forget all the right wing bile as you howl with laughter and Will is thoughtful and persuasive.

Worthy of note across the awards is that although women are still very much in the minority of the Scottish blogosphere, we've actually taken more than our fair share of the top positions - Kez for Labour, me for the Lib Dems, Indygal for the politicians, Joan McAlpine for media. Let's hope that encourages and inspires other women - by that I mean YOU, Wendy Fraser, for a start, to start blogging.

I know it's a school night, but I'm going to have a wee glass of red to celebrate. Thanks again to everyone who voted for me and thanks again to Duncan for the immense amount of work he did in putting it all together. I may even have to forgive him for not worshipping the Almighty Schumacher.

Kramer and Davey's campaign to save Kingston Hospital brings blast from past for me

When I showed up at Aberdeen University as a nervous first year student, coming from a place where traffic lights were only a theory, one of the first people I met was a Liberal SRC member called Dan Falchikov. He was really welcoming and friendly and always happy to help. He was very funny too and invaluable support as I made my first forays into student politics.

I lost touch with him over the years, although we ended up on the same Training for Trainers course about 12 years ago and I keep up with his news via his dad, Mike, who's a stalwart of the Scottish Lib Dems.

I discovered today that our Dan has been mentioned in various internetty dispatches and has been accused of fabricating a threat to Kingston Hospital. So, who are his accusers? Well, first of all we have a Daily Mirror journalist. That's the highly partisan Labour supporting Daily Mirror. Then we have Guido Fawkes and a Tory blogger, both of whom are not going to pass up the chance to stir things up for the Lib Dems, and then a couple of Labour websites. Hmmmm. So nobody neutral, then.

The fact that Labour are going to so much trouble to trash Dan makes me all the more certain that the Save Kingston Hospital Campaign is entirely justified.

Mary Reid has more on the background to the campaign and news on Freedom of Information requests made by local MPs Ed Davey and Susan Kramer. We'll see at the beginning of March what they reveal.

In the meantime, let me remind you of what happened one time before when the Liberal Democrats were accused of scaremongering about a hospital, in Hartlepool, during the by-election. Labour, including then PM Tony Blair, said emphatically that the hospital was safe. Really? Well, not so much.

In which Homeserve and Vaillant redeem themselves

I'm almost scared to write this in case it all goes horribly wrong again, but I have to give credit here it's due. We appear to have heat again. And hot water! Don't think I've forgotten how utterly useless Homeserve and their agents Vaillant (proper spelling this time) were yesterday. I won't, not for a long time. They have, though, redeemed themselves today.

However, I got an e-mail to the blog e-mail address from one of the managers in Vaillant saying that they wanted to restore my faith in the company. I replied with a little more detail than I gave here yesterday and they sent somebody out this evening. The poor man who was sent out was one of their senior technicians who covers all of Scotland but, fortunately, lives a few miles up the road. He could not have been nicer and he left he his mobile number without being asked and without checking whether I was a scary stalker who would ring him in the middle of the night, which, for the avoidance of doubt, I would never do. I'm quite protective of people's work life balance even if I don't tend to practice what I preach myself - which is partly why I'm in the health mess I'm in at the moment.

Thankfully the problem seems to have been easily resolved - although there may be another one which isn't covered by the contract (but may be by another contract I have).

I am wondering, though, how many people put up with terrible service every day. I will be watching out for Homeserve and their agents from now on, given that everyone who replied on various internetty places who had ever had anything to do with them said they were various degrees of bloody awful. Useless was the best assessment of their performance I got.

I said to them in my e-mail to them today that I wanted them to use my feedback to provide a better service for everybody. The two people I've dealt with today were really good and made a big effort, despite the fact that the original problem had nowt to do with them. The guy who came out went out of his way to do and it is very much appreciated.

One amusing legacy from the last few days is that Anna has made it quite clear that she likes the hot water bottle lark and wants one tonight despite the fact that it's warm again.

F1: West Lothian's Paul Di Resta signs for Force India

West Lothian has produced some marvels in its time, former Doctor Who actor David Tennant would be enough by himself to put the county on the map forever. Then, of course there was Susan Boyle, who lives less than 10 miles from where I'm sitting now.

Bathgate has also produced Indycar champion Dario Franchitti. Now Franchitti's cousin, Paul, from Uphall, has signed for Force India as their test driver. It's an amazing opportunity for him as he'll get to go to all the races and may even drive on some of the Friday practice sessions. Last year's test driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, is now in the team after Giancarlo Fisichella got "the call" from Ferrari so who knows what might happen?

Here hs is talking at the Autosport Show last month.



It strikes me that another talented young man made his way into Formula 1 via a Mercedes racing series, in 1991 - and he's back this year. It would be great if Paul Di Resta could emulate his success.

Don't forget that Clare Short backed Iraq War.

How sick are you of hand wringing Labour cabinet ministers appearing before the Chilcott Enquiry and saying, um, well, we really weren't happy at the time, but, well, um? Clare Short is the worst and most annoying example so far, but Jack Straw doesn't come out of it covered in glory either. Geoff Hoon feared that the Army wouldn't be able to cope.

I'm probably more annoyed with Clare Short than anyone else. I thought better of her than to say this on 10 March but to capitulate to Blair's wishes a week later on the eve of the Parliamentary debate. I'll tell you what, there's no way I'd have sat around in the Cabinet if I felt that the leadership were going to do something wrong and reckless, especially if they'd made the decision in the derisory and dismissive way Clare Short described. You wouldn't think from the way she spoke today that her decision to back the war helped reinforce the Government's position.

There had already been one resignation from the Cabinet - Robin Cook was prepared to put his principles into action. One of two more would have seriously undermined the case for war.

Of course, as Alistair Carmichael pointed out, Blair was aided and abetted by Iain Duncan Smith's Tories who voted virtually unquestioningly for the war, even though now they're pretending that they were critical all along. This is the same IDS who's so out of step with Tory thinking that he's being touted for a job in a David Cameron cabinet.

All in all, I'm just fed up of people who should have known better at the time trying to extricate themselves from any blame for the consequences of their actions. Clare Short needs to wake up to her collusion in a war that killed 179 of our soldiers and heaven knows how many Iraqi civilians, that made us less safe, and reduced our standing in the world.

Who should pay for the Pope's visit?

Andrew and Stephen have both posted passionately today about the Pope's planned visit to the UK in September.

The Pope and other senior members of the Catholic Church have made their homophobic views clear on many occasions. His rather bizarre view that homosexuality was as bad as destruction of the rain forests had me choking on my Earl Grey a year or so ago.

Now, I would have no objection in principle to him coming to the UK if the Catholic Church were funding it, but because he's coming as the Head of State of the Vatican, I do have a problem with shelling out £20 million of taxpayers' money to pay for the privilege of hearing him incite prejudice against the LGBT community. I'm not over chuffed about having to listen to his views on contraception either - my mind boggles that anyone could compare human trafficking, divorce and contraception as like for like. As well as his homophobic comments, we can't forget that this is a man who rejects the notion that women have the right to control their own fertility. Nor can we forget that his objection to condom use costs lives in Africa.

So, we've established that I really don't want to put my hand in my pocket and support this man's visit and I'm fairly certain I'm not alone in that? What can we do about it though? I mean, we've had some fairly unpleasant people visit this country on public money - the Chinese leader, and the King of Saudi Arabia, representing regimes where the regard for human life and liberty is scant to say the least. I particularly admired the stand the Almighty Vince took on the Saudi King's visit, saying at the time:

"I think it's quite wrong that as a country we should give the leader of Saudi Arabia this honour."

While I would have no problem if Nick Clegg decided against meeting the Pope because of his views on equality, I don't think it's a realistic proposition. There are many deeply committed Catholics who may not share the Pope's views - in fact the majority don't - who would view such a stance as quite insulting to them. The Church itself does a lot of good across our communities and supports many humanitarian efforts across the globe and can't be compared really to the Saudi regime, for example.

I think my way of dealing with the fact that my taxes are funding the Pope's visit will be to give some money to a charity which supports young, gay people or works against homophobic bullying. I know there are many - why not add your suggestions in the comments to give people a wide choice if they want to do the same?

UPDATE LJH in the comments has highlighted the National Secular Society's petition to ask that the Catholic Church funds the visit, not the taxpayer. If you agree, do sign - at the time of writing nearly 2500 people have.

F1: Testing, Twitter and poorly punctuated press releases

A sizeable chunk of the Formula One world has gathered in Valencia for the first official testing of the year. This is where the cars hit the road for the first time and the designers all sweat as we get to see if they do actually work in real life as opposed to in the wind tunnel.

Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Renault, Toro Rosso and Sauber took part today. Red Bull preserves its air of mystery, as it did last year, by sitting out the early tests. It certainly didn't do them any harm in 09, that's for sure.

Virgin F1 isn't letting its car loose until Thursday and Friday of this week at Silverstone. Lotus doesn't launch its car until 12th Feb which leaves USF1, Campos and Force India are still to tell us what they're up to. Force India's last tweet suggested we'd know more round about 12 February.

Twitter has made a huge difference to we fans as we can get minute by minute accounts from teams, drivers and journalists. That nice James Allen has even sorted all the various tweets into intelligible form for us all. You can even filter them so,for example, you can only see the drivers' or the teams' tweets and cut out the commentary from the journalists.

More fantastic even than seeing Michael Schumacher back behind the wheel of an F1 car was Felipe Massa's return after that horrible crash in Hungary last July. I'm glad that he finished up on top today. The full results were:

1 Felipe Massa 1:12.574 (Ferrari)
2 Pedro de La Rosa 1:12.784 (Sauber)
3 Michael Schumacher 1:12.947 (Mercedes)
4 Nico Rosberg 1:13.543 (Mercedes)
5 Gary Paffett 1:13.846 (McLaren)
6 Rubens Barrichello 1:14.449 (Williams)
7 Sebastien Buemi 1:14.762 (Toro Rosso)
8 Robert Kubica 1:15.000 (Renault)

Mercedes GP are going to have to proof read their press releases more carefully - an apostrophe missing in the first line made me shudder. (Update: 21:45 - well, one word from me, and they change it. I'm impressed. Well, actually, I'm sure it had nothing to do with this but it's good to see such attention to detail from the team.)

However, it appears that Mr Schumacher is having fun. Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if his return is a bit of a mid life crisis:

"It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 when on the first lap, I thought ‘wow that was really fast’ and then on the second lap, I was just extremely excited. I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there."

I just hope it feels the same for him half way through the season when he's truly back on the F1 treadmill.

I just wish Radio 5 Live had sent Ant and Crofty out there to cover the testing like they do the practice sessions.

Instead, I have to make do with German TV - but it is worth trying to kickstart my schoolgirl German to see Schumi fly again.

Seeing their reporter made me grateful for the BBC1 boys. You just don't wear a shiny suit in a pit lane, for goodness sake. Enjoy!

Hopeless Homeserve Heating Fail

I have just spent the better part of 2 hours on a telephonic merry-go-round with Homeserve and their service company Valent.

We have paid them via Glow-worm, a small fortune over the last decade for a repair plan for our boiler which we had never needed until now.

Yesterday our boiler stopped working so we have neither heating nor hot water. I reported it to the 24 hour claim hotline expecting that they would send someone out today. It seems that every call you make over the weekend gets lumped together as having arrived at 8am on Monday morning and they told me that there are no engineers available until Wednesday.

By that time we'll have been without heating or hot water for 3 days before someone will even have looked at it.

Ok, it's not much fun for us, but I guess we'll have to cope. However, a delay like that could put the lives of someone elderly or chronically sick in jeopardy.

I understand from replies I've had on Twitter that this is outrageously bad service. One friend said that her company had someone out within 2 hours when their boiler failed the day before Hogmanay. Homeserve has been universally trashed. Words like "would never have anything to do with them ever again" and "useless".

It's all a far cry from their literature. I have the policy renewal in front of me which says:

"if you have a central heating breakdown or emergency, simply call the 24 hour emergency hotline number and quote your policy number. Our nearest available Glow-Worm engineer will be directed to you and will aim to be there as soon as possible."

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like it's going to take half a week.

When I complained to Valent, the people who organise the engineers, I was told I needed to take it up with Homeserve. When I spoke to Homeserve, they told me I needed to take it up with Valent. I am sparing you the gory details of being passed from pillar to post by a succession of extremely rude, uncaring people at both companies.

There is a recession on, and I bet you there are any number of out of work heating engineers who would be desperate to be taken on by these people. It's maybe about time they started taking some of them on rather than leave vulnerable people for days with no heating or hot water.

And, finally, this little gem from their policy blurb:

The operator will also tal you through any temporary action you can tae to minimise any damage until they arrive.

Now, I had couple of questions I wanted to ask and the operator said that she wasn't technically trained and I'd need to ring another number. The second she's said 09, I asked how much it was going to cost me. Apparently 60p per minute. Nowhere on any of the policy detail does it mention paying such a sum for emergency advice. I said that there was no way I was paying that and given the wording in their letter I'd like them to arrange for someone to call me.

Now, apparently the staff who answer the phones can't put me through to these people because the number is barred on their phones. However, they've promised to send an e-mail to them to get them to call me back.

I won't be holding my breath.

F1: Rubens Barrichello welcomes Cosworth back to Formula One

Cosworth makes a return to F1 this season providing engines for no less than five teams, USF1, Campos, Lotus, Virgin and Williams. These will be powering the teams round the the likes of the historic circuits of Monaco, Spa and Monza.

Rubens Barrichello, who's moved from Brawn to Williams, recently visited the Cosworth factory with Williams Technical Director Sam Michael.



This video tells us a little bit about Cosworth, gives us a bit of an insight into life behind the scenes, but most importantly, shows what a lovely guy Rubens is. He tells how he's spending time sleeping in his motorhome at the factory making sure he learns everyone's names. I expect that's from the cleaning lady up. He's an incredibly polite team player. It's great that Nico Hulkenberg has someone with Rubens' experience and generosity to help him in his debut year.

Strictly's Camilla sleeps rough for charity

For seven series of Strictly Come Dancing, Camilla Dallerup entertained us with her talented choreography. Who can forget the dramatic Tango she did with James Martin, where she was the doll and he was the toymaker to Mein Herr from Cabaret or the broadway themed Showdance she put together for Tom Chambers?

Last night she and her fiance, Hollyoaks actor Kevin Sacre slept rough in Hatfield to raise money and awareness of homelessness. Their Twitter feeds tell the story of their very cold night on the streets.

Around one in the morning, Camilla asked:

How do homeless people cope in this cold? They don't even have thr warm clothes we have.

When I retweeted this, Andrew Hickey, who blogs here, replied:

Unfortunately homeless people *don't* cope in the cold. Talked to one the other day who said two friends of his had died of exposure and he'd been hospitalised with hypothermia himself.

I've said before, it shocks me to the core that in this day and age, in one of the most affluent countries in the world, people have to sleep outside. Surely we should be able to provide a roof over everyone's head, a space that they can call their own.

Camilla and Kevin weren't the only ones sleeping rough last night. Westmorland and Lonsdale Lib Dem MP Tim Farron joined an event in the frozen north at Kendal Castle where the temperature was -6. Thanks to local Cllr Chris Hogg for alerting me to that via the wonders of Twitter.

Cameron's Chilling Words show Tories' True Colours

It's a cold day, today, for sure. I kind of like these sunny end of January days - they kind of give you hope that the horrible dark Winter will end at some point. It always used to be around mid to end January that it would dawn on me when walking home from school in Wick that it wasn't dark anymore.

The price you pay for lovely, bright yellow sun and blue sky is that it's so, so cold. And as I write this, my husband tells there's a problem with the heating. We're in for a fun night, then.

Anyway, none of this has made me as chilled to the bone as the words that came from Conservative leader David Cameron this morning on the Politics Show.

The moment a burglar steps over your threshold......they leave their human rights outside

I mean, what cheap, populist rubbbish. If you take his words to their logical conclusion, they could be taken as an incitement to virtually anything.

Now, burglary is horrible. I have friends whose house has been done over twice in the last few years and I've seen how traumatised they were. I'm not suggesting it's soemthing that shoud go unpunished. Let's get that clear before I get any "you're soft on crime" thrown at me.

However if a burglar "leaves his human rights outside" what is Cameron giving licence to? Kicking them where it hurts? Bopping them over the head with a frying pan? Stabbing them? Calling your mates over to give them a good hiding?

I mean, if these people have no right to be treated as human beings, where do you stop?

I found it quite scary to hear such nonsense coming from somebody who thinks he's going to be Prime Minister in a few months.

It doesn't make me feel particularly safe to hear Cameron talk like this. I can only see an approach on his lines leading to more dead people, householders and burglars. I don't really think we need to change the law. The cases that have come to court have been really serious. To my mind, when Tony Martin shot a teenage burglar in the back, it was right that he should be tried for murder. The Munir Hussain case involved beating burglars up after they had left the property and nobody was in danger any longer. Yes the family went through a horrible ordeal, but the two men who beat up the burglars with a cricket bat were out of order.

I grant you that what happened to Myleene Klass was maybe a bit over the top. She was alone in the house with her baby. The intruders were outside and she waved it through the window. Like most opportunist burglars, they scarpered at the first thought of confrontation.

A handful of cases in a decade, when the only person who has been killed is a defenceless unarmed kid does not throw up for me any massive reason to change the law. As it stands, it seems to me to be sufficient in determining the rights and wrongs of the situation. Being a victim of a crime does not give you the right to do whatever you like to someone. I think that most reasonable people will see that.

I wonder, though, what's going on in Cameron's head. He knows that he's not making enough headway to secure victory for the Tories. He's tried to make himself out to compassionate and cuddly and it isn't working, so is he casting aside the sheep's clothing in the hope of getting out the core right wing vote?

THe reason the softer approach isn't working is because it isn't real and nobody buys it. We've been there before with Tony Blair. We recognise a charlatan at work when we see one.

One thing that has been mulling around in my head for a while is that the next Conservative Parliamentary Party is going to be much more Daniel Hannan than Ken Clarke. Cameron will struggle to keep that lot under control and will end up pandering to them to get legislation through.

Going back to the burglary issue, most of us will never confront a burglar in our homes. It's very rare. I know I sound a bit like Nick Ross at the end of Crimewatch, but still, he said it because it's true. We don't need a Notting Hill Branch of the NRA with David Cameron as its poster boy, airbrushed or not, thanks very much.