It is being reported that the heir to Blair now wants to be the heir to Thatcher - apparently the whole Blair thing wasn't working.  The good news out of all this is Cameron has realised that green taxation as a means of looking green rather than actually tackling the issues associated with climate change was a bad thing after all.  It is expected that Cameron will u-turn at next week's election and scrap the bonkers talk about taxing second flights and car parking at supermarkets.  All he need do now is get rid of Zac Goldsmith, never ask John Gummer to write him a report again and prepare for a humiliating defeat at the polls in a month's time or so.

The government has made a sensible choice on the issue of light bulbs, I believe. The headlines ran that traditional light bulbs will be phased out by 2012 - but the key here is that the initiative is voluntary. Supermarkets and energy suppliers have agreed to gradually phase out incandescent bulbs from next year. It is supposed that while energy saving bulbs cost more to buy they last up to 12 times as long and use nearly 80% less electricity. Which can only be a good thing. Other countries have introduced an all out ban, such as Australia who will ban conventional bulbs beyond 2009.

Greenpeace has responded by saying: "The government needs to go further and introduce tough mandatory efficiency standards rather than relying on weak voluntary initiatives. For every year of delay in getting rid of these bulbs, 5m tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere unnecessarily." But how is working closely with the industry, letting the market decide and getting a sensible and effective result a bad thing? Well done environment secretary Hilary Benn, I say.

The new Brown government is doing an incredible and shameless job of presenting a whole new load of ideas as though the past ten years were a massive mistake that was none of their doing.  In the same way we don't vote for a Prime Minister come election time, we vote for a party (the Labour elite trotted this line out - fairly - prior to Brown's coronation) by getting rid of the leader does not somehow erase all the mess that the government has made over the past ten years.  You got rid of one man - the rest of you are still there.  In fact, while Blair was trying to make himself leader of the free-world, Brown pretty much ran domestic policy.  So why, all of sudden, were you wrong about the NHS, wrong about education, wrong about Iraq and now wrong about crime?  What has changed?  You all voted and backed these measures, yet you seem to be passing the buck saying "it was nothing to do with me, guv" like the most clueless of henchmen.

Ed Balls has finally admitted that the government has got it wrong on education over the past ten years and that their pledge to have their three main priorities as education, education, education has been a total failure.  At least, he inadvertently implied it anyway - you didn't really think he'd actually say that do you?!

Despite only a month ago the government dismissing claims that exams were getting easier and the education system has been dumbed down, the children's secretary is expected to announce today plans to split the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in two. One body will establish and oversee the curriculum and exams system, the other will act as regulator.  This will effectively create an independent exams watchdog.  The move is being compared to Brown's decision to make the Bank of England independent in 1997.  Balls hope that it will quell the annual dumbing down debate.  In practice, not only is this an admission that Labour got it wrong but it means when it goes wrong in the future they can blame the "independent" body.  All for the princely sum of £144m invoiced to the taxpayer.

The war on motorists looks set to get worse in the suburbs.  Nottingham council has said that they expect that by 2014 commuters could face a "car parking tax" of as much as £350 a year to park at their workplace.  Failure to pay the charge would be £175 per offence. 

Now, I understand parking charges on council owned property, but charging companies tax to have their employees park on private property seems a little unfair.  Of course, employers will probably pass this cost on to employees.  They see this as an alternative to a congestion charge.  Once again the government and local government fail to realise that, for many, there is no alternative.  People do not sit in traffic for the fun of it; they do it because they have to.  It is all very well to have a congestion charge in central London, where there is a mass public transport infrastructure, but those in the suburbs and countryside can not jump on the tube or have the luxury of a constant stream of buses dropping outside their doorstep.  They have to drive and so they have to pay the financial penalties... then again, may the government and local government know this all too well - does wonders for raising coffers even if it doesn't tackle climate change or congestion.

Yesterday Gordon Brown made one of the most ground breaking, novel, ingenious, brilliant promises any politician has ever made.  The saviour of the NHS promised us clean hospitals for all.  Yes, that's right - while the rest us having been trying to work out what the most basic, obvious thing a hospital should be, Brown put his finger on it by making the pledge that we will no longer have to suffer from catching disease and viruses from the one place we go to get rid of them. 

Why does he have to make this pledge in the first place?  The man has spent billions upon billions upon billions on the NHS and ten years down the line he talking about making them hygienic!  Surely a hygienic hospital is the first thing it should be - not the after thought of ten years failed investment. 

Mr Brown said: "We know that over time, ingrained cleanliness problems build up, especially in hard-to-reach places like ceilings and ventilation ducts, which cannot be dealt with by day-to-day cleaning. So over the next year, for the first time, every hospital will receive a 'deep clean' designed to return our hospitals to the state they were in when they were built brand new."  What on earth is he talking about? 

Apparently “No government should ever be in the business of protecting executives who make the wrong call or bad decisions,” or so said Alastair Darling at the opening of yesterday's conference. But isn't this exactly what he did little over a weeks ago with Northern Rock?

Yesterday on Andrew Marr's programme Gordon Brown refused to answer straight when probed about when he knew about the Northern Rock's troubles.  Marr showed his weakness by not pursuing this further as he clearly had Brown on the ropes but then just let him go... probably why he does the Sunday morning show and Paxman the evening one.  The government has looked a bit stupid over all this, and well they might - they have made it up as they went along and now look like they are doing a massive u-turn when they realised they had inadvertently nationalised the banking system.  Despite this fiasco, the Tories have lost even more ground to Labour in the polls.  Surely this is the clearest sign yet that even if the government cocks up the economy they are still better than going with any of the other realistic options?  The political system is not working in this country - we are stuck with dumb or dumber. 

Another day, another report telling us that the government has wasted £43bn of taxpayers' money on the NHS.  This time the source is... the patients themselves!  And not just a few disgruntled ones either.  1.4 million of them were surveyed!

 The Picker Institute, a health research charity, found 48% of hospital patients were not as involved as they wanted to be in decisions about their care. The proportion had not changed since 2004 - despite increases in spending of £43bn. The proportion of patients saying they were given enough information about the side effects of medicines actually fell from 61% in 2004 to 58% in 2006.  The government spokesman was wheeled out by the Department for Health to comment.  He said "We take the views of patients extremely seriously, and have put their needs at the centre of our health service reform. Only this week, the health minister Lord Darzi hosted a series of engagement events across the country as part of his NHS review."  So, you badly invest £43bn of our money and then listen to what the patients want?  Haven't you got your processes back to front here?

British ministers are refusing to cooperate with the US criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, the Guardian can disclose. More than two months after an official request for mutual legal assistance (MLA) was received from Washington, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has not yet allowed it to be acted upon. The US investigators believe the British are being obstructive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2173947,00.html

Britain's stocks of plutonium are kept in "unacceptable" conditions and pose a severe safety and security risk, experts warn today. The Royal Society says ministers must urgently review the way more than 100 tonnes of the radioactive element, separated during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, is held at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria. The society, Britain's premier scientific academy, says a previous warning to the government has been ignored, and that the rise of international terrorism means the UK must now find a way to use or dispose of the material.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,,2173837,00.html

Government consultation are a bit like the old Saturday afternoon wrestling, with the government playing the role of Big Daddy and the rest of us the enormous, yet hopeless, Giant Haystacks. Everyone knows who is going to win, but we have to go through all that nonsense before hand before Big Daddy is, once again, declared the winner. And so with the nuclear consultation - the government clearly wants pro-nuclear to come out favourite, everyone knows it will be the favoured option, but we have to go through all the nonsense before hand to make it look like there was some sort of contest.

Of course this is the second time the government has "consulted" on nuclear new build in the past 12 months. This is because, last time the audience were watching the big fight between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks they smelt a rat. They started to realise that it was a bit odd, given that Giant Haystacks was twice the size of Big Daddy, he kept losing. Now far be it from me to suggest that the old Sunday afternoon wrestling was a fix, but something was up there wasn't it? And something was up with the last nuclear consultation too - so the courts ruled that we needed a rematch!

Security breach on Government's £12bn upgrade computer system shocker!  So the new computer system in the NHS isn't a tight as Fort Knox or even as secure as the flies on John Prescott's trousers it turns out.  What a surprise.  Amusingly, it was a celebrity whose details have been pried upon by some geek locked away in his bedroom somewhere, no doubt, with the hope of making a few quid out of the News of the World.  Unfortunately they didn't name the celebrity involved, though it was in the North West region and probably someone with a sort after medical history... it couldn't be a certain Mr Blair could it?  Wishful thinking, but the poetic justice would be perfect, wouldn't it?  (Mr Blair is a celebrity now, isn't he? – in fact he always was!)

This whole project, as I have said before, is a vast waste of money and is inevitably going to create as many if not far more problems than it solves.  If they can't get this right, then how they are getting away with going ahead with ID cards I have no idea.

The Times is reporting that town halls would be forced to take action over petitions with more than 200 signatures under new proposals to devolve power to voters. This is Hazel Blears' big idea for making councils act on demand of the power of the people. This is straight out of "The Big Book of Stupid Political Ideas" (foreword by some unknown Lib Dem - probably their leader). Blears has obviously given this "giving democracy back to the people" idea a lot of thought. Even the figure of 200 signatures isn't entirely arbitrary. She says "If the number was too low, say about 25, a small group of people could waste the council’s time. But if the number was too high, at around 500, it might be difficult to get enough signatures for an important issue.” Very scientific.

All this does beg one or two questions...

Firstly, as we all know from the No.10 epetitions, most people are more interested in the "making the PM stand on his head and juggle jelly" issues rather than slightly more pressing issues such as crime or health. Never fear, good old Hazel has thought of this too. Any petition getting the required signatures would mean that councils would be required to respond, either by changing policy or giving a full explanation of why the request was turned down. So they act in exactly the same way as if anyone asked the council to do something then?

So the Government has promised that it will guarantee Northern Rock savers by underwriting £28bn of deposits? Darling has, in theory, just nationalised the savings industry - yet you get the distinct impression that he is making this up as he goes along. You can't blame those with their savings in Northern Rock queuing up and withdrawing the money because Darling, the PM, the opposition, the electorate and anyone else you can think of knows full well that what Darling said is about as solid a commitment as Chamberlain gave the people when he claimed it was "peace in our time". £28bn? That is three Crossrails. It is three Olympics (though it may be just the one by the time we know the full cost). It is nearly half our health budget.  It is three quarters of our defence budget. We could probably go to war with Iran with that money and you think the government would hand it over just like that? Of course not. They have no idea what they are doing so let's just hope that Darling's promise doesn't come back to haunt him. After all, the Treasury has made it clear that they will underwrite any other lending institutions in a similar situation.

In other news, the Daily Mash is reporting:

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling has agreed to cover all bets at this afternoon's EBF Maiden Stakes and is tipping the Irish two year-old, General Ting...

What is the best way to improve the performance of our judges?  Well in typical New Labour fashion it seems the answer is to set target levels and dumb down.  It is being reported that judges’ performance in court could well be monitored by some sort of assessor who will look out for a judge’s performance on handling a court, showing authority, communicating and resolving issues and managing time and workloads, in the plans under discussion.  They will then be formally appraised how well they listen; whether they communicate clearly without using legal jargon and on the general handling of their cases.  Presumably when the case is finished they have to take home their report to show their mum.  

While the reasons for doing this are certainly for good and honest reasons, I can not help think that judges will be so aware of these assessments that they will start dumbing down for fear of using, god forbid, professional language (aka jargon to the rest of us) and will be forced to fit someone's ideal rather than being independent and free thinking in their approach.  It also raising the prospect of some sort of league table of judges - I assume the appraisals will rank a performance under some sort of measurement system.  If this is the case we are entering very sticky ground.  Let them get on with it, I say...

Education, education, education.  I wonder how many blog entries I have started with those three words over the past year?  Incredible as it is to believe, but it was education that was the single biggest issue the Labour government was going to all about way back in 1997.  Shame they have done nothing of any good in this area whatsoever.  It is only recently, however, that people have really started to cotton on to this.  Usually the "exams are getting easier" stories last for about two weeks in August.  These days they just rumble on and on and on.  But what should we really do about it all?  Well, the government's latest rouse is quite simply straight out of the David Cameron book of touchy feely rubbish.  According to Government exam advisors pupils should mark their own class work and decide what their school tests should cover.  Yes ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future of British education; which coincidently is also the end of our future generation’s brains being fit for use for any beneficial purposes.

I had no idea, until today, that I was an investor in Northern Rock and therefore liable for its risk.  Apparently, I am however.  You see, thanks to their stupidity and over "generous" mortgage lending their books have gone a little bit unbalanced.  Now, if my books were unbalanced and I had failed to keep up my re-mortgage payments with Northern Rock they would, rightly, have got a little upset.  As it happens they have been the less than frugal ones and now are facing serious financial turmoil.  At least they would if it wasn’t for the unspoken, unsigned, unheard of contract that we, the taxpayer, apparently have with Northern Rock.  That's right, if they cock up their finances it is down to the tax payer to chip in and help them out apparently.  Tell me this, why are the taxpayers paying out £50m to bail out a company before the shareholders have to?  They invested, they stood to make money, and they now stand to lose it.  It has nothing to do with me.  Whatever the outcome, it seems like we all might just have to pay. Welcome to Brown economics.

The very reason we have an NHS is to ensure that those in society who may not be able to afford the luxuries in life can at least have free (at the point of use) health care that is of the same quality to that every one else gets in society.  Such is the state of the NHS, however, that is not the case.  It is the poorest and most vulnerable in society that are getting the raw deal when it comes to health care.  If the NHS is failing these people, what is it for?

First he had to put up with the mess left behind from his predecessor, then he started to come under fire himself but now Alan Johnson has officially lost it. He is now a fully fledged Health Secretary and the process to ruining his political credibility is now well and truly under way. The Fonze has come out with a new initiative to save the country from becoming one mass of fat and therefore saving the NHS. The plan is "From Womb to Tomb" - how catchy.

Johnson's knee jerk reaction from yesterday's criticism by Sir Derek Wanless is to beef up the nanny state and tell everyone how to live, which includes telling us to stop drinking and eating. To do this he is going to DOUBLE public spending on campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption amongst other money wasting ideas. Apparently, according to Big Al, we are "now less concerned about a nanny state than [we] are about a neglectful state". Really? This is a brilliant way of justifying government interference in our lives - if the government does not poke their noses in to our every day life they are being neglectful!! That can be used to justify just about any action the state wishes to carry out. Worrying rhetoric indeed. Why can you just not admit that you have wasted £48m and now is the time to cut and run. You have failed a million times before, you will fail again.

It must be great coming up with policies for the Lib Dems. OK, they have no chance of ever winning anything, but that is the point - they know this and can say absolutely anything. If I were a Lib Dem policy maker I'd ensure that our manifesto included free beer for everyone, the three day weekend, Christmas would be twice a year, I'd abolish all taxes and reduce carbon emissions in the UK to zero. Of course, they wouldn't promise any of these things because they are obsessed with trying to sound like a credible opposition. Well, I say they haven't taken any of these on board - they have of course promised to reduce Britain's carbon emissions from energy sources to zero (without using nuclear power). They also plan on phasing out the petrol car. Both promises are impossible to ever even contemplate delivering in the timescales they are talking (2050). So it comes as no surprise that they have come top a green audit by the Green Alliance. Of course they are the most green party - they can say whatever they like about the environment safe in the knowledge they will never be put in charge of managing it!

There are two key areas that government is particularly bad at when it comes to major projects: completing the project on time and within budget.  I think today we have found the winner of the most ridiculous example of that recurring government problem.  The Times today reports that The Ministry of Defence's 20 biggest weapons projects are £2.6 billion over budget and a total of 36 years behind schedule! (Cumulatively, to be fair to the MoD).  That is six times longer than the length of the Second World War!  Just as well we haven't got a war to fight... d'oh!  What are we going to end up with - a load of Spitfires and Sherman Tanks... that'll have the Iraqi insurgents quaking in their boots and make the Russian's think twice about their flirting with British airspace.  I wonder what they will do with replacing Trident - a snip at £19bn.  Imagine what it will cost after it is delayed for 36 years?! 

Amusingly, and rather fortunately, the Eurofighter (or Typhoon) has just come in to service.  The aircraft was conceived during the Cold War.  It has taken so long to be built and brought in to commission, that everyone was worried that it would be redundant in the post cold-war era.  However, the project has run so late that it now back in fashion with the renewed Russian patrols.  Brilliant planning by the MoD.  Brilliant.