It’s all very well drinking Smoothies all day, but every now and again I need a serious flavour kick and for that you need Space Raiders which, Wikipedia tells me, aren’t just for kids but for students and stoners too.

You don’t buy them for their stale cardboard consistency, but for what they cover that up with; a very generous helping of flavouring, plenty of which remains at the bottom of the packet. The secret ingredient is the surprisingly natural enhancer Monosodium Glutamate. Space Raiders numb the tongue in a bid to ensure you won’t taste anything else for a very long time.

That evil looking alien is the junk food equivalent of the drug dealer who offers a small sample to hook a new punter. They’ve been priced at 10p (a pocket money price in anyone’s book) since the 1980s. Space Raiders: a loss leader to hook children too small for Monster Munch. Don’t you just love ’em!?

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Life as an anti-social property owner is becoming increasingly tough. Not only is Manchester City Council demanding people secure their properties and alleging all sorts, they’ve upset some with the idea that empty properties might be turned into homes and now they’ve taken to threatening eyesores with demolition.

It seems that nowadays private property rights come with all sorts of responsibilities. Whatever next?

This is purely anecdotal, of course, but I do see that both Mohammed Afaq and Martin Rawlings (whose empty garage is threatened with demolition) hale from posh Hale Barns… bet they’re on their best behaviour at home.

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Others have left the Liberal Democrats, for making up scare stories, but for me it was more a realisation that the Lib Dem’s pavement politics lead to the recruitment of such a mixed bunch that the party is rendered incapable of producing a positive, intellectually coherent vision in any context. Principles are important, but take to two Lib Dems from different parts of Manchester, let alone the country, and you’ll find it hard to believe they’re in the same party¹.

But I’ve left it a good few years before joining Labour… in 1997 I didn’t vote… I’ve voted Labour since 2001… so it may be ten years.

It’s blogging that’s drawn me towards Labour. I’ve been an armchair supporter since I began and readers have often assumed me to be a party member. Bloggers4Labour has included me on their supporters list for sometime and I’ve never objected, though I was surprised to find myself there. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been.

What’s stopped me joining, until now, is a suspicion that that the New Labour project also lacks a solid and coherent intellectual base and vision. And it is still wanting in this area. Problematically, Blair appears to draw heavily on his Christianity. The issue with such a belief system is that it mistakes faith for moral code, even though all major religions have been subverted to support whatever, whenever. It denies the need to think and to build policy on firm principles which should themselves be constantly tested as part of the search for truth². However, it’s important to remember that Blair is just one man and parties are coalitions of coinciding interests and ideals bound by tradition.

The more I write, the more I find that I mostly support the New Labour agenda. My main gripes are over a lack of boldness and a failure to lead on the issues of the day. Ministers too often refuse to engage with the media and deserve to look shifty as a result. There has been no robust promotion or even defence of the European Union or immigration policy, for example. When Labour does enter debate it gives the impression of having been forced to engage and is too often on the back foot as a result. Labour should be leading³.

But it becomes harder and harder to attack the Labour Party for being feeble. It can only move forward with confidence when it can be sure it has the support required to win the day. The time has come for me to get off the fence.
¹Take Cllr. Ken Dobson who lives next to Manchester Velodrome, in the shadow of the City of Manchester Stadium. He saw regeneration, and the Commonwealth Games in particular, as an imposition: ‘it’s not creating jobs for people round here.’ Now he represents the city centre… oh dear.
²Ruth Kelly illustrates the problem. She’s right to clamp down on radical Muslim faith schools, but her radical Catholicism should disqualify her from representing the state on this issue and radical Christian faith schools should also close.
³Early on came the disastrous handling of fox hunting. A discrete issue that could and should have been dealt with quickly and efficiently, the only consensus on this debate was that it had gone on too long. Wavering as it did, Labour gave opponents time to organise and take on wider issues. Labour must take responsibility for the formation of the Countryside Alliance. Perhaps more importantly, within months of election it let it be known manifesto pledges could be renegotiated.

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‘…at the turn of the nineties… “my fellow Conservatives” were singing “hang Nelson Mandela”’
– Tim Montgomerie, Editor, ConservativeHome

Last year I received a call from a Salford University student who was tapping alumni for donations to a development fund. To butter me up a bit, she asked a couple of questions about my university days and her notes revealed I’d chaired the anti-apartheid group.

I don’t shock easily, but I’ll admit a little surprise that she’d never heard of apartheid. I had to explain that in my day South Africa was racially segregated and, because we had a Tory government, Britain did everything it could to protect a violent regime determi