Off to Reading to exhort Liberal Democrats there to win the seat! Really enthusiastic group – and well ahead of where we started in Hornsey & Wood Green. Looking back – it is extraordinary to think we started with just a very few people determined that Labour should not go on treating local residents with such contempt. So – I expect good things of Reading as they know what needs to be done – and have a very, very good core team.

Gordon’s Cabinet is the main political business of the day – with the biggest surprise being the first woman Home Secretary with Jacqui’s elevation. Good luck to her. Have always believed that job would be excellent for a woman; sorry for prejudice on this – but less bluster and ego and macho sabre-rattling are to be hoped for. A particular relief after John Reid – who I felt generally made matters worse and heightened the difference and public expectation by his bullish pronouncements.

As to the rest of the Cabinet – pretty tame and quite dull. Certainly a Cabinet of more intellect than the last Blair cabinet – but sense the extension of the Chancellor’s modus operandi – dullness and sobriety will rule. Will this be good or bad? In a world where Paris Hilton dominates the airwaves on release from prison – we will see how long it takes for media needs to win the day. The only thing being, that the media may just not cover politics at all – if it becomes pure drudgery.