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Instant Opinion, the new book collecting together over 120 of the best political posts from this very website, is available for readers of this site to order now. It will go on general release in bricks-and-mortar bookstores and also at online bookstores within the next few weeks, but pre-release copies are available direct from the publisher right now.

The book is available in paperback, for delivery around the world, and also in a snazzy ebook format. It’s 260 pages long, and covers a diverse range of political topics – as well as a few of the best non-political posts thrown in at the back. You can see a preview of the book here, order it here, or read more about it on the special page at instantopinion.co.uk.

Get ’em while they’re hot: Grab your copy now!

This morning, Tony Blair was ‘delighted’ to back Gordon Brown as the next Prime Minister. I bet it hurt, and probably stuck in his throat a little. Nothing could have pained him more.

So not surprising, then, that Blair decided to get back at Brown by scheduling a speech for the same time as Brown’s campaign launch. It’s no accident – Alistair Campbell’s famed grid system tells us that. It’s clearly a spoiler.

Yesterday, Andrew Neil was practically running a book on when Blair’s first coded jibe about Blair would happen, and one commentator suggested it would be today. Looks like he was right.

Everybody with the ability to communicate appears to be commenting today on Tony Blair’s legacy today, after he announced that he would resign on 27th July.

It’s easy to point out that he’s buried bad news to the end, choosing to use the day of an interest rate rise to announcing his ‘departure timetable’, something perhaps more familiar to a steam train than a politician. Not to mention the burying of the news that the cost of the ID card scheme has increased by £840m.

It’s easy to point out that he’s the King of Soundbites to the end: “The best nation on Earth”.

It’s easy to point out that his departure had the same theme tune as his arrival, Things Can Only Get Better, and wonder when it was most true.

It’s all-to-easy for people like me to knock Blair’s achievement. We can criticise him for his sofa-style of government, his five wars, his failures.

But for all his faults, he is the first Labour Leader to secure three successive election victories. He has introduced policies which have made the country better – the minimum wage being a case in point. He is the first ‘celebrity’ Prime Minister. And he’s a very successful politician.

His legacy will be the war in Iraq – his biggest failure. His defence of his less successful policies – “I did what I thought was right” – reveals, perhaps, his biggest failing: Government should not take decisions based upon the whim of the Prime Minister – however well intentioned – but on the facts, considered opinion from experts in their field, Cabinet discussion and debate, and Parliamentary process.

It’s a legacy, but not, I think, the one he wanted.

My favourite ever text came into 60300 last night: Presumably in response to this story, the anonymous respondent sent “Simon mate. Get out the 80s”. I sort of see where he or she is coming from, but that’s a message sent from a mobile phone to a blog claiming I’m stuck in the 80s. Oh, the irony.

The issue of the incongruity of having a Minister for Women but no Minister for Men is raising it’s ugly head again, with a new campaign blog – The Rights Of Man – calling for the creation of the post.

At first-glance, it’s the kind of idea that looks like the creation of a job for the sake of balancing out the appearance of government. It looks a little bit like political correctness with no particular aim and nothing in particular to achieve. It possibly even seems a little anti-feminist.

But actually, as the blog’s priority list for a Minister for Men shows, there are quite a few predominantly male-orientated issues, just as there are for women:

1. Make improving the educational attainment of boys a priority
2. Make the state recognise/support male domestic violence victims
3. Improve care and funding for prostate/testicular cancer sufferers
4. Make judges enforce child contact orders
5. Support equal parenting laws
6. Provide better help and retraining for unemployed men
7. Force a review of the CSA maintenance criteria where the mother has left her husband for another man, re-married or has simply walked out of a marriage with the children
8. Support anonymity for men accused of rape, unless found guilty
9. Improve care and support for men suffering from depression
10. Campaign against anti-male propaganda and male sterotyping in the media
11. Support equal sentencing criteria for men and women
12. Stop the political disenfranchisement of individual men by abolishing all-women shortlists and priority lists

Whilst I don’t agree with all of those points, it does illustrate that there is real work to be done in the world of masculism. So, as a proposal, perhaps a Minister for Men is not all that silly an idea after all.

Over 130 medical staff have written to the Metropolitan police commissioner to ask for an investigation into the leaking of hundreds of medical students’ data onto the internet.

We believe there have been serious breaches of the Data Protection Act that could potentially compromise public safety and pose specific risks of financial exploitation and harassment to medical students and junior doctors.

We are uncertain whether the circumstances surrounding this amount to criminal negligence by the Department of Health and associated agencies, but have concerns that such alleged mishandling of personal data may make it possible for unscrupulous individuals to utilise this data for criminal purposes.

We believe this may justify a criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police because of the issues outlined below. Copies of this letter have also been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Information Commissioner …

Arguably, this instance may contravene Article 8 of the Human Rights Act for the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life. A further consideration is that of identity theft for pecuniary purposes. Junior doctors present a soft target for identity theft criminals and particularly those with information technology expertise. The sensitive personal data made available could be utilised for fraudulent activities and exploit the relatively favourable credit histories of junior doctors …

We have grave concerns that the sensitive personal information made available may fall into the wrong hands and be used maliciously.

It is well recognised that determined individuals have impersonated medical professionals in the past and put patient safety at risk (Hansard – written answer 76616 – Impersonation of Doctors – 4th Nov 2002). Sensitive personal data could be utilised for Criminal Records Bureau authorisation as a means of working with vulnerable children and adults.

The worst case scenario is that child sex offenders may gain access to settings such as paediatric wards, GP surgeries and other healthcare settings because they have stolen the identity of a junior doctor or medical student.

You can read the full letter here.

Just how damaging does it have to get before Patricia Hewitt will realise she’s a complete, unmitigated failure? I don’t ever remember reading anything quite so damning signed by quite so many doctors.

Though I guess if she ends up in court over this, Mad Pat will, at least, be able to plead insanity.

Today is my ‘blogging birthday’.

It’s four years since I started blogging with this post on The LBSC. And since then, I haven’t stopped.

To mark the occassion, thanks to the genorosity, confidence, and support of the team at Lulu Publishing, I’m launching a book containing over 100 of the ‘best’ political posts featured on the site.

I had hoped that the book would be published today, but unfortunately a hold-up at the distributor means that it’s not quite ready – but it will be available both online and through your local bookstore within the next few days.

It will also be available internationally, so my large cohort of US readers needn’t miss out. And if you are some kind of paper-shunning eco-warrior, there will be an ebook version published simultaneously. And readers of this site will exclusively be able to get their hands on copies before the book goes on general release. There’s a little bit more information for you here.

In the time sjhoward.co.uk has been around, it’s received more than six-and-a-half million hits – of which almost two-and-a-half million have occurred in 2007 alone. The site has won awards, been featured all over the place, and received over a thousand contributions from its readers.

So thank you for reading, thank you for contributing, and thank you for your ongoing support. As they say in the USA, here’s to “Four more years!”.

Nicholas Sarkozy is the new French President. What more is there to say?

FLASH: John Reid is to resign as Home Secretary when Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister ‘towards the end of June’. So now we know when Blair and Reid be packing their bags. Will Patricia Hewitt follow? Almost certainly.