For those of you who were too lazy to stay up for Bush’s State of the Union, here’s what you didn’t miss, as constructed from last year’s edition.
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Just looking back at this post tonight, I was reminded of one of Blair’s conference speech lines:

The first rule of politics: There are no rules

But as the criminal investigation into Cash for Peerages moves ever closer to Tony, the first serving Prime Minister to be interviewed in a criminal investigation, it begins to look like he got that one wrong. Not only are there rules, but his party’s been flouting them.

Last week, we were treated to the huge news that Ruth Turner had been arrested as part of the row. As Director of Government Relations, she’s as much at the heart of Downing Street as it’s possible to be. But more is to come…

The hot news from Guido tonight is that John McTurnan, Downing Street’s Directer of Political Operations, has been interviewed under caution, and that Blair’s Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell could soon be arrested. That would be political dynamite.

And, just as I’m about to publish this post, the BBC have confirmed that John McTurnan has indeed been interviewed under caution. Is it too much to hope that the second rumour is also true? After all, Blair’s said he’ll quit if his aides are charged (at least according to the Grauniad).

The excitement intensifies…

sjhoward.co.uk has never run a ‘picture of the day’ segment. But if I did, there’d be no competition today.

It’s Tony Blair attacking Linda Gilroy, MP for Plymouth South. I don’t think she particularly enjoyed it, from the look on her face.

Read Guardian Unlimited users’ captions here.

I do hope you didn’t stumble across this while eating… But perhaps it shows that he’s finally lost his marbles.

It’s at times like this when I begin to wonder why we bother with the Home Office.

After a series of Home Office blunders and Home Secretary resignations, the incoming John Reid said the Home Office was ‘not fit for purpose’. He gives himself 100 days to fix the problem, and proudly announces ‘job done’. Then, as if by magic, yet another abject failure on the part of the Home Office is revealed.

The hugely complicated bureaucratic beast that is the outsourced Criminal Records Bureau is shown once again to be less than perfect, as if anyone had committed a crime abroad then it would not show up on their record. Mainly because no-one knew they’d committed it, police included, since the information sent by foreign officials had laid undiscovered in a file somewhere in Whitehall.

Ministers deny all knowledge, then it emerges that they were sent a letter last year about the problem. Presumably it was filed in the same place as the criminal records. So what excuse will be given for this mess? Probably that the letter sent acknowledging receipt of the first acknowledged merely that the letter had been received, not read. Or some such bollocks.

But at the end of the day, what does it matter? Even if the junior ministers get fired, in Blair’s jobs-for-all government they’ll be paid off and then rehired a few months later. It’s just another example of the ‘pretty straight’ ‘whiter-than-white’ Prime Minister and his incentivised dirty government.

The obvious solution is a wholesale review and redesign of the Home Office, possibly splitting it up into several smaller departments. David Cameron’s suggestion of a separate Terrorism Office is faintly ridiculous as it leaves bodies such as the Police with two governmental masters with different priorities, but the department could be split into several more manageable chunks. But it never will be, because that would involve a wholesale spending review, and that would never do at a bloated over-funded Home Office.

It would be nice to see some true accountability for these blunders, though. But introducing a system of proper accountability is not in the interest of any MP, so that’s certainly never going to happen – whatever party leaders might want us to believe.

Let’s sack the lot of ’em!

A year ago, I made a prediction. It was my ‘Tip for 2006’:

Patricia Hewitt will be forced to resign as Health Secretary before year’s end… or, if there’s a reshuffle, her sucessor will be forced to resign. One way or another, we will see the resignation of a Health Secretary this year.

Ah. Well. Yes. Not the best prediction in the world. In fact, pants.

My prediction for 2005 is kind of coming of age, though. I predicted that MSN, and particularly MSN Search, would be the ‘one to watch’. Well, in a blaze of advertorial glory, it’s gaining ground. So I wasn’t far wrong, just two years ahead of my time. Okay, I’m trying to talk myself out of a hole, alright?

So what’s my prediction for 2007? Well, there’s the easy ones, like Blair’s resignation and the serious back-scaling of troop numbers in Iraq. But they’re easy, and I don’t do easy. So here we go: I reckon that the outcome of Yates of the Yard’s investigation of the Party Loans scandal will be a bigger political story in the long-run of the year than Brown’s leadership succession. I reckon the charges are going to be more stinging than anyone imagines, the Labour Party will be pretty damaged, and the transition will hence be a lot more orderly than is currently expected – but there will be a bumpier ride in the long run.

So there you go. Not quite as specific or objective as other years, but maybe this time next year I’ll be able to report at least a modicum of success… Or not.

John Prescott appeared on the Today programme today (well, yesterday actually, since we’ve passed midnight). It’s always a treat, and as Ed points out, this is perhaps the first time he’s managed to attack the programme before the first question is asked.

He even gets so annoyed that he bursts out with “For God’s sake” half way through… Isn’t it just a blessing to have such a diplomatic, rational person leading the country while the boss is away? And isn’t it right that he’s rewarded so handsomely for his efforts? After all, he’s such a professional.

As ever, click the play button to, err, play the audio.

Hazel Blears is the chairman of the Labour Party. The Labour Party have decided, in their wisdom, that cutting the number of hospitals will improve the NHS, since the NHS clearly has too many doctors and nurses. Hazel Blears is, apparently, in agreement. Yet she is protesting against the closure of her local hospital.

How is this anything other than shameless nimbyism? She’s perfectly happy for hospitals to close across the UK, but when it comes to the hospitals in her constituency, they’re all vital. I wonder if, perchance, this has anything to do with the potential to lose her oh-so-precious seat? She should take a leaf from Ruth Kelly’s book, and swap her beloved seat for an altogether safer one, and basically come out and admit that her career is more important that the local people she is supposed to be representing.

Is this the first time we’ve seen a cabinet minister protesting against a decision with which they apparently agree? It’s certainly an odd spectacle. But then, she’s an odd minister. Like many of Blair’s babes (mentioning absolutely no names), more of a huge-flower-on-the-lapel permasmile Blairite automaton than a person.

Gordon Brown’s four-month-old son Fraser has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. My thoughts are with the family at this time – clearly, this is devastating news for them, and it’s hard to know what to post in these situations.

Nick Robinson tells an interesting anecdote on his blog:

My thoughts instantly turned to an event a couple of years ago which I attended at 11 Downing Street. It was, ironically, to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The star of the evening was Emily Thackray, pictured on the right with the Chancellor.

Emily is beautiful and charismatic and looks a picture of health. However, she is very ill with cystic fibrosis. When she told the assembled company that she was being considered for a transplant as “time is running out” I well recall the impact she made. Several people in the room fainted. The chancellor was visibly moved. So much so that I asked my camera crew to give him some privacy.

The good news is that two years later Emily is still with us. She was told in March 2005 that without a lung transplant she only had a year left to live but she is – I’m told – still fighting on.

Despite the personal difficulty for a reportedly forward-looking Chancellor, perhaps its not too terrible to suggest that having both leaders of the major political parties having children with chronic medical conditions may do something to benefit the thousands of children throughout the land who live with ongoing medical complaints. Since Ivan Cameron has cerebral palsy and Fraser Brown has cystic fibrosis, it seems that for the next while we’re going to have Prime Ministers with intimate personal experience of the NHS and caring for a chronically unwell child – and whilst undoubtedly terrible for the individuals, perhaps that will be good for the country, and good for the care of children throughout the land.

Surely there is nobody better to plan services for children like Ivan and Fraser than the people that use the services day-in, day-out, and understand the hardships and difficulties that the bad times bring – as well, of course, as the joy and laughter of the good times. And this certainly provides a platform for public awareness of the diseases to be increased. Let’s hope that some great good can come of some bad news.

I don’t mean to be flippant, but I think I’m glad I’m not on the Blairs’ Christmas card list if it meant I had to display this… err… monstrosity in my home. I wonder if anyone who receives one will send one back with a picture of themselves on the stairs? It’s really quite bizarre.

Well, not quite so bizarre as the new ‘cuddly’ Mr Brown’s Christmas card of cartoon children – quite wisely called ‘interesting’ by Mr Blair. I would say that Mr Brown should stop trying to rebrand himself, but watching him make a prat of himself is too much fun.

Mr Cameron has yet to release his Christmas card. This is an interesting moment. How will he marry sending chunks of dead tree through an antiquated postal system with his pledges to be ‘green’ and ‘modern’? I’m assuming the cards will be made of recycled paper or something, but perhaps he’ll go a step further and send e-cards instead. It’d certainly grab a few headlines, and wouldn’t harm the financial situation either. But there’s always a chance it could swing the wrong way, and he could be called ‘miserly’.

I expect we shall soon find out.

I don’t know if Stephen Ladyman reads this blog – I suspect not – but you do, Dr Ladyman, here’s the Danish solution you’re missing on the path to road safety:

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Anyone sniggering at Dr Ladyman’s name should be ashamed. 😆