Sweet Caroline

Hard-faced rightwing, selfish careerist and mediocre minister Caroline Flint has stabbed Brown in the back, leaving the cabinet in a huff because she didn't get a promotion. In her resignation letter she tells GB 'You treated me as window dressing'. It's true that Brown et al. are a lads' club, but let's remind ourselves of Ms. Flint's recent media appearances: a multipage fashion shoot in Observer Woman while declaring that she didn't want to be judged by her appearance.

Will the reshuffle save the party (and therefore the country)? No. Same useless, failed faces, plus Alan Bloody Sugar (after Brown declared the end of Blair's celebrity-run regime).

Meanwhile in St. Ives, the Labour Candidates finished significantly behind Lord Toby Jug of the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Go Prescott

Again, a buffoon I never rated has come out fighting: here's an extract (and yes, I'm afraid today will be politics-heavy).

But whilst I knew we were short of money I didn't realise we also lacked the will to fight these elections. The people responsible for this non-campaign – and make no mistake there was no campaign - were Harriet Harman, Caroline Flint, Douglas Alexander and yes, our former Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.

I kept asking the party what was the strategy, what was our message, what was the campaign? I became so concerned I actually wrote to Harriet. Her reply was less than satisfactory. These apparently were the 'messages.'

For the many v for the few
Grow your way out v cut your way out
On your side v on your own
Substantial leadership v insubstantial salesmanship

And that was it.

It seems the people responsible for our campaign were resigned to defeat and were prepared to use the excuse that we had no money.

And the prize for consistency goes to:

…who tells The Observer that women politicians shouldn't be judged by their looks.

Caroline Flint, the minister for Europe, who is interviewed in today's Observer Woman, says media attention on her looks is insulting

She's absolutely right. Even better, she utters these timeless truths (in the news section teaser for the interview) across the space of several pages of the Observer Woman, while posing in a range of beautiful, revealing dresses while sporting the hair and maquillage of a Fifties femme fatale.

Needless to say, this softest of soft interviews (does she have leadership ambitions) doesn't find space to point out that she is the hardest, most elitist of the Blairite clique. You couldn't switch on the TV in the late nineties without seeing her advocating benefit cuts for the very poorest or some other mean-spirited, arrogant attack on the underclass, all delivered with a straight face as she claimed that sating the bitterness of the Daily Mail was socialism in action. Who cares that she's damaged the lives of women in this country (never mind the Iraqi victims of the war she loved), when she looks stunning in pastel silk?

She's hard, selfish, determined and utterly soulless - she'll go far. Still, policy is so last century - it's how she looks in a frock that seems to matter, which is an odd stance for a liberal newspaper's women's magazine to take, but there you go - we've been down the post-ideological rabbithole for a long time now.