Good days and bad days

Down the pub the other day,during one of those great putting the world to rights conversation, i was asked was 'smeargate' the worst moment since I joined the Labour Party. On reflection i would say no but being a bit of a list addict i thought i would share my ten worst moments.. followed later by my ten best just to keep things positive.

WORST:

1 - The 10p Tax
2 - Colin Powell addressing the UN, the moment it became clear that the Iraq war was a farce
3 - The deaths of Mo Mowlam and Robin Cook
4 - This McBride-Draper affair
5 - Any time Blair and Bush appeared together
6 - Northern Rock
7 - Browns 'six tests' for euro entry
8 - Clarke & Milburn launching 2010 vision
9 - Hutton Inquiry
10 - The 2004 European Elections

BEST:

1 -That sunny day in 1997
2- Minimum Wage being passed into law
3- John Prescott punching an idiot farmer
4- The military intervention in Sierra Leone
5- Brown becoming PM
6- 'Good Friday'
7- G20 - Brown as he should have been
8- The Southall by-election
9- Iain Duncan-Smith's quiet man speech
10- Winning the 2012 Olympics

New Library - Hope Yet for Birmingham!!

Plan's outlined this week for the new Birmingham Central Library point to a massive improvement. For those who don't know Birmingham our current library is a disgrace, a bloated concret block with little natural light and architecture that would make a multi-story car park look impressive. It is ,in short, a hellish dump.




The new building appears at first glace to be a massive contrast bold, innovative but this time with windows!!! It should look decent in its suggested position so at last the people of Birmingham will get the library they deserve. So in, a rare fit of political fairness, I must congratulate the Tory Council leadership for being ambitious and creative.

Brown's biggest gamble

As world leaders meet in London this weekend our PM will be facing what I consider to be the biggest political challenge of his long career. Firstly he must reconcile the differing interests of France & Germany as well as ensure that Obama remains in confident support of Brown, as he appears to be at the moment. Secondly he must ensure that the outcome of the summit is tangible and of immidiate value.

Whilst getting them to London is an achievement in itself, nothing less than the fate of his government hangs on the outcome. Only big changes to the international financial system, which are explainable to the economic illiterate majority will bring him any measure of victory anything less be viewed as a failure. Success would give Brown the chance to reshuffle his cabinet with a view to a possible Autumn election, failure and we may as well all give up now.