Another 2 statutory instruments push the amount of cash available for ‘Financial Assistance for Industry’ by another £1.2 billion to £6.1 billion. Hurray for Stealth Protectionism!!

Jack Straw knows what’s important! That’s right, it’s renewing 28 days detention for another year.

The thing Labourhome always had going for it was its sheer crapness. Only the true down to earth grass roots, distant from the glamour and lavish PR (and lifestyles) of the parliamentary party could love the old Labourhome website.

The question becomes why did they redesign?

Clearly they’ve been under pressure from Labour list (thanks to the extreme publicity seeking shennanigans of their greasy former editor) and felt the need to keep up to date… but I ask you, what were they thinking?

Labourhome claims to be a site for grassroots Labour supporters. It’s meant to re-engage them.

Here’s the new logo:

Pleasant enough. There’s the tag-line… ‘back to the roots.’ So, go on, try to guess what sort of picture would go with this message?

Go on, have a guess. Maybe some workers in a factory? Maybe a single mum? Something to do with being a worker and being working class or something like that, yeah? Yeah?

Not quite. The image they’ve chosen is this:

That’s right. The image that represents the Grassroots of the Labour Party is this building, the Houses of Parliament.

Good luck with the relaunch, guys.

UPDATE: Okay, thinking about it, I’m on very thin ice here. I’m not exactly a Pro Designer myself. If Labourhome doods want to come slag off the design for this blog (or for Liberal Vision actually) then they should feel free.

For what it’s worth, and just cos I’ve got the excuse to talk about it, the ‘theme’ for this site’s design is the blueprint motif in the banner. Blueprints are great things. They remind you of engineering, of plans, of precision, and of potential. They’re instructions for something much bigger and better. That’s why I picked blueprints.

UPDATE UPDATE! Well, turns out the design’s a work in progress and they’re going to have another look. Special round of applause for heroically good tempered Andie Fairlie.

The Economist it seems, will be summing this all up very well:

If an election were called next week, Britain might well end up with a Parliament for the next five years that is defined entirely by its views on claiming for bath plugs, rather than on how to get the country out of the worst recession in 70 years.

Take that, Cameron. And, in fairness, take that me. My immediate gut reaction was that a general election would be the best way of allowing individuals to ‘pass judgement’ on their own MPs and start again with a clean slate. Now I’m not so sure (although, to be honest, I just want rid of Brown, I’m not going to lie about that.)

The truth is that a new Government now isn’t going to fix anything. Rather than the simple approach of full online publication of expense claims, the virtues of Statutory Regulation as the Answer To Everything have once again been deployed to delegate decisions regarding MPs expenses to an appointed quango – someone else to take the blame if things go wrong. Ultimately full transparency is not being promised. We’re getting an ideologically driven fudge. Another Fucking Quango. Brilliant.

Alix Mortimer (is she the most influential Lib Dem Blogger? I know I’m terrified of her – which probably suggest she is) is in conspiratoral mood at the moment. It’s quite odd watching her transformation from blogger to full-blown campaigner, using whatever influence she’s accumulated to begin pushing a parlimentary reform agenda.

Then there’s Liberal Vision who are doing everything they can to turn Nick Clegg into, “Clean Up Clegg.”

Truth is that reform of Westminster and our whole system of politics is something that Lib Dems have always wanted but the rules of the game mean that it’s never been something we can seriously campaign on. It’s a ‘process’ story so therefore people aren’t interested. Yet here ‘the process’ is the story. It’s the only story (apart from yet more u-turns and “betrayals” of the “progressive movement” by Obama, something I will be getting stuck into sooner or later), in fact.

Alix is right. There’s never, ever going to be a better chance of getting reform, and an election now – one that managed to successfully dispel the anger – would go down in history as the Mother of all wasted opportunities for the Mother of all parliaments.

… at Cowley Street.

Update:

Ah yes, here it is – Rennard Quits.

My reason for writing is that I have decided to make the current election campaigns my last as Chief Executive. I discussed this with Nick some time ago and I have given notice to the Party President that I will stand down as Chief Executive at the end of the Summer.