(Other "combatants" such as Hamer, Chicken Yoghurt etc are the Keith Fletts of this world.)

Other suggestions welcome: if any offence has been casued by any of the analogies drawn above, I apologise* the only serious side of this post is to illustrate why I think calls for blogging to be free of regulation are understandable, but probably misguided.

*Except if you're Guido (hypocritical scoundrel) or Iain (probably a liar, disingenuous at very best).

Anyway, Barnet Labour are campaigning hard to have a good showing in the by election and
have:

Phoning going on Monday to Thursday evenings at  38 Church Lane N2 and 104 East Barnet Road EN4 offices from 6 - 8.30pm Monday to Thursday

and:

Delivering and canvassing/blitzing starting from 104 East Barnet Road on both Saturday and Sunday for the next three weekends (10am and 1pm on Saturday and 10.45am and 2pm on Sunday). The weather on Sunday looks good so we'd really like to flood the area (with people!).

Contact: Alison Moore: 07971 956250

Last Thursday, he posted a story headlined

Classic Media Management,

claiming that No 10 had scheduled the police i/v with Blair to co-incide with the release of the Stevens report into the (yawn) claims that some shiny headed geezer of Greek extraction had masterminded MI5/6 in their murder of Diana Windsor. So far so Guido. The story is still up, and it looks like this:

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1288/553/1600/818578/news_management.jpg

The key is in the first line: "Ipswich story will run in background all day". This is not how it originally appeared. When first posted, the top line of the "No 10 grid" ran "Ipswich rape story will run in background all day." A couple of commenters picked this up - anonymous at 3.03pm and graybo at 3.20pm, pointing out that it was a murder inquiry, not a rape inquiry. So why has the word been removed? If it was a No 10 mistake, rather than a photoshop effort from Signor Fawkes (as one commenter suggested) why did it need changing? If Guido changed it to correct his mistake, why was he so sloppy as to leave the comments up?

At least most people presenting spoof leaflets on blogs make it clear they are a spoof...

Statement from Mike Griffiths, Chair of the NEC on behalf of the full NEC:

The  Labour  Party has led the way in introducing transparency into British politics culminating in the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act (2000).  We  therefore welcome the Hayden Phillips enquiry into the future of political funding.

The time has come to end the "arms race" on election expenditure, with a cap on what parties can spend, nationally and locally and for the lifetime of a parliament.  The Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) is therefore encouraged by the proposals from Sir Hayden regarding the principle of reducing the spending of political parties.

After consulting with Party members, the Labour Party Conference in 2006 unanimously approved  the Labour Party's detailed submission to the Review on the Future of Party Funding currently being conducted by Sir Hayden Phillips.

The position of the Labour Party, at all levels, has been and remains that as set out in our submission. This position was reiterated by the Prime Minister attending the Parliamentary Labour Party Committee on Wednesday where he made clear that nothing should break the historic link between the Labour Party and the Trade Unions.  The NEC therefore rejects those proposals from
Hayden Phillips that clearly neither respect nor understand the structures and constitution of the Labour Party.

In the Labour Party submission to the review we express the view that any changes need to be workable, respect differing party structures and constitutions and should not reduce fairness and equality by giving one party a funding advantage over another.  For that reason, in our submission we made it clear that the Labour Party cannot accept a statutory uniform donation cap as proposed by the Conservative Party.

This form of donation cap would quickly become unworkable logistically and diminish the political voice of hundreds of thousands of trade unionists at a time when all parties are concerned with widening political engagement. It would also undermine the Labour Party federal structure and seek to amend a system of Trade Union contributions that is already highly transparent and heavily regulated.

Officers and officials of the NEC will continue to vigorously pursue the Labour Party's position in all discussions with Sir Hayden Phillips.

Ends

And now, as HenryG has pointed out, even Blairite outriders like Alan Johnson have done a volte face. Come to think of it, so has Tony himself.

Why should this be a problem - after all the strike was a momentous and key event in UK politics? Well, I applied a similar test to myself. I was very active in miners' support groups in 1984-5, on a daily basis.

But all I recall of the 1973 strike as an eight year old is that the power cuts meant I kept missing the last ten minutes of Dr Who. I know the age profile of Labour's membership is not as healthy as it should be - someone told me yesterday that at 57 they were the third youngest member of their CLP - but still...

Those who do not learn the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them. Fair enough. But those who look back all the time end up falling on their arses.

DAGENHAM Judith Church's seat: 17,054 majority
JOHN CRUDDAS, 39
Blair's union fixer at Number Ten and a key bridge in the New Labour-trade union link. Joined Labour Party staff as policy officer in 1989 and ingratiated himself with young employment spokesperson T. Blair while assuring colleagues and trade unionists he couldn't stand him. As head of then Labour Party General Secretary Larry Whitty's office in 1994 illicitly helped Blair win leadership election against Prescott and Beckett, but continues to persuade unions and some on the left that he is on their side - close to Cabinet Office minster Ian McCartney and strongly backed by the TGWU. "Ambitious ultra Blair loyalist - though that loyalty will seamlessly transfer as soon as it becomes apparent that Blair is on the slide.