Lord Ashcroft

Your future and ours
Gordon Brown has decided to pretend he's Tony Blair. Remember "Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime"? When Blair trotted that one out he did it with eyes like dinner plates and a spooky manner that was supposed to indicate passion and concern. Actually what most people remember is Rory Bremner taking him off, the whole thing was ridiculous; but that won't put Brown off! Brown is in a hole and digging furiously. Whatever the result this election can only be a crushing defeat when we remember their majority of over 200, following the 1997 election. So he has come up with a diversion, talking about crime, telling half truths about CCTV and DNA retention.

The unelected Deputy Prime Minister is, as we know, always keen to help. He has started talking about Lord Ashcroft. Mandy is keen to suggest that Ashcroft represents some 'foreign' influence on UK politics. It is said that Mandy cannot criticise the euro or any aspect of the attempts to bail out the Greek economy as his EU pension might be affected. So foreign influence, it all depends what you want it to mean! Also Mandy will be happy to keep quiet about the UK economy too.

The reason for the diversion from Brown and Mandelson is to deflect attention away from the falling pound and the possible outcomes.