The best explanation for the bizarre story that circulated earlier this week about the appointment of the next Labour Party General Secretary that I have heard is this. At the heart of the intrigue is said to be Labour First (LF).

Let's not fool ourselves. Our Leader says he's listening...so it's all going to be alright? He says he is going to give us a say...so it's going to be alright? Much of the media commentary implies that we (mere mortals) are hapless bystanders of the bubbling Westminster cauldron.

Gordon Brown has been asked by LabOUR Commission members and others to support an open and transparent policy consultation from now on. The letter can be seen here.

Save the Labour Party's latest Newsletter leads on the next round of policy making aka Partnership in Power, leading up to Warwick 2 in July, annual conference and an OMOV ballot.

Will the Leadership attempt to steal from members the opportunity to have a say? Or will every effort be made to ensure all members know what's happening?

Save the Labour Party and Labourhome combined to contact their campaigning networks and encourage questions to a live webcast by Gordon Brown about the adverse effects of the abolition of the 10p tax band on people with low incomes.

According to BBC Newsnight last night many questions submitted by test and eMail were on this issue and to the Labour Party's credit it led the questions.

This is a follow up to one of the ideas ventured about how compensation to the 5.3 million hit by increased taxes could be administered - through the new 10p tax band!

Last week's Labour Party National Executive Committee considered the next stage of policy-making. Since the launch of Partnership in Power in 1997, the internal processes have developed what astrophysicists refer to as "black hole" characteristics.

Among the people sitting in at Labour Party National Executive Committee meetings are usually the Prime Minister's Political Secretary Fiona Gordon and her deputy, Jonathan Ashworth. There is one today. I read in Tribune and have been 'tipped off' by well-placed sources that Fiona is the real General Secretary of the Labour Party. I have never met Fiona and can't find a photograph of her.

Given the depressing drift back to Blairite policies lamented at the Progress/Compass event last night chronicled here, I am wondering what her role is as the Party languishes in the polls ahead of an absolutely critical Mayoral election in London in May. Can anyone cast any light?

On the eve of the launch of the London Mayoral campaign this might not be seen by the powers that be as the most appropriate time for a spot of navel gazing. Having blogged vigorously for a general secretary majoring in financial planning skills and an eye on rebuilding membership, there is no better moment than now to highlight the harsh realities. After all if it took ten years from 1987 to 1997 to put on between 125,000 and 150,000 members; how long is it going to take just to put on the 200,000 plus we have lost since regaining power?

To ensure delegates are able to fully debate the big policy challenges facing Britain in depth, today and in the future, the National Executive Committee has agreed that the timetable for conference be extended. Conference will now start on Saturday, 20 September and conclude on Wednesday, 24 September.

Caroline Flint's interview with the Guardian reported yesterday poses fundamental questions about Labour party policy-making. OK, No.10 backed away from endorsement, but that's not the point. The deadline for submissions to the Party's second stage policy making process is 28 February 2008.

A debate has opened up on Grimmerupnorth, Labour Left Forum, LabourHome as well as here about the issue of slates for the forthcoming Labour National Executive Committee (NEC). Questions are being asked, aspertions cast, and denigrations peppered. It is as though political animals with a common agenda shouldn't been seen congregating together. Oh, you are on a slate - political pervert.

Now that the Labour Party has officially launched its recruitment campaign for a new General Secretary, I thought I would have a close look at the Job Description. 

A week on Monday the Labour Party's ruling (sic) National Executive Committee (NEC ) starts a two-day meeting to review the future. According to insiders no papers have been circulated (yet). But no renewal plan is expected. Am I alone in finding this surprising?

Brown and Cameron are also vulnerable. They have allowed the buffer institutions of democracy to atrophy. Their party members have been pushed below the salt, and blind - or at least Melbournian - loyalty has gone too.