We are told there is a possibility of a hung Parliament and that allegedly this is the outcome that many voters would like.  This morning on the Today programme one voter said a hung Parliament might be a good idea because you would be getting the best bits of each Party.

Hmmm.

Reminds me of the apocryphal story of the exchange between Isadora Duncan and George Bernard Shaw.  She is supposed to have said that she would like to have children with him – “think of the child with your brains and my beauty.”  And he is alleged to have replied: “But what if he were to have your brains and my beauty?”

Be careful, what you wish for.

First, Grayling now Lansley.

How many Shadow Cabinet members will the Cameron machine have to brief against this week?

The weekend gave us Chris Grayling demonstrating that it’s the same-old-Tories after all and that their commitment to equalities is skin-deep opportunism.  So the briefing machine has to hint that Grayling may not be “up to the job”.

Now Andrew Lansley has started shooting from the hip with numbers (and a policy) that don’t add up, reinforcing the Tory insiders’ view that he too is dispensible as “he has gone native”.

The Shadow Health Secretary’s plan to allow more cancer drugs to be available to NHS patients at first sounds nice and caring – until you look at it more closely.

The problem is – as the respected independent think-tank, the Kings Fund, has pointed out – the numbers don’t add up.  The money just is not there.  It is typical George Osborne-style double-counting: it is to be funded from the “savings” from the National Insurance increase that Osborne wants to “cancel” (rather than getting on with reducing the budget deficit that is allegedly the Tories’ top priority).

In practice therefore Lansley is offering up the rest of the NHS for a double budget hit: first to fund the cancer drugs and second to cut the deficit (made larger by not proceeding with the National Insurance increase).

And that’s not all.

The cancer drugs that he wants to fund are those that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has ruled are either ineffective or far too expensive for the benefits they bring – so they are hardly a good efficient use of resources.

The key need in the treatment of cancer is early diagnosis – something that the Labour Government has prioritised.  By contrast, the Tories have opposed  giving people a guaranteed right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks if the GP suspects cancer.  And presumably it is those primary care and diagnostic services that will now be threatened by Lansley’s double budget hit.  And, of course, if patients are not diagnosed early they have a greater likelihood of needing more expensive drugs and treatment.

Opportunism, the desire for quick headlines and economic illiteracy are not a sound basis for policy formulation.

So which member of the Shadow Cabinet will be next?

I have just come from a meeting addressed by the Information Commissioner.  As an aside, he told us that the end of his reporting year – 31st March – is next week and that he is rushing through adjudications on Freedom of Information Act appeals, so that he can improve his performance statistics before the year-end.

As Information Commissioner adjudications seemed to have provided the bulk of the (limited) substance of the Leader of the Opposition’s contributions to Prime Minister’s Questions earlier in the day, one cannot help but wonder what David Cameron would have done without them (his questioning was  otherwise rather thin on substantive attack lines).

In any event, the Information Commissioner seems to be promising more adjudications over the next week – although he didn’t indicate the subject matter.  Assuming there is a PMQs in the week after Easter and given that Nick Clegg seems to working hard at his David Cameron-lite look, we now know where the Leader of the Liberal Democrats will be looking for his inspiration …..

An obscure Conservative MP, Philip Hollobone, has been referred to the Police follwoing his remarks that a burka  was ‘the religious equivalent of going around with a paper bag over your head with two holes for the eyes’ for allegedly inciting religious hatred.

Now there is a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, who as it happens is also an elected member of the London Assembly, that customarily uses the term “bin bag” instead – I wonder whether they are worried that they might now be investigated?

Just remember you heard it here first.

There is allegedly shock at James Purnell’s decision to stand down from Parliament.  Actually, it is rather predictable.  If he had stayed on as a candidate, he would have been re-elected.  But what then?  A victoriously re-elected Gordon Brown is unlikely to have him back in the Cabinet.  And in the (unlikely) event of a Tory victory, he would not want to waste his conspicuous (to him, at least) talents in Opposition.

He knows that Mayor Boris Johnson has only a limited desire to run for a second term as Mayor and – in any event – Londoners are becoming increasingly dubious about what he is doing (or not doing) for their City.

James Purnell is nothing if not ambitious.  He can claim to be a Londoner.  He was an Islington councillor for nearly two years.  What more qualification would he need?

And my spies tell me that his intentions are clear – he wants to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor in 2012.

So once more, remember you heard it here first.

Last Sunday’s revelations in The Sunday Times that the National Police Improvement Agency has spent £750,000 on repairing an ornamental bridge (overlooked by the grace-and-favour flat provided to the NPIA’s Chief Executive, Peter Neyroud) come at a bad time for the Agency.  I am told that patience is rapidly running out with the failures of the NPIA to deliver the improvements promised by its own name.

Senior police officers apparently never have a good word to say about the Agency and civil servants roll their eyes when its name is mentioned.

The Conservative Party – after a flurry of Freedom of Information Act requests about the costs of the NPIA – have put it on their A-list of candidates for the Quango-cull in the (remote) event of their being in Government after the General Election.

And my spies tell me that current Home Office Ministers have signaled their limited confidence in the Chair of the Agency, Peter Holland (a failed candidate for Chair of the Association of Police Authorities) and “Chief Constable” Neyroud (who distinguished himself at a Home Office Christmas Party two years ago by being the only police officer to turn up in uniform) by only renewing their contracts of appointment for a short period.

The problem that no-one has yet solved is what is to be done – in the event of the NPIA’s demise – about the important functions that it is supposed to carry out.  After all, somebody does need to get a strategic grip of national police technology procurement and the training of senior police officers cannot be left to chance ….

I have been catching up on the latest news of defections and deceit in my former bailliwick of Haringey from a coffee shop in Vancouver, where I am speaking at a conference (in the city, not the coffee shop).
I gather that Councillor Brian Hailey, who was not reselected by his branch to stand as a candidate in May, has defected from the Labour Group on Haringey Council and joined the Liberal Democrats. This reportedly followed a meeting with Nick Clegg. (Apparently, there was also a meeting with David Cameron. However, Hailey decided not to follow in the footsteps of another former member of the Labour Group, Alan Dobbie – who was allegedly suffering from a form of post-Mayoral syndrome/folie de grandeur – and join the Tories. Apparently, Hailey found Cameron ‘unimpressive’/was not promised enough.)
I am told by an impeccable source that this is not the first time that Hailey has contemplated defection to the LibDems. He had discussions some years ago (that in itself ought to have resulted in his deselection). Apparently, on that occasion Hailey walked away when his request for a safe Parliamentary seat was spurned. Presumably, this time he has been told that they will meet his demand to be an MP. This in itself is interesting: the LibDems are notoriously ultra-democratic and the centre cannot foist a candidate on a constituency party, so if the offer was made they must have lied to Hailey and he must have been extraordinarily gullible to have believed it.
But what does it say about the LibDems that – irrespective of false promises made – they will accept as a member someone so unprincipled that they are happy to be in any one of the three main political parties and is prepared to join the one that bids highest?

I too like Dr Who.  However, I am not quite as much of a fanatic on the subject as is my (no relation) namesake Tom Harris MP (and indeed my favourite Doctor would be Patrick Troughton rather than Tom Baker – it’s an age thing).

Over the weekend Tom Harris recorded what thirty-five years ago would have been every male adolescent’s wet dream: a meeting with Dr Who companion, Katy Manning – and yes he is right she was the definitive Dr Who companion.

And note in the second photograph where Katy Manning has put her hand ……

The good news is that Tom Harris would have been only nine years old in 1973.

Everybody knows that the European Parliament is at the cutting edge of global political thought.

So it is no surprise to discover that in 2005 (long before last month’s attempted airline bombing made them a world-wide must-have) the European Parliament bought six full body scanners to protect MEPs from being attacked in the Parliament buildings.

Given the legendary efficiency of the EU institutions, it is also no surprise to learn that these six machines – purchased for over 700,000 Euros – have never been used.  Apparently, in 2008 the Parliament rejected a bill to permit the use of such scanners across the EU on the grounds that the graphic images provided by such scanners constituted a “virtual strip search”.  It is thought that MEPs were not aware at the time that the Parliament had six scanners lying around in their unopened boxes.

After the MEPs had voted against the use of such scanners, European Parliament officials then “rushed” to dispose of the unwanted items.  Obviously, there are complex procedures to be followed in such cases, so that the invitation to bid for the six scanners will only be issued in the next few days.  The delay, of course, means that, given the current fashion for full body scanning, there should be no shortage of bidders.

But should the European Parliament still be going ahead with the sales, in the light of the latest security threats?  Of course it should – as its spokesperson perspicaciously points out, “The Parliament is not an airport”.

According to Local Government Chronicle, a slip of the tongue by Deputy Mayor Sir (rumoured soon to be Lord) Simon Milton has suggested that Mayor Boris Johnson only intends to serve one term in office and will not run on his record (or otherwise) in 2012.  Listening to the slip, it sounds to me like a genuine slip of the tongue, but psychologists claim that such slips are more revealing than one might think ……

Certainly, Londoners will expect more of a coherent vision from a Mayor seeking re-election than they got in 2008 and is so far apparent from the incumbent, so may be there really will be no appetite for a second term.