There is little more comforting to me right now than the idea of Keith Vaz fighting for his job. Whether it's because he was actually audacious enough to believe he would get away with gaining a public honour for voting (and convincing others to vote) for the illiberal 42 day legislation, or because he was simply so stupid as to stare evidence in the face and disregard it 6 months later, I'm just glad he's maybe getting screwed.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not vindictive, but as Aaron over at Tygerland says, if you're stupid enough to get caught then you deserve to be punished.

If you were to ask me what I believe the real problem with Labour is right now, and their gloomy looking future after the recent YouGov poll, I would say that it isn't the 10p fiasco, it isn't fuel prices, it isn't energy bills, it isn't council tax, and it isn't Gordon Brown. Well, at least not individually, it's all of it all more that sums up to one whole that is of greater concern that its parts...it's perception over take home pay and just how much we're being bled dry by various different outlets of our hard earned.

So, what better for Labour and their popularity than to truly start solving this disparity, or at least to make solid and honest attempts to ensure that no-one is under any illusions that the Tories (or anyone else) are actually going to be able to manage the economy better? For me the best place to start is with our energy prices, a subject that the government clearly feel is a priority given the announcements made on the 30th of May. Don't be fooled though, if you're hoping for a cure to the ever booming gas and electricity prices then you'll be sorely disappointed by this latest official announcement.

If I were in charge what would I ask for...nay, demand? I would say that the government needs to demand reform of the pricing structure of Gas and Electricity in this country. It is quite simply like living in bizarro land to see energy companies blathering on in their adverts about how much they care about the environment and just need us (the customer) to change our ways to be eco-friendly, when their pricing structures proportionally benefit those that waste energy and can afford to do so. It is this proportionality of value for energy that is so irking.

If you'd like to read more about my issues with energy pricing structures and what I would like to see happen in the future, please read on by following the link below!

How do you solve a problem such as "British Citizenship" and how to encourage us all to feel like we're British? Well you force them to stay in school or training until 18, at which point you "encourage" them to swear an oath to the country in one form or another before presenting them with a series of choices whereby the only realistic one is to sign up to a national ID database. From then on you're golden with plenty of opportunities to keep that individual under check and "British", in fact the only thing missing is a microchip for the brain that forces them to stand up and put their hand to their heart every time "God Save the Queen" is heard.

Here again I find myself in a situation with a few subjects I want to touch on but not really wanting to devote entire posts to each of them at this time. So this time the three subjects are BBC2's White season, your DNA and how little you need to do to give the police reason to put it on a database, and a rather sickening situation of trying to send an Iranian kid back to Iran where he is almost certain to be executed.

So ID Cards are back on the agenda again now and actually threaten to be more confusing a policy than the ratification of the EU treaty. The time scales are slipping further and further, ambiguity is rife over the compulsion that may exist, and the politicians are still woefully clueless about the lack of integrity the system will inherently have.

How would you feel if someone was able to look at every web page you were viewing? How would you feel if they were able to store a record of what you viewed so that they can analyse it? How would you feel if they then used that data to target advertising at you? How would you feel if all of this was done without your consent, without your knowledge, and without your consultation?

Well if you're a BT Broadband customer then welcome to the new age, where your browsing habits are sold off to the highest bidder, in this case a company called "Phorm", in one of the biggest scandals of the year that you almost didn't hear about. For those of you on Virgin and TalkTalk don't think you're safe as you're next, and assuming that Phorm get their way then other major ISPs such as Orange and Tiscali will be following suit in the near future.

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments. - Aung San Suu Kyi

Or, indeed, that reforms ignoring civil liberties and running contrary to the path we've been taking as a nation are so readily pondered by authoritarian governments. I do wonder how many more times I'll have to keep writing about the illiberal nature of the Home Office led by Jacqui Smith, it almost seems fantastical just how much one person can contemplate and implement in such a short time span. Today we are adding to the ever increasing list of authoritarian practice with the logical extension of where she is going with the current clampdown on under age drinking, as well as subtly not-quite-announcing plans for a what I can only satirically describe as a thought crime unit. (Heads up to Dizzy for that)

We are telling our kids they can't hang around shops because of some middle age fear of all kids being out to attack us, children are now going to be forced how to be cultural and be forced to learn how to be a productive member of society for longer than ever before. They are going to be given unique numbers for lifetime records to be kept of their achievements and faults, their liberty enshrined within law ignored for the "greater good" in spite of any reality. Their parents won't even have a say in the future of their upbringing, the choice about how they will be conditioned is no longer in their hands, government retaining more and more control over censorship until it dictates what your children will see, what they'll eat, what they'll drink. Sounds familiar to me...

Finally in this trilogy of posts on the issue of poor and sometimes frightening governance by Labour, and in this case to a degree parliament as a governing body, I cover the now well trodden subject of MPs and just how much power the government should be giving them. In particular this post is spurred on by the recent news about bugging MPs, but stems from the wording of anti-terror legislation on several counts, the debacle over police pay and partly how the idea of electoral reform has been dealt with.

Let's first look at the most recent furore, that of bugging MPs...