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Did you watch and listen to THAT woman, Theresa May, last week? I did, live at the Tory party conference in Manchester, while pressing my bitten nails into my hands and building up such fantasies of violence that they could imprison me for thought crimes under our anti-terrorism laws. There wasn't much applause for the first part of her speech, so she threw them immigrants and asylum-seekers and then the Human Rights Act (HRA) to tear into. Members turned into noisy hounds and May was riding high. Until Ken Clarke pulled her off the horse. He is set to be punished by the PM, who obviously backs May's inciting horn calls.

Former Chancellor Alistair Darling will lift the lid on Gordon Brown's increasingly "brutal and volcanic" demeanour when his memoirs are published next week, according to a Labour-supporting blog.

You can vote No with David Cameron, the BNP and a campaign that thinks you are too thick to count to three

The campaign for a better democracy in Britain has to fight, fight and fight again. According to our ComRes opinion poll today, the No campaign in the referendum has opened up a 6 percentage-point lead, as some of the don't-knows have made up their minds over the past few weeks.

The Liberal democrats face a double blow at next month's council elections, when they will field fewer candidates than usual and could be the main victims of a Labour recovery.

Some opinion polls suggest Labour is now opening up a double digit lead. As the cuts bite the unpopularity will only get worse. The Tory grassroots will absorb these mid-term blues if they think David Cameron has a long-term plan for victory.

Former immigration minister Phil Woolas lost his seat as an MP today after an election court ruled that he knowingly made false statements about an opponent in May's general election.