I see that Harman has no real substance in her arguments. Making facile jokes; driven by Dogma and hate for the opposition without admitting any responsibility for her parties part in the Financial mess that the country in. Acting like a spoilt child...Can't be bothered with her petulance.

You are quite right Russell. She showsm, every time she opens her mouth, that she is a political lightweight. No depth of analysis, no original thinking (that is sane and rational anyway), not even the ability to speak coherently without stuttering. All Harman has going for her is a tribal hatred for the Conservative party and an all-powerful arrogance that she is right. I saw her husband on the day he was elected to parliament being interviewed on TV - his tribal hatred was evident in every word he spoke - he was in complete and total denial that labour had lost the election. Imagine having dinner at their place

For me the political reform of the voting system is the most radical, and while we do need reform I have grave misgivings about what 'they' propose. Lets face it AV is not much different from what we have now, and why should politicians decide what system we have, why not us the electorate. All systems should be on the table in a referendum and we vote for the system we want the one with the most votes wins. Now for me that's democracy, not this system which they've chosen because they know with P/R none would have overall majority again. True fairness, and they've proclaimed that word today would be P/R and we should have the chance to vote for that system, its our country as well as theirs so we should decide not just politicans who again are deciding to suit their own ends. If AV is accepted I shall not vote again I don't want my vote passed to someone I don't like and that's what happens in that system. The whole new bills they've suggested today have to go through the House of Lords and thank god they do with this lot in charge we can expect anything, greed the most likely force, nothing changes does it.

Dogma? Russell. Labour is pragmatically centre-left and what we've had is basically "neoliberalism with a social touch" or "Capitalism with a human face", which I've known to be applied to 'Third Way'. Anything but leftist since neither Blair nor Brown could even remotely be defined as being protectionist populists and that's about as left as it gets in contemporary Western capitalism. 'Slash and burn', on the other hand, is virulently dogmatic. Most major Western capitalist economies have huge debt to GDP ratios. Maybe that's the price governments have been willing to pay to maintain the living standards of, and sustain higher levels of employment for, their populaces. Then came the 'Crash of 2008' for which inaction, in its wake, was never going to be an option. For years, the Right were heaping praise on the 'Celtic Tiger' with its low taxes and robust economic growth yet Ireland now finds itself among the infamous 'PIGS'

Ok if we want to play at being a pendant; “Christian Democrat”, a political ideology influenced by conservatism and Catholic social teaching. In other words what was called within the Conservative party “wets”. Effectively right of centre and about where Cameron is “trying” to position the Tories.