Geoff Hoon faces No Confidence vote for having a spine.

The Labour party never fails to amaze me. It is being reported that Geoff Hoon could be facing a vote of No Confidence from his constituency over his failed coup attempt. What a bunch of chimps his local party must be. Never mind the outcome, Geoff acted with the best interests of the Labour party in mind. What members in Ashfield need to consider is that Geoff fully expected his coup to be successful and was surprised when several Ministers did not take the bait. We are all exceedingly aware of the unstable nature of the Cabinet, constantly briefing against Gordon Brown off the record, but lacking the gumption to show their hand in public.

No matter what Geoff Hoon and Pat Hewitt may have said, they were sure that at least six senior ministers would support the coup. Those six, and others, took an awfully long time to drag their sorry backsides in front of the cameras to pledge their half hearted support for Gordo. They all lacked the metal to be the first to stick the knife in, preferring to see which way the wind was blowing across the back benches. The daft thing is, if one of them had come out, then back bench support for the coup was likely to follow.

So Geoff now faces a vote of no confidence for doing what a majority of the Cabinet agree needed to be done. I wonder if any of those Ministerial whisperers and plotters will have the decency to speak up for Geoff? Going on past form, I think we all can guess the answer to that one....

Gordon Brown faces yet another major rebellion - Heathrow.

It looks like Gordon Brown may be forced to adopt another Conservative policy in the face of the latest Labour party rebellion. Labour MP John Grogan has put forward a motion to rethink the Heathrow expansion. So far 95 MPs have signed up to the motion, 38 of them are Labour MPs. According to Pippa Crerar of the Evening Standard:

"Ministers were said to be secretly fuelling a Commons rebellion against expansion (of Heathrow) with at least five Cabinet ministers, including Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, thought to have concerns."

The Tory plan to scrap the third runway at Heathrow was announced during this year's Conservative conference. Shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, told delegates:

"This is one of the hardest decisions we've faced as a party and we will not run away from it. "The case for high-speed rail is clear. "It would generate huge economic benefits, it would dramatically improve transport links between north and south and it would give a vitally important boost to our efforts to protect future generations from catastrophic climate change. "I believe that this announcement signals a momentous step forward for Britain's transport infrastructure. "It will leave a lasting legacy for the future. And it will lay the foundations for a high speed network that I believe will one day stretch across the country."

At the time of the Conference, Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, Said:

"These proposals are politically opportunistic, economically illiterate and hugely damaging to Britain's national interests. The Tories are posing a false choice - we need both more capacity in Britain's airports and on our main rail lines."

It looks very much like Gordon Brown will be manoeuvred into backing down on the Third runway at Heathrow and end up supporting a new high speed rail link as suggested by the Conservative party. Will that make him "Politically opportunistic, economically illiterate and hugely damaging to Britain's national interests?"

Typical Labour - The Conservatives come up with a great idea - Labour rubbish it - then they steal it.

Our civil liberties mean nothing to Geoff Hoon - Question Time.

Geoff Hoon showed us the true face of our socialist government last night on Question Time. His performance throughout the show was pathetic, but he was totally at odds with the panel and the audience when he tried to defend the government's plans for a database of mobile and web records.

You can watch the full show by clicking HERE.

Question Time 29th May - Hoon in a Pickle?

Question Time tonight has all the makings of a great show. Tory hero of the moment Eric Pickles will be locking horns with Labour Chief Whip Geoff Hoon. Eric has a fantastically smooth and persuasive approach to most arguments (I've heard rumour that he has sold fur hats to some Greenpeace officials heading off to Africa) and any attacks on the Tories from Hoon will seem like Jack Russel yapping at a Lion. Eric seems to live in the eye of a storm.

The rest of the panel includes the Green Party member of the European parliament for the South East of England Caroline Lucas (no doubt she will wind me up) the historian and broadcaster Dan Snow (son of Peter) and the director of Global Vision Ruth Lea.

Tonight's show is from Lincoln and will be shown on BBC One at 22:35.

Be there or be Albert.