DAVE'S PLEDGES

Okay I said I'd write about party funding today but first I'd like to clear up my views on the 'leadership battle.' Mr Brown has purchased himself a couple of weeks' breathing space before the next catastrophe, and so I have decided to use that time (two weeks or two minutes, well you never know at the moment do you) to take the following new new Labour five point pledge:

1) I hereby agree to devote whatever energies I normally devote to political activity, entirely to the cause of making Labour come across as popular.

2) I will do this from the point of view of being a member, thinking what I, as a member, would like to see Labour doing more of.

3) I will think only in terms of the Labour Party, and not whoever the leader is at the time. (Difficult I realise, but worth a try).

4) I will think only of increasing membership, so that more voices can be heard, and more issues can be discussed apart from whether Ruth Kelly really wants to spend less time with Gordon Brown's family.

5) For some reason it's always five isn't it? Not sure I'll have time for more than four. Okay I promise that if I see a family in my street who I do not perceive to be hardworking then I shall be unfair to them.