I am tapping this out on the train as it speeds north on the East Coast Main Line. Now in public ownership again after National Express failed to pay the Treasury the money owed under the terms of the franchise. I read in the press today that the company is also going to lose its lucrative East Anglia contract when it comes up for renewal in March 2011. Quite right too! 

It has been an interesting week at Westminster as the debate on the Queen’s Speech drew to a close yesterday. Because of the looming General Election, not all the Bills will get on to the Statute Book – and some don’t deserve to! The Fiscal Responsibility Bill which sets down in law the targets for reducing the debt we amassed by bailing out the banks falls into the silly category. What happens if the target is not met in four year’s time. Does the Chancellor of the Exchequer go to jail?  Of course not. 

On the positive side we have the Agency Workers regulations which will ensure that the same basic terms and conditions apply to agency and permanent workers. Without this protection there will be a relentless drive by rogue employers to take on temporary staff, underpay them, and undermine the pay and conditions of the permanent staff. 

There is also a short Bill to ban the use of cluster munitions. And another (much longer one) on constitutional reform which puts the civil service on a statutory footing and allows for the expulsion – and retirement - of members of  the House of Lords. This is long overdue. The reform of the Lords is, alas, like the dance of the seven veils. Never getting to the end of the show. 

We also have the Financial Services Bill coming up on Monday. It will give new powers to the financial watchdog, the FSA, and bring in measures to curb bankers’ bonuses and so on. So far as I am concerned it doesn’t go far enough. It will enact the recommendations of the Walker Report which wants financial institutions to publish the total number of people “earning” over £1 million a year. We should be naming, in annual reports, the individuals who are raking in over £200,000 or even less. 

The banks are legitimate targets. They have been bailed out with our money. And they owe a responsibility to the wider economy. Instead, they give the impression it is business as usual, featherbedding their City nests at our expense.  

The cost of servicing the debt is going to be huge. The outspoken chief of the FSA, Adair Turner, has said on the record that many of the activities of the financial sector are not “socially useful”.

He told the Daily Telegraph on Monday that we need to rebalance the financial system “towards the economy rather than to the financial community as an end to itself”. He went on: “The thing about the crisis was that it had nothing to do with the things that used to worry us. It was not due to trade unions, to wage claims, strikes or out of control inflation. It was cooked up within the financial sector itself. We need a new set of rules for that.” 

Against that background, claims by the Conservatives that this is a crisis of Labour’s own making are simply ludicrous. The Conservatives were calling for more deregulation when, in reality, we should have been tightening financial regulation even further.  

Cameron sees the State as the enemy. Not the bankers. He told the Conservative Party Conference that the State is too big and must be cut down to size. He misses the point completely.  

He talks about a new “Age of Austerity” and has promised a wage freeze for all public sector workers earning above £18,000. Retirement age is to be put back by a year. The Child Trust Fund cut back. And yet he will still give a huge inheritance tax break to the very wealthiest estates in the country. 

Perhaps because of this, enthusiasm for Cameron seems to be cooling slightly although the Conservatives are still favourites to win the next General Election. But the Ipsos Mori poll in last Sunday’s Observer gave the Conservatives a slender 6 point lead over Labour. A rogue poll? Probably. But one that reminded everybody that the election is not over until the fat lady sings.  

Outside Westminster, the Iraq Inquiry got underway with feeble, meandering questioning. Whether its format will allow it to get to the truth is debateable. But if witnesses speak out – as Sir Jeremy Greenstock did earlier today – something may be salvaged from it all. 

Earlier this month, I entered the portals of South Africa House, on Trafalgar Square, for the first time ever. I had, however, demonstrated outside on many occasions over the years! 

On local issues, I met Rolls Royce union reps down at Westminster for an update on developments after the company had received squillions from the Government to set up advanced manufacturing facilities. 

I spoke at the SELRAP conference in Skipton in early November with David Curry as part of the double act. I also had a series of meetings on health issues – with Peter Pike and Ian Woolley and then with the Health Secretary, Andy Burnham. I am meeting the Ambulance people next Friday.