Been having a bit of a rant on Twitter and Facebook today about our undemocratic Government (that’s a capital G, I mean the current one and not in general). Since the last reshuffle on Friday (June 5th) a fifth of our Cabinet members are now Peers. Does anybody else see anything wrong with that? Our Deputy Prime Minister (de-facto that is) Lord Mandelson has had no democratic scrutiny and in my mind no mandate to be in the position. Good job he wasn’t made Foreign Secretary in my opinion. How can a government in modern Britain, in a world where we push for democratic reform wholesale, be 20% composed of unelected “old friends” of the Prime Minister?

I’ve been having a debate with Labour comrades on the issue, and the point I put to them is this: if we were in opposition right now and the Tories were doing the same, would we stand for it? The answer of course is no. We’d accuse them of being an aristocratic government, told you so!

And only seven women too! Hardly representative when half of the population is female. Most members are old, white and boring. There’s not a single ethnic minority member of the 33 in Cabinet. We accuse France of having less social mobility for ethnic minorities, but they’re doing much better than us. We look at Obama’s America with starry eyes, but we couldn’t dream of comparing – now that’s a real government of all the talents; educated, multi-gender, multi-race, real positions of power to women and ethnic minorities.

How must it look when colleagues from other countries meet our European Trade Commissioner, Baroness Ashton, our European Minister Baroness Kinnock and our Deputy Prime Minister Lord Mandelson? They probably think they’re going to have a picnic at the Palace! On top of that, we have a Prime Minister with no democratic mandate.

Tony Blair should have called an election the minute Gordon Brown was selected to replace him. Gordon would have won, without much doubt, and he would have had a real mandate. We should have abolished appointed Peers a long time ago too, then it wouldn’t matter so much if elected Lords were sitting around the big table.

Wow, what a week it’s been in politics. First Jacqui Smith resigns and today Hazel Blears jumps ship too. It’s not looking good for the future of Gordon Brown’s government. I’m sure Hazel had many reasons to resign, not least her part in the recent expenses scandal, as well as the earlier problem of the reception that her Observer piece got, and that snappy quote “YouTube if you want to”. But I also genuinely think Hazel is a conviction politician, and that a big reason that she resigned is the white elephant that the Prime Minister has become. She has continually, and robustly defended Gordon Brown since things got difficult for him, and in a convincing way too. I’m sure she wouldn’t have joined his government if she didn’t believe in his ability to lead the party and the country. But I also think that she has now realised, in the face of the awful predicted results of tomorrow’s elections, and the dire, dire opinion which the public holds of Gordon and by extension the whole party, that his time as leader is up.

It takes a quick glance at her life story to realise that she’s one of the genuine ones, not in it for glory or financial gain. Born in 1956, the daughter of a maintenance fitter in urban Manchester, opportunities in education were clearly her route out of poverty. She went to grammar school and then onto university to study law. After university, every job she has had has in some way been connected to improving the society around her, and using her knowledge of law to help others. She wasn’t raised by a wealthy family in London and sent off to Oxbridge, she didn’t have a charmed childhood, and that’s why I believe that she more than some others in the party are in politics purely because of conviction. Not that there’s anything wrong with wealth, Oxbridge or a charmed childhood mind you!

I’ve met and worked with Hazel loosely on a number of occasions. The first time I met her I was an ambitious young guy wanting to change the way governments engage with citizens. It was at a social event, and in a room full of amazing people she took the time to speak to me, and listen to me. She also gave me her own “London – 2012 candidate” badge after I complimented her on it. Small gesture, but it shows the character. Later on I worked with her when she was minister at the Home Office, developing proposals for how the government might have used mobile and internet technology to engage the disengaged and hard to reach, and particularly radicalised youth. Sadly she moved on very quickly after our discussions, but I worked with her again when I found myself working at party headquarters, which was at the same time she was party chair. Despite the YouTube comment, I think she gets the internet more than other Labour politicians, and that showed clearly in her e-campaign when she stood for the deputy party leadership.

I know there are people inside the party who think it was unfortunate that Hazel stood down today, but I think it came from the heart. She knows that Labour policies mean a real difference in living standards for people in Salford, and up and down the country. She’s clearly realised that there is no chance now that we are going to win a general election with Gordon Brown as leader, but at the same time we’ve got an amazing story to tell, and our values trump both of the other parties’ any time. I know Labour won’t be in government forever, and the natural course of a party is something I often wonder about. I remember Tony Blair saying in 2007 that we COULD win a fourth term. I believe it. But we need to change as a party before the next election, and it looks like Hazel Blears has recognised that and has decided to take a risk and see if we can’t at least try.

Good on Hazel, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the future, she led the party.