Thursday 1st October 2009

The Sun yesterday claimed to have made a "historic announcement" by ditching their support of the Labour Party.

There's no doubt that this was a huge blow for the government, as The Sun is the biggest selling daily paper, but I can't say I'm too surprised by their decision. Labour seem to have been hit hard by the announcement, which dominated the agenda at their party conference in Brighton yesterday.

A MORI report suggests that Labour have fallen behind the Liberal Democrats in the polls, the first time they're the third most popular party since the dark days of 1982. There may be a defeatist attitude among party ranks at the moment, but I would like to think the battle for power isn't over yet, despite the Conservatives huge lead in the polls. The Mirror may not have as many readers as The Sun, but I'm sure it will still support Labour through the tough times and if a successful campaign is launched in the days in the lead up to the general election they may still cling onto power. I must say I was very impressed with an article written by manifesto coordinator Ed Miliband in this month's New Statesman, as they seem to be thinking about rebuilding the economy with practical solutions:"We are helping to build the automotive industry of the future with our support for electric cars. But the Labour manifesto will go further pursuing an active industrial policy to build the economy of the future."Things seem to be better thought out than the Conservatives, though perhaps next week they will unveil their plans at their conference for rebuilding the British economy. However, I do wonder if there will be more to it than just public spending cuts.Going back to The Sun now, which yesterday included a poster with statistics listing all of "Labours failures". They focus on these studies which claim that Britain are generally the unhappiest out of 21 countries in Europe. However, I'll bet that the average working class person is happier now than he or she was in the 1980s when Thatcher's Conservatives were in power. I wasn't alive for most of the Thatcher years, so I can't see the full picture, but I don't see people rioting over mine closures and poll tax today.

Labour have a lot of work to do if they're to stay in power, but they can always hope that the Tories have peeked too early and we all know that its not over until its over...

Saints may be struggling in League One at the moment, but a piece by Paul Fletcher on the BBC website can put fan's minds at ease that things behind the scenes are better than they've been in years. Fletcher interviewed Executive Chairman Nicola Cortese, who seems to have the ambition to take the club forward. After years of boardroom politics I'm pleased that finally Saints have a owner in Markus Liebherr and a Chairman in Cortese who can work well together.

Here's the top rated Saints players based on games I've seen for October:

1. Dean Hammond - average rating 7.5, from 4 games

2. Neal Trotman - average rating 7.25, from 4 games

3. Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert - average rating 7.0, from 4 games

So Dean Hammond gets my vote for Saints player of the month. The former Colchester captain has been energetic in the middle of the park, covering a lot of ground as a box to box midfielder. He was my man of the match in the 2-0 win against Yeovil, Saints only league win this season.