You gotta have soul...or at least a brass neck!

Friends reunited...

"Labour must have soul", proclaimed Mr Brown. Maybe, but they certainly don't have must judgement when one considers they have picked the ghastly Harriet Harman to become Deputy Leader of the Party.I have always had a huge amount of time for her one-time deputy Frank Field . As his one-time boss, in post as Social Security Security, she argued with him incessantly. In fact, it wasn't Field who should have 'thought the unthinkable' but Blair-who should have sacked Harman and made Field Secretary of State.

Mr Blair felt compelled to 'resign her' as Private Eye might put it. Her performance as a minister and backbench anger over cuts to lone-parent benefits sounded her political death knell last time round.

However, given which side of the row Harman was on, I guess that Brown won't be too upset at her appointment. Her role as cheerleader for the family within Labour (actually one of the few things she has believed in consistently) mean she may even get to park a few tanks (or at least prams) on David Cameron's lawn.

In her acceptance speech she said called for an end to the "culture of spin". She will find it more difficult than most. I note that her website reports, " Harriet has been elected as the 16th Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, returned with 50.43% of the vote". Well she did if you add up all the second preferences of all the other candidates...