Witches of Leftwick are Two Down, One Up.

Two of the three "Witches of Leftwick" who stood so united and confident last year as a defiant shield for Gordon Brown during his comic handling of the election that never was, appear to be victims of a bit of reverse voodoo.

Jacqui Smith's Home Office policies are being absolutely slated in the press, from nanny state to extremist expulsions. She's also about to be scrutinised by the standards commissioner about the dodgy goings on with her commons expenses. She'll presumably have to explain why she resembles a New York city mobster in Havana at about the time Castro deposed Batista, trying to get as much cash from his casino out of the country as he can before the rebels move in and put a stop to it.

Poor old Tessa Jowell is breaking the law by employing "local" Eastern Europeans to build the Olympic Stadium in Stratford and paying them under the National minimum wage. Everyone's moaning (except the French of course who are presently scoffing) about the cost and the financial legacy of the Olympics in light of the unexpected recession/depression. Her husband has just been sentenced to four and a half years in jail in Italy for corruption, which it should be noted also involved the Prime Minister of Italy (who is somehow exempt from trial on this issue).

The third witch, Harriet Harman, however appears to be keeping a bit of a low profile at the moment...or is she? She is conspicuous by her squeaky cleanliness. No rows over expenses, no lies about torture, no crooks in her family.... I can't even really remember the last time I saw her on the news. However, scratch the surface and it seems as though she's been a bit busy. There are in fact, it seems ripples of leadership aspirations coming from 'Arri's camp. It has been alleged that her office leaked the information about PM Brown going to work for Merkel as an international banking watchdog (It occurs to me that Brown in light of his inability to watch and regulate the UK banking system would actually be the worst choice one could possibly make...but that's a different story). She appears to be trying to upstage the G20 in April and is in fact hosting an International Woman's Conference on the same day (wonder if Hillary will be there!). She has also disrupted cabinet meetings with rants against "bonus culture" in the banks in a cynical attempt to garner support from traditional lefties.

Apparently all this activity is beginning to upset those around her a bit, presumably people like Milliband, Old Father Brown himself (of course), Balls, Darling and others. I wonder however if she's the only one in the New Labour camp that is actually thinking about the future and survival of the party opposed to self. Whilst others in the government it seems have given up on producing new ideas and initiatives let alone even trying to implement current policy; whilst others seem to be squirreling away as much cash and perks as possible and asking their mates around the world for a job...'Arri looks at face value at least to be standing up for traditional Labour ideals and values and past the confines of her offshore bank accounts.

I always assumed that she was as shallow as the rest of her piers. She may be, but unlike her piers, she seems to have maintained at least some political integrity even if her rosettes are the wrong colour. I always thought that a woman leader of the labour party and possibly country made more sense than a woman leader of the Conservatives for some reason.