The lack of blogging in recent weeks was because I've spent the last month in Cumbria where I was hoping to be selected as Labour's Parliamentary candidate for Copeland.

I came close, but not close enough, so congratulations to Jamie Reed. The selection actually made national headlines, although not for the right reasons!

I then had to clear a massive backlog of work, but things are gradually getting back to normal. The plan for this week includes:

1) Chasing up some answers to case work that I sent to officers last week and nothing has happened yet.

2) A Labour Group meeting tonight (assuming I'm feeling OK as I've been feeling increasingly unwell all day).

3) Neighbourhoods and Housing Scrutiny Board tomorrow morning.

4) Middleton Branch Labour Party meeting on Thursday evening.

5) On Saturday I'm helping local children and community activists to paint the old garage site at Manor Farm (there was a photo call this morning, but it clashed with a work meeting so I couldn't go - who says politicians will do anything for publicity!).

The good is Demgames, 'the best citizenship games in the world'. Thanks to Councillor Andrew Brown for the link.

The bad is Backing Blair. Tom Watson reminds us that protest voting that protest voting might make you feel good today but will certainly make you sick when you wake up with Michael Howard as Prime Minister.

The ugly is Lib Dem MP Richard Allan. Now Richard is usually one of the the few Lib Dems that I've got anytime for but his latest outburst is just an idiotic pre-election stunt. The words mountain and molehill spring to mind.

Tory Trouble has drawn belated attention to the Yorkshire Evening Post's interview with Leeds councillor Matthew Lobley, who also happens to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Leeds North East.

One commentator on the Vote 2005 election discussion site thinks that the choice of a "young blond bomb shell Tory candidate" means that the Tories don't see any realistic chance of taking this seat from the hard working and very well liked Fabian Hamilton.

Tory Trouble has drawn belated attention to the Yorkshire Evening Post's interview with Leeds councillor Matthew Lobley, who also happens to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Leeds North East.

One commentator on the Vote 2005 election discussion site thinks that the choice of a "young blond bomb shell Tory candidate" means that the Tories don't see any realistic chance of taking this seat from the hard working and very well liked Fabian Hamilton.

Listening to Gordon Brown's budget as I work. Lots of good initiatives, some flagged in advance, others new. My personal favourites so far include:

* free local bus travel for every pensioner from next year - whey hey!!! I've been promoting this idea for years and am delighted that Labour has finally given the go-ahead, in stark contrast to the Tories and Liberal Democrats on West Yorkshire Passenger Transport who recently voted to penalise pensioners.

* extra help for first time buyers would include a shared equity schemes helping 100,000 new buyers.

* stamp duty threshold would go up to £120,000 - I'd guess that this takes many houses in Middleton out of the stamp duty net (average semi-detached house price is £93,901 - from Up My Street).

* a national community service for young people aimed to recruit 1m young volunteers - I'm very interested in the detail of this as the headline alone sounds very good.

* 1m less inspections each year for companies with a good record record - possibly a good thing, but depends on what it actually means, some companies only don't have a good record because of the difficulty of dealing with red tape, not because they have actually done anything wrong.

* every child to have the best possible start in life providing help for early learning in every area - giving children a SureStart in life is one of the most impressive achievements of our Government, extending it to benefit even more children and give them early learning opportunities is the obvious way to go.

* older pupils would be offered the opportunity to lease computers for home use - need to know more about this as it is important that is set it up so that kids who would never normally have the opportunity for a computer at home actually get one rather than simply making it easier for those that would do it anyway.

* £200 council tax refund for households of pensioner age or over - up from £50 - the only election 'gimmick' that I can spot in the budget. It is a temporary solution, when what we really must do (and will do in the next Parliament) is totally reform council tax.

It's Charles Kennedy at the moment so lets reflect on Michael Howard's response. I'm just re-reading it now to try and find some substance. Unfortunately the only memorable bits appear to be petty personal attacks on individuals in the Government.

Actually listening to Chat Show Charlie, he's not as bad as I expected. He actually sounds more like a Leader of the Opposition than the real one does! I can't believe I've just done that, praising the Lib Dems! Ah well I'm sure Charlie will say something totally different tomorrow, and his Lib Dem local government chums in different parts of the country will also all be spinning their own local lines with no coherent overall policies.

Some specific figures for Morley, Middleton and Rothwell constituency and the rest of Yorkshire include:

* 17,630 pensioners in the constituency benefiting from free local bus travel

* increases in the minimum wage with 140,000 jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber benefiting from October 2005.