Is there anything Blair and co AREN’T going to announce major “reforms” of before the local elections kick off? (Note that in the councils going to the polls, Labour only had 69 more seats than the Tories last time around…) Or was it all for the benefit of today’s by-election?

We’ve already had that “Respect” nonsense, attempting to reform civil society; we’ve had proposals for fairly major healthcare reforms; there’s been quite a bit of fuss about pensions and the like; the Education White Paper has been causing a lot of excitement; now the Child Support Agency and the Prison Service are both in for headline-grabbing overhauls. Have I missed anything? It’s getting quite hard to keep track…

Labour really do seem to be terrified of getting wiped out in elections at the moment. (Which would tend to suggest they’re not quite as stupid as they appear…) Or is their alleged plan to scrap next year’s local elections entirely innocent?