Shock! Mr Anderson votes with the Government

Well, as I expected, Mr Anderson, former firebrand and posturing left winger and now shiny new Labour MP for Blaydon, slavishly voted for the government last night! Shock! Well, not at all. Given his performance since his election in 2005, I would expect nothing else.

So try this for your edification and amusement. Tribune, that trendy, ranting rubbish of the equally ranting left carried an interview about Anderson in February 2005, just 3 months before he was elected. Apart from shouting from the roof tops about how "working class" he was, this Durham University educated former President of Unison bleated on about how he couldn't stomach being in the same room as the other Labour candidates wanting to be selected for Blaydon.

Tribune wrote, "Anderson is acutely aware that he is different from most aspiring parliamentary candidates. During the Blaydon selection, he sat in a room with the other hopefuls and realised that he had nothing in common with them. He says that, while he waited to find out if he was to be long-listed for the seat, he went for a long walk to get away from them."

Tribune then went on to explain, "They seem to want identikit candidates. As Anderson describes it: 'You put the key in their backs and turn them on.'"

And with Anderson, it seems as though the new Labour spin doctors got just what they wanted - an identikit MP who votes slavishly for the government.

And as for not being able to be in the same room as some of these Labour people, now he is in the same lobby (the whips tell him to be in).

I don't have a problem with party loyalty. But Mr Anderson posed as the rebel who wasn't part of the mainstream new Labour project, who wasn't like the others. And as soon as he got to the Commons, the key went into his back to turn him on for Tony and Gordon.