We Labour Party stalwarts all have a sense of weakening political drive.  Recent pictures of Bush and Blair smiling inanely at each other are deeply shaming to Labour, deeply humiliating for the rank-and-file. 

There is no sense that UK politics are being driven by any vision of the Good Society - of fairness, of equality, of generosity of spirit.  Blair has, for the Labour Party, destroyed its idealism, leaving a Party with its spiritual core eaten away.

At local level, we are going through the motions.  These coming elections will demand a massive effort of will and energy, out of a bare dedication to an enduring Party tradition.  Those of us who are left in the Party are on autopilot. This residue is determined not to resign, because that would be to concede victory to the vacuous and unprincipled Blairite faction.

• I must get my local Manifesto written, this weekend.  Without any enthusiasm.

The institutionalisation of political parties has made elections far more complex territory.  The three Swansea Constituency Parties met for the first time this week, for instruction by Party officials in the new legalities.  I was there, as a prospective Labour candidate.

Labour now appoints "Legal Coordinators" as well as Election Agents, realising that the traditional "agents" of local politics are unlikely to get on top of the new requirements of registration.  Indeed, no candidate is required to appoint any "agent" at all: every candidate is free do his own thing.  But the complexities encircle. This all consolidates the image of "politics" as a highly professional field of endeavour, in which ordinary folk are likely to sink without trace.  The Nolan "declaration of interest" rules are another example of this development, about which I have the greatest misgivings.