The political world is full of personality and that is by no means always a bad thing. But when it spills over as it has this week, it is the worst thing of all. With politics at it's lowest reputational ebb, with the far right Nazi party pushing for a breakthrough and with so much hope developing over the economic recovery signs, now just wasn't the time.

More importantly on the eve of an election, it is inexcusable. For all her faults (and they aren't as many as some people seem to think) I always believed Hazel Blears would put Labour first no matter what. I feel disappointed, I feel angry and I feel let down. The fact that, no matter what the personal dispute between her and the PM, she wouldn't 'suck it up' for 48 hours disappoints me utterly.

By Friday she could have done this and been supported for it, but by doing it during an election campaign she has kicked the hard-working party activists in the teeth as they pound the streets for Labour.

Though she is Blairite, from the wrong side of the Pennines and a whole foot and half shorter than me, I always quite liked her. Though often disagreed with her on policy. She always seemed like a solid Party comrade who believed in the collective membership and supported the activists. She blew that away today.

If that is the depth that the senior Labour figures have descended to then it is time the membership took back the control that we have released to the leadership over the last 15 years. It's time for the ship to leave the sinking rats.

The current state of politics seems to bear that out.

Some time ago, for reasons that were misguided, campaigning became a science.

We all became obsessed with 'turning out our vote', profiling the electors, working to the 'marked register' of voters etc. I think that has damaged democracy.

We complain about voter turnout falling and then spend most (in some cases all) of our time just talking to the people who voted last time. We largely ignore the non-voters and then wonder why they don't start voting. We don't do that here, because I believe that if what you say is right the majority will support you, we have courage enough to let the public decide without trying to manipulate them by 'focussed' campaigning on only those we know support us already.

That's partly why membership has dropped so badly too. A limited pool of supporters just dwindles, where is the new intake coming from?

And so it is with the obsessive pursuit of the 'middle' ground of voters. People are turned off by it. By 'scientifically' searching for the most popular line to capture the vote, I think we are cheating the people and being cowardly. Give them a choice, trust them to make it. Put real clear space between Labour and Conservative.

The notion of the Third way as a political solution has brought us to the point where people no longer trust politicians and no longer respect politicians. Because politicians no longer tell us what they passionately believe in and ask for our votes, they tell us what we want to hear and try to 'capture' our vote.

This is why people say 'they are all the same', we argue with them about that, maybe they're right.

This is why people say 'they can't be trusted', because we don't let ideology guide us and show that we believe what we say.
This is why people say 'we don't believe in them', because we, in return aren't believing enough in the them. We aren't setting out our stall and having faith enough to let them decide.

This is why, people are turning to extremists. Not because they buy into everything they say, but because they want to exercise a choice. They need a choice to have.

The nationalist lunatic elected to the mayoralty of Doncaster is the best example. He campaigned to everyone, he set out his policies warts and all and he was the only one in Doncaster to do that. And despite his awful rhetoric and extremist lunacy the people voted for him. It was our failure, as it will be if the BNP win Euro seat, that did this. We cannot hide from that any longer.

If we are to put the interests of the country first, before party, we have to look long and hard at what this means. It is in none of our interests to deliver the country into the hands of the far right Nazis. WE have to have the courage to face that, whatever it may mean for the Labour party in the short term. It's our duty to protect people, not from making their own mistakes, but by being there when they have and rebuilding the country with them afterwards.