Fridays on my mind  

Starting to get into the mindset of ‘back to work’ on Monday, by which I mean back to Westminster – I’ve been back at work for the past fortnight in Bristol. The new political season kicks off with four Bills up before we adjourn again for party conferences (Equitable Life, civil service compensation scheme, fixed-term parliaments, and the AV referendum, plus an Opposition Day debate), and then over the next few weeks we’ll have the Labour leadership finally sorted, the Shadow Cabinet elected by the time we get back on October 11th (nominations and voting start at Labour Conference), and then the Spending Review on October 22nd, and possibly a Welfare Reform white paper soon… Lots to get stuck into. I’m not especially looking forward to getting back into the routine of living in two places at once. I haven’t set foot in my London flat since...