Supporting the candidate 100%

Despite rumours that he wasn't standing, it seems that Blair adviser (does that make him part of the 'London spin machine'?) Patrick Diamond is the favourite to be Labour's candidate for the Hartlepool by-election:

Patrick Diamond, political adviser to Tony Blair and friend of Peter Mandelson, is expected to be chosen this week to be Labour's candidate in what could be the longest and nastiest by-election of the year.

If he emerges as Hartlepool's new MP, it will be a sign that Mr Mandelson's legacy lives on, though he himself will have moved to Brussels to be a European Commissioner. Mr Diamond, 29, was employed by Mr Mandelson as his political adviser in the Northern Ireland Office. He now advises Mr Blair on education...

it was reported that Mr Diamond had also pulled out - but by the end of the week, members of the Hartlepool Labour Party were receiving phone calls from him asking for their support.

This has prompted complaints that somebody must have supplied Mr Diamond with a list of names and numbers of local party members - information that has not been made available to other would-be Labour candidates.

Of course, as befits a man at the front of the New Labour project with ties to Mandelson et al, he has many opponents within the Labour Party - there seems to be some bad blood between him and this MP for instance - but I'm sure all is well and they'll soon reveal themselves to be in total agreement with each other on everything. If Diamond's allowed to speak or even have his name mentioned at all, that is.