With only hours left to vote in the 2009 Total Politics Blog poll, I’d like to urge you one last time to vote for me.
Simply email your top ten favourite blogs to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com.

Here are the rules:

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count. 
 Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
4. Only vote once.
5. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.
6. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
7. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count

So nice and simple, For full details click HERE, and remember voting closes at midnight TONIGHT so vote now.

As many suspected, this morning the High Court rejected British hacker Gary McKinnon appeal against his extradition to the US.

Unfortunately, I suspect that this is the only judgement the court could give as the extradition treaty with the US is a one way deal.

Responding to the High Courts ruling, David Cameron has issued this statement.

”I am deeply saddened and disappointed with this decision. Gary McKinnon is a vulnerable young man and I see no compassion in sending him thousands of miles away from his home and loved ones to face trial.
“If he has questions to answer, there is a clear argument to be made that he should answer them in a British court. This case raises serious questions about the workings of the Extradition Act, which should be reviewed.”

Clearly this will not win David Cameron any friends in the White House, the Department of Justice or the State Department, but it’s the right decision. Any treaty that’s as one sided as the Extradition Act 2003 should be re-negotiated as a matter of urgency by David Cameron’s government.

I only ask because John Prescott is passing around the virtual begging bowl. Bemoaning the fact he doesn’t know any billionaires like Michael Ashcroft (that would be because Gordon Brown has driven them all away) he reveals that Tony Blair has only donated a measly £6,000 to the Go 4th campaign. One would have thought that if Blair was really committed to the campaign he would have dug a bit deeper.

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Just a friendly little reminder that there’s only hours left to vote in Total Politics poll to find the countries top political blogs, with the deadline been midnight tonight don’t forget to vote for Tory Politico.

To vote, simply click the image to the right and email Total Politics you top 10 political blogs.

Over the last 18 months or so the Conservative party has substantially increased the quality of their online presence, from nifty web 2.0 engagement drives to a mass of viral marketing activities. All of this I approve of, but when it comes to their press office engaging with independent, Conservative bloggers they leave a lot to be desired.

Having heard the news that David Cameron had sent a letter to Gordon Brown asking for a clarification of Labour’s position on TV debates, I wanted to read it. So picking up the phone I had a rather painful conversation with said press office.

This is now the conversation went:

Tory Politico: “Hi there I wonder if you can help me. I run the Conservative supporting blog Tory Politico at tory-politico.com, and was wondering if you could send me a copy of the press release that’s just been issued about the letter send from David Cameron to the Prime Minister, seeking clarification on his position regarding TV debates.
Press Officer: “who do you work for?”
TP: “tory-politico.com.”
PO: “so your not a member of the media.”
TP: “No I am a Conservative party member and a blogger.”
PO: “sorry I cant help you.”
TP: “Why not?”
PO: ”Bloggers don’t count as media so I cant send it to you.”
TP: “Right, so you don’t see blogs as important then, is that right?:
PO: “Yes.”
TP: “So what about the likes of Iain dale and ConservativeHome, are they media? are they seen as important?”
PO: “Yes we feel that they are representatives of the media, and yes we do see them as an important conduit?”
TP: “But you just said blogs don’t count as media.”
PO: “We see them as important conservative commentators not bloggers, we feel that independent bloggers do not provide an efficient means of communicating the Conservative message.”
TP: “Not efficient means of communicating the Conservative message – Im a Conservative blogger, all I blog about is politics and the Conservative party, I think that’s evident from my blogs title.”
PO: “Im sorry, but I have already told you that I cannot send you a copy of the press release you asked for.”
TP: “OK, can you add my details to the press release distrobution list so that future releases and notices are sent to me?”
PO: “No.”
TP: “Because bloggs are not important.”
PO: “Yes.”

The Times red box blog has an interesting little rumour regarding Oliver Letwin’s future in the next Conservative government. According to Sam Coates, once in government David Cameron will move Letwin from his current post as Chairman of the Policy Review Board and the Conservative Research Department to the department of Energy and Climate Change.

This makes sense. Letwin is already well versed with the environmental brief thanks to his tenure as shadow Secretary for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. And is already well respected by the various vested interest groups.

The move also makes sense as by the time Cameron steps over the threshold of No 10, Letwin’s job overseeing policy development will be complete.

With Peter Mandelson watching over the show during the recess, Gordon Brown must have felt confident that little would go wrong.

Little did he know that the real prime minister his right hand man would drop the ball. When the master of the dark arts told Sky News that he thought Brown would be in favour of US style debates between the party leaders, one would have presumed that he had cleared this with the Prime Minister.

But no sooner had Mandelson finished his interview Downing St was doing its best to kill any suggestion of a leaders debate. The Prime Minister’s political spokesman insisted that Mr Brown had not dropped his long standing opposition to going to head to head with Mr Cameron, and presumably nick Clegg. In a statement Brown’s spokesman said: “The position hasn’t changed. Voters have the chance to compare the party leaders each week at Prime Minister’s Questions.”

As David Blackburn points out over on the Coffeehouse blog, the PM has clearly missed an opportunity to try and revive his approval ratings.

Bizarre though it seems, Brown has missed a trick by not agreeing to TV debates. YouGov polling figures from 17th July revealed that Brown has a 71% disapproval rating; by contrast, Cameron’s approval rating stands at 57%.

And while putting Brown forward for a TV debate would clearly be a risky strategy, especially when you consider the fact that the chances of David Cameron making a mistake are remote.

But when you consider the fact that the Conservatives have once again broken through the psychologically important 40 percent mark, according to the latest ComRes poll for the independent, something has to change in Labour’s strategy.

This coupled with the fact that even Mandelson now thinks that labour are now the underdogs with a limited chance of wining the 2010 general election, means that those strategists who keep Brown company in his bunker need to try something new.

Howard Stoate, MP for Dartford since Labour came to power, has announced that he will stand-down at the next general election.

In a statement published on his website Mr Stoate, who also works as a GP, said that following the expenses scandal he felt unable be continue work as a GP whilst remaining an MP.

I stood for Parliament in Dartford in 1997 I decided that I wanted to continue to do some work as a medical GP each week if I was elected. I did so because I thought that the House of Commons would benefit from the presence of someone who was still active in medicine and was able to speak with authority about the impact of Government health policy on front-line NHS professionals and patients. I feel that my experience as a GP has helped me enormously in my work on House of Commons Health Select Committee in scrutinising Government policy and as Chairman of a number of health related All Party Parliamentary Groups. I have never allowed my medical responsibilities to interfere with my parliamentary duties and I have always been open and upfront with my constituents about my ongoing work as a GP.

It is clear however from the tenor of recent debates in the Commons and from the position taken by senior figures within the Parliamentary Labour Party with regard to the outside work of MPs that this position is no longer tenable. It is apparent that Labour candidates standing for Parliament at the next election will be expected to give up their outside jobs if they are elected.

As ConHome points out, this is clearly a boost for Conservative candidate Gareth Johnson who was narrowly defeated in 2005 by Dr Stoate, who won by only 706 votes.

Hat Tip: henry Macrory (via Twitter)