Luke informs us that it’s time for NEC elections in the Labour party again. How time flies! I shall as usual be voting for Ann Black, my CLP secretary, and for the second time for Ellie Reeves, a former chair of my university Labour club. Any ideas on who else to vote for?

Hopi Sen (whose writing I’ve been enjoying for a while) on how party discipline and the whips make our political process effective. Worth a read on a Saturday lunchtime.

In 2008 I’d like to see…

1. The Chancellor commit £4 billion to halve child poverty by 2010 in the Budget
2. Labour consistently up in the polls, Ken winning again in London, and the feelgood factor back as through a few bright new ideas, good policies, quietly dropping some duff ones, no clangers and discipline we remind the country why they’ve trusted us for a decade
3. An outright Labour majority on Oxford City Council when we go to bed early in the morning of Friday 2 May
4. The last residents living in Orlit houses on Rose Hill moving into the wonderful newly-built houses, as Taylor Wimpey get stuck in and start building; a new Fresh Start primary school on our estate; crime continuing to fall; and the youth club opening for longer hours
5. A Democrat about to take over at the White House, with a pledge to raise the federal rate of the minimum wage and finally get around to creating universal healthcare
6. A liberalisation of abortion law, to enable women to access abortion on demand; a significant narrowing of the gender pay gap; increased funding for rape crisis centres
7. Hundreds of new houses built in Oxford, hundreds of thousands nationally, and increased regulation to target profiteering and unscrupulous landlords
8. Finally, and more frivolously: for my family, Crystal Palace regaining their rightful place in the Premiership, and, for my adopted home town, Oxford United back in the Football League.

What would you like to see in 2008?

Don’t often find myself on the same side as Tim Worstall, but he has a point here, about the difference between numbers of teenage pregnancies, which vary according to the number of teenagers at any one time (two pregnancies in a cohort of ten 15 year-old girls is high, two in a cohort of 100 is not) and the rate of teenage pregnancy (as expressed by pregnancies per one thousand young women). I made a similar point about the teenage pregnancy doom-mongers a few years ago. The important figure - the rate - is falling. Now is not the time to give up on the teenage pregnancy strategy.

I read the “my week in media” meme over at Stuart Bruce’s place; no-one’s tagged me, but I thought I might do it anyway, so here goes… The only caveat is, of course, that the week of 26 December to 2 January is by no means a usual week, and I’ve only just this afternoon returned home after ten days on the road seeing family and friends.

What I’ve read
Newspaper-wise, the seasonal disruption (both print production and lifestyle) has meant that I’ve only caught a few editions of the Guardian, rather than buying it six days per week as is my norm. I’ve also not read the Sun at all, despite enjoying it every day in the canteen at work. Staying with my parents has meant that I’ve had a hefty dose of the Independent, with its mix of occasional brilliance (see Joan Bakewell on why we should criminalise selling sex) and tooth-gnashingly awful (Mary Dejevsky, which provoked a Decent-ish reaction in me over porridge this morning). I usually read the Oxford Mail every day, but have bought my first copy in a few weeks today. On Sunday, I read at least some of the Sunday Times before heading out to festive frivolities (and not just the section about dresses either), and most of the News of the World.

Bookwise, I’ve had a really good week, thanks to people buying me books for Christmas. I’ve finished off Sarah Dunant’s The Birth of Venus; Armistead Maupin’s not-quite continuation of the Tales of City, Michael Tolliver Lives; The Secret River; and finally, after catching parts of the Radio 4 serialisation over the summer, On Chesil Beach. Having decided yesterday that I wasn’t up to anything except detective fiction, I’m currently enjoying Dorothy L. Sayers’ Whose Body.

What I’ve watched
Didn’t really do any festive television, apart from a few films (Mrs Henderson Presents and The Third Man), and last night’s new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Staying with my football-mad family meant that I’ve now reached my quota of Match of the Day, MOTD2 etc, and am definitely under quota for News 24, which is usually constant in the background in my flat.

What I’ve listened to
As usual, I’ve fallen asleep to Radio 4, though confusingly their book of the week is another Dorothy L. Sayers, so I’ve avoiding it at the moment so as to prevent Lord Peter Wimsey mixing up two plotlines and possibly catching the wrong killer. I’ve not got up in time for Today at all this week; this morning on Woman’s Hour (such a treat not to be at work so as to catch it) some idiotic Tory woman (Louise Bagshaw?) was chattering on to Jenni Murray about how the Tory party was somehow “obviously” and “had always been” the party committed to flexible working and work-life balance, provoking me to shout at the radio. I’ve also been listening to a fair bit of dance-y stuff as part of the festivities, and a good bit of soothing chillout to help the slow mornings after late nights that accompany Christmas and new year.

Where I’ve surfed
Just the usual, really. (funny how the portable laptop and wireless connections everywhere makes that possible. It’s only a few years since leaving university for vacation meant that I had no access to my email at all for weeks on end). The usual is Facebook (rather like a personal news service for friends and acquaintances, though I would like to wipe out Superwall for good); Bloglines to keep up with the feeds; the Guardian; Conservative Home to keep an eye on the opposition. I’m enjoying Britain and America’s daily roundups of the presidential primaries in the States. Haven’t decided if I’ll go and work for a candidate this autumn yet; depends what the polls are like and whether I feel strongly enough about the Democratic nominee, I suppose.

Normal life (and media consumption) resumes tomorrow when I’m back at work. Happy new year, everyone.