The stalled housing market is one of the factors threatening to push the UK economy into recession. The consequences of that would be dire – higher unemployment, pressure on public spending, impacts on crime and family breakdown. The government must do what is necessary to stop that happening, and a strong partnership with local government will help. It was good to see the government recognise a role for local councils in this week’s package to help prevent homelessness and repossessions and provide more council housing.

Michael Gove is a sharp politician. His speech this month at the ippr described a society where the state is remote and individuals are unable to shape the services they want. The crucial relationships that sustain our wellbeing are failing; relationships between parents and teachers, GPs and patients, politicians and frontline public servants. In other words, he acknowledged what progressives have always known, that we are all implicated in each other’s lives and that when our sense of the collective break downs our power to effect change evaporates.

This week the government will unveil a package to support the UK housing market. One year on from the beginning of the credit crunch, support for struggling families will be welcome. And by focussing on the issues most hurting voters we can restore our reputation for fairness and competence. The package should include help for those at risk of repossession, support for first-time buyers and an increase in the supply of social and affordable homes.

When candidates sit down to write a nomination acceptance speech, they decide on what boxes to tick. Political commentators listen hard and interpret the nuanced nods to this social issue or that foreign policy. What was striking about Obama's speech tonight was the manner in which he turned directly and addressed the central criticisms leveled at him.

The abiding story of the first three days of the Convention has been unity. Before the weekend, as I reported yesterday, Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters were pushing for a roll call vote to mug Obama of his nomination; Clinton's speech settled some nerves but a number of commentators felt that it didn't go far enough with Clinton failing to countenance her earlier claims that Obama was not ready to be Commander in Chief. Even yesterday, a few - primarily white women over 50 - were parading up Denver's main drag in Hillary t-shirts parading signs saying, 'Smart Choice' and 'Party Unity My Arse.'

After a triumphant opening night in which Michelle Obama gave a candid, moving and fluent speech, the baton passed on Tuesday evening to Hillary Clinton. The once presumptive nominee faced a tricky task of masking her own disappointment but avoiding any accusations of disunity. She did so in true style declaring, "I'm a proud supporter of Barack Obama."

The genius of the Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi was, as Norman Geras observed , to use ‘common experience to illuminate the experience of the Nazi universe of death, and vice versa'.

I've been a member of the Labour party for more than a decade, and yet, despite the four ‘elected' leaders we've had in Scotland, this is the first leadership contest I've had any say in.

The National Policy forum in its wisdom has voted to recommend to Labour party conference that reducing the voting age to 16 be in the next Labour manifesto. This has started a lively debate in the party and the country at large - one that we should all welcome and get on board with.

Finlandisation is back. During the cold war the term described those states which had a formal independence but existed in barely disguised servitude to Moscow. Finland, noted Jean-Francois Revel in his 1983 book How Democracies Perish, ‘preserved the inviolability of its territory, what was left of it, and the right to live privately in a non-totalitarian society’ but was forbidden to accept Marshall Plan aid, join the EEC or sign trade agreements with Europe. It took its orders from Moscow in foreign policy.