In Westminster political blogging there are three unofficial party affiliated sites which try to be the public voice of the grassroots. ConservativeHome is the daddy of them all, LabourHome is a technically superior site with far inferior content and a lack of editorial direction. LibDemVoice is a bit too much of an outlet for Cowley Street stuff that could be put in press releases.

Guido has been hearing rumours about a new CameroonHome site which Fraser Nelson has outed as going under the title “Platform 10“. Ex-Dave-Babe Fiona Melville is the motivating force behind it, backed by a 15-strong editorial team of mainly ex-CCHQ staffers lined up as contributors, but apparently with no full time editor. Steve Hilton has, it is believed, wanted an alternative Conservative grassroots voice to counter-balance the critical but friendly voice of Tim Montgomerie. Guido guesses it won’t work unless it is honest about issues. That is the strength of ConservativeHome, it explores the issues critically, and in doing so has improved the Tory internal debate. If CameroonHome becomes just a platform for “Dave is Great” stories in the same way that LibDemVoice ignores the “Ming Problem” it will be just another boring e-Pravda adjunct of the official party site. We shall see…

Everybody, everywhere, has been going through Campbell’s The Blair Years so Guido hasn’t bothered. But one little snippet has caught the eye and proves a point. Phil Webster, The Times’ political editor, gets a little testy whenever Guido or his own colleagues hint or suggest that he is a less than objective Brownite patsy.

So Guido wonders how he will feel about this comment about a time in October 1997 when New Labour faced a little PR difficulty; “The words went to Webster, the spin was applied, and away we went,” writes Alastair. Kind of gives the game away…

Alistair Darling in Treasury Questions this morning appeared to have taken his boss’ instructions to be open and honest perhaps a little too seriously. When pressed about Gordon Brown’s premiership, he said: “I think it’s safe to say that the honeymoon has come to an end.”

While we are on the subject of his boss, what happened to “an end to Sofa Government?” Wasn’t it only last week, during the Brown honeymoon, that we were told that Gordon believed in Cabinet government and the merits of the Civil Service? So did the cabinet discuss the major policy change that is the Casinos U-turn? No.

Political cross dressing is getting increasingly complex, Vince Cable is advocating a 16% starting rate for income tax, abolishing tax breaks on capital gains and pensions plus raising “dirty” taxes. They admit they don’t really aim to cut taxes, just shift the burden around.

Cutting the tax code, raising the stamp duty and inheritance tax threshold are all good, but clobbering capital gains will discourage enterprise and investment. Retirees are in enough trouble after Gordon’s Great Pension Grab without taxing them even more.

Can’t help feeling sorry for multi-millionaire Chris Huhne, it came out during the LibDem leadership battle that he was a prolific investor in capital gains tax shelters…