Up until this morning, the only time I'd heard of a "drunk tank" was in the Pogue's Christmas hit Fairytale of New York.

But then today Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to deploy these as part of the battle against binge drinking.

Alcohol abuse costs the NHS £2.7b per year, so the incentive to drive down this bill is obvious, but another American slice of slogan politics isn't the answer.

Labour party stalwart Professor John Ashton has slammed the process for selecting candidates for the police and crime commissioner job.

The former North West Regional Director of Public Health, and now director of public health for Cumbria, said many like himself were interested in standing but found the process is sown up by ex-ministers.

Prof Ashton who lives in Childwall has been a member of the party for 50 years.

"The problem it seems to me, about what is going on at the moment, is that the parties behave in ways that aver very monopolistic.

"You have got all these ex-ministers who have got this sense of entitlement that they should be able to walk into jobs.

An elected mayor could be a great thing for Liverpool.

David Bartlett, the headmaster of this school of philosophers, will be sure to keep the world up to date on the runners and riders in the race between now and May.

Whoever it is though has a remarkable opportunity - they will be not only an ambassador for this city, but also wield real power.

This is a place not short on civic pride, but it's also a place not short of detractors.

The mayor must be cheerleader-in-chief for Liverpool, and should be aware they'll be watched like a hawk to ensure they deliver for city.

I agree with the Eds on this one, not Unite leader Len McCluskey.

Liverpool's own Len reckons Miliband was setting Labour on course for electoral "disaster" and undermining his own leadership by accepting Government cuts and the cap on public sector pay.

It's a rare thing I rush to scan through the Guardian of a morning, but today their leaked letter from Education Secretary Michael Gove had me scrambling my organic free-range eggs with that bit more vigour.

Liverpool's very own 'prince of spin' Daniel Hughes is returning from the capital to contest a seat on the city council.

He has a reputation for running tough campaigns against the Liberal Democrats, and has set his sights on winning Allerton and Hunts Cross, which is currently held by former Lib-Dem deputy leader Flo Clucas.

Labour won a seat in the ward last year with a huge majority of 1,500 votes.

2012 could be a very good year for David Cameron.

He can potentially take the credit for a fantastic Olympics and splendid Diamond Jubilee, both of which the media will become suitably obsessed with to the point of ignoring everything else.

He probably won't come on and score the winner as England thrash Germany to win Euro 2012, but the PM is set for probably the best 12 months of his premiership.

Cabinet documents released under the 30-year rule show how Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon Liverpool in the wake of the 1981 riots by her then chancellor Geoffrey Howe.

This city's papers, and many national titles, have carried the story with various characters from then and now giving their views on the revelations.

There was nothing much new here. The Iron Lady has been demonised on Merseyside for many years, but there were those surrounding her even more Thatcherite than she was, driven by an extreme form of neolibralism and disdain for the industry that made Britain a world superpower.

Well done today to Seema Malhotra, the new MP for the west London constituency of Feltham and Heston.

The former advisor to Harriet Harman was given the nod following the death of Labour Co-op MP Alan Keen, who held the seat from 1992 until his death last month.

But running right next to the result was the turnout figure of 28.8% - the lowest at a by-election for 11 years.

David Miliband (remember him!) has become the latest politician to come out and criticise Prime Minister David Cameron to veto a new EU treaty, calling the move "foolish".

Today the Tory press are busy laying into Deputy PM Nick Clegg over his pygmy comment, much more focused, it appears, on trying to stir up another row in the coalition.

But Miliband (and Clegg, to a certain extent) are right, isolating ourselves from Europe is not just undesirable, it's taking a dangerous gamble with out future.