GRIM figures later this week will lay bare the full scale of the home repossessions crisis - and expose the full poverty of the Government's limp response.

No-one thinks the latest three- monthly statistics - revealing seizure orders against families unable to pay their mortgage bills - will show anything other than a very sharp rise.

The last figures revealed that around 4,500 repossession orders were made across Merseyside and Cheshire in the first half of this year. County courts where there were big leaps on 2007 included Liverpool (27%), Southport (31%), St Helens (24%) and, worst of all, Warrington (41%).

IN RECENT weeks, the Government has followed this column's advice by saving post offices, allowing councils to run bus services, exploring high-speed rail to the North and scrapping 42- day terror detention.

THE government will fail to meet its pledge to build 25 light rail systems within 10 years, as those bemoaning the fate of Merseytram know all too well.

THIS week, MPs are debating the transparency of international aid, modernising the Commons, how to scrutinise European legislation and their own pension fund.

Before that, it was welfare-to-work, the Olympic legacy and the Congo crisis. Okay, the last, in particular, is undoubtedly important, but fine oratory at Westminster is unlikely to make a difference.

No, the truth is that MPs have precious little to do and still three weeks in which to do it - because the Queen's Speech is not until December 3.

FEW decisions have damaged the Government as much as its wilful destruction of the Post Office network, with 38 branches axed across Merseyside and Cheshire.

Yet, incredibly, this terrible own-goal will be repeated if a decision currently on the desk of James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, goes the wrong way.

Within weeks, Mr Purnell must decide whether the post office card account (POCA) - used by 5m people without a bank account - should remain in public hands, or be privatised.

EX-WIRRAL West MP David Hunt landed a plum job as Peter Mandelson's opponent in the Lords. Now it turns out the pair were a team 30 years ago, running the British Youth Council.

The Hunt mantelpiece still holds a gift from his erstwhile partner. But why is the Toby jug decorated with the face of Neville Chamberlain, the great appeaser?

DID a Government minister's passion for Liverpool Football Club cost him his £30,000 job?

There was much head- scratching when fire minister Parmjit Dhanda was axed - until it emerged he had been seen in deep and frequent conversation with our own George Howarth.

The pair were discussing Liverpool's recent good results, but the Knowsley North MP was, until last week - the Prime Minister's fiercest foe.

Poor Parmjit was apparently suspected of plotting . . .

THEY will not be axed, but will suffer the sort of slow, painful, lingering, death-by-a- thousand-cuts that would make any sane person pine for a speedy demise.

That appears to be the Conservative plan for regional development agencies (RDAs), should David Cameron find himself in Downing Street in 2010.

Officially, the Tory policy is still under review, but business spokesman Alan Duncan confirmed the RDAs' future is not a happy one in a weekend interview. (Possibly, Mr Duncan felt the need to clarify matters after his colleague, Eric Pickles, threatened RDAs with the same fate as Anne Boleyn - who definitely did get the axe!).

A CLEAR sign that Merseyside MPs do not expect the PM-PM love-in to last came when one revealed his reaction on seeing the newspaper billboard reading "Mandy rushed to hospital!".

"My first thought was 'Blimey, Gordon's punched him already!'", the MP told me.

ON THE day after his shock return to the Cabinet, it was reported that a fellow minister had begged the Prime Minister not to be so stupid and to leave him in his Brussels exile.

The next day, attention switched to a mysterious Greek taverna, where he was alleged to have "dripped pure poison" about the PM into the eager ear of a prominent Conservative.

The following day, he was rushed to hospital at 3am where tests revealed he had kidney stones. Surgery took place a few hours later.

Yes, the Peter Mandelson show is back in town - and tickets are selling like hot cakes.