Proposals from the Committee on Standards in Public Life for state funding of political parties were kicked into the long grass by all three major players before the report was even officially published.

Reaction from various interested sources and commentators has been almost unanimously opposed to the idea with some, notably the Taxpayers’ Alliance, outraged by the proposals.

The key thrust of most of the arguments against the plan is simply that the time is wrong to burden tax payers with state funding of politic parties at a time when so many budgets are being cut, jobs being lost and deficits being reduced.

In essence it would not be a very popular scheme to push through in the short term even if it may be the right thing to do.

Is that just another example of politicians putting off the tough choices for short term gain or a pragmatic understanding of how voters would react to the proposals?

Mathew Taylor makes a very strong case in support of the reforms in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/22/kelly-reforms-party-funding-scandal?CMP=twt_gu spelling out that to resist reforms will be an open invitation for more scandals.

But what are the alternatives?

Rejecting the proposals will leave the door open for big donors to buy influence, trade unions to shape legislation and, more importantly, lobbying firms to continue to flourish and buy favours.

A glance across the pond at the mess our special friends are in underlines just how the lobbyists have taken over.

The figures alone tell the story.

In 2010 lobbyists spent $3.5bn on their activities, up from $1.4bn in 1998.

In the same year there were almost 13,000 official lobbyists in Washington and thousands more unregistered. The healthcare industry alone employs six lobbyists for every elected politician.

At the same time campaign spending has exploded, in 2008 candidates spent $1.7bn in total. Obama spent £740m, which is more than the combined spending of George W Bush and his challenger, John Kerry, just four years earlier.

The situation is getting worse. A recent Supreme Court ruling scrapped some existing campaign finance laws limiting the involvement of special interests which triggered an unrelenting flood of new money into politics.

In opposition David Cameron forecast lobbying would be the next big scandal after the expenses row.

Those words could well come back to haunt him.

The decision to kick the proposals into the long grass could come back to haunt all three party leaders.

After four months reviewing the future prosperity for Merseyside, Lord Heseltine and former Tesco head honcho Sir Terry Leahy the key recommendation appears to be that Liverpool needs a Boris.

Admittedly they may have stopped short of actually using that phrase but essentially that is what the report says clearly when recommending that the “Greater Liverpool” brand needs a directed elected Mayor to preside over the city and its surrounding Boroughs.

Writing in the Times, Sir Terry Leahy singles out that recommendation as the thrust of his article setting out strongly why he feels his home city needs

No surprise then that the majority of the mainstream media lead on that aspect of the report’s finding before drilling down into any of the remaining detail.

But is it the lack of a strong single-minded visionary leader lacking the skill and ability to transform Merseyside’s potential that is the missing ingredient?

Personally I think the right person – man or woman – directly elected with a brief to lead the local governance of the sub-region can make a difference.

However, as highlighted in the report and by Leahy in his article, no Boris or Borisa can do anything to address the underlying issues without the powers and resources to tackle the problems.

“Powers jealousy guarded by Westminster and Whitehall must be devolved”, the report says.

“An executive mayor with the appropriate powers and resources is needed,” Leahy writes.

Those two statements highlight the real problem in my view and unless and until powers are devolved and resources provided the long-term solutions are going to remain unresolved no mater who is in charge.

Merseyside can already boast 16 MP’s, over 300 councillors not to mention its MEP’s and as a City Region the five council leaders meet regularly to discuss strategies for economic prosperity.

Why then can they not between them drive forward the changes needed to ensure Merseyside can really start to prosper, as it deserves to?

The lack of devolved powers and necessary resources is the real problem I suspect, not the lack of political will or the leadership of an elected executive mayor.

Until central government addresses those failures nobody will be able to deliver what is needed, not even Liverpool’s own Boris.

Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox looks set to ride out the storm over his friendship with Adam Werritty who appears to have been allowed unprecedented access to such senior Cabinet member for someone not even on the payroll.

Tory MP’s were quick to rally round the slippery Fox and deployed defensive techniques the Royal Marines would have been proud of, standing shoulder to shoulder with their wounded colleague.

While Labour smelled blood and an opportunity to take a senior scalp Fox was quick to fire off an apology to the Prime Minister, the House of Commons and his private secretary.

But it would appear the defence review and subsequent deployment of his party faithful to shore up his position were failing to breach the damage that had been done.

Large holes had been blown out of his ramparts and while the opposition were slow to fully exploit the weaknesses the media were not going to be lulled into a quick withdrawal.

Many of the national press are still confident they can take down their man before he escapes to the sanctuary of his stronghold.

Focusing their sights on Werritty’s financial circumstances, raising questions about his funding and if he was paid for his role in the sleazy looking affair could well prove to be their nuclear option.

Only time will tell if Fox has won the battle or also the war.

The Home Secretary Theresa May appears to have set some strange hares running today with her allegation at the Conservatives conference that an illegal immigrant had escaped deportation because of a pet cat.

Now I don’t want to get into a debate here about the rights and wrongs of the Human Rights Act, there are plenty of places online and elsewhere policy wonks, human rights activists and the hang ‘em and flog ‘em brigade can abuse each other’s views without my help.

(Although for the record I support the principles of the HRA, it’s the implementation of it that causes a mockery of the system – Ed).

However, I do get really annoyed when a senior high profile politician uses statistics and facts to support their arguments which are badly researched at best or decidedly dodgy and designed to be misleading at worse.

I’ve just listened to a report on this subject on Radio 5 live by Chris Mason who is at the conference and – understandably – it was a light hearted piece that poked fun at Ms May’s claims.

Which in itself illustrates the error of misrepresenting the facts or taken them out of context.

But whether it was by simple error or not Ms May has played into the hands of extremists who will latch onto her comments and use them as rock solid evidence that the system is flawed.

It also in my view not only undermines Ms May’s own position but damages the credibility of politicians generally, the vast majority of whom are genuine committed hard working people who make many sacrifices in the interests of serving their communities.

But like bankers, tax collectors and estate agents, politicians of every political hue are castigated as useless, self interested and only in it for the money by large sections of society today.

The uphill battle to rebuild trust and respect for those who choose to put themselves forward for public office won’t get any easier while the likes of Theresa May continue to deliver ill thought out and badly prepared speeches like this one.

It’s only Thursday but for some folk they must be wishing the week was already over and they could look forward to a quiet weekend with the family aware from the glare of the media.

Here in Liverpool the Labour party has been holding their conference at the Echo Arena where Ed Miliband has not had the best time of things as he attempted to stamp his mark as Leader one year after beating his brother to the prize.

But it has hardly been a conference where he has set the world on fire.

His speech has been received with mixed reaction from the media and opponents alike while many business leaders have been quick to condemn his rhetoric. It was reported that Lord Jones said Miliband was: “displaying poor statesmanship at a time when the country needs leaders, not players to a union gallery”.

The fact Miliband had to spend so much time doing the rounds of media interviews the morning after his speech to explain what he meant says it all.

I’m told by my wife that he was proudly boasting on breakfast TV that he wrote the speech himself – memo to Ed, hire a speechwriter!

The same day and ahead of his Leader’s speech shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis set hares running with his half baked proposal for some kind of register for journalists who could then be “struck off” for malpractice.

Now it’s not just the lunacy of this idea – which prompted one of the quickest u-turns in political history – but the timing ahead of Ed’s big showpiece, the kind of distraction you just don’t need on your big day.

To add to Miliband’s woes the live TV coverage also blew a fuse……

Later the same evening Manchester City were finding life among the big boys is much more daunting challenge than even a squad of multi-million pound stars can always cope with, finding themselves trailing 2-0 to a superior Bayern Munich side in Germany.

But as if that in itself wasn’t bad enough when Mancini called on sulking Argentinian Carlos Tevez to strip off and earn some of his reported £250,000 a week salary the stroppy striker refused!

Tevez has rightly been suspended for two weeks in the aftermath of his petulance while City undertake investigation into their options.

Personally I’m with those calling for them to rip his contract up and send him packing and good riddance too.

Now there’s one striker I’m sure even Ed Miliband has no sympathy for……..

After the fun of Vegas next stop was Los Angeles but first we had to find our way back on to Route 66 and after a couple of lovely stops on the way we were soon on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis that was LA.

And I had thought the traffic in Vegas was bad!!

However, we eventually crawled through the Friday evening rush hour to reach Santa Monica and finally made it to the official end of Route 66 after 17 days and 2,960 miles!!

It was a relief and a sense of achievement to have finally made it and now we had three days to enjoy LA and all it had to offer, chill out and relax a bit before the long flight home via Chicago.

After settling in to our hotel we decided to take a stroll and re-familiarise ourselves with Santa Monica and in particular 3^rd Street Promenade and the new Santa Monica Place, where we were very kindly helped by a Santa Ambassador who kindly pointed out I couldn’t smoke on 3^rd Street!

Admonished to the corner of 3^rd and Broadway I skulked on the corner enjoying my addiction when I was challenged again for my bad habits! But not for long!!

No sooner had I found myself a quiet corner to continue my nicotine fix when I was approached by a woman who started to chastise me for smoking and did I realise how much I was damaging my health and how much it could cost in medical bills if I got cancer?!!

Whoah I thought to myself, this is not happening, looking around to see if Sarah had put her up to it or if it was some kind of American candid camera! But it appeared not and she carried on giving me grief until I told her I was not having this conversation and turned my back on her.

When I shared with Sarah what had happened she laughed so hard, only in LA!!

The following day we headed to Hollywood and the traditional tourist traps of the Kodak Theatre, Chinese Theatre and even a 3 hour tour of the Stars Homes! Tacky but fun and we did spot Sharon Osbourne having lunch on Sunset Plaza!

A fun day and all was well as we headed back to Santa Monica in our hire car until WHAM some idiot hit us from behind!

We pulled over and got out of the car to assess the damage and exchange details with the idiot who had ran into the back of us – and who panicked so much he phoned the emergency services!

Before you could say book him Danno the LAFD and the LAPD were on the scene!

However, seeing as nobody was injured they were not interested and would not even be filing a report, leaving us to deal with it ourselves.

Thankfully Alamo were very helpful and supportive and we felt confident and reassured that it would all be dealt with smoothly, thankfully. (and it was!!)

Bruised mentally, if not physically,, by our driving encounter in Hollywood and encouraged by the fun we had at the Grand Canyon we decided the following morning to venture out on bikes that were available to hire from the hotel reception desk.

Having navigated our way across the main roads and down to the cycle track along the beach we decided to head for a nice quiet ride to Venice Beach. Sadly so had about 3,000 others, it was so busy with bikes, roller bladders, runners and any other form of exercise routine it almost felt as if we were back on the highway!

But it was fun as we cycled at a sedate pace in the glorious morning sun burning through the clouds and built up an appetite for brunch!

Along the way Sarah was convinced she saw Ricky Gervais cycling the other way trying to look anonymous but declined my offer to behave like an idiot abroad and chase after him to see if it really was him!

It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning, watching the helicopters flying in the guests to Kim Kardashian’s wedding along the coast as we cycled back towards Malibu before heading into town to see what was happening there.

We had tickets that evening for the soccer match at LA Galaxy, which would feature not only David Beckham but also Robbie Keane who had signed this week from Spurs and would be making his debut tonight so we were planning an early dinner.

However, as we reach 3^rd Street we noticed a film crew at work and being the nosy tourists we are we poked our noses in to see what was happening.

It turned out they were filming the audience reactions to the verdicts on The People’s Court! And before we could say guilty we were asked if we wanted to take part!! Oh yes I said, Sarah slightly less eager held back but agreed when she was told she didn’t need to say anything!

Imagine her surprise when the host – Harvey Levin of TMZ fame – shoved the microphone into her face and asked for her opinion of the case!

It airs in the US on September 16^th we were told but so far don’t appear to be able to find it on the 625 stations we have on Sky!

Time for a quick shower, bite to eat and then off to the Home Depot for the match – and another Kodak moment when I managed to spot Gordon Ramsay on his way to his box and stopped him for a quick photo! Sadly Sarah missed him as she had gone to the ladies at the time!!

Saturday night traffic was heavy and it was getting on for midnight when we got back, time to pack and get ready for the flight home the next morning.

It has been an amazing trip, full of memories that will last a lifetime and some experiences never to be forgotten. If you are thinking of planning a trip like this my advice is simple – do it!

Finally, given our experiences with my health problems on day one and the car smash at the end don’t ever try and save a few pounds by not being properly insured, our experiences showed us just how important it is to be properly protected on a journey such as this.

Now, where did I put that Cars DVD……….

After all the excitement of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley we need to move on and head for somewhere quieter where we could relax a little.

Las Vegas – the perfect quiet little place in the desert for a chill!!

At least we had found our way back on to Route 66 along the way and had two lovely stops in Williams and Seligman to get back into the swing of things.

But having driven literally hundreds of miles through desert and farmland over the previous few days reaching the bright lights, garish buildings and nose to tail traffic of Las Vegas was a real culture shock.

Suddenly there were people everywhere, loud music blaring out wherever you turned and hawkers on every corner – but Vegas is a place to have fun so we settled in for a wild ride for the next 48 hours!

Our first night was spent just wandering around and looking at all the new additions to the strip since we last were here, the Central City complex with the Cosmopolitan and Aria hotels among the new sights to take in, it had changed so much.

But I had winnings from my last trip to the roulette table burning a hole in my pocket so we headed back to our hotel/casino (Mote Carlo) to try my luck again. Try as I did I could not lose and I was on another roll!

We decided to call it a night and save my winnings for the next day, I left with my original $50 winnings from Albuquerque and another $50 profit for the night, a total of $100 so far for the trip on an original stake of only $20.

The next morning we visited the Wynn for breakfast – another hotel that had not been there on our last visit – and then checked out the Venetian to recce the show we had tickets for that night, Phantom of the Opera, which we were really looking forward to seeing.

While there I thought I would try my luck on their roulette tables but suffered my first run of bad luck to date, losing the $50 I had previously won but I still had $50 left for the Monte Carlo that evening.

After a quiet afternoon we got ready for the show and a lovely dinner at The Pinot in the Venetian set up us well for the entertainment ahead.

As we walked through the casino towards the theatre we spotted lots of people mingling around someone and having their photo taken with him, not knowing who it was we asked one of the locals who told us it was a well known rap star/actor.

Given that he was clearly famous and had a minder with him I joined in the melee and had my photo taken with him just for a laugh – it turned out he was Flavor Flav from Public Enemy!

Phantom of the Opera was amazing and was going to be a hard act to follow but we headed to the Minus 5 bar back at our hotel for vodka cocktails and a strange experience of drinking in an ice bar where the temperature was minus 5, another fun experience.

But I still had $50 to play with so one last trip to the roulette table was called for before we retired even though it had been a long day.

Almost an hour later and with Sarah and I starting to flag after a long day I was still winning and couldn’t seem to put a foot wrong as lady luck stayed with me a bit longer. I even put on some dodgy bets to try and speed up the inevitable but to no avail – so in the end I called it a day and cashed in $50 to take with me despite being prepared to lose the lot! A good profit and hours of fun – next stop LA!

Canyon de Chelly was a great appetiser for what lay ahead today with our itinerary taking us next to the Grand Canyon.

But not satisfied with driving over 2,400 miles in under 3 weeks and seeing as many sites as there are on our schedule we decided instead to take a detour and add a few more miles/hours to the planned route and visit Monument Valley.

It was a place we had always wanted to visit and while it would add to what was already going to be a long drive it was too close not to make the effort.

So we set off early, before the hotel had even managed to open the restaurant for breakfast and headed north into Navajo country.

Our decision proved to be a good one as we watched as the scenic view changed at each corner we turned or brow we crested and the amazing natural shape of the land brought incredible new sights as we got closer to Utah.

Monument Valley turned out to be just as amazing as we had envisaged and is truly an incredible feat of nature, everywhere you look there are awesome views that literally take your breathe away.

Sadly our detour meant we were not strictly following Route 66 at this stage of our trip but it was well worth the deviation and soon we were back on our way to the Grand Canyon, albeit it by another route.

After a short stop in Tuba City for a sandwich and Cameron to top up with gas (ok petrol!) we made our way into the Grand Canyon and even after our visit to Monument Valley the view was even more breath taking and as fantastic as I remember it.

This was my fourth trip to the Grand Canyon and I can honestly say each and every one has been memorable for its own reasons and it is a place you can never be disappointed with.

There is something almost spiritual about the place and to sit quietly on the edge of the rim and just watch the light and clouds move and change the way the canyon looks is simply awesome dude!

As we had been here before though we felt a new experience was called for so we decided to rise early the next day and hire two bikes and ride along the south rim of the canyon to Hermit’s Rest.

All seemed to start well and it looked like we had made a good choice until after the first stop and Sarah’s bike decided to play up! Pedalling as hard as she could she was getting nowhere as the chain provided no drive to the back wheel.

Now this is where my HNC in engineering came in handy and I examined the bike only to conclude I had no clue what was wrong!

We asked the father and son cycling with us if they could call the bike hire shop to get us help when the Dad said he would take a look only to discover the chain had come off! Well I had said it was something simple – just hadn’t realised how simple it was!

Back on the road all went well for a few more miles until Sarah announced her gears were not working and trying to get up a hill in 7^th gear was impossible. Another pit stop and play around under the bonnet soon got things working again and on we went. Surely nothing else could go wrong before we made it to the end of the trail?

Sadly it could, this time as I raced ahead building up speed to climb the hill ahead I missed the turning for the bike trail to the right and unbeknown to me Sarah had not seen me go past it, thought that was the route I had taken so she followed the right path.

By the time I had realised what had happened Sarah was ahead of me and now worried where I had got to! Eventually I worked out what had happened, turned around and caught her up – surely nothing else could go wrong before we reached Hermit’s Rest?

Thankfully it didn’t and we made it safely back to our car after buying a new t-shirt to replace the one I bought 13 years ago which was now falling apart and ready for the bin!

Despite the mishaps the bike ride had been fun and a novel way of experiencing the terrific views from the various vantage points along the way of the spectacular Grand Canyon – now it was time for Vegas!

The following morning we continued west towards Arizona and drew to a close our 6 fascinating days in New Mexico.

A brief stop for coffee on route in Gallup brought an unexpected surprise as the city was in the middle of hosting the 90^th Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial event which celebrates the native American culture and history annually.

Wondering why the road was closed and people were piling into the centre armed with deck chairs and food at eight in the morning we parked up and followed them to see what was going on!

The main street through town was a mass of bodies fighting to get the best seats for the Ceremonial parade due to start at 10 o’clock – we decided to grab a coffee and carry on our way rather than wait for the main event.

But it was fun to get a flavour of the event and see for ourselves some of the local culture up close – although I was very surprised to see so many children playing with clackers at they sat on the kerb side waiting for the parade to start!

I haven’t seen them for almost 40 years – I was amazed to see they still existed!

The rest of the drive was less eventful although very scenic in places as we headed towards Arizona and eventually the Grand Canyon and the landscape became far more interesting!

Less eventful that is until we arrived in our destination for the night – the small town of Chinle, gateway to the Canyon de Chelly (more of that later!)

Pulling over at the Shell garage to check our supplies and pick up a local map we were about to set off towards the national park when I spotted some cattle heading towards the main road!

Thinking on my feet I quickly grabbed my camera from the boot (sorry that should be trunk!) and shot some great photos of the small group of cattle wandering along the highway directly in front of Burger King and the local mall!!!!

The afternoon was spent in the amazing Canyon de Chelly – lesser known than the Grand Canyon of course but a real hidden jewel.

We had an amazing trip along the canyon floor with Kodak moments every few seconds – thank goodness for digital cameras, it would have cost me a fortune in film!

The canyon was a great warm up for the main event which was to follow but is a really beautiful park which deserves to have its own place on the tourist trail and it’s a shame to even think of it as the warm up guy!

After an amazing 48 hours in Santa Fe it was a real drag to have to leave and move on to Albuquerque for our next stop on the journey.

Thankfully we chose to drive there via the Turquoise Trail which made the drive very scenic to say the least.

A coffee stop in the tiny little artist’s enclave of Madrid was especially rewarding with so much to see, some great photo opportunities and probably, no definitely, the best coffee we have had so far on the trip at the magnificent Java Junction.

After a lovely stop we headed on towards Albuquerque with a detour to Sandia Park for a magnificent view from 10,000 feet looking down on to the city.

Sadly it was probably as close as our hotel which turned out to be 25 miles west of Albuquerque and although the themed Route 66 Hotel & Casino appeared appropriate for our trip it was not quite what I expected, especially after 2 great days in Santa Fe.

But it was a base to explore from and a trip to Old Downtown the following morning was very enjoyable and is probably the best Albuquerque has to offer.

Back at the hotel we had to smile when for the first time when ordering a meal I was asked if I wanted “Red or green sir?” when I ordered a Mexican dish – good job we knew what he was talking about!

It would of course have been rude when staying at a casino resort not to have a small flutter so armed with a huge budget of $20 I headed to the roulette tables.

Now it was time for red or black rather than red or green and my luck seemed to be in as I quickly turned my $20 into almost $100 before deciding to call it a night with a profit of $40 and then won another $10 on a slot machine on the way to the lift.

So a good night was had by yours truly and I had $50 net profit in my kitty for when we got to Las Vegas!