It has been a radioactive start to the New Year. The revelations in the Sunday Times that four Labour Peers allegedly were prepared to take money to influence legislation will, if true, do us immense damage. Assistant Commissioner Yates (of the Yard) who led the "cash for honours" inquiry is sniffing around and there may well be a police investigation.

I believe the time has come for a mandatory register of lobbyists, policed by an independent body, which includes information provided by the lobbyists themselves and those being lobbied. My Select Committee, with great prescience, called for this in a report published a couple of weeks ago.

I also think the Standing Orders of the Parliamentary Labour Party need to be changed to require Labour MPs and Peers who take second jobs, to explain what is involved in terms of time commitment, the remuneration and how this employment or consultancy will advance the aims and objectives of the Labour Party. I believe the other political parties need to act similarly.

January has also been dominated by the conflict in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis which envelopes that tiny strip of territory. Gaza is twice the size of Pendle, but has seventeen times the population. The Israelis sealed the borders and the last functioning airport was bombed in 2000 and is now unusable. The majority of the population is totally reliant on food aid and, in the wake of the destruction caused by the Israeli assault, food, medicine and other supplies are urgently needed.

I was at a meeting last week with the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, and he took a verbal hammering from MPs of all parties for the BBC's decision not to allow blue chip charities to broadcast an appeal for humanitarian aid. He cited in his defence the decision by SKY not to broadcast an appeal. (Murdoch owns the Jerusalem Post.)

Israel should talk to Hamas, with no pre-conditions save one. There should be an immediate end to violence. There can only be peace in the Middle East if a viable Palestinian State is created alongside Israel which goes back to its 1967 borders. This means an end to settlements on occupied Palestinian territory and the removal of the illegal wall in the West Bank. I explained my thinking at a meeting last Friday at the Mosque down by Morrisons.

Here, the slide into recession continues with a steady roll-call of jobs being lost or part time working being introduced. Despite claims by the Conservatives to the contrary, this is not a home made recession triggered by soar away inflation or sky high interest rates. We are entering a global slump and the British Government, like others elsewhere, is trying to works it way through it.

We need much tougher regulation of the City and an end to the lionising of the "masters of the universe". The former Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin, was knighted in 2004 for services to banking. Given that he had presided over the biggest corporate loss in British commercial history, I think the gong should be returned. Back to plain old Fred, I think.

We have also had to listen to lectures from Lord Digby Jones who served as a Ministerial GOAT with the Trade portfolio in a "Government of all the talents". At a recent meeting of the Public Adminisration Select Committee he was extolling the virtues of having "independent" Ministers in the Government.

He explained he had never voted against the Party line. Mmmm.

He never joined the Labour Party and absented himself on foreign trips when there was legislation coming up with which he disagreed. What a joke! People like Digby Jones should not be brought into a Labour Government. When will we ever learn?

Elsewhere... the Government is proposing to part privatise the Royal Mail, bringing in a private sector partner such as TNT. Peter Mandleson has promised full consultation but I want the Government to have a rethink. There should be no question of legislation being introduced and carried through on Conservative and Lib Dem votes. This happened under Tony Blair (where the Conservatives voted for the Iraq war and around 160 Labour MPs voted against, and we went to war as a result). We should learn from our mistakes.

On a more positive note, we learned of the new policy to build a network of high speed rail lines across the country. Lord Adonis, the Railways Minister, told me this week that the web names HS2 to HS10 have already been taken by the Government, but building the lines will clearly take a lot longer. But it is a very positive and welcome policy commitment. Let's get moving on it.

Locally, I gave oral evidence (if that doesn’t sound too grand) to the Lancashire Overview and Scrutiny Committee which my friend and colleague Tim Ormrod chairs. I told the councillors, meeting at Blackburn Hospital, that the Meeting Patients Needs programme should be reviewed and validated - or not - by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. This Panel is made up of independent clinicians from outside Lancashire with no vested interest nor axe to grind.

I know that an in-house review will persuade no one that things are better, given the recent photos of ambulances queuing up outside Blackburn’s A&E Department. I also believe Burnley General should have its blue light A&E reinstated with a published protocol indicating the hospitals ambulances would go to according to the injury or condition of the patient they are carrying.

Last week I joined the Lancashire Further Education principals for dinner at Westminster to discuss the challenges facing the sector. Colleges have to fund their own capital programmes. Schools don’t. There is a pay gap between schoolteachers and college lecturers and there are other concerns where colleges apparently get the rough end of the stick. I am following this up.

The Political Parties and Elections Bill is coming back to the floor of the House of Commons on Monday 9 February. It makes proposals for the reform of the Electoral Commission and on the way donations are made to political parties. But, astonishingly, it does not close the Ashcroft loophole. I have, therefore, tabled an amendment to make it unlawful for British citizens who are not UK residents for tax purposes to give barrow loads of money to a political party. And people who do donate will have to sign a declaration that they are UK residents for tax purposes. This will probably catch Ashcroft. I am pressing the Government to support my amendment.

I see that Nick Clegg wants Britain to join the Euro asap. I hope the Lib Dem leaning Nelson Leader picks up on that, given their traditional "save the pound" stance.

Baron Greaves continues to amuse. He is now banging the drum for the reinstatement of the Colne-Skipton line which, a few years ago, he ridiculed as "a non starter".