THE national press still seem full of adrenaline over the election that never was, and futile opinion polls and even election leaflets are still appearing like confetti.

I suppose they think that if they've ordered them they had better use them!

Talking to people in London last week, the one thing that had very obviously changed was the attitude towards Gordon Brown.

This was most marked among the journalists. For some months they have been in awe of the new Prime Minister, but not now.

I had dinner with one Tory peer, a senior member of Mrs Thatcher's cabinet back in the Eighties, who thought the defining moment was when Brown denied that the opinion polls were why he had not gone to see the Queen to ask for an election.

He could have said they were one factor among others and got away with it. But to deny it to the massed ranks of the parliamentary reporters in the way he did just invited incredulity.

So whatever the changes in political fortunes in the coming year, and they will be many, the honeymoon is over for good.

Over in the Lords we are in the last stages of two or three bills which have to be done and dusted before the end of the current session and the short recess before the Queen opens the new session in November and everything starts all over again.

The two main bills still in the Lords are the UK Borders Bill and the one I've been working on, the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill.

This is a real mess and will, in my judgement, cause huge problems for local councils.

It's another example of the government trying to micro-manage local authorities and what makes me angry is that it's being done in the name of "devolution".

I had hoped we would be able to make some real changes and improve-ments but I fear we have failed.

I could with some justification blame the Tories but the truth is that the two main opposition parties have not got their collective act together. It's a pity.