Happy Monday morning, everybody! It’s 440 years to the day since the first lottery was held in Britain; 60 years since the first recorded snowfall in Los Angeles; and the 56th birthday of actor-comedian John Sessions. But enough factoids, here are the factuals …

2 Big Stories

The fall-out from the Labour SnowStorm plot

We’re in the final months of Gordon Brown’s premiership, and the Labour debate is focusing on what happens after the party loses the election. James Purnell, who resigned from the cabinet in June to no discernible effect, tells us his differences with Mr Brown in an article in today’s Guardian:

I argued in cabinet that we needed to talk about cuts. It was clear that some cuts would be needed, because the economy was smaller than everyone had previously thought. GDP had been artificially inflated by the housing and financial bubble. By being clear about that, early and fully, I thought we would be in a better position to convince the public that the debt was down to our response to the credit crunch, not to excess spending before it. …

But I also worried that we weren’t presenting an attractive enough vision to the electorate. In government, you always annoy some of the people some of the time, and without a compelling vision, “time for a change” will do for you. The next manifesto needs to be full of passion, of confidence, a movement for change. Where can Labour find this inspiration?

Well, Charlie Brooker has four suggestions here – including free warm croissants on buses.

Peter Robinson row rolls on

The BBC reports:

Senior members of the DUP are standing firmly behind their leader Peter Robinson who is under growing pressure to quit as NI First Minister. He could be forced to resign after a BBC Spotlight programme on his wife, Iris’s private life and finances. … The pressure for Mr Robinson to resign is building as DUP party officers prepare for a crunch meeting later today.

Time to resign, or time to dig in? What advice would you give the Northern Ireland first minister?

2 Must-Read Blog-Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• The meaning of health and safety (David Boyle)

there is something about the health and safety regime which has been constructed by New Labour, on the foundations of the regime built by the Major government – a mixture of American contract culture and Taylorist checklists – which is actually corroding some of the social networks which actually keep us safe.

• Which side is Peter Watt’s side of the story? (James Graham)

if Brown comes off badly, in many respects Watt himself comes off worse. The extracts all have the tone of someone who appears to deny any personal responsibility whatsoever.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.