Well, it was another deadline day that promised so much and yet delivered so little. Again. Are we really surprised? Did we really think that we would bring through another striker to settle the nerves on the terraces of SJP?

As well as keeping literally some readers up to date on regional politics type stuff, I also occasionally help out on the news desk for The Journal and our sister papers.
This affords me a fine insight into the world of general news, a sample of which I provide here.

FIRST I'd like to apologise to the people who read my blog on a regular basis for the inactivity of it recently.

I did my very first blog before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and have been doing them regularly until the New Year.

Since I've started doing a weekly column for the Sunday Sun I haven't really had the time to do a blog, but now I've got the chance so here we go.

There's my lame pun for the day.

Interesting to see Shadow Business Secretary John Denham heralding his new big idea to tackle youth unemployment.

He wants any company bidding for public sector contracts to have an apprenticeship scheme before they can win a contract.

The plan is being tagged as Labour's "Britain's Lost Talent" campaign. The party believes it would provide immediate help to the one-in-five young people who are out of work.

I interviewed Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last night in his Whitehall office. We covered a lot of ground - including the issue of the 50p higher rate of income tax and the so-called mansion tax.

Eric Pickles last week said the 50p rate should be scrapped so families can "keep more in their pockets" in an interview with The Telegraph.

And he said the Lib Dems have "got to understand" any form of so-called mansion tax would be a "big mistake" - risking conflict with senior Cabinet colleagues like Vince Cable.

On the 50p tax rate, Mr Clegg said: "We can have a debate about 50p. I'm starting to think that there is no reason to think that 50p has to remain there forever.

"But it is a question about what do you do now? And now a lot of people are feeling under a lot of pressure.

Depending on your point of view, this will either delight you or leave you despairing. The Government has rejected an e-petition calling for Big Brother to be banned.

The programme, resurrected on Channel 5, has hit the headlines with Sally Bercow, the wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow, being one of the members of the Big Brother household.

But it has been rejected because "e-petitions cannot be used to request action on issues that are outside the responsibility of the government. This includes:

* party political material
* commercial endorsements including the promotion of any product, service or publication
* issues that are dealt with by devolved bodies, eg The Scottish Parliament
* correspondence on personal issues

PAUL Linford, responsible for The Journal's political insight via his weekly column, was away this weekend. Yours truly covered for him. Since most of you would have been busy looking through Homemaker I've reproduced Saturday's article here. Enjoy...

IAIN Malcolm is that curious thing in the North East - a man who is not completely crazy about football. So why then has the South Tyneside Council leader been seen on several
occasions at the Stadium of Light?

PRIME MINISTER: STATEMENT ON LIBYA

I have just come from chairing a meeting of the National Security Council on the situation in Libya.

The latest information is that the vast majority of Tripoli is now controlled by free Libyan fighters, although fighting continues - and some of it is extremely fierce.

We have no confirmation of Qadhafi's whereabouts, but at least two of Qadhafi's sons have been detained.

His regime is falling apart and in full retreat.

You won't find many people who will tire of beating your local rivals, and I'm no different.