The BBC news ticker on my desktop tells me that John McDonnell has announced that Michael Meacher is to withdraw his candidacy for the Labour leadership, and that this means John will get on the ballot. If true, that's excellent news, although clearly there is some confusion elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Meanwhile, I've been reading another review of the Fabian Society debate last night.

I knew someone would have some live reportage from the Fabian Society hustings tonight. I just didn't know who. I should have!

Along with 340 other Labour activists, including MPs, MSPs, councillors, union branch officers, reps and members of both the Labour Party and a myriad of affiliated organisations, I signed this letter which appears in the Guardian today. There is further evidence that John McDonnell, not Michael Meacher, should be the left's challenger to Gordon Brown in the news that Scotland UNISON's Affiliated Political Fund, or Labour Link, committee voted unanimously yesterday to support John.

In an escalation of the Irish nurses' dispute over hours and pay, a national strike will be held for two hours next Wednesday by members of the Irish Nurses Association and the Psychiatric Nurses Association. The nurses are responding to a threat by their employer - the Health Service Executive - to cut 13% of their wages for participating in a work-to-rule.

The work-to-rule has been underway for 39 days now, and has been accompanied by a series of rolling one- two- and three-hour stoppages which have affected all Ireland's hospitals in turn, but the action is being stepped up dramatically in response to the HSE's provocation. There's been one previous national stoppage, for one hour, so the two-hour work stoppage next Wednesday will be the most significant step so far.

Not that long ago, a headline like this one couldn't have been written about a campaign in the UK. Thanks to the National Health Service, people in Britain knew that they had guaranteed healthcare, for everyone, for life, paid for by general taxation and free at the point of need. Now, of course, thanks to him, him, her and her, that's not the case any more - the NHS is under attack, and we desperately need to organise a fight just to hold on to what remains.

So Gordon Brown has launched his campaign for leader of the Labour Party - a campaign which he's been running for pretty much the whole of the last ten years. No sooner have we seen the back of one insincere smiling Prime Minister than once-grouchy Gordon suddenly reveals himself to be the owner of his very own sickly smile. Why do politicians feel the need to do this?

Anyone in UNISON, or any other trade union, who thinks that dealing with Gordon Brown would be any different from dealing with Blair should take note of the BBC report of Brown's statements, not least him "refusing to rule out employing ministers from other parties" (although I think the chances for anyone in, say, the Socialist Party, are probably pretty slim) and that "he also denied he would move the government to the left, saying he would continue to "drive forward" New Labour reforms to the public services".

This is bad news, and partly explains this, which is more.

Paul Smith has a video of John McDonnell interviewed.

He talks about democracy and the election, and gives an excellent demonstration as to why he should be the candidate. I hope Michael Meacher reflects on that over the weekend. I just can't imagine Meacher making as good a presentation to the media at this point, especially on Iraq and privatisation.

Writing about UNISON's continued silence on the question of who should succeed Tony Blair as leader of our party, Jon says:

The strategy that has transparently been pursued until now has been to pretend that it would be somehow wrong to express a view “until we know who all the candidates are” and thereby to cede to the Parliamentary Labour Party all power to decide upon whether our members who pay the political levy will be offered a real choice.

Leaving that decision in the hands of the Parliamentary Labour Party seems all the more dangerous now.