Parliament has barely been back for two weeks after Christmas and the political world is dominated once again by a Labour funding row. Peter Hain is under strong pressure after last week's Guardian disclosure that some donations to his deputy leadership campaign appear to have come via a thinktank that does more sleeping than thinking. Gordon Brown is also under pressure over a rather larger sum of money - the £55bn that the taxpayer is said to have pumped into Northern Rock.
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In the first Politics Weekly of 2008 I pick over these events with Nick Gibb, the Conservative MP and shadow schools minister; Ruaridh Nicoll, the Observer commentator; and Andy Sparrow, Guardian Unlimited's chief political correspondent.
We discuss whether Peter Hain can survive in office and if his difficulties are undermining Gordon Brown's new year relaunch. We also talk about Northern Rock and assess whether David Cameron is wise to have set himself so strongly against a possible nationalisation of the bank .
We cast our gaze across the Atlantic to discuss what promises to be the most exciting political event of 2008 - the US presidential elections.
And finally, sit back and swoon as we hear the romantic voice of France's new first lady. Yes we play L'Amour, the world-beating hit single by Carla Bruni, the Franco-Italian model and singer who is said to have married the French president Nicolas Sarkozy in secret. We ask whether Sarkozy is damaging himself by having such a whirlwind romance in public - or whether we should relax and admire the man in the aviator sunglasses.
