Well done Burnley! There, I've said it (despite the cry "Dad, how could you?" echoing in my ears), and what's more I mean it.

It's great for the whole of East Lancashire that such is the passion for football we will now sustain not one but two Premier League teams despite the towns being the smallest.

Indeed the situation in the historic county of Lancashire is quite remarkable, especially compared with England east of the Pennines. Forty per cent of all Premier League teams - eight in total - are now to be found in the north west.

Whatever has been said at our end of the East Lancashire valley about the Clarets, and plenty has been (much not repeatable in a family newspaper), I for one take my hat off to Burnley fans for their extraordinary loyalty over many years, when what happened on the pitch didn't give them much to cheer about, or even to turn up.

At Rovers, we've had our bad times, dropping to the old third division in 1975, facing all the frustration at the end of the 1980s as the "nearly team", until saviour Jack Walker bought the club. And there was the disastrous 1998-99 season which saw us relegated just four years after winning the Premiership.

But that's as nothing to the traumas which Clarets fans have suffered. The year - 1987 - that we won the Full Members' Cup at Wembley saw Burnley stay within the Football League itself by a hair's breadth. All the time of course they've suffered the indignity - as they would see it - of being overshadowed by Rovers. We've only met Burnley four times in more than quarter of a century.

Ask any Blackburn fan and they'll recite the results with self-satisfaction: 17 December 2000, 2-0 at Turf Moor; 1 April 2001, 5-0 at Ewood Park; 20th Feb 2005, FA Cup goalless draw at Turf Moor March 2005 2-1 (with Pedersen getting a goal in the 85th minute) in the replay.

Whilst these fixtures preoccupied East Lancashire, they were not of much interest elsewhere. But next season two local derbies will be watched by the nation.

For many months this season, I had this recurring nightmare that Burnley would go up whilst Rovers went down. I'd go into a cold sweat at the very thought. And I then wondered whether in that situation I'd find the magnanimity to congratulate the Clarets. I'd have hoped so, but in truth I'm not sure.

Full marks to Clarets' chairman Barry Kilby for his promise - now being honoured at a cost of £2m - to repay all this season's 6,500 season ticket holders if Burnley went up. Burnley join Rovers as offering by far and away the best value for money, the greatest respect for loyal fans, of any club in the Premier League.

The cards in the Premier League are stacked very unevenly - with the big city clubs - Man Utd Liverpool, Chelsea etc - dominating revenue and trophies. Now we've seen that the old original town clubs - like our two - the backbone of the league, can fight back.

Great - and fingers crossed for next season.

Image source: The Guardian

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A seasonal food blog post from Jack Straw. It's no surprise he lists "cooking puddings" as a hobby!

I have three addictions: Blackburn Rovers, exercise and hot cross buns.

So this time of year, my cravings for the buns makes my second addiction (exercise) a continuous necessity.

What makes the effect of the bun even more marked is that I am a sucker for BOGOF's - Buy One Get One Free. Not that they ever are free, and I know it's "99p for six, £1.20 for twelve".

So into the basket go 12 hot cross buns, not the two or three I had intended to purchase as I crossed the threshold of the supermarket. Which makes me all the more irritated with myself for falling for such a simple ploy.

As I munch my way through my hot cross buns, with a lot of butter, honey, and a little bit of guilt, I can reflect that my addiction to these spiced cakes, with the symbol of the cross on top, have been part of the ceremonies and rituals of this week, Easter week, for centuries past. I don't regard supermarket queues as an appropriate occasion for a cross-examination of my fellow shoppers. But I guess that, if I asked a sample what they knew of the history of the hot cross bun, and its association with Christianity, I'd get a mixed response.

These days, there's a mini industry of some extreme atheists who appear to require the denigration of the faith of others in order to give themselves the certainty of the absence of faith and belief in themselves.

As at Christmas, these folk may be out in force this Holy Week, with fashionable assertions that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is of the past and for the past. They appear to be happy only when recording the result of some dismal poll which shows that church attendance is on some inexorable downward spiral. Only 22 per cent of the British people could identify what Easter was celebrating, according to one such poll.

There are however two problems with these evangelical atheists. The first is that they are wrong about the health of the churches, and their vitality. Some churches are losing congregations. Plenty are not - including in the inner city. And the churches touch on people's lives in many more ways than through regular attendance. Look at the continuing popularity of church schools; or that the funeral of poor Jade Goody took place at an Anglican church.

The second is that they are almost certainly wrong both in their analysis of the power of religion, and its importance in people's lives. Faith is not something which can be reduced to a mathematical formula to be "proved" or "disproved". It is bound to be mysterious and opaque. I find it much easier to comprehend the story of Christ than I do the idea of God. In any event, I find the message of Easter one with astonishing power and example.

As for those buns, innocent celebrations of the coming of Easter, they too will be around for many centuries more than those who write off religion.

Image source: mylot.com

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"When will you make it easier for small businesses to get loans?", "What are you doing to help redundant Woolworths staff?", "What's happening with low savings interest rates?"

These are just a few of the questions posed to Gordon Brown by viewers of North West Tonight this week. The Prime Minister was accompanied by presenter Gordon Burns (of Krypton Factor fame) on a train from London to the region, where he responded to concerns posed by the public.

Sadly, the Prime Minister neglects to include Blackburn Rovers in his list of "great clubs in the region". We're a damn sight better than his beloved Raith Rovers though!

And, of course, what trip on a Virgin train would be complete without that annoying pinging noise (04:30)? Even Gordon can't escape it!

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Football, as Paul Ince knew well even before his departure from Rovers this week, is a tough old business, and never more so than now.

The days when clubs were willing - or even able - to give managers a few seasons to find their feet are long gone. The stakes are too high. Swift action is required if the tables are to be turned.

I'm sorry of course that Paul Ince has left Ewood. He deserves great credit for the way in which he managed the club, keeping team spirit high despite difficult days. He was a brilliant player, an effective lower league manager and I'm sure he'll make it in the big time.

And the reality is that there is never one single cause when a team has a bad run. As is the way of the world, we lost a couple of key players over the summer, while injuries to the likes of Reid and Dunn have deprived us of some midfield flair.

But the buck has to stop somewhere, so Paul has gone. Some say that replacing a manager after only 21 games is too hasty. They roll out the old chestnut about Alex Ferguson being under massive pressure at Manchester United almost 20 years ago - one game away from the sack and all that when they scraped a 1-0 FA Cup win (from a Mark Hughes cross!) at Nottingham Forest in 1990 - but being given time to get things right.

It's certainly true that it worked for United, much to the frustration of so many of us. But I'd wager that if he'd been facing the pressures faced by Premiership bosses in 2008 during his rocky spell at Old Trafford, even a manager as great as Ferguson might have struggled to keep his job. For a start, the business itself is much more cutthroat than it was back then. Salaries are much higher.

The emotional cost of relegation is the same - and we all remember the sickening thud that comes with such misery - but the financial cost through lost television money and the rest is much higher than it has ever been. Timing is also crucial. We simply could not afford to go on like this and hope that things had started to improve in the spring. By then, if there hadn't been a miraculous turn around, it might have been too late.

We are nine wins away from safety, by chairman John Williams' calculations. So it was right, I think, to take a decisive step now. For a start, there is plenty to be optimistic about. There are other teams around the bottom of the Premier League who are struggling.

The table this year is so tight that - as Bolton have shown - you can move up the table quite dramatically with a few wins under your belt. So it's one of the most unpredictable leagues in recent years. Most teams, even the so-called big clubs, look beatable. And a change in manager can often do the trick in terms of giving a team new momentum: look at Harry Redknapp at Spurs for instance - not out of the woods, but a long way from the old samosa joke ("What's the difference between Spurs and a samosa? A samosa has three points.")

It's a mystery to most football fans, but there is no question that some managers have a certain ability to inspire a sudden change in fortune.

Let's hope Sam's the man - good luck!

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I tend to know about the bad news in the front. So I routinely turn to the better news at the back, and work forward. But it's rare for me to read The Observer's "Sports Monthly". The deadlines of the Sunday papers' supplements are so long that I'm certain that whatever else they contain, it can't be much in the way of news.

This week was, however, different. My eye was drawn to a cover story about our own David Bentley.

He's a fantastic footballer. But this wasn't so much about Bentley's prowess on the field, as about him as a person. He came across as someone wise beyond his years. And I was intrigued to read that Bentley seems to be attracted to politics: "I like to tell the lads that I'm running for Prime Minister. I'm always watching Parliament TV. It's good banter, all those old fellas giving it, heckling Gordon Brown." But Bentley is shrewd enough to observe "That's the advantage of being in opposition, you can get on their backs", adding, "I love the drama of it."

I can see why Bentley suggested that there are advantages to being in opposition. I spent 18 years on the opposition benches - the longest continuous period for any party in the last 100 years - so I have some experience on which to draw. One of the key "advantages" in opposition is that the decisions you have to take are very different from those in government - essentially they're about what you say next, not what you do next. It's easier. But I came into politics - like most people - because I wanted to do things, to make a difference. Government is for sure tougher than opposition, but I'd never voluntarily swap it for the benches opposite on which Mr Cameron and his colleagues sit.

It's fashionable these days for everyone to take a sideswipe at politics. But what's striking - despite the apparent brickbats, and the fact that turnouts in elections here (as in most western countries) are not what they were - is the interest which people have in what goes on in our Parliament. When I was Foreign Secretary it was astonishing who, in the most obscure corner of the globe, or at the heart of the world's most powerful nations, watched not just Prime Minister's Questions, but plenty else on the BBC's Parliament channel.

There's a myth that Parliament has diminished in importance in recent times, that it used to be much more powerful but is now dominated by an overwheening executive. Like so many myths, it has no basis in fact. The exact balance of power between Whitehall and Westminster in part depends on the size of a government's majority. When it's at or near zero, as it was with James Callaghan in the late seventies, and John Major in the mid-nineties, there could be regular cliff-hangers of votes. But it's also true that even with large majorities the erosion of deference that is evident in society generally has affected MPs too. They are no longer willing just to do what the whips - the managers - tell them to do.

Compare that to the nineteen fifties, regarded by some commentators as a golden age for Parliament when the Commons was supposedly populated by independent minded MPs. Back then there was a period of two whole years when not a single Conservative MP voted against the government line. Today's party whips would be green with envy at such a record.

And Parliament has seen another important change in the last ten or twenty years. Whereas MPs used to be almost solely concerned with what went on in Westminster, today they place greater emphasis on constituency work. A study in the 1950s found that MPs received on average 12-20 letters a week. Today it is reckoned that the average MP gets around 15,000 a year. And then there are messages by phone, fax and email. The internet is also providing new opportunities to communicate, which is why I recently established a new website: www.jackstrawmp.org.uk. It is all part of making politics more visible and accessible. And that is what we must do if we are to engage younger generations in the field of politics.

So, Mr Bentley, I read (at the back of my newspaper, not in a Sunday supplement) that if we don't get into Europe you may be seeking pastures new. I'm saying a prayer or two both that we do make sixth place, and that you stay anyway. But, when you hang your boots up why not join "the old fellas" on the green benches?

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As you or may not know - and if you are a Rovers' fan you almost certainly will - Blackburn's motto is "Arte et Labore", which translates as "by art and by labour", and sometimes "by skill and hard work". Plenty of that on show at the weekend in that fine win over Bolton.

It's a fitting motto for the footballers to wear on their chests, but it also sums up the town itself neatly. It captures very well the qualities which saw the town develop into one of the powerhouses of the industrial revolution. Without the hard work and skills of the town's forefathers and its workers who toiled so hard in the days when cotton was king, we wouldn't be in the position we are today. But our motto also lives on as a phrase which remains in tune with modern day Blackburn, of which there is so much to be proud.

It's been skill and hard work, for instance, which has led to Blackburn College receiving a glowing report from the Ofsted school standards inspectors. And when I say glowing, I am underplaying the achievement. The Ofsted people have four grades when it comes to assessing a school or college's performance - from "outstanding" to "good" to "satisfactory" and finally to "unsatisfactory".

And they mark on things like effectiveness of provision, capacity to improve, achievement and standards, quality of provision, leadership and management and equality of opportunity.

The Blackburn College report came out well. Very well. Top "outstanding" marks in fact in every category. Good team work, outstanding exam results, effective links between the college and employers and the wider Blackburn community, great opportunities for staff and students alike, and a fantastic environment in which to work - I could go on but you get the idea. It's a magnificent achievement and everyone who works there, and the students, deserve all the plaudits for their hard work and enterprise: their "arte et labore".

So that's good news from those who look after the future of our town's young people. What about the news from those charged with trying to keep us all safe?

I did another well attended residents' meeting last Friday - covering Corporation Park and Beardwood. Yet again, the local constables, community support officers and their sergeant were spontaneously applauded by the residents for their work. You can see why.

As Chief Supt Mallaby told the meeting, antisocial behaviour incidents in the wider area of north-west Blackburn are down 20% year on year, violence 22%, burglary 24%, criminal damage 35% and vehicle crimes down a whopping 55%. Lancashire Constabulary is top (with Surrey) in the whole of England and Wales, and their Eastern Division (covering Ribble Valley, Hyndburn and Blackburn) top on public satisfaction and public confidence when compared with 13 similar police divisions - like Oldham, Rochdale, Keighley and Halifax.

I know from my travels around the town and across East Lancashire that there are many more success stories out there. A few years ago the newsreader Martyn Lewis argued that sometimes the news programmes should concentrate a little more on good news. He had a point, in my view.

Sometimes we forget amid all the challenging, heart-breaking and even evil things we read about or see on television, and there has been a fair bit of that recently, that the great mass of mankind is generally engaged in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and the people around them.

The Telegraph is very good at highlighting the great achievements of people in the town, at speaking up for Blackburn. I thought that I'd do the same this week, inspired by those great reports for the college and the police. As for the other Blackburn success stories, get your thinking caps on and let the Telegraph know. We should shout about our successes - it's the least we should do after all that "arte et labore".

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I can still remember like yesterday the day that Jack Walker announced that Kenny Dalglish was taking over as Rovers' manager, to get us out - at long last - of the second tier of the League, and take our rightful place with the other giants of English football.

It was October 12th 1991. It was a special day for the Straw family anyway, as our son - then just 11 - was going to be the mascot at the game. Everyone thought I'd fixed the date but this was not correct - I'd arranged it months before, when I had no idea that Dalglish would be coming. But aside from the natural paternal pride of seeing the joy that was brought to my son as he stepped onto the pitch with the players, this date sticks in my memory for another reason. It was feeling the excitement in the air - almost the electricity - as the crowds went down the Bolton Road to the ground. People were light of foot; a sense of self confidence seemed to return. And over the weeks which followed it became clear that this sense of greater confidence was not confined just to ardent Rovers' fans, but to the community right across East Lancashire. Even hardened Claret supporters would admit in private that good was being done for the area as a whole.

When we won the Premier League in 1995 it was amazing what a difference winning made. Blackburn really was on the map.

I was put in mind of all this when I went on my first visit to Arsenal's brand new Emirates Stadium for Monday's game. It's lovely. It's huge. It cost hundreds of millions. The club paid over £60 million just to move a waste transfer station that was on the site, so that they could start building.

We played well for much - sadly not all - of the game. We're certainly much better than I've seen in many seasons in getting back into a game after conceding an early goal against us. But I was also brought up sharp against the stark reality of the David and Goliath nature of today's Premier League.

Arsenal's average gate this season is 60,000. Ours is 23,500 (happily up by a seventh on last). Standard tickets at the Emirates are running at £46 - and they fill the ground. Rovers - who admirably have dropped prices this season to encourage bigger crowds - are lucky to get an average of around £15 a head. You don't need access to either Arsenal or Rovers' accounts to work it out for yourself - that for each game Arsenal, with nearly three times Rovers' crowd, at three times Rovers' prices, will take, in gate receipts getting on for nine times the gate at Ewood Park.

There's an added twist to this. It's no accident that all the really big wealthy clubs are in our big cities - London, Manchester, Merseyside. They each have a huge natural fan base. Contrast that with Blackburn. We are the smallest conurbation by far sustaining a Premier League team. Reading (in the relegation zone) has a council area, at 140,000 the same size as Blackburn with Darwen's. But it has a much bigger suburban hinterland. Derby (a cert for relegation) is 240,000. Middlesbrough is in the big Teesside conurbation. And we are in the region with the greatest density of competing clubs - with Wigan (305,000) and Bolton (260,000) just down the road.

So what the Board, the Manager Mark Hughes, and the players are consistently achieving is in my view nothing short of remarkable.

Blackburn has always aimed high. But do we take the significance of the club to the town and to the area too much for granted? I don't think so. The fan base per head of population is also extraordinary; and though, as in any area, there are plenty who don't care for football, I think - or hope - that everyone benefits from Rovers' presence, in the economy of the area, and what we feel about it. It has a national record for its community activities. The Council has long been supportive, and has just put in £2million towards the new Business Centre in the Darwen End of the ground. But could we all do more? My answer to that is "yes", too. We have to nurture and sustain the Club. And even the greatest cynic would really notice the difference if ever it were not there.

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