Poll - Next Labour Party Leader

[Snake Plissken]

The Sensibles trying to build momentum (ha!) behind Phillips. Presumably setting up the eventual winner for a four year campaign of "I told you so". The other corner is going for Long-Bailey, but am I wrong in saying she had a large hand in the financial side of the manifesto? If so, I can see lots of benefits of her being Shadow Chancellor. I don't know if I speak for others, but I want a large part of that manifesto to be kept but being sold by fresher faces.

[Flynnie]

The Sensibles trying to build momentum (ha!) behind Phillips. Presumably setting up the eventual winner for a four year campaign of "I told you so". The other corner is going for Long-Bailey, but am I wrong in saying she had a large hand in the financial side of the manifesto? If so, I can see lots of benefits of her being Shadow Chancellor. I don't know if I speak for others, but I want a large part of that manifesto to be kept but being sold by fresher faces.

Phillips hasn't got a hope in hell of winning, the membership hasn't forgotten she spent the last couple years insulting them.

I have some doubts about RLB. She doesn't seem to have much of a media profile at all, and I don't really want a Unite pet project as leader.

I also wouldn't mind a slight pull back from 2019, in the sense that Labour's 2017 manifesto felt really focused* while 2019 felt like a laundry list, worsened by the fact Labour kept coming up with promises during the campaign. It's not that 2017 is the limit of social democracy, but I'd rather pick two issues and turn them into massive vote winners rather than issue 14 different manifestos as Labour did this time around. That felt like something a party that knows it's going to win the election handily would do.

*I know Andrew Fisher was supposed to stay on to write the 2019 manifesto, but I wonder how much influence he really had.

[Snake Plissken]

Aye, don't disagree with any of that.

[MsD]

I'm warming to Angela Rayner as leader. Well, I've always liked her, thought the public might not see her as Prime Ministerial material but with the incumbent sack of absolute shit, I don't think we need worry about that.

John Major only had O Levels and then accountancy exams, so I think she'd be OK there. The sort of people calling her a "moron" might well call Stephen Hawking a spastic.

She is obviously able to think on her feet and is passionate. Could stick Starmer in as Chancellor, Foreign Secretary.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's somewhat astonishing that Labour has never had a (non-acting) female leader.

[Snake Plissken]

That's just kind of timing and circumstance, though isn't it? There were two female candidates in 2015 out of four and one of three (well, not technically, but almost) in 2016. Problem is, they were all shit.

As for "Prime Ministerial" - what the hell does that mean anyway. It's like the clip on the BBC "Corbyn is popular, attracts crowds, a good public speaker.... Ah, but is he Prime Ministerial?" To which the answer should be "Yes, because he knows to turn up with his hair combed."

[Bored Of Education]

Rayner is the one that sticks with me but wasn't she 'Leave'? Having said that, I doubt very much they will elect an overtly Remain candidate.

[Moonlight Shadow]

I much prefer Rayner to RLB but it looks like she will just go for the deputy role. A Rayner-Starmer double-act would have a nice broad appeal imo.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

i would leave the LDs and join Labour in the unlikely event of Starmer or Thornberry winning. RLB or Rayner will do as well as Corbyn has. Philips I'm not convinced by.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Angie Rayner is the first one into double figures.

[Lang Spoon]

Anyone would be better than Phillips, but the RBL/Rayner double act feels doomed.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Yeh, I'm really not seeing that as a winning combination, but who knows where we'll be in five years time and what the mood of the country will be. Anything seems to be possible these days.

[E10 Rifle]

I'm not sure - the RLB/Rayner combo probably the best one, though we may argue about whether it should be the other way round. The key thing is they're good mates, which is an improvement on the disastrous Corbyn/Watson combination. I agree with the broad church party overall, but the leader and deputy have to be singing from the same hymn sheet in the way they never were in the past four years.

I am wary of leaders anointing their successors without much of a debate; I've seen that go wrong in trade unions, so it's up to us to keep whoever gets it on their toes.

I like Nandy in lots of ways, but definitely fear a Blue Labour tilt. Phillips isn't as rightwing as some paint her, but the right of the party will rally round her, though she's not much of a team player and her egotism may harm as well as help here. Also, expect her to be vengeful towards the left, then we'll really see what a purge looks like. And also a cult. She has quite the uncritical fan club.

I suspect no London-based candidate has a chance, which is a shame as I quite like Dawn Butler as well as Lammy.

[Snake Plissken]

Phillips also has a personal friendship with Rees-Mogg.

I'm of the opinion that the only reason any Labour MP should be in the same room as Rees-Mogg is if it is for official business in the HoC chamber. No one should be friends with the cunt.

[Duncan Gardner]

Interesting stuff to this outsider. 40-ish women from Manchester prominent so far- RLB, AR and LN. 3 from the Irish Diaspora (RLB again, JP and ET whose Da went to my school).

After queueing with JRM at the Lord's Cricket Ground loos I'll resist any blue vein gags. This was a sticky day in July but Jake was still in a 3-piece suit, although he had let son Peter take his tie off

[MsD]

Yep. Cuddling up to Rees-Mogg whilst joining in the bullying of trail-blazing feminist (and decent person) Diane Abbott, who's had to deal with way more personal abuse and threats over the years and hasn't made such a song and dance about it. She called it out, then moved on.

Not that anyone should have to put up with abuse, but you'd think Phillips was the only one, the bravest of the brave. She's very prone to exaggeration, if one person talks to her it's "people have been telling me ..." and as was pointed out the other week, she claimed people were coming into her office in droves to tell her this and that, when the office was actually closed.

[Duncan Gardner]

Heh you've got it in one- Jess is a bit of a bullshitter

ps Caroline Lucas and big-chinned Ukipper Doug Carswell were quite pally in Parliament

[Benjm]

Laura Pidcock got quite a lot of criticism for saying that she didn't want to be mates with her Tory counterparts. Why would anyone? Apart from them being horrible, the clubbability of Parliament adds to the impression that it's just a racket for insiders and Labour always stands to lose more than the Tories from that perception.

I can't see Phillips being an effective leader at all but presumably her boosters will be pushing her as the common sense, gets results option. The case for her seems to pick out supposed reasons for Johnson's success - a 'personality', not seen as entirely of his party - as if any of it can be disentangled from the massive dishonesty and concerted protection and concealment by his allies.

[Duncan Gardner]

Laura Pidcock got quite a lot of criticism for saying that she didn't want to be mates with her Tory counterparts. Why would anyone? Apart from them being horrible, the clubbability of Parliament adds to the impression that it's just a racket for insiders and Labour always stands to lose more than the Tories from that perception

I was chatting to the other Walsall candidates about this sort of thing at the hustings, a 6th form college event and finally the count. I suppose you have to be civil, and of course we all have family, neighbors even friends who are Tories. But just in case any of them got lairy I reminded that my hometown seat's MP saw his father murdered in front of him at their kitchen table, while his predecessor survived assassination while he and his wife were visiting their terminally ill son in hospital. No need to make politics any more brutal than it is already.

En route to the count I was chatting to other passengers on the Chase Line who were riffing about the nicest areas of town. Was able to defend Goscote where friends used to live. Hearing my accent they guessed correctly that I was a furriner from Dudley...

ps I've got a song to sing at the next Fountain pub karaoke: Instant Caldmore's gonna get you

pps of course Benjm's right about the clubbability. Is that big shed still vacant at the NEC or GMEX while they refurb Westminster?

[Benjm]

I was chatting to the other Walsall candidates about this sort of thing at the hustings, a 6th form college event and finally the count.

Congratulations on your inroads in A&B, Dunc. I'm not sure whether your prospective constituents care to identify as being in Walsall, possibly fancying themselves as a cut above, at least at the Aldridge end. I was relieved that home town seat Walsall South held. Although it has been Labour for 45 years there were some close calls during the 1980s when the longstanding incumbent's personal recognition level was reckoned to be the saving factor.

[Duncan Gardner]

Thanks Benjm and apologies to any A-B residents shy of the Walsall link

[delicatemoth]

Best/least awful - LongBailey/Rayner
Uninspiring, but not utterly appalling - Lammy, Thornberry, Lewis
The old ways have been tried and found wanting, but we'll try them again anyway cos we can't think of anything else - Starmer, Cooper
We're on our own - Nandy, Phillips

[Nefertiti2]

Think you’re being unfair to Starmer there, dm. Unlike Cooper he joined the government and showed both loyalty and discipline, in public anyway, and I’ll respect that. Would be interesting to know where his politics are these days.

[Bored Of Education]

RLB/Rayner looks best to me but I suspect 'looking best to Bordeaux Education' = unelectable. Has it been announced officially that Rayner is standing aside as deputy for RLB to go for leader?

[delicatemoth]

[to nef] Fair enough, you'll be more conversant with his fine points than me, a non-member (though I might consider joining if they don't go for someone who's racist/transphobic as leader).