Next Labour Leader?

[Kevin S]

Next Labour Leader?

Nesta Arantes do Nascimento wrote: Yvette Cooper? Her being married to Ed Balls might be a problem though, for multiple reasons.

Andy Burnham seems to have mastered that rare politician's trick of appearing comfortable in his own skin.

Apparently that Chukka Umunna fella is the hot tip from the next generation, but fuck that, I'm not having a labour leader younger than I am, not yet.

Balls losing his seat clears the path for Cooper to go for this, which is a good thing.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Next Labour Leader?

Bored of Education wrote: No, firstly, his name was Tristan O'Neill and, secondly, he was in his 30's when I went to see them in my teens.

Blimey that takes me back. The most frightening gig I ever went to was to see The Macc Lads in Bolton.

As you were.
.

[Mr Beast]

Next Labour Leader?

Lucy Waterman wrote: We need to win the argument in England as well.

They need to make an argument before they can think about winning it.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Next Labour Leader?

Not theoretical anymore - he's gone.

[Kevin S]

Next Labour Leader?

Harman says she is stepping down too, after caretaking, so it's a new leader and deputy they are looking for.

[Joe Hill]

Next Labour Leader?

Doesn't matter who, they just need to win. Would take anybody, even a Blairite

[Gangster Octopus]

Next Labour Leader?

Careful now...

[Joe Hill]

Next Labour Leader?

Seems like that is what it will take to win England. The vote total of Tories and UKIP were shocking.

[Kid A]

Next Labour Leader?

I think Joe is right, unfortunately. OTF (on the whole) thinks Miliband wasn't left-wing enough - the electorate in England & Wales thought he was way too left-wing. We can argue about the mass-media representation etc but that's the clear verdict.

[E10 Rifle]

Next Labour Leader?

I'm not sure it's even a question of left or right: He was too right for Scotland, too left for England - but that sounds a bit too glib too. He ran a decent campaign, and back in 2011 was making some waves, but he never managed to get a proper (for want of a better word) narrative going.

The Tories won on a lie: that Labour spending on public services and benefits crashed the economy, and that the sort of purse-tightening that households do when they're a bit skint was also appropriate for government. You don't have to say "arm the workers" to simply tell the truth about what happened in 2008, and 2010, and how we got to where we were.

They didn't do it well enough. Or at all at times,.

[Joe Hill]

Next Labour Leader?

Could Dan Jarvis be the man to win back the 'help for heroes' generation? His background is untouchable by tory party and press and has a solid regional air about him. Seems a decent chap as well.

From Nottingham, local comprehensive, non Oxbridge, sandhurst, paratrooper, major, single father, OBE, normal background etc.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Next Labour Leader?

Joe Hill wrote: Could Dan Jarvis be the man to win back the 'help for heroes' generation? His background is untouchable by tory party and press and has a solid regional air about him. Seems a decent chap as well.

From Nottingham, local comprehensive, non Oxbridge, sandhurst, paratrooper, major, single father, OBE, normal background etc.

I had to check Wikipedia to find out who the hell he was. MP for a little over four years. But as Joe says his background, or "back story" as apparently it's called these days, seems an attractive proposition to some in the Labour Party.

Too soon though, surely.

[MsD]

Next Labour Leader?

I like Miliband a lot and hope he will be at the forefront of a future Cabinet.

Not his fault people are cunts.

[Bored Of Education]

Next Labour Leader?

I hope that our recent relative period of rapprochement assures you that I am not disagreeing with you out of habit when I say I disagree with this; Leaving aside Milliband, the Tories didn't win this, the SNP did and, more to the point, Labour and Libdems lost it. People patently aren't cunts. Stupid, ignorant, maybe but not cunts.

Thatcher won because she fooled working people into thinking that life under her would be better. Cameron has somehow done the same. The problem with Thatcher was that no-one saw her as a public school Establishment figure. They saw her as a grocer's daughter who had got a scholarship to grammar school who did a proper job for a bit. As such, she could pull that "I am one of you" crap. Cameron is none of these things so can't pull the same trick. The thing is that none of Labour or the Libdems are either.

Therefore, the public have no empathy with Millliband and, as Kid A alluded, the Murdoch press can paint him as "Red Ed" when he's nothing of the sort.

Lucy Waterman wrote: Whoever it is must come up with a strategy to recapture the centre. Right now, I'd vote for Yvette Cooper.

Good grief, all their strategies are to (re)capture the centre. It's a bit crowded there and will be even when the Tories lurch rightwards.

[MsD]

Next Labour Leader?

Please could you keep your side of the bargain and not address me, thanks. I'm particularly not in the mood for you at the moment.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Next Labour Leader?

I don't think UKIP got 10% by taking votes from Tories or Lib Dems. I think UKIP got 10% by taking votes from working class people who might have voted Labour. Your Alf Garnett racists. There's plenty of them. Which is why "right" and "left" is an utterly redundant concept.

[MsD]

Next Labour Leader?

Not utterly redundant. There has been a breakdown of the old blocs but there are still basic sets of values that are "left" and "right".

[Sundeporino]

Next Labour Leader?

They should be begging Alan Johnson to change his mind.

[Bored Of Education]

Next Labour Leader?

Hmm, on one hand, the only major union leader to support the abolition of Clause IV, on the other hand, not a bad Education secretary.

[Sundeporino]

Next Labour Leader?

Hes got bantz though.

[Mr Beast]

Next Labour Leader?

MsD's right here surely?

Obviously some poorer members of society vote against their interest through ignorance but a far larger section who are doing well vote vindictively against the poorest. The Revolt of the Haves.

Those people are self evidently cunts.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Next Labour Leader?

They're all pretty much awful, aren't they? I mean, I joked about Burnham, cos I sort-of half know him a bit. But actually he's probably the best that's been mentioned. And he's shit. Politically.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Next Labour Leader?

Given what he's put up with over Mid Staffs, I'd be surprised if he can be bothered any more.

[Bored Of Education]

Next Labour Leader?

Mr Beast wrote: MsD's right here surely?

Obviously some poorer members of society vote against their interest through ignorance but a far larger section who are doing well vote vindictively against the poorest. The Revolt of the Haves.

Those people are self evidently cunts.

Ah, good, I can reengage with this without offending. Yes and no. They are fed a lie and, due to the dismantling of effective education by all the post-Thatcherite governments, haven't got the education to see when they are being sold a lie. They think it is all about immigration but it is about housing and they will realise this when, while they own their housing association houses, they have all their kids still living with them at 45.

On the other hand, they are pulling up the ladder behind them (leaving their kids in the sea) so, yeah, there are a fair few cunts there.

[Diable Rouge]

Next Labour Leader?

The common denominator between all the European parties of the right and left currently gaining support is that they are reacting to events on the ground, and evolving their policies accordingly, rather than proceeding according to any perceived political manual. Obviously, to win over Middle England and Wales, a far greater degree of moderation than expressed by either Podemos or Syriza will be required, but the lesson seems to be to go back to a clear slate, ground your social democratic template in bread-and butter socioeconomics and offer constructive criticism of orthodoxies.