I'm likely to be voting for Cruddas as deputy, I like a lot of the things he's been saying..
You're not a Labour party member are you? I had you down as a Green or LibDem....
I think Cruddas will get some votes from the union brass (the likes of Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson) but not from rank and file party and union members as nobody knows who he is - the guy probably isn't even a household name in his own house.
Personally I have no interest whatsoever in who becomes our deputy leader. I wish some of the people who are hawking themselves around as deputy candidates would put themselves up for leader instead.
I'm hoping John Reid stands for Leader - he may not have a hope in hell of winning but I want to vote for someone whose politics match my own and who I can support with real enthusiasm.
If he were to make it, I think he could be very electable in a General Election. He's someone who understands that the people who decide general elections are the British public, the man and woman on the street. That to win an election, we need to cater our appeal to them, not to the Guardian, the Independent, human rights lawyers or the 'phantom army' of noisy, but not very numerous, disaffected middle-class lefties.
I'm most definitely not sold on Gordon Brown, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I hate the way he is officially loyal to government policy while his little cronies have been running around voting and agitating against the Government. I'm not just talking about the Tom Watson letter; this has been going on for years (remember the revolt on tuition fees in 2004). Hypocrisy is not on my list of desirable leadership qualities.
Secondly, we will not get the benefit parties normally get from changing their leader (a fresh face at the top, and the argument that the voters don't need to change the Government because the Government has already changed itself). Gordon has been on the front bench for 20 years and is a bit shop-soiled to say the least.
Also, I hate the way he's been trying to give the impression to the left that he's really more of a socialist than Blair (thankfully he isn't) even though he has been the joint architect of a lot of the Government's policy. A lot of these people are going to be very unhappy when he's in No 10 and they realise they've been had!
At the end of the day there are very, very few real Gordon Brown supporters. Most of the people who support him do so because they think everyone else supports him and they want to be on the winning side.
