Labour Party leadership election 2015

[Phony Moderate]

Jarvis seems like the best choice although it's a bit troubling that someone who's only been in Parliament since 2011 can be a contender.

The current PM...

Though it doesn't make your point any less valid.

[Phony Moderate]

Just had a little watch of a Jarvis speech on YouTube. Very hard to envision Cameron bashing him around (like he did to Miliband). 

[Phony Moderate]

Of course the worst thing about a Umunna leadership would be the endless (and irritating) comparisons to a certain someone.

Labour usually goes for the obvious choice (Brown, Blair, Smith, Kinnock). 2010 was an exception. Problem is there is no obvious choice this time.

[Phony Moderate]

David Lammy is considering.

[Phony Moderate]

Angela Eagle also considering a bid.

[Phony Moderate]

Jim Murphy

I think Labour should choose someone who will take them back to the left - regardless who it is - as there seems to be too little of a difference between the two main parties.

I don't agree; we need Middle England to win an overall majority.

Or find a way to get turnout back up to the 70% plus range - many of the people who stopped voting after 1997 are surely working-class, traditional Labour voters who feel that there is an inadequate difference between Labour and Tories. The argument that Labour should appeal to 'Middle England' is based around the fact, presumably, that 'society has changed'. But rather than conforming to what society is, what not try to, you know, change society by offering a convincing alternative to the status quo. Labour did it in the post-war years, the Tories did it in the 1980s.

Also worth noting that most of Labour's flagship policies (dismissed as being too 'left-wing' by Blairites and the right-wing press) had the support of a majority of the country.

I have to be honest: I would rather Labour never win power again than sellout its principles for the sake of power.

[Phony Moderate]

Just read this on Wikipedia, about a potential Watson-Flint Deputy contest:

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Uh, really? Really?

[Phony Moderate]

Is it me or is this starting to feel like a Republican presidential primary?

[Phony Moderate]

Umunna is in.

[Phony Moderate]

My own prediction is that everyone besides Burnham and Umunna will be irrelevent. Umunna will be seen as the frontrunner until the last couple of weeks but Burnham will just pip him. Burnham will then be torn apart by the right-wing press on the basis of his accent and everyone will then blather on about how much better a leader Umunna would have been.

[Phony Moderate]

My own prediction is that everyone besides Burnham and Umunna will be irrelevent. Umunna will be seen as the frontrunner until the last couple of weeks but Burnham will just pip him. Burnham will then be torn apart by the right-wing press on the basis of his accent and everyone will then blather on about how much better a leader Umunna would have been.

What's Burnham sound like?

Both Northern and working-class. Wilson was the former but not the latter, Callaghan was the latter but not the former (he spoke in a mild Cockney accent).

[Phony Moderate]

Burnham now in. Seems to be making a similar pitch to the other two but with a traditionalist edge to it.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/andy-burnham-labour-leader-bid-5692649

[Phony Moderate]

Why it should not be Umunna

Highlight:

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[Phony Moderate]

In reality it is probably due to lacking sufficient support.

[Phony Moderate]

It seems to be an unwritten rule nowadays that you have to be under 50 to be considered a serious contender for a party's leadership, which may end up counting against May and Boris in a few years' time.

Maybe someone should point out that Churchill was 65 when he first became Prime Minister.

[Phony Moderate]

If Labour is really that stupid to choose someone who voted for the Iraq War as leader, they deserve to be haunted by it till the end of their days.

Why? Around half the country also backed the War at the time.

[Phony Moderate]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32771863

Also, he seems to be toning down his Northern accent...

[Phony Moderate]

When was the last time that a left-wing candidate didn't appear on the ballot in a contested leadership election?

2010 - Abbott and Ed Miliband
1994 - Prescott and possibly Beckett too
1992 - Was Gould a leftie then? I think I heard that he was a moderniser in the 80s but then became something of a Bennite.
1988 - Benn (Kinnock being the right-winger by default)
1983 - Kinnock and Heffer...Shore was also a soft left type was he not?
1980 - Foot, Shore (?), don't know much about Silkin
1976 - Foot and Benn
1963 - Wilson
1961 - Greenwood
1960 - Wilson
1955 - Bevan
1935 - Attlee was on the soft left, right? And Greenwood was leftier?
1922 - MacDonald was a leftie then (lol)

So possibly this will be the first time ever, then.

[Phony Moderate]

Hunt is not running and is supporting Kendall.

[Phony Moderate]

You know, on balance, the deputy line-up is probably more impressive.

[Phony Moderate]

Really, their 'ceilings' depend more on what the Tories do over the next five years than what they do. No Labour leader could have won a landslide in 1997 if Tory credibility on the economy hadn't been destroyed by Black Wednesday and they hadn't decided to have a factional war over Europe, as well as the sleaze stuff. Similarly, Brown could have hung on in 2010 without his various mishaps, the expenses' scandal, 10p tax fiasco, etc.

[Phony Moderate]

If it is then its a rather poor predictor of who actually ends up holding the post. Over the centuries we have had some very odd and very unlikely PMs.

Churchill comes to mind.

Attlee, Eden, Douglas-Home, Heath, Major and Brown too...depending on how one defines 'odd'.

[Phony Moderate]

This is beginning to turn into a contest of Blairite cliches...ugh.

[Phony Moderate]

There is talk of Miliband going down the IDS route and becoming a cabinet minister in the next Labour government (whenever that may be). IDS has certainly made more impact in the past five years than he did as Tory leader, so perhaps not a bad idea.

[Phony Moderate]

There is talk of Miliband going down the IDS route and becoming a cabinet minister in the next Labour government (whenever that may be). IDS has certainly made more impact in the past five years than he did as Tory leader, so perhaps not a bad idea.

Those on benefits might beg to differ.

From Miliband's POV, sorry. and obviously IDS's impact has been...negative