The one where I tell the most powerful people in the Labour people to sling their hook in favour of Cruddas
All elections are a contest between more of the same vs. change. I think that the up coming Labour Party leadership elections will be won by the candidates who can best claim to be the change candidate with frightening the voters to much. I don't want to talk too much about the battle for leader. That is for another post but suffice to say that it will not be John McDonnell. The other key thing to remember is that the Labour Party has been a bit neglected over the last few years which in some respects is a consequence of being in Government but is also part of a political strategy to differentiate the leadership as more rightwing than the membership in order to appeal to the floating voter.

Essentially this strategy has been effective in that it has lead to three general election victories a feat that the party has never in its history achieved before and one that we all to easily forget in the arrogance of power. But politics is like the weather, always changing. What was right in 1997 is not now. The Labour Party needs to be shown a little love, it needs to be appreciated. The potential leadership candidates need to court, as my Gran would say, the party.

So who are the potential deputy leadership candidates? Possibly it is easier to ask who isn't running but anyway as things stand at the moment Harriet Harman, Peter Hain, and Jon Cruddas are certainly running. Jack Straw, Hillary Benn and possibly Hazel Blears will have a crack. Alan Johnson will be considering if he wants to slug it out with Gordon for the top job and may opt for deputy if he doesn't fancy it. There may well be others John McDonnell will be wanting a running mate from the campaign group no doubt. Tessa Jowell and Margaret Beckett may also fancy there chances. So we could be looking at a field of up to 10 candidates I doubt very much that there will be 10 on the ballot as they wont all be able to raise the support but lets have a look the runners and riders.

Harriet Harman: Well in this day and age one of the top two jobs in the Labour Party should be held by a women preferably me people started laughing to much when I suggested that I go for leader. I mean no one will remember when I was Secretary of State for being useless and especially the single parent benefit cuts. Not a Harman supporter then? Fraid not luv.

Doesn’t this make you a big sexist pig like Kerron and his all women shortlist antipathy. No it doesn’t as I’m not judging her on her gender. I’m judging her on the fact that she doesn’t have the necessary qualities. If she had a constituency in the country other than posh metropolitian London labour luvvies. If she was good on TV. If she wasn’t a useless cabinet minister then I would be more impressed but as she doesn’t she won’t be getting my vote.

Peter Hain: Peter has the fortune in politics of being interesting. He is a bit of a chancer, I mean what else can you call a saffa perma-tanned ex liberal representing a Welsh valley seat and I like that in a politician. After all the political profession requires balls and before you spit your cornflakes Harriet I mean attitudional rather than anatomical ones. I think that the politics are spot on but I feel that you are losing traction. I would be happy to see Hain as DPM combined with environment secretary which would really put green issues at the heart of government.


Hillary Benn: What are you playing at. There is this huge space in the main leadership contest between Gordon and Reid on the right and John McDonnell on the left that you could easily fit into and do very well. You were a fantastic speaker when you came to Manchester Gorton and did dinner with Gerald and the Gorton CLP. I have been an admirer ever since.

You know your brief inside out. If your blagging it like most ministers it doesn’t show. You just need a shove in the right direction. If you play it right then prizes worth a whole lot more than the warm bucket of spittal of the deputy leadership can be won. So Hillary in your own best interests I can’ vote for you for deputy.

Jack Straw: Been around for ever. Don’t think that he can embody the necessary change. Iraq. The veils thing can’t help to much with the electorate being the Labour Party. So no Jack as they say on The Dragons Den “I’m out”

Hazel Blears: I love Hazel. She is like a ray of sunshine. She has done some good and interesting stuff as a MP. Not least the Labour Academy in her constituency which I went on. She is also Labour in a very deep sense which I like. In Douglas Alexander’s phrase “Cut me I bleed Labour” could apply to her. Yet her problem is in this election is she is Blair’s emissary to the party and the party want’s change so it ain’t going to be Hazel that gets this job, this time. So Hazel I think that you should have a big job after the election. If Reid gets reshuffled in the new era then I would want to put you in the Home Office but in this crowded field I don’t think that your right for the deputy leadership. Still think that she’s fantastic though.

Alan Johnson: To be honest I just don’t get Alan Johnson. I don’t know why but I just don’t. Perhaps this is my political blind spot. Sorry Alan in best Simon Cowell scowell “it’s a no.”

Tessa Jowell, Margaret Beckett and the other also rans. Sorry peeps to slow but I think that Jowell would be OK has some of Harman’s metropolitan faults but not so gratingly. Beckett been around for ever and this is about change she also has difficulty emoting which is important for a modern politico.

Jon Cruddas: The idea of decoupling the deputy leadership from being DPM is a political masterstroke. I think that the party needs it. Also if the party chair position and the deputy leader position merge then we will have in effect an elected Labour Party chair which I think is an improvement on the situation now. As I mentioned earlier the party needs courting and I think Cruddas can do it as he understands the nature of the beast better than anyone of the other contenders.

But the guy hasn’t got cabinet experience. Well Tony Blair hadn’t run a whelk stall worthy of the name before he became PM. It also makes supporting Cruddas feel like your going on an adventure. Being involved in politics is to much keep your head and wait your turn, Cruddas is attempting to break that which I think is commendable.

Voting for the disaster that was Iraq doesn’t do him any favours but then the rest of them made the same mistake. There can’t be many Labour MP’s who have had a continuously rising membership over the last 18 months, indeed there are probably quite a few MP’s that would have like to have seen their membership go up once in the last year and a half.

He is also dead on the money when it comes to representing his working class constituents which is something that the middle class party is not taking seriously as it should do. Essentially Cruddas manages to combine the necessary change that the party desperately needs while being potentially a real electoral asset to the party. So he’s got my vote.  ¶ 1:39 pm